KateW

People with poor typing skills deserve our help too. You just have to be a little more patient. Pretty soon, everyone will be typing like this because it saves them time and brain cells.

Well anyway, dental issues aside, soda seems like just about the most unhealthy food out there. As far as I know, there has never been a redeeming discovery about soda. To me, diet soda is sort of better in the aspect that there is not much bad about it; but there is nothing good about it either. Maybe the soda argument has some merit if you're like some people who sit and drink one soda after another all day. But at my worst I only drank maybe 3 cans of soda a day. Anyway it just seemed like a bunch of empty calories to me. I had always tried to quit soda before but never could, and I finally ended up doing it when I wasn't even trying. Anyway, here I am, drinking another Lipton lemon iced tea...

Diet soda is just nasty. I always say I would rather drink water. Besides, the whole thing that started me stopping soda intake was my dentist who has been pleading with me for years to quit. The acid in soda that wears away enamel is present in diet soda as well, he tells me. I do drink water but when I want something with flavor I go for the iced tea. I used to make my own unsweetened iced tea at home but now that I live at school again and have a tiny fridge for 3 people it's a little harder. I do like unsweetened though. Thanks for the great ideas, everyone!

Ok so I quit drinking soda for the most part, but now I'm addicted to those flavored iced teas. I don't like Nestea though; only Lipton. I also have a canister of the stop and shop powdered stuff but I prefer prebottled. Anyway, I used to hate sweetened iced tea until I stopped thinking of it as fruit flavored ice tea and started thinking of it as iced tea flavored fruit juice But was it really worth quitting soda just to latch onto this other sugar-laden stuff? I figure, soon I can work on quitting the sweetened iced tea and switch to unsweetened. But I don't know of any pre-made unsweetened iced tea unless you make it yourself from teabags.

It seems like I can eat a lot more when I'm drunk and still not get sick, even though I've just eaten something that would probably make me sick if I *weren't* drunk. I gotta say, I lived in Tennessee for two years and the best thing about it is that it can sound a lot more romantic than it really is. That bit about the Waffle house cook and waitress was poetry, but when you're there, watching the roaches run up the walls...it's just not the same.

I dunno if she would have gone for that. True the menu is for kids but it's not by kids, lol. I guess she thought if you used compasses and rulers and such, it would look good, but I thought it would look rather unnatural to have perfectly rectangular brownies and such. Guess what...for the garde manger project we have to draw more pictures...but I guess I'll be consulting another forum for that one

I would *think* more. Outside the box and all that. The drawings I can't do much about. No matter what I do it looks like a little kid did it. I showed her all my written stuff, but I did not get her approval of the drawings. Perhaps I should have shown her the drawings too and gotten some ideas of how to make them better. And the title page, so she could have told me I needed the establishment name on it. Surprisingly, my fiance is very creative with plating desserts, even though he hates the whole concept. Like me, he doesn't like food looking so extravagant when you're just going to ruin the whole thing with your fork. But he is very good with visuals and contrasting ideas. I should have asked him for help with my project but I had no idea he could do that stuff until I timidly asked him for help a couple days later on drawing my molten chocolate cake, expecting him to say "Are you kidding?" Instead he said "Oh sure! You could do this and this, or this and that..."

Maybe they're one of the lucky college dorms with a kitchen...(grumble)

You all must be busy today

I got a 90...she said she wanted me to be more creative *and* make more use of what we learned in class. So both schools of thought are right, in this case. She liked the hot chocolate idea, didn't like my drawings because I didn't use "templates". I thought it would look funny to have perfectly shaped desserts when they are not really like that, so I drew most of it freehand. I guess it would have looked better using rulers and stuff, even if it wouldn't have been accurate. Points were taken off for not having the title of my establishment on the title page. I could have sworn she said the title page could be whatever we wanted. But I'm not going to squabble over that. I was really nervous about my practical yesterday (molten chocolate cake with a sauce, crunch component and garnish of our choice based on what we had available) but I think it turned out ok. I don't know why I am such a klutz in the baking kitchen and not so much in a regular kitchen but I always end up spilling something...Yesterday I spilled the egg yolks for my creme anglaise and she said "I just have to say this...'the yolk's on you'..." Of course I laughed amiably and was just happy she wasn't yelling for once. I think my creme anglaise came out well, that was 10 points. 10 points for each component on the plate, 10 points for sanitation, 10 for uniform inspection, 10 for use of tools, and 10 for time management. It all added up to 120 points so I might be forgetting some things. I was on time. I was so afraid I'd be the shmuck who was late, but nobody was late. 3 hours sounds like such a long time to make a dessert, but when you have 12 people doing the same thing, you have to wait for equipment, oven space, etc. It's a pain in the butt and that's what made me later than I expected. The final exam wasn't too bad. It was both scantron and written answer. I should be able to get the rest of my grades in the next couple days. Today I start garde manger.

