Live every week like it's Shark Week.

hey, it's that girl

riseoverrun — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 06:36:59 GMT

My 2013 resolution: to be a better version of me.

To attempt to reach this goal is to launch a multipronged approach:

- Try to be more creative and actually turn ideas into something tangible.
- Find a job that makes me happy/feels worthwhile.
- Share more about what's going on inside of my head instead of bottling it up all of the time.
- Make more of an effort to keep in touch with friends.
- Purge items I no longer want or need.
- Read more.
- Floss more often.
- Exercise, period.

And just because it makes me smile:

My friends at Kara's are the coolest of the cool.

honey in the sun

riseoverrun — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 00:30:37 GMT

I'm supposed to be packing for my San Diego trip but I'm putting that off for the time being to do something else I've been putting off: Posting my backlog of culinary school projects.

Creme caramel with a tuile spiral for decoration. The tuile is maddening to work with because you have to shape it immediately once it comes out of the oven or else it'll cool and cease to be malleable. I finally pulled off this spiral after maybe five tries, and I may have yelled out something along the lines of, "Bow down, spiral!" once I did. And then I totally forgot about the other pieces still in the oven which went on to burn to the point where they scorched my Silpat.

White chocolate cheesecake with tuile and caramel decorations and a chocolate cigarette.

Chocolate decadence, which is basically a flourless chocolate cake.

My chocolate decadence after I glazed it with ganache.

Raspberry mousse with a ribbon sponge base.

White chocolate mousse with a chocolate butterfly for decoration. The antennae broke off right when I went to place the butterfly on the mousse =/

Fruit tart. Don't ask what kind of decorative scheme I was going for because I don't have an answer.

Apple tart filled with frangipane (an almond and pastry cream filling).

Linzer tart, which is traditionally filled with raspberry jam.

Lemon curd tart topped with Swiss meringue. I had to make the lemon curd twice because during the first attempt, I forgot to add the butter while it was still warm and so I melted the butter separately, added it to the curd and hoped for the best. It completely congealed into a solid mass the next day, which is clearly not the best.

Chocolate souffle. Chef Nick said that all off those myths about having to be really quiet and cautious while a souffle is baking so that it doesn't deflate are unfounded. You just need to avoid opening the oven door and letting out all of the heat.

Petit fours glacés, of the bane of my culinary existence. The cake base, which is a dobosh sponge, gave me so much grief. Then you have to cut out the individual pieces and glaze them all individually with fondant, which has to be brought within a very narrow temperature range: too cold and it will be too thick, but too warm and it will lose its shine. THEN you have to pipe the filigree designs on every cake. To add insult to injury, they don't even taste that good! Yeah, never again if I can help it.

Napoleons filled with creme diplomat (whipped cream and pastry cream).

Mini chocolate eclairs.

Paris-brest.

Salammbo. Roland, one of my classmates, would sing Lady Gaga's "Alejandro" and replace Alejandro with Salammbo. I miss him.

Swans.

Carrot cake topped with marzipan carrots.

Chocolate triangle cake topped with chocolate filigree.

Opera cake.

Sacher cake. I think it's rather funny how we had to pipe the name of this and the opera cake onto the cakes themselves, as if you could refer to it just in case you forgot what it was you were eating.

Black forest cake decorated with whipped cream, cherries, and milk chocolate shavings.

Dobosh sponge finished with coffee-flavored Swiss buttercream and slices of dobosh coated with caramel.

Birthday cake draped in marzipan and glazed with fondant. I wish I had taken a photo of the marzipan itself because the color, a lime green/chartreuse, was GORGEOUS. Also, that crack in the upper lefthand corner was not there until I picked up the cake to present it. BOO.

Draping square cakes is a pain in the arse.

Okay, back to packing, I suppose. In terms of entertainment, I've added a bunch of new music to my iPod and I've got a copy of A Game of Thrones that I picked up at Target yesterday (I totally blame zombie_boogie). Let's do this, and by this I mean the eight-hour car ride. Let's just hope that Kimberly doesn't start drooling on me half an hour into the trip.

the heart is a beating drum

riseoverrun — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 02:03:01 GMT

I watched Danny Boyle's stage production of Frankenstein with Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller yesterday. Spoiler alert: It was incredible.

Unlike most notable adaptations of the story, this one is very from the Creature's point of view, and so the play begins with him being born and learning to use basic motor functions. To see a little toddler flop and flail about is cute, even possibly endearing, but to see a grown man do it for nearly ten minutes is so, so uncomfortable and difficult to watch. Jonny as the Creature, OH MY GOD. He gave such a rich, not to mention incredibly physical, performance, as he showed both the character's struggles as well as his childlike wonder and innocence. There was a behind the scenes featurette that was shown just before the play where Benedict and Jonny discussed how the latter modeled parts of his performance after his two year old son... could you be a more perfect human being, Jonny?

I know that Danny Boyle has said that he wanted his two lead actors to switch roles every night so as to emphasis how Frankenstein and his Creature are one, both father and child, both master and slave, but to be honest I don't see how one actor could play the Creature night after night without collapsing from exhaustion. It's such a physically demanding role, from the sudden and jerky movements to the way Jonny deliberately lowered the register of his voice when he spoke. There were scenes where he was just drenched in sweat and saliva (again echoing a small child learning how to talk); it was incredible yet difficult to watch. Seriously, this play is not for the faint of heart. It is the most intense theatre experiences I've ever witnessed, and I wasn't even watching it in person.

As for Frankenstein, well, he was even more unsympathetic here than he was in the novel, and I found myself wanting to bitchslap him so many times while reading it. (Truth be told, I haven't actually finished it; I've about 50 more pages to go. It's kind of a drag in certain parts and like I said, Frankenstein is an annoying character.) Of course, Benedict was a natural in the role. Frankenstein is cold and unfeeling, more focused on pride and his own genius more than anything else, and we all know that Benedict can probably play those kinds of roles in his sleep.

The best and most powerful scenes by far were the confrontation scenes between Frankenstein and the Creature, particularly the first one where Frankenstein learns that his creation that he abandoned has learned not only to move and speak, but the ability to reason, form logic, and philosophize. The dialog was cutting and sharp and sometimes downright haunting (the excerpt from the trailer is a good example), and the roiling of emotions between both creator and creation was so palpable. ALL THE AWARDS AND GOLD STARS TO BOTH JONNY AND BENEDICT.

That said, I feel like the arrangement of Benedict as Frankenstein and Jonny as the Creature is the more obvious casting choice given their past work: Benedict as haughty, standoffish characters, Jonny as more sensitive and thoughtful, not to mention the fact that he has a stockier build and so he looks like he's more capable of brute force. I somewhat wish I had seen a showing where the roles were reversed; don't get me wrong, I loved the performances I did see, but it would have been interesting to see a casting that goes against the conventions.

I really, really hope that both arrangements will be released on DVD because I'm dying to see what acting choices Jonny and Benedict made for their opposite roles.

To whom it may concern:

Please make this happen.

Regards,
Anne

After this I went shopping near Union Square, which happened to be around the time a lot of people were leaving Wonder Con, which took place only a few blocks away, for the day. It was pretty hilarious to see bystanders bug out upon seeing a person dressed up as Snake Eyes from G.I. Joe wandering around the mall.

Let's see... I also watched Source Code.

