Introducing Maxwell Preston

Boy has it been a while since I updated this blog. I have been a little busy as you can see.

Okay, on to the big news. Maxwell Preston was born November 14, 2008. He was 8lbs 12oz, 20in. long. It was a pretty rough birth, but we made it through.

He is by far the sweetest, most laid back baby I have ever seen. He only cries if he is hungry or needs a diaper change. I adore this little boy. The girls are absolutely in love with him too. Claire is constantly kissing his head and wanting to hold him. Madeline is a little more stand offish, but I think it is because she thinks she might break him. :) She loves to help go get diapers and such.

Anyway, my little man is calling, so I must go!

I will update soon. (I hope.)

My Sweet Angels

I have to brag on my two sweet girls. I was cleaning the dishes the other day, and I noticed that the girls had left the table a mess after eating. I asked them to just clean up their places at the table and nothing more. Well, I look around after finishing the dishes, and they are sweeping the entire kitchen floor as a team. Never once did I ask them to sweep the kitchen, but they did it anyway. After they finished sweeping they started scrubbing the table. Claire cleaned all of the knobs on the cabinets. Madeline cleaned all the counter tops. Well, Claire got tired of doing it and dropped out after a while. I told Madeline that was enough you don't have to do this, and her reply was, "I want to help you Momma. And I want to take care of my house. I'm proud of my house." She then proceeded to scrub the floors on her hands and knees while I'm begging her to go and play. She said, "No, I want to be your maid today." Too sweet and cute. I promise you she cleaned for an hour and a half. This will probably never happen again which is why I am documenting it now. They are both just so sweet and try their hardest to take care of their poor old momma.

Dead Dough Showpiece

Today for our final practical exam we had to make a dead dough showpiece about spring. Dead dough is just dough that is not edible. I had envisioned a giant cross covered in dogwood behind what you see here, but time did not permit. Instead I have a basket to hold bread you can eat, what you see in the basket is lavosh and grissini. I also place a goblet, grapes and faux flatbread and challah. I am thinking of finishing out my original idea here at the house. If I do I will post a final picture, but for now enjoy what I halfway have done.

The Actual Bread Class

This is from our bread baking class. It was three weeks long and ended today. This is just a sample of what we did. The first is of soft rolls braided and tied. The second is of challah. The third is of foccacia topped with garlic, mushrooms, asiago, artichoke hearts, and peppers. It was yummy!

Intro to breads

Before moving to the next class, which is nothing but bread, we were able to play with some formulas for certain breads. The first is just of some plain white bread and the second is of rye. I have learned from this class that I should stay clear of rye seeing that I am allergic to it, but it tastes so darn good. :(

Fruit Tarts

The first picture is of some pear frangipane tarts. They are mini tarts filled with almond cream and topped with poached pears, dusted with cinnamon and sugar and then baked.

The second picture is of a fruit tart. These little beauties were made with a crust from pate sucree, and filled with vanilla pastry cream and finally topped with an assortment of fresh fruit. They were delicious.

More Cookie Pictures

Cookies

Okay, I know I promised to post these pictures a long time ago, but better late than never. Seeing as how I finished this class over three weeks ago, let's see if I can remember what I did. :) On the far left are the ever so wonderful chocolate chip cookies, in the middle is the ever so unappetizing (in my opinion) brysselkex cookies, and last but not least my all time favorite pistachio macaroons. This isn't the greatest picture, but you get the point. Now I'm off to see what else I can bore you guys with.

Cookie Hell

For our first week in the kitchen we are making nothing but chocolate chip cookies, pistachio macaroons, and brysslekex cookies. You would think that it all sounds so simple, but it is so hard. We are not allowed to use the mixers so we have to mix everything by hand, and if any of you know what a macaroon is you know that it starts out with a meringue. Ugh! This took some elbow grease to get done. I am now freakishly strong in one are. :) I can say that on Friday my cookies turned out perfect, which is a relief since they were crap at the first of the week. I got a perfect score on all my cookies. I will post a pic of them later.

Sugar Sculpting

So, after a week of cookie hell I was excited to go to a sugar sculpting workshop on Saturday. This was my first time ever doing anything like this, so please be kind. We learned how to make a fish by blowing air into hot sugar, and how to make a ribbon shape for the tail. We also learned several other techniques, but I will spare you the boring details. I can tell you that the sugar was extremely hot, so hot that I burned blisters on my hand while I was wearing three layers of gloves. I also burnt the tip of my rubber glove off, and then the instructor burnt another tip of my glove off with a blow torch, and caught my cardboard on fire. It was all totally worth it though. I can't wait until I am able to do more of these kinds of sculptures, but I have to wait until I am further along in school. Anyway, I was just so darn proud that I had to show off my work. I hope you all enjoy. I will try to post more later.

Experimental Cuisine

Okay, I am so excited about what I learned at school this week. I have a rather strange love of chemistry, and learned that I can actually include chemistry in my baking. First, I went to a workshop by one of my chef instructors about experimental cuisine. I was not completely sure what to expect, but when I got there Oh My Goodness I was so excited. I learned about using these really cool additives, some natural, some not so natural, in food. I won't go into everything we learned, because this blog would be way too long. I will just touch on some of the pictures I took at the workshop.
The first one is of all of the cool ingredients he used to make some of the stuff he showed us, such as Poblano Chili Caviar, Peanut butter powder and concord foam.

Here are all of the books that I hope to one day own. They are all so amazing and about how experimental cuisine is being used.

This is my instructor, Chef Reynolds preparing the Chili Caviar. I know it sounds gross, but it is not really caviar. It is actually a mix of poblano peppers, cilantro, and garlic blended into a liquid and made into little beads that resemble caviar. Believe me it was so Yummy.

Here is what the Chili Caviar looks like. They look almost like little peas. Chef has said that this technique can be used with almost any liquid. I am so excited to start testing this out. Well, that is all I have for now, but hopefully I will be posting more soon.

My Education

Okay, I know I promised to let you all in on what I am going to school to study. Well, I have always had a passion for baking so I decided that I would apply at Le Cordon Bleu. I was accepted and am now attending every M-F from 12:30 p.m to 5:30 p.m. I should be able to graduate in early November. I hopefully then will be a certified Pastry Chef. I will give more details later, but I must rush off to school now seeing as how it is about an hour drive depending on traffic.

Oh yeah, Beth G. if you are reading this I might need your help in pronouncing some of the french terms. I have to know just about every ingredients french name. My head is swimming. :)