I’m on the road!

So DmentD took me out for a second drive today after brunch. We started off in a carpark, at one end where it was quiet, and then further along it where there were a few more people and some traffic for me to contend with. We even tried out some parking!

Feeling confident he drove us home and then I drove us about the neighbourhood. It was good, I made it up to 30mph *grins* There were other people about, but not enough to make me nervous and then speed bumps and roundabouts to contend with!

After driving round for a while we went back to the house and I got some practice in backing into the garage and parallel parking using the bin and some crates stacked up as the ‘cars’ I had to fit between!

I’m doing ok, I’m feeling much more relaxed than I did last week (though still a bit nervous) and am getting comfortable with the car.  It’s mostly now the size of the car and getting used to that. Not feeling quite brave enough to contend with the busy busy main roads, but round here was good.. and after the parking I felt up to going round the neighbourhood some more.

I even remembered to keep to the right side of the road! *grins*

It’s been a good weekend, we were dishwasher shopping yesterday as the one that came with the house died most inconveniently, we removed the old one and put it out on the kerb to be collected and the new one will arrive Wednesday.

We then met some of my friends from class for dinner followed by ice cream at Amy’s.. vanilla ice cream, pecan praline and hot fudge sauce.. oooh so good!

It was a moral obligation! DmentD was wonderful and gave me some vouchers for Amy’s (since we finally finished the tirimisu ice cream he made for my arrival) for our one year anniversary which was at the start of the week.

We had sat down and had the conversation a while back of when to mark our relationship, from when we started talking, from when we met? And settled on the day we opened up our hearts to ourselves and to each other and admitted that we were in love. And the Anniversary of that day was Monday, my how fast a year flies.. even if it doesn’t seem it at the time.

And now the year has past, I have made the move across the Atlantic, and we are living together. It’s going well, we’ve settled into a good routine, we’re getting along fatabulously, we have similar levels of cleanliness and hygiene around the house and our personalities and sense of humour merge well together.. so we’re amused by each other’s antic rather than irritated or annoyed *grins*

Happy Anniversary (even if it’s a few days late here) my Love.. Here’s to many more wonderful years together.

The day is here, tomorrow is my last day of bread. The last day of my first block. As of next week I’ll be in a different lab with a different Chef Instructor doing something completely different.

It’s exciting

And also a little scary! 6 weeks are over already, 1/6 of my class work is done, 2 units completed. We’re watching one block of students finish their final projects (a sugar sculpture) and finish for good before they head to their externships, and seeing the new intake of students come in for their orientation.. was that really me only 6 weeks ago! It’s gone quickly, but at the same time feels so long ago.. does that make sense?

So tomorrow I have to present a country white sourdough which we started today as it needs to proof overnight, and my created loaf.. It’s a little different now to the pictures I posted the other day, I altered the recipe slightly (and had a look of sheer bliss cross my instructor’s face when she tried it!) and braided it, with one filling inside each of the strands.. definitely a winner!

We also have another theory, with maths and yeast dough production methods and conversions and stuff on it.. I actually did better on mine last week than I thought I did.. I’ll be revising hard tomorrow, especially on the ingredient functions.. there’s always one I’m not sure on!

This week we’ve been making sourdoughs mostly, with the starter we created at the start of the bread unit, now named ‘Bready Kruger’ I got to bring some of the leftover home so I can continue to play with sourdoughs at home! It’s been fun, we have stacked ovens with stone on the bottom that usually have racks on them but we’ve been taking the racks out and using a peel to get the loaves in and out the ovens and cooking them straight on the stone.

Using the peel is definitely an aquired technique! I’m getting it now, but on Monday I was either too slow and the loaf stuck, or too vigourous and the loaf hit the back of the oven and squished up!

We’ve also made English muffins (i finally got to try them! And having done my report on them can say they are actually English!), cheesey bread sticks (oh so addictive), bagels and we made dead dough and made a plaque out of it, Chef was trying to point us in an autumnal/halloween theme, so I went with Nightmare Before Christmas.. It was fun, and a nice change of pace. Even if I couldn’t get it quite how I wanted it!

Wish me luck for the exams.

Next week we’ll be on to Petit Fours!

I would like to introduce you to my newest creation.

For class I had to create my own bread, to make and present in my final exam this Friday. After some playing and tinkering I have what I believe to be the winning formula.

It still needs a few tweaks, mostly in presentation, and I’m contemplating upping the meat and using less salt.

But for now, may I present to you

*drumroll*

The English Breakfast Bread

*pulls open the red velvet curtains*

Ta-daaa!

I am about to start the third and final week of bread, so I figured I ought to catch people up on this past week.