There have been rumblings of how this movie is like an action version of Groundhog's Day. I wouldn't argue against that. It's taut and it has fine momentum as Jake's character uses the ability, thanks to a technology known as Source Code, to relive the last eight minutes aboard a train that's about to be bombed in order to find the perpetrator. After the first few passes, though, it begins to feel like a video game. When your character dies, you go back to the beginning of the level and start again, although you now have some knowledge of what lies ahead. While there are tweaks and differences between each outcome, it does feel repetitive after awhile. The more interesting story was the one outside of Source Code, of how Jake's character came to be involved with the program, which the movie dealt with to decent degree, I suppose, but had it dug deeper, this movie would have had a greater impact.

Poor Michelle Monaghan, though. She didn't have much to do but be cute and sometimes question what Jake was up to. Because that's the kind of entry this is, have another open letter:

Dear Male Screenwriters,

Having ladies in your films is great. Having ladies in your films to simply fill the role of "The Male Lead's Love Interest," however, is not so great. It is just plain lazy, and if you see it as a cheap ploy to get more females into theater seats because "women don't care for action films unless there's a romance subplot," know that we see through that shit a mile away. Just give your female characters something to do. It's not that much to ask for, is it?

Sincerely,
Anne

I went to Candystore Collective to get that fox cuff I mentioned about a week ago, but they didn't have it in stock so they're going to send one to me once their new shipment comes in. I don't know if I've said this yet, but I'm making some awesome sartorial choices this year. Yessir.

Question: Is there any reason to watch The Borgias besides pretty, somewhat incestuous siblings? I'd say Jeremy Irons, but I heard that he phones it in in this.

youth knows no pain

riseoverrun — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 04:56:35 GMT

April is going to be a great month. Here is the evidence with which I back my claim:

April 2: I'm going to San Francisco to see the Danny Boyle-directed stage adaptation of Frankenstein starring Jonny Lee Miller (Frankenstein) and Benedict Cumberbatch (The Creature). Shopping is most likely to follow afterward.

April 16: I'll be heading down to San Diego for Jennifer's wedding. The eight-hour car ride will suck, but everything else will be gravy.

April 23: NEW DOCTOR WHO!!!!

And even though today was April Fool's Day, an occasion I don't particularly care for, the day was pretty awesome. I got a Gyllenhaal fix with Source Code, I bought the faceted ALDO clutch I mentioned in my last entry (it's freaking gorgeous in person), I walked past Mondo Guerra of season 8 of Project Runway while on my way to the restroom at Macy's, and I capped everything off with some homemade cheese crackers. In the immortal words of Charlie Sheen: WINNING.

I don't know how Carrie Bradshaw does it.

riseoverrun — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 04:50:11 GMT

One of my friends is getting married in less than a month, which for me means, A) a long overdue trip to San Diego, and B) a legit opportunity to get my girly-girl on.

This is the dress I'm planning on wearing:

I had a bit of an "oh shit" moment yesterday when it occurred to me how it's sometimes frowned upon to wear white at a wedding if you're not the bride, but I spoke to a few people who assured me that I should be fine. The white isn't really a true white, especially when you can see the green slip underneath, and there's no way anyone would mistake my dress for a wedding dress. So with the dress issue out of the way, now it's time to think about accessories. I'm covered as far as shoes go (those shall be black peep toe kitten heels that my mom borrowed and put who knows where, which explains why I haven't actually a picture of them at the moment), so really all that's left is some kind of purse or clutch. I don't have a date to the wedding, which means no dude with suit pockets to carry my crap for me, hence the need for said purse. Here are things I've picked out thus far.

(Express)

(~~Forever 21~~ Aldo)

(DSW)

There are little geometric shapes in the print of the dress so I like the idea of carrying a geometrically-shaped clutch as well. I have a thing of faceted clutches, as you can see.

(Michael Kors)

(vintage, found on Etsy)

(Coach)

Clutches made from straw came to mind because of the way they evoke a springtime feel, and the colors are neutral so they won't be in danger of clashing with the dress.

(The Limited)

Then I thought of perhaps going with a color that would provide a nice pop in contrast without coming off as gaudy or discordant, and I think yellow is the best bet. There are little bits of yellow on the dress, so it all kind of comes together.

And just for fun, here are some things I'd choose if money were no object:

(Chanel)

(Alexander McQueen)

Is the McQueen not the definition of BAD. ASS.?

Also, I wasn't planning much of anything in terms of jewelry [maybe my nOir spiked bracelet if anything (again with the geometric shapes!)] but then I was looking at Candystore Collective's online shop because I have a Groupon-like voucher there that I treated myself to awhile back with my credit card's cashback rewards and I came across this beauty:

My voucher is only valid at the brick and mortar shop in San Francisco, which is conveniently close to the theatre where I'm going next month to see the Danny Boyle-directed stage adaptation of Frankenstein starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller. So, if the bracelet is still in stock by then, IT SHALL BE MINE. And I shall possibly wear it at the wedding? I don't know since it's definitely a statement piece, which means carrying a really simple purse, or in effect scraping everything that came earlier in this post lol. So...

HALP. I have given myself too many choices and now I am overwhelmed. Plus, I'm okay when it comes to picking out individual pieces but am rubbish at putting together full ensembles so for all I know, very few of my selections even work. Gimme your thoughts and opinions, please!

forget cake, let them eat cookies

riseoverrun — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 03:46:21 GMT

Wow, it's been a month since my last entry. Eh, it's not like I have much to report. I've mostly been working at my externship site, Swiss Delices. I'm four weeks into the six-week "class" (we're receiving grades for the experience and we have to submit time sheets and journals as a way of keeping attendance) so I feel like I've just about gotten into the groove of how things operate at SD. I'm having a pretty good time for the most part. I basically spend my time assembling cakes and making cookies, the latter being one of those activities where I'm at my happiest, even when I'm making ten pound batches of cookie dough. As an aspiring pastry chef, what more could I ask for? But alas, there are shortcomings. When are there not shortcomings? Some of them are minor, like not having enough equipment, but then again, you're kind of spoiled when you come from culinary school, where there's one of everything for every student. Some of them, not so minor...

For starters, I was really excited at first to do the bread shift even though it begins at 4 AM because breads class was one of my favorites in school and I was eager to get more bread-making experience. Imagine my disappointment, then, when I found out that SD's bread baker, Yohan, doesn't speak much English. It's a bit hard to learn new skills and processes when you and your instructor have trouble communicating, especially for someone like me who learns best with clear and precise instruction. Because of this, I quickly asked for a shift change because it just didn't seem worth it to show up to work that early and not really learn anything.

A major shortcoming that SD is plagued by is the lack of communication between the employees. They all have their own projects that they are tasked with but they don't bother to inform one another of them, and so mix-ups and confusion spring up more often than they should. For instance, last Monday I was clearing the cooling rack of empty sheet pans when I noticed a shamrock-shaped cookie that I remembered having been there since Friday, if not before then. I asked Cosmo, the head cakes guy and the only other person working at the time, if I should at the very least wrap the cookie up so that it wouldn't get any more dry and stale than it already was. He told me to toss it, so I did. Later that day, Christine, SD's owner, came by and asked where the cookie had gone. When Cosmo told her what happened, she got upset and yelled, "Oh, come on!" It turns out that the cookie was baked by Yohan almost a week prior as a visual sample for a customer who was interested in ordering a batch for St. Patrick's Day. Yohan left it there on cooling rack uncovered for the longest time without bothering to put it away, and neither he nor Christine told anyone else about it, so how were Cosmo and I supposed to know? Christine started ranting about how butter cookies can last at least a week, which I feel was both unnecessary and uncalled for because the whole thing could have been avoided had the damn cookie been put away. And this wasn't the first time there have been issues like this in my short time at SD. There have been other products that were not put away properly, which caused them to get hard and dry, which then ends in Christine having to sell them at half price. Now I box stuff right away if I see it lying out because I just don't want to listen to another of these lectures.