I don't know, we just handed them in today. She'll have them back to us by Wednesday evening probably.

Yeah that would have been cool...but too late now I don't know why I don't think of these things. It seems like I think of something really basic and stop there.

I have no idea lol I'm still at home...heading out the door in a little while and class at 1:30. I don't think I'll know anyway.

After the whole thing about the a la minute dessert I'm afraid of what you all will say about the rest of it...particularly the brownie, after that brownie safety comment...but it has a melted marshmallow in it, if that helps... but no fake sauce I can guarantee that. Well here goes. My place is geared towards children. It is a purely dessert restaurant. Because my fictional place does birthday parties I had to put the obligatory cake and ice cream... there is a choice of white, chocolate or marble cake, and then vanilla, chocolate or choice of either with mix-ins. The ice cream is also served on its own as an individual dessert. Then the a la minute dessert--choice of 3 mini truffles any combo of white, chocolate or dark, brought to your table in a teacup and melted with hot milk. brought with additional milk and a bowl of whipped cream. Served with cookies. Then a meyer lemon mousse with mint-mango coulis--I don't know what I was thinking with this one but she liked it, however I know it is not creative and rather monochrome, so that does not need to be brought to my attention. Yeah so there you go. I am happy with some items, not so much with others, but I think she is more concerned with the technical part of this rather than our creativity. I had her look over everything including the written body where I laid out my restaurant plan and basic ideas for the menu and she only had minor changes for me. I showed her my menu on Thursday which was all the same except for the a la minute dessert and she approved. So, we'll see...

Argh..I'm embarrassed... Edit: how about we wait and see what I get for a grade

My drawings suck, but I hope it looks like I really tried, because I did. I really like how my menu came out on the special paper I bought. It has a cute colorful border and I chose a sort of playful font. I think it looks good.

Actually I have some truffles in the fridge from class right now...

Anybody?

How about a cup of hot chocolate, formed by pouring a warm cream and milk mixture over some attractive mini truffles at the table?

I dunno lol, it sounds right, but I don't have time to go back to her with the idea. I could give it a shot though...try something daring

I'm just trying to figure out how "a la minute" figures into it. Or am I taking "a la minute" too seriously? Could it just be something like a souffle or something that you need to serve right away but takes longer than a couple minutes to cook?

Eww, there goes that raw fish image again. So is that made tableside or what?

Such as?

I am so done with school, lol

In response to how long the class is--9 school days of 6 hours a day. Although really, we only have maybe 2-3 hours of actual production a day, after taking the time for a quiz, lecture, dinner, and clean-up. Not a lot of time. Certainly not enough to grasp much anything since you really only make each thing once, if at all. Sometimes 2 groups will make creme brulee, 2 will make creme caramel and 2 will make bread pudding and the next day you'll be onto different recipes. Very frustrating because with this chef at least, if you are caught just standing around, even if you are watching someone, she makes you do something. I like to watch people doing techniques, but she says "Isn't there something you could be doing?" And I say well, I am watching to see how he does this, and she walks off with a sigh... But Whatever. Ok ok I will be more open to advice. Whatever I end up doing I have to do it tomorrow. I may stick with crepes suzette and just play up the description and make a nice drawing. Oh yeah, I will not be preparing any of these desserts. Just doing a description like on a menu, and drawing a picture. It's the drawing that is stressing me out, actually. My understanding of a la minute is that something is made almost totally to the last minute, right after the customer orders it. Tableside or at the table, like the things where sauces were poured over something, would be cool. But I have to be able to explain it and draw it which can be hard if I'm just hearing about it for the first time. Chefette, thanks for giving in I think I was just more obsessed with just seeing a picture of crepes suzette because I was so irritated that I couldn't find any after pages and pages of googling. I'm sorry for my temper, if it came through at all. I've had a generally really bad day and it's my time of the month, and I usually cringe when people use that as an excuse but it certainly affects me.