Last week we were making ‘enriched’ doughs, a lot sweeter and richer than the ‘artisan’ breads of the first week. My exam on Friday went well, I got full marks for my Challah and Brioche, not sure how I did on the theory, not feeling as confident about it this week. It was a fun week though, this week we move onto sourdoughs with a starter we’ve made ourselves.

Lots of rich tasty breads!

Saturday we were up abnormally early to meet some classmates of mine at the farmers market. It wasn’t very big but it was nice to wander about. I had a coffee, a cinnamon bun and a lamb empanada which was delicious for breakfast. Another classmate of ours works on one of the stalls so we went over and said hi.

We left there and headed for shopping, along the way heading to a nice quiet parking lot for me to have a go at drving again. I gave myself a while to get used to being on the other side of the road, but wanted to start sooner rather than later. It’s been over 2 years since I last drove so I was more than a little nervous!

It went alright, I was very tense so I was aching after not long, and it’s a big car to get used to but I think it went fairly well. We even tried some parking. I decided that for our next outing I want to try in a not quite so empty lot.. not a full busy one with cars and traffic everywhere but one with maybe a few cars about the place so I can judge the space round the car easier than just with lines on the road.

We finished off shopping and had crepe’s for lunch. Went to see Tropic Thunder in the evening which was amusing, laughed lots at it, and was stunned at Tom Cruise’s performance, much better than I was expecting!

Have started putting together my portfolio for class, we have to show it at the end of every unit with at least ten recipes and 10 photos, we will then be able to use it as our professional portfolio when job hunting.

I’m also getting to experiment with bread, for my exam next week I have to produce an original bread that I have designed myself, and the recipe with bakers percentages so it could be produced in any quantity. I started yesterday and have how I want it presented, now I just have to tweak the recipe to get it to taste right.. But first I’m going to take to class what I have so far and get my chef instructor to give me her opinion and maybe some pointers in the right direction.

And now it’s Monday again, and time is flying by. My watch battery has died, and as silly as it sounds that’s going to be bugging me until it’s fixed.. I always wear a watch, always, so to be not wearing one (aside from the oh so attractive white band I have now where the skin’s never seen the sun) feels wrong!

So there we were cleaning up after cooking breakfast yesterday when DmentD finds this little fellow in the sink, amidst the soap and under the greasy pan.

So he’s picked up and placed on the windowsill with a few drops of water to see what happens.

Now, I guess the only reason I’m not completely freaking out over a salamander in the kitchen is thanks to the month in Africa. Lizards in the kitchen, or well anywhere, are a rare thing in the UK. Though, I have to admit, he is a bit cute!

Apparently we don’t mind having him around as he’ll eat any bugs that make their way into the kitchen.

By the time we went to bed after an evening of build-your-own pizzas and films, he was moving around a little and looking a bit healthier.

This morning when we had breakfast he was not to be seen, but was later to be seen making his way across the floor, and then back under the dishwasher.

As long as he doesn’t try to sit on me I think I can live with him!

For those I haven’t already told I passed my first unit, BK101 with flying colours, getting an A. I finally found out my score for the last theory test today which was 102/100… Hooray for bonus questions!

This week we started the bread unit (BK110) and it has been awesome! Milk rolls, white and wholewheat loaves, ciabatta, foccacia, baguettes, naan, pizza! I’ve been loving it so much.

We’ve also started our own starters so in a couple weeks time we’ll be able to make our own sourdoughs. For our final exam at the end of the three weeks we get to write and create our own bread recipe!

I have been taking pictures of everything as starting this unit we have to start building our portfolio, it counts towards our grades for each unit and will also be a huge benefit when entering the job market. Go to the gallery to see them all, but here are a few to whet your appetite.

Today, the end of week one, was the first exam. It was a slightly different procedure to earlier exams, since bread has to ferment and proof we started the doughs and set them to ferment, did the theory exam and then went back to finish them.

Chef managed to mark our exams by the time we had finished and I got 103/100 (more bonus question joy!) and I got 115/120 for the practical, baguettes and milk rolls this week. I lost the 5 points for the scoring on my baguette not being even.

I also had the bonus of being able to try rabbit! The culinary class was making it and brought some along, though Chef won’t let it in the class as she’s against eating a pet! So I snuck out and exchanged some of my baguette for some so I could taste it, it was very nice indeed.

This weekend at the TCA was the 3rd annual Asian Food Festival. While not really interested in the rest of the weekend DmentD and I wanted to attend the classes run on the Saturday. They were all run by local chefs and it was all very interesting, and fun as well.

We originally bought tickets for the both of us, and then discovered that if I turned up in my uniform I could get into the classes for free, so we sold my ticket onto a friend.

First class of the day, Dim Sum, was great fun, we made Gai Bow (Chicken Bun) which was very tasty and Har Gow (Shrimp Dumpling) while not to my tastes very fun to make.