These communication issues are what lead me to believe that if I were to be offered a paid position once my externship is done, I would have to think long and hard about accepting it because I'm not sure if I want to be in a work environment where people are only concerned with their own work and can't even take the time to inform their co-workers of what's going on.

Anyway, now that that is out of the way, let's get to the fun stuff, like the things I've made and done. (Unfortunately I don't have any visuals to share; I didn't really have time to stop my work and take pictures.)

I now know how to use a dough sheeter, which is this conveyor belt-like machine that rolls out dough to your desired thickness. Granted, it took some practice for me to get the hang of it. There were a few times where I couldn't get the sheeter to stop running in time and so the dough fell to the ground, rendering it unusable.
I've made tons and tons of batches of cookie dough, and decorated The King's Speech crown-shaped sugar cookies for an Oscar party.
I totally stole the bakery's coconut macaroon recipe for my own personal use because oh my gosh, they are so buttery and tasty. I did the math and it comes out to one tablespoon of butter for each golf ball-sized macaroon!
I nearly fell in headfirst into a barrel of cocoa powder while trying to scoop out what little remained at the bottom of the barrel.
I've been tasked with decorating cupcakes for a funeral (uh... yeah, I don't know why, either) which resulted in my asking, "Are dark chocolate sprinkles too much for this somber occasion?"
Oh, and I managed to cut myself with a tape measure. A TAPE MEASURE.

So there you have it, the life of a soon-to-be-graduating culinary student.

In a long overdue update on my dad's viewing habits, because I know how much you all appreciate that kind of thing: A few weeks ago he forwent the chick flicks and reminded us all that he is in fact a heterosexual male by buying a bunch of action movies filled with guns and explosions on Blu-ray. But then he was back to usual ways and was watching early 00's classics such as Sweet November and Here on Earth on Netflix on Demand. It's good to know that some things never change.

I eat and I buy things. That's pretty much it.

riseoverrun — Sun, 13 Feb 2011 06:11:43 GMT

My last day of class was on Thursday, and most of my time since then has been spent stuffing my face with food that I know is bad for me. Such is the life of a culinary student. And this was after I visited the Guittard chocolate factory with my class. The tour itself was fairly standard; if you've ever seen any of those shows on the Food Network like Unwrapped that show you how different foods are made, well, then, you pretty much saw what I saw. But, there was an added bonus...

Check out my amazing parting gift! When we came to the end of the tour, there was a gentleman waiting for us with boxes of these chips for each of us. It was like find the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, it was so incredible and unexpected. I see lots of chocolate chip cookies in my future!

Group photo time...

Chef Devon has a tendency to wear orange-y peach lipstick, so all of us gals put on bright red lipstick for this photo. We attempted to get the two guys in the class to do it too, but they didn't bite, even after I tried to convince them that it'd make them look cool like David Bowie. That's me in the front with the bright yellow sweater, clearly not ready to have my photo taken. Why we all stood in front of the light source, I don't know.

Not sure why Roland was being bashful seeing as I was about the fourth person to give him a kiss.

James giving me his patented Awkward Hug, which involved him picking me up off the ground and twirling me for what seemed like eons.

Cocoa painting replication of a Charmaine Olivia piece.

Various marzipan animals:

I already posted this on my Tumblr, but I must share once again my amazing new Pride and Prejudice fleece sweatshirt. I discovered it at Out of Print Clothing about a month ago but my size wasn't available, to my dismay. Then I randomly went back to the website and found out that size small was back in stock, so I snapped that baby up. It arrived in the mail yesterday, upon which I tore the package open, put the sweatshirt on and declared it my new favorite piece of clothing.

It is so soft and fleecy and pretty and oh my god I just want to live in it. Also, in an unexpected yet totally appreciated bit, there are little plastic loops at the shoulders for you to hook in your bra straps for those of us who are not hipster enough to attempt the Flashdance look. I love how they've put thought into everything, including the clothing tags:

Out of Print is offering 20% off all purchases through February 15th when you use the code BOOKSFORALL. You all should get on that because there are so many other shirts there that I want yet cannot buy or else I will be far too poor, so I need to live vicariously through you. Also, OOP donates a book to Books for Africa for every shirt sold, so DO IT, DO IT.

Blood, fat, marrow, grease, sinew, muscle, guts, hide, fur, sleep.

riseoverrun — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 18:59:50 GMT

Oh my god. Simon Beaufoy is writing a screenplay adapted from Sharp Teeth. And Danny Boyle may direct it. THIS IS THE BEST THING I HAVE EVER HEARD IN MY LIFE. I remember thinking some time ago, It'd be really cool if Danny Boyle directed an adaptation of this. AND NOW IT MAY ACTUALLY HAPPEN. SO MUCH FUCKING WIN.

Now, who wants to help me start up a Matthew Goode for Lark campaign?!

the execution of all things

riseoverrun — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 04:08:51 GMT

This is a picture of the sugar sculpture that I made in class today. It's tiny and of low quality because it was taken on my classmate's camera phone, and it is the only piece of evidence of my sculpture's existence. Twenty minutes after the photo was taken, the sculpture would lay shattered on the floor of a MUNI bus. That, along with a good deal of my pride because I was practically a human projectile and went flying across the aisle when the driver took off before I was able to take a seat.

Sigh. Can you tell that I did not have a good day? And I haven't even mentioned the blisters from pulling hot sugar, or my hands sweating like mad inside too-large rubber gloves to the point where sweat began dripping down my arms as I tried forming petals and leaves. There will be no love lost between me and sugar when we part ways after next Wednesday.

I can't believe I'm saying this, but I miss working with chocolate, if only because the probability of getting burned was much lower than it is with sugar. That's how I judge things now: things in which I will not injure myself are considered favorable, A+ even.

I teamed up with James, who sought me out as a partner because we're both pop culture nerds and so he wanted to join forces to make something really obscure that no one else in the class would understand. He wanted to make a chocolate Gigantor, but I honestly had no idea what that was so in the end we ended up using one of my suggestions: The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

This was actually super fun to make. We got to paint molds and shape things out of modeling chocolate, and it felt like being in elementary school art class all over again. Also fun was alternately yelling at James to concentrate on the task at hand (he always feels the need to say something and when he does, he tends to stop working; the guy cannot multitask to save his life) and arguing with him about movie trivia. I was right about 98% of the time. There's a reason why I'm not allowed to play Scene It! anymore.

This pomegranate, or the banana, was my favorite piece. James made a half-circle mold out of white chocolate dyed red while I made a disc set over bubble paper, which is how we got the indents for the seeds (those were rolled out of modeling chocolate). The banana was made with a moon-shaped mold and then carved down to get a more rounded form.

The lime was originally supposed to be an apple, but when it came time to fuse the two halves together, they didn't match up, so we had to keep melting down the rims to make them the same size. By that time, the half-circles were no longer circular, which then gave birth to the game, What Piece of Fruit Is It Now? Pear, avocado, and mango were bandied about before we finally settled on it becoming a lime.

I made all of the small fruits from modeling chocolate because James was utter crap at it. I'm rather pleased with the way they came out.

I baked a batch of my go-to chocolate chip cookies for the class because I figured we all needed a little pick-me-up, and they went over really well. It's a pretty good feeling to bake something that impresses twenty-something fellow pastry students as well as Chef Devon, who ate three cookies and then said, "Get these out of here before I eat them all!"

I just kaboomed this ka-post.

riseoverrun — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 05:07:27 GMT

Sometimes I think that my instructors see me as the poster child for all things Asian. In Safety and Sanitation class, I swear that Chef George stared straight at me when he asked if anyone needed a Chinese version of the ServSafe test. (Never mind the fact that I'm Vietnamese...) Then the other day Chef Devon looked in my direction when she brought up Asian fusion food and later asked me how to say the words chocolate and vanilla in "my language." Apparently there's something about me that just oozes Asian-ness? My classmates think it's because I wear glasses. Of course.

I've three more weeks of my candy class to go, and then six weeks at my externship site, and then I will be done with school. Oh my god, I am so ready to be done. I'm tired of setting my alarm at 5 am and inevitably waking up half an hour before it goes off. I'm tired of hauling myself and my heavy tool kit to San Francisco when it's pitch black. I'm tired of chocolate. Don't get me wrong, all of this has been totally worth it because I've learned so much and I've made some really great friends, but I'm so ready to go back to waking up at a normal hour. So of course I'm doing my externship at a local bakery where the bread shift starts at 4 am. IDEK.

The heroic amazing darling talented hellododger made me a Sharp Teeth fanmix and I highly recommend that you see it for yourselves because it is gorgeous and so perfect for me. So far I've had three fanmixes for this book made for me (by the aforementioned Katrina, Elena, and Kendra)... because I'm a greedy bastard with limited interests, apparently. Really, though, check them out because good music is good, especially when set in the context of epic stories of urban werewolves. And that was the crappiest plug there ever was. Sorry.

Quick bites about my old friend, television:

I started watching Lost Girl because of barilace and her likening two of the leads to Mary-Louise Parker and Chris Martin. I knew going in that the show wasn't very good, and so now that I've seen the first seven episodes, I kinda feel like I don't need to watch anymore? Bo and Dyson, while undeniably hot, are pretty boring to watch, and I don't care about Bo's quest to find her parents. The only characters I'm interested in are Kenzi, and to a lesser extent, Hale, but I don't think that they're enough to keep me watching. Then again, maybe I'll get bored on some Saturday afternoon and feel the urge to watch more silly Canadian sexytiems.

I'm watching Parks and Recreation for the first time since giving up on it after the series premiere. I skipped the first season and went straight to season 2 because I've been hearing nothing but good things about it. Yeah, you all are right: it is fucking hilarious. I can't remember the last time I've laughed as hard as I did while watching Ron Fucking Swanson live through his hernia. I'm halfway through S2 and I can't wait to catch up so that I can watch the new season with everyone else.

So, so excited for the new season of Justified. My life just isn't complete without Timothy Olyphant's swagger.

Also in TV news, but not really: My dad asked me to help him carry the new TV he'd just bought, and I dropped and broke it. I should have felt more bad about it than I actually did, but considering the fact that the TV and I weigh roughly the same amount, my dad should have known better than to ask for my help.

"But it didn't make the noise..."

riseoverrun — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 00:32:13 GMT

Chocolate will be the death of me, and not in the fun "I just gorged myself on five pounds of it" kind of way. It's more like a "I can't temper this shit and when I do I can't dip my candies satisfactorily so that Chef Devon won't yell at me" way. There's a reason why this class is the last one in the curriculum. It's insanely challenging because the chocolate is fickle. It has to stay within a certain temperature range or else it won't have that shiny sheen. You have to move it constantly or else you'll get unsightly fat streaks, but you can't overstir it because then it'll get gritty and give you a bad mouthfeel. Why are you so fussy, chocolate?! Ugh, it's no surprise that my whole class is collectively like a walking stress bomb these days because we can't seem to get this stuff down.

Also, getting chocolate off of white chef's coats is no mean feat, either.

Since this past week has been so trying, I blew off some steam on Saturday with a little retail therapy. Materialism, I has it. I got this bunny sweatshirt at Urban Outfitters and these glittery TOMS shoes at Nordstrom. Well, I say 'got' for the shoes, but I actually had to have the sales associate order them for me since they didn't have my size in stock. But they shall be mine in 5-9 business days! They were so comfortable when I tried them on in the store, and that was without having to put any inserts in. (I'm such an old lady in that I refuse to wear shoes without inserts because they make such a world of difference in terms of comfort.) I can't wait until they come.

Anyone remember when I said that I was making a Doctor Who wedding cake for my final? No? Well, I did say it... and then did not live up to the task. But I was going to do it! I just ran out of time! I know, I know, that excuse would never fly on Top Chef and Anthony Bourdain would tear me a new one for it. But in my defense, it was my first: wedding cake, multi-tiered cake, use of fondant, time making gum paste flowers, etc., etc.

So, what did I end up with? See for yourself.

Okay, so this is what I had planned on making. It was to be based on wedding scene in "The Big Bang" when Amy catches glimpses of a bowtie and braces and how they help her remember the Doctor again. Each tier is a component of the Doctor's outfit:

Top: his bowtie, obviously
Middle: his shirt, as represented by the loopy zig-zag pattern
Bottom: his braces

The topper was going to have little Doctor and Amy figurines, and then of course a TARDIS, because you need to have either that or a Dalek for it to be a DW cake, and I sure as hell wasn't going to put a Dalek on a wedding cake.

Right, so that's what I had planned to make. All was going according to plan: I had the layers, I'd made the Doctor and Amy, and I had the pieces of the TARDIS all cut. All I had to do was assemble the TARDIS, BUT I RAN OUT OF TIME. UGH, I WAS SO DISAPPOINTED IN MYSELF. Anyway, here are some pictures:

I changed the red to blue because apparently a true red is hard to achieve.

Okay, these are pretty sloppy-looking, but cut me some slack, I put them together in about ten minutes. I was super rushed because I had fifteen minutes to go and at that point I hadn't even stacked my cakes yet.

Close-ups of the bowtie and the zig-zag pattern. I had practiced the latter at home with pink buttercream, which ended up looking like little intestines.

My TARDIS-less cake was looking rather empty on top so I put on a few gum paste flowers that we were required to make beforehand. True story: When I was making them at home, my mom looked over my shoulder and said, "Not pretty."

Now, how are you all doing?

Ned's got his bitchface on. As do I.

riseoverrun — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 18:04:38 GMT

I'm in a Starbucks right now as I write this because all things computers and the Internet seem to hate me right now. I had to reinstall OS X onto my Macbook because it was being schizophrenic and wouldn't let me do certain tasks it normally does, so that took a few hours to do (I had to use the disks for 10.4 Tiger that my laptop came with, and once that was done I then had to reinstall 10.6 Snow Leopard; talk about tiresome and circuitous). Then, last night when I came home I found out that both our home phone line and our Internet connection was down. How can I post all of my recent culinary school pictures? How can I access potential recipes for the treats I'm going to bake for various family gatherings? Most importantly, HOW AM I GOING TO WATCH THE DOCTOR WHO CHRISTMAS SPECIAL TOMORROW?

...I think that I too dependent upon technology. Just a bit?

Okay, now I'm off to buy some stuff to make red velvet cupcakes.

forget your name, forget your fear

riseoverrun — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 05:30:34 GMT

I don't know what's more amazing, the fact that a bunch of you have commented on my Holiday Love Meme thread without my even posting a link to it (although I guess it being on the first page of comments certainly doesn't hurt), or that at least three people who apparently don't know me felt the urge to give me the thumbs up in regards to my username. It really is the most wonderful time of the year!

This is the last week of class before winter break starts, and there is so much to be done. I've got three cakes to make and decorate, one of which is a three-tiered wedding cake that's going to be worth 100 points. To put this into perspective, note that all other projects have been worth 5 or 10 points. No pressure there, none whatsoever! This week is going to be so hectic. By the way, did I mention that the wedding cake going to be a Doctor Who-themed cake based on the wedding scene in "The Big Bang"? Complete with a TARDIS? More details, plus a rough sketch to come when I get my scanner to work.

This is a kinda-sorta Doctor Who-related post.

riseoverrun — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 03:00:23 GMT

i. My class spent the last two days constructing croquenbouches, or French cakes made out of cream puffs. I wanted to make a Dalek cake because, well, with their conical shape and the fact that they've an abundance of dome-shaped bits, croquenbouche already kind of look like Daleks. Throw in a whisk for the plunger and you've got the Doctor's worst enemy! Alas, that was too obscure for all but one of my classmates, so my group made the next best thing: a spaceship croquenbouche!

It was actually rather hilarious because all of the other groups did more traditional or seasonal designs like Christmas trees or things with flowers, and then smack dab in the middle was our spaceship. The topper came out totally crooked, but like I told my groupmates, it's okay because our spaceship isn't actually going out on a mission. It's a decommissioned ship, a bit like Battlestar Galactica. Let's hope Cylons don't stage an uprising any time soon!

You know those Food Network competition shows where the chefs have to contruct elaborate pieces within a certain time frame AND THEN they have to carry them out to the judges' table, and how those few minutes during which they carry them out are pretty much the most nervewracking moments of the whole competition? Well, I now have a better sense of what those chefs go through. We had to carry our cakes out of the classroom and into a hallway where there's always student work on display. Even though I wasn't the one to transfer the croquenbouche, I think I was holding my breath the whole time my groupmate Amanda was carrying it out. One group actually had their cake break in transit because their caramel base wasn't as stable as they thought it was, and the sound of sugar shattering to the ground rendered everyone near silent. Luckily the cream puff cone was still intact so they were still able to put something out. Oh pastry gods, how fickle you are!

Speaking of, I finally got my first school-related injury while pulling out a hot sheet pan of nougatine out of an oven. I had on oven mitts, but one of them had a hole in it so one of my fingertips came into contact with hot metal. Now there's a few unsightly blisters on the pad of my middle finger on my right hand. Yay.

ii. I bought a dress that's reminiscent of this one that Karen Gillan wears in Series 6.

I admit that those photos played a part in me buying the dress, but it's also super warm and comfy, and it was on sale! I don't cosplay, but if I ever wanted to start cosplaying Amy, I suppose I'm halfway there already.

iii. I did something incredibly geeky: I fashioned Lego minifigures of Eleven and Amy.

The Doctor and Amy in "The Eleventh Hour." Amy is not happy to see him after 12 long years.

Amy. Believe, for twenty minutes.

From "The Time of Angels/Flesh and Stone":

Ooh, Doctor, you sonic'd her!

You're a time traveller now, Amy. Changes the way you see the universe forever. Good, isn't it?

From "The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang":

I really love Amy here, from the brown jacket and red scarf to the flambeau in her hand. Fierce minifig!Amy is fierce.

And of course:

Fezzes are cool.

Does all of this make me the geekiest geek to have ever geeked? No, probably not, but I like to think that it's help to put me on that path.

iv. Not Doctor Who-related, but happy belated birthday, thecolorbetween! I hope your day was lovely, Claire, and that it was filled with many good things :D

C is for cookie, that's good enough for me

riseoverrun — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 05:49:39 GMT

You guys wanted food porn? I'll give you food porn. Today was the last day of the current term, and the last two competencies for my Advanced Pastries class was to make two different cookies made from different mixing and prepping methods. Well, there are about 20 people in my class, so multiply that by 2 and you get a shitload of cookies. Hence, a cookie party!

Matcha (Japanese green tea) macarons with chocolate ganache. I made these, along with a batch of gingersnaps from a recipe in our textbook that left me disappointed. But when you've got macarons, everything else seems to fall by the wayside. I actually think that the macarons I made awhile back with Chef Tim were better, but I LOVE the way these look. The color combination is so pretty to me.

L: Almond macarons with cassis filling
R: Brownies with cream cheese swirls

Top: Coconut macaroons
Bottom: Pumpkin chocolate chip

Madeleines with vanilla bean

Italian chocolate wedding cookies with icing

Shortbread rolled in sugar

Top: Shortbread with peanut butter, maybe?
Bottom: I think these were almond cookies. Not quite sure.

Chocolate with hazelnuts

Top: Orange zest with cardamom, garnished with chocolate ganache
Bottom: Almond macarons with rose buttercream

Chocolate with white chocolate piping

Cranberry and hazelnut biscotti

Top: Chocolate and caramel squares
Bottom: Lemon macarons

I honestly have no idea what these were. I didn't get around to trying any.

Left: Madeleines dipped in dark chocolate
Middle: I'm guessing some kind of shortbread rolled in green sugar
Right: Almond macarons with chocolate ganache

Peanut butter and white chocolate chip

I actually didn't eat that many cookies because I was trying to save room for a pizza demonstration that Chef Tim was doing just after class, but they all looked incredible. It was so fun to have them spread out across the tables like a buffet made up of cookies as far as the eye could see. I don't usually like to brag, but my class is kind of the shit amongst the Pastry department at school. The instructors and staff actually talk amongst themselves about how well we work and how talented we are. I'm so happy to be a part of such a proficient and creative group.

Rachael calls me Anakin.

riseoverrun — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 04:29:02 GMT

Reason #136 why I love culinary school: Where else will you hear an instructor say, "Do we not have a choice of vodka?"

These words were spoken by Chef Nick, my Advanced Pastries/soon-to-be Wedding Cakes instructor, and someone who loves to put alcohol in just about any dessert he makes. I am not exaggerating when I say that there are about 30 bottles of different liqueurs in the kitchen at any given time. The class always giggles when he mentions adding rum or some other alcohol when he does his demos, to which he says, "Hey, it's my party." And yet he says that he doesn't drink. Curious.

Okay, so I know that I haven't posted in about a coon's age, nor have I been keeping up with everyone else's entries, and I have no response to this other than I, on occasion, suck. But, I do have almost nine weeks (jeez, has it really been that long?) of photos and stories of baked goods to share in the upcoming days, so there's that.

I actually dressed up for Halloween this year, something I haven't done in years. Caitlin, one of my classmates, invited the class to a party at her house, and upon looking in my closet, I remembered that I had a vintage Girl Scouts shirt I bought on Etsy awhile back. I then bought a sash and some patches and I was all set. The funny thing is that everyone thinks I look incredibly young for my age (24), and this costume really did not help matters. But it was all in good fun, especially since I baked a batch of homemade Samoa cookies to go with the ensemble.