Next class was Sushi (where I took all my pictures!) Where we rolled up California rolls (with fake crab meat and cucumber and avocado) and Spicy Tuna Rolls (with avocado, cucumber and you guessed it! Spicy tuna!).

After sushi came the Thai curries where a red chicken curry was made, and a green beef curry. The red was tasty, if a little too spicy for my tastes, I didn’t get to try the green as the class was over running and we had to leave for the next class.

Finally came the Walnut Shrimp and Salt and Pepper Calimari class. We didn’t get to do anything for this one, though some people could volunteer to help cut the squid and de-vein the shrimp. Interesting nevertheless.

Had a fun class today, we made a vanilla pound cake quickly, which took forever to cook. And then we decorated our chiffon cakes from yesterday.. this was what I had been waiting for!

First we had to torte the cake, cutting a 2″ high cake into 3 even layers. Spreading a thin layer of jam between them we restacked them with the flattest layer (with the best angle between the edges and top) on the top.

Then we got the ganache out (made yesterday). First we covered the cake as if that were the finished product, getting it all on smoothly and then making sure it had perfect 90 degree angles, no slanty sides at all.. this is a professional establishment dontyaknow!

Then they were refrigerated to harden them up, and we reheated our ganache over a bain marie to make it smooth and glossy and runny. That we poured over the cakes, to make a shiney smooth glaze. We put a thin rim of chocolate vermicelli round the bottom and then after leaving it to set for a short while piped on the top.

I practiced for a good long while on parchment paper before piping the cake. I am very impressed with myself, I’m very happy with how it turned out.

It amuses me.. the Instructors are getting so excited about our attendance.. When an entire class attends for an entire week, every member of the class gets a pin badge with crossed knives on it, saying ‘Our Class Won One’.

Apparently this badge is supposed to be a good incentive for people to turn up.. More to the point, they seem to think it actually works and we’re excited about getting this badge.. Maybe if I got something nice for it, but for just for a badge!

Our class, starting three weeks ago, is getting it’s third badge in a row if everyone turns up tomorrow. All the instructors got so excited last week, saying they had never had anyone get 2 weeks in a row, and it’s so rare, especially at the start of the course.

Now, assuming that no one has rich families who are paying for this then we are all putting ourselves into some substantial debt to attend this school. In which case, I’m going to have to be on my deathbed to not turn up, little badge or no! And I’m failing to see how people can voluntarily not turn up, when they’ve paid this much. And knowing how intensive the course is, how much you can miss in one day. At this point we’re likely to remake most of what we’ve done, they’ve just been covering important methods, but still! There’s some important information being tossed out that I don’t want to miss.

Maybe it’s an American thing!

I’ve finally finished getting all my photos up into the gallery.. Go look!

So, my first Monday in town we decided to get all practical and go get me a SIM card for my phone, and open a bank account.

We’ve picked a bank, after asking around and seeing who gets recommended and see a branch while out on our travels so decide to pop in there.

We get in to the bank and there is no one around. One guy sat at the desk and that is it, everyone else is in some meeting. So we sit, and we wait.. and wait. Eventually someone comes out and he assures us he’s going to get everything sorted.

“So, what’s your social security number?”

“I don’t have one”

“Oh.. well, umm, I don’t think I can do this”

But he decides he can, and uses my passport to make sure he has my name right. He takes my Mum’s address as my English base and my address for here, and takes a username and email address for the internet banking.

The bank is closing by the time we’re finishing up, and I’m getting the impression that I’m being shorted here, he’s not giving me everything, but I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt, I am the one here with no experience of the American banking system.

We give it a week, and no email has come through with my internet banking details. Then to top it off, my first statements come through, and my name has been spelt wrong.. He had my passport in front of him and he’s spelt it wrong!

I attempt to ring the bank, the helpline number you need a PIN to use.. well, I don’t have that yet! So DmentD comes and picks me up one lunchtime and we pop in. We explain what’s happened and the woman on the counter happily changes my name, applies for a new card and checks the internet banking set up…

He hadn’t set the internet banking up!

We give it a while longer, a bank card has yet to show, and still no email for the internet banking!

So we go back again. This time waiting to see a Rep rather than just someone on the counter. She appears and after the usual rigmarole over my name (a rarity over here) and my not being native we sit down and explain the situation.

She pulls out some papers, that I have never seen before, and asks if I’ve signed them.. umm no! Turns out, the guy at the start hadn’t gotten me to sign this rather crucial form saying I was a foreign citizen. Without that or a social security number nothing else was going through!

She was wonderfully helpful and we didn’t leave until we had the papers with my username and password for the internet banking on. Getting home soon after and finding it working.  I’m still waiting for the card, but that still has a week or so to turn up.

I liked this woman so much I made her cookies (with a card attached.. not touting for business.. much)! And have decided that she is the only person I will deal with at that bank