I'm one of the older people in my class, but I look the youngest, because life can be wacky like that at times.

A close-up shot of my sash. The badges are for cooking, photography, reading, and math, the latter of which is very fitting because my classmates have a tendency to ask me about converting measurements.

How sweet is my baking patch? Don't be jealous!

Samoas. These weren't hard to make, but oh my god, did they take forever to put together. It was the caramel and toasted coconut topping that did me in; it was far too thick to spread, so I basically had to plop it down onto a cookie and press it down and out with my fingers to get it to stay on. And, uh, the cookie in the upper left hand corner was eaten for the sake of quality control. Ahem. ANYWAY, these were pretty awesome. They went over very well at the party, and one of my classmates asked me for the recipe, which I got from Baking Bites, lest any of you are interested as well.

Please resist the urge to lick your screen, for I claim no responsibility for whatever happens next.

I'm not sure if any of you remember this, but that misprinted Threadless shirt I received awhile back? I contacted their Customer Service department and they were super understanding and accommodating. They sent me a new shirt right away free of charge AND gave me a $5 coupon code for my next order, which is more than I could have asked for. Just when I thought Threadless couldn't get anymore awesome, they go ahead and do this. You can pretty much assume that I will continue to be a customer for many, many years down the line if they keep operating the way they do now.

Qu'est-ce que c'est?

riseoverrun — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 00:28:33 GMT

I have a cold, and it's making my voice sound like Miley Cyrus's.

This is quite possibly the nadir of my life thus far.

On the other (funny? sad?) hand, I now know what Talking Heads' "Psycho Killer" would sound like if Hannah Montana covered it.

food of the gods

riseoverrun — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 04:48:04 GMT

If you've been my friend long enough, you know that I make it a point to attend the San Francisco Chocolate Festival at Ghirardelli Square every year. And then I post about it because that's just how I do.

In the supposed words of Liz Lemon: Chocolate chocolate chocolate, ack!

A quick summary of the festival and how it works: There are booths of samples set up by local eateries and dessert purveyors both in the square and the street before the square. You buy a ticket ($10 for 6 samples or $20 for $15 samples) and you go to the booths and ask for samples, and each sample is marked on your ticket. So basically, the day is dedicated to eating lots of chocolate for a good cause, as the proceeds go to Project Open Hand, a San Francisco-based non-profit organization that provides meals for people living with HIV/AIDS and others who are critically ill and are unable to provide meals for themselves.

This year my friend Michelle alerted me of a deal from Living Social where you could buy a $20 pass for $10, AND score a free ticket just by using your Visa card. I jumped on this so hard (having mad tuition fees and loans to pay off make me crazy excited about deals and sales) so I snagged $40 worth of samples for me and my friends for a fourth of the normal price. Score! And this is how I celebrated:

Butterscotch creme brulee. This was so delightful because it was rich and creamy, and cold! The day was a lot warmer than I had expected it to be, so anything cold was greatly appreciated.

Cute jewelry with little dessert charms.

Sweet and salty toffee.

This sign was besides the toffee booth. I thought it was awesome.

Chocolate vegan cupcakes. These were... disappointing, to say the least. They looked better than they tasted. It's not a good sign when three pâtisserie and baking students can't identify what flavor the frosting is supposed to be.

Chocolate vodka. I didn't try this because I don't care for alcohol in the least, but my friends Rachael and Jerricka did. They reported back that it was very strong and that it burned all of the way down. The faces they made attested to that. Too bad I didn't snap that.

Double chocolate cranberry cookies and brown butter blondies (say that three times fast!)

Milk chocolate macadamia lacey.

Chocolate stuffed marshmallow from GÜDFÜD. The packaging was cute, but these sucked, to be quite honest. There were tons of people walking around with boxes of these things, and I think the GÜDFÜD people just gave them empty boxes to make it look as though they were good enough to buy a $10 box worth of their marshmallows.

The line for samples from Kara's Cupcakes was way too long to justify queuing for it, so we went to the actual shop and paid (!) for normal-sized cupcakes instead. Jerricka and I shared a java cupcake. I had a sample of this a few years ago, and it was just as good now as it was then.

Marble cheesecake bite.

Chocolate square sample from one of the many Ghirardelli shops around the square. It tasted like pumpkin, spices, and caramel, so it lived up to its name.

Blood orange sorbet bars from Ciao Bella. So light and refreshing after consuming so much chocolate.

Flourless chocolate truffle cakes from McCormick & Kuleto's. This was the third year in a row that these were at the festival. Never leave, delightful little cakes, please!

Spiced almond caramel popcorn. I loved the presentation, how the popcorn was served in paper cones. It really gave it a cool street food vibe.

Chocolate mochi with walnuts. At least that's what the brochure said, because I suspected that they were just brownies.

Okay, so these dudes didn't look all that pleased to be posing for pictures while dressed as ice cream sundaes, but what can you do? I got my photo, and a coupon for $1 off of a Ghirardelli sundae, so I was a happy camper nevertheless.

elapses! I promised to share with you the brioche recipe I used in class, but I didn't come through when I said I would because I sometimes suck like that. Well, what really happened was that I let a classmate borrow my notebook, then got it back... and then proceeded to completely forget that I was supposed to give you the recipe. Well, amends!

I myself haven't witnessed how well this recipe works at home because I've only ever tried it at school, but it's a recipe that Chef Mike has in his book, which he wrote for people wanting to learn how to bake bread in their own homes.

Chef Mike's Brioche
Makes about 10 brioche

9 oz. water
1 1/2 oz. fresh yeast
12 oz. bread flour (this will be referred to as Flour I)
11 oz. eggs (or 6 eggs)
3 oz. sugar
1 lb., 8 oz. bread flour (Flour II)
7/8 oz. salt
12 oz. butter (at room temperature)

1. Combine the water (which should be at 90°), yeast, and flour I in a big bowl and mix together until all of the flour is thoroughly combined. The result is what is called a sponge. Let your sponge ferment for 45 minutes in an environment that's at 80°.

2. After the 45 minutes are up, whisk the eggs a little bit and then add the sugar and continue to whisk until the sugar is dissolved. Add this mixture to your sponge and squish it with your fingers until it's combined.

3. Mix your salt and flour II together (ideally on your table), and then add it to your sponge. Combine until all of the flour is wet (this is what is called "take up"). Feel free to use a spray bottle of water to wet any dry spots you might have. Scrape the bowl and put your dough on your work table.

4. Add the butter and knead the dough at medium speed on your table for 4 minutes. Don't be afraid to smear it across the table; it's inevitable, what with all of the butter in the dough, but don't be too tough so that the gluten in the dough tears with every pass.

5. Put more bread flour in a bowl to use to dust the table and the dough (we call this "bench flour"). Bring the dough together into a mass lump and clean off your hands (put your hands in the bench flour and then rub them together to get as much of the dough off of your hands as possible) and work surface. Then, lightly flour the table and dough, and knead gently for 4 more minutes. The idea is to make the dough into a rounded mass.

6. Spray a sheet pan with Pam spray and place your dough on top. Wrap it in plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for 8-16 hours.

7. When the dough is ready, divide it into 10 pieces at 1 1/2 oz. and 10 pieces at 4 oz. (Make sure that your flour your work surface because the dough will be sticky.) Round the 4 oz pieces into balls. Round the smaller pieces into balls as well, but then roll out one end so that they have little tails. (They kind of look like sperm. It's not a pretty picture, but that's the best way I can describe it.) Stick your thumb into the 4 oz. balls to make holes, and then stick the tails of smaller pieces through them, making sure that the tail can be tucked underneath the ball. If you don't, the little "heads" on top of the brioche will not be centered but will lean to the side.

8. Spray your brioche tins with Pam spray and place a brioche in each tin. Let them sit somewhere that's at 80° for around 40-45 minutes. We use what's called a proof box, but Chef Mike's said that he's proofed before at his mom's house by using a dishwashing machine with some cups of hot water sitting at the bottom :D

9. Glaze the brioche with a glaze mixture made of equal parts egg and milk. Make sure that the glaze doesn't drip down the inner walls of the brioche tins. It will bake to the tin if you do and it will be a pain to clean.

10. Bake at 360° for 12-15 minutes, or until the brioche are golden in color.

I hope that those directions are relatively clear. I was going off of my notes, which are jumbled and shorthanded, so there is a possibility that they don't make sense... If you have any questions or need me to clarify anything, feel free to holler!

I don't understand the question and I won't respond to it.

riseoverrun — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 02:07:32 GMT

I literally have no thoughts about the Emmys to share besides the fact that Jon Hamm needs to do more comedy. The man is good at being a goof and he knows how to look good doing it. Like Betty White said, back that mother up!

Anyway... shall we move on to the usual showcase of baked goods?

Pain au lait. Look at how beautiful the crumb (the interior) on that loaf is. I have to say, I think this is one of my favorite food photographs I've taken thus far. Yep, this one's definitely going in my portfolio.

Dinner rolls, or excuse me, "ballons." Using fancy French words lets you charge a premium price for simple breads.

The only thing more fun than making and eat challah bread is saying its name. Chef Holly, who helps us with production for breads that go down to the school restaurant, is a native New Yorker and told us that to say "challah," you have to sound like you're hocking a loogie. Cue me saying challah whenever I got the chance.

A fun exchange between Chefs Holly and Mike:

Chef Holly: You can say challah like "holla." CHALLAH!
Chef Mike: Chef Holly, that's challah cool!

I suspect that there hasn't been a pun that Chef Mike's come across that he hasn't liked.

Rye bread. This was the first thing we've made that I've actively disliked and it's all due to the caraway seeds, which are pungent and taste bad. Rachael and I have been known to call them "the evil seeds."

Butter braid. I actually made two of these but Chef Mike took one (the one with more sugar on top, I might add) to give to the restaurant. I supposed I should be flattered that he thought it was good enough to use in the restaurant, but I still wanted that butter braid, dammit.

On Saturday morning there was a meeting for the Iron Whisks club. Chef Tim is the advisor for the club and he sent out an e-mail prior saying that they were going to make French macarons, so naturally I made it a point to attend. The macarons themselves were surprisingly not that hard to make. It's mostly just whisking egg whites and sugar to make a meringue and then folding/mixing in powdered sugar and a nut meal. My biggest problem was piping out the batter because I couldn't quite keep it consistent. But at least I fared better than some of the culinary students whose cookies came out more like lumpy blobs as opposed to little circles. Chef Tim said that with the little foot, macarons should look like the Scrubbing Bubbles cartoons in the commercials, which is such Chef Tim-like thing for him to say.

Almond macarons with almond butter and chocolate ganache fillings. The ganache was soooooo good. I had some left over after prepping my macarons, and so I made sure to bring it home where I used it to top off some frozen bananas. It may not have been a Bluth banana, but it was pretty fucking amazing. It's hard to go wrong with chocolate and cream.

I guess I'm officially a food blogger now that I've made and got pictures of macarons up, right?

Later that afternoon I decided to attend a book discussion for The Hunger Games at the Borders store a few blocks from my usual BART station. I was already in the city and the poster said that there would be prizes given out, so I figured, why not? Well, it turned out to be a rather pathetic affair. When the discussion started, there were only three other people there, though this number later doubled soon after, which still isn't that great of a turnout. That means greater odds of winning prizes, right? True, but when the prize (that's right, prize; the poster lied) is a nameplate sticker with Suzanne Collins' autograph that you can paste in your book to make it look as though she signed the book herself, it's like, who even cares if you win or not? There were some trivia questions for us to answer and whoever got the most right won an extra raffle ticket for the "coveted" sticker. I ended up snagging that extra ticket because I had just reread the first book and so all of the details were fresh in my mind, but I still didn't win the sticker. Boohoo, I was so heartbroken. Can't you tell? </sarcasm>

Then there was the discussion itself. The employee who led it hadn't actually read any of the books herself and was just reading off of a list of stock questions that I'm guessing someone from corporate had sent to each store. I didn't really blame her since she probably got saddled with the task at the last minute... but that's just sad. Then, all of the participants in the discussion gave short, clipped answers, and while I did my best to try to give more elaborate answers to encourage a more engaging discussion, they simply weren't biting. Sigh. I know that I was the oldest person there and that everyone else was probably still in high school (... I look really young for my age, okay?) but intelligent conversation isn't too much to ask for, is it? Maybe it is when the nearby Abercrombie and Fitch store is beckoning you. So, with that, we answered a few more trivia question before we decided to call it a day, and we all walked away with some mockingjay temporary tattoos and a half hour less time on our hands.

And that was my week.

this ain't no patty-cake

riseoverrun — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 05:15:52 GMT

In the past six weeks I have managed something that I suspect is rare for culinary students: I lost weight. Reasons for this:

i. Going to and being in school meant that I've been more active than I'd been before.
ii. Keeping weird hours has thrown off my eating schedule somewhat. Also, I don't snack as much as I used to.
iii. Surprisingly, I didn't eat too many of the things that I brought home from class (I left that to my friends and family).

But that's all going to change now that my breads class has started. I loooooove bread, and I could eat it until I just about burst. Good thing I lost a few pounds earlier so that things will even by the end of the term, right? The class is a lot of fun, but it definitely follows a different pace and structure from Intro to Pâtisserie and Baking that takes some time to adjust to. In Intro Chef Tim would do a demo at the beginning of the week, then we'd have a day to do mise en place, and finally we'd get to work on the week's projects. In Breads we'll have three or four projects in one day, where we'll do production on, say, baguettes, and while those are resting our instructor, Chef Mike, will then do a demo on dinner rolls, after which we'll have to mise en place the ingredients for that and get started on them that very day. The schedule is very hectic, which makes sense because the class only lasts three weeks, and it's been a bit difficult for me to wrap my head around it but I keep trucking on because I'm a culinary student, dammit! Once students become professionals, they live for feverishness and chaos! At least that's what I've observed on Top Chef, anyway.

While Chef Mike is no Chef Tim, he is pretty funny himself, albeit in a much more dry and sarcastic way. After a bread we make comes out of the oven, he'll say something like, "Wow, look at that, you can really tell that that's a baguette! Nice!" The other day an admissions representative was giving a tour to a prospective student who had four little kids along with her and Chef Mike gave all of them dinner rolls. When he asked them how they liked the rolls, one of the boys, who couldn't have been any older than 6 or 7, guilelessly replied, "It tastes like nothing!" Those of us who were around to hear this burst out laughing but no one laughed harder than Chef Mike. He told the little guy, "Wait right here, I'll bring you something that tastes like something!" and proceeded to hand him a honey wheat bun fresh from the oven. The boy took a bite and said he liked it, and just like that Chef Mike's honor was restored once again.

I neglected to take any pictures of the baguettes and dinner rolls, the first two projects we had, but we're going to be making them throughout the course of the class because what we bake goes down to the school restaurant, so there will be other chances to snap those. Now, here's stuff that I did remember to take photos of.

Would it be pedestrian of me to say that I prefer the pretzels at Auntie Anne's to these? Chef Mike said that we made pretzels that are more akin to those found in Germany that people typically dip in beer. I personally found them to be bland. I guess I'm just used to American mall pretzels that are drenched in butter and that do not come into contact with alcohol.

Honey wheat hamburger buns. We were told to finish these with a light dusting of flour, which I think is incredibly deceptive because it looks like powered sugar and so chances are you'll be expecting something really sweet before you take a bite. I actually have no idea how these tasted because I gave all of mine to Kimberly and her family since my parents and I don't ever make hamburgers at home. I explained to a classmate that my family is Asian through and through: we eat rice for nearly every meal, and if a day goes by without eat rice, we (well, mostly my mom and dad) lament on how missed rice during that short spell.

Bagels! Apparently these are in the same vein as New York bagels because unlike those you find here on the West coast, they aren't perfect circles with holes punched out of the center but rather one long rope of dough with the tails joined together to form a ring. We had a variety of choices for toppings but I stuck with a poppy seed and sesame mixture for all but one because I am boring like that. The one outlier was cinnamon sugar, which my mom snatched up pretty quickly once I brought them all home.

As if there wasn't enough mention of food in this journal, on Saturday I went to the San Francisco Street Food Festival with Kimberly and her friend. I had signed up to be a volunteer the week before, but I suppose it was too late because I never got a response back. Well, them not wanting my free help wasn't going to deter me from attending anyway...

The festival stretched across 5 or 6 blocks and when we arrived around 1pm it was already packed. There were lines 20 people deep for most of the booths, and a lot of them sold out of their offerings by 3pm even though the festival was supposed to last until 7pm. It seemed like most of the offerings were of Latin cuisines (this was in the Mission District, which has a big Hispanic population) but there were a decent number of booths serving American, Asian, and European (Italian and Russian, to be exact) dishes. Either way, everywhere you looked there were good eats to be had.

Chicken mole sandwich that I shared with Kimberly.

Vegetarian empanada with spinach, mushroom, and onion. These puppies were in very high demand; we waited in line for 15-20 minutes and by the time we reached the front we were told that the vegetarian ones, the kind we all wanted, were gone. Kimberly and I settled for what was left, meaning beef empanadas, but Kimberly's friend Vani is a vegetarian so she sat this one out. Imagine our collective surprise, then, when I bit into my empanada and found out that it was a vegetarian one that had been placed in a bag marked "B" for beef. On the one hand, yay, I got what I had originally wanted! On the other, Vani missed out on a tasty treat, but that was easily remedied by sharing some of mine.

Chicha morada. For those of you unfamiliar with this, it's a Peruvian drink made from purple corn. I'd never had it before, but now that I have I can tell you that it is delicious! It's got a refreshing fruity taste with just the right amount of sweetness. I want more now, darn it!

Ice cream sandwich with balsamic strawberry ice cream between two sugar cookies. I won't lie, this was the very first thing I bought because it looked too good to have to wait to eat a "proper" meal first. There were a few other booths that sold ice cream sandwiches but these looked by far the best. Bi-Rite Creamery is sorta, kinda near my school, so clearly I will have to make a trek there sometime in the near future, right?

I never did find out exactly what Meatallica was, but it made me laugh nonetheless.

SF Chocolate Festival in three weeks! I'm alternately drooling and dying in anticipation!

shout when you wanna get off the ride

riseoverrun — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 00:38:50 GMT

No school today! Hooray for three-day weekends made possible by faculty work days! I had every intention of sleeping in, but I still ended up waking at 6:30am. It's a good two hours later than the time I usually wake, but I still don't think that waking at anything before 8:00 merits the term "sleeping in."

The last few days were really hectic for me because it was finals week. Oh yeah, who has two thumbs and just finished her first block of classes at culinary school? THIS GAL.

Some significant happenings of the past week:

i. I turned in my final project (which was a resumé) for my College Success class, and Chef Weller, the Program Chair for the culinary program as well as our school ambassador, said that the font I used was eye-catching and made him sit up and take notice of it. Note to self: make sure to use Archer for future resumés. Also, can I just say how giddy I was when he told me this? My love for typography and baking have come together once again!

ii. Then because the universe has to then tear me down, I forgot my ServSafe textbook yesterday, which means that I also forgot the scantron inside that I needed to take the test to get my food safety certification. The guy at student services said that to get a new scantron would cost $35, and upon hearing this Chef Weller swept in, whipped out his wallet like it was nothing, and paid for scantrons for both me and another girl who had forgotten hers as well. I cannot begin to express how much gratitude was flowing out my body at that moment. I think I've said it before, but the instructors at my school are some of the most open-hearted people I've ever met. I'm going to try to bake something for Chef Weller before I pay him back on Monday to show him how much appreciate what he did.

iii. The test itself was fairly easy, but the denouement turned into a dramatic affair when Chef George counted the exams and came up with one less question booklet than he did answer sheets. I wasn't there when this happened because I finished early and left the classroom, but I was told that he was apoplectic at the discovery and said that he would rather shred all of our scantrons rather than risk his credibility with the National Restaurant Association as a test administer. A few of my quick-thinking classmates said that they would ask around to try and see if someone had taken the test booklet out of the room by mistake. This then devolved into the class gathered around outside of the classroom door, tossing out insinuations and dark glares like something out of a bad murder mystery. Long story short, the number of answer sheets and test booklets finally matched up for reasons that weren't made entirely clear, but at that point we didn't care, we were just glad that we wouldn't have to retake the test. I suspect that Chef George forgot that one person took the French version of the test and therefore had a different booklet, so he probably left that booklet out by mistake.

iv. Most of the class seems to have collectively developed an obsession with Whole Foods, which is across the street from the school. The ready-to-eat salad and hot foods bar has been frequented quite often by people in white coats and houndstooth pants, and I can definitely be included in the bunch. But I shouldn't be spending this money, especially when I can make it home in time to have lunch there, which is a much cheaper alternative. So, I'm allowing myself one small splurge a week, that being a container of Wallaby Yogurt. The dulce de leche flavor is sooo good, and at $1, I won't feel so guilty.

v. As always, pictures of this week's (and one of last week's) creations.

Here's the genoise cake with espresso buttercream that was giving me so much grief last week. It was by far the most complicated project of the course, and the kicker is that it doesn't even taste that good. Case in point:

Dad: The cake is dry.
Me: I know. It's supposed to be like that.
Dad: Why is it supposed to be like that?
Me: I don't know, ask the person who invented the thing!

The little chocolate bits on the bottom nearly killed me. I had to hold up the cake in one hand and use the other to apply the chocolate, and I was so utterly afraid that I would accidentally drop the cake and that all of the work I had done prior to that step would be for naught.

Funny anecdote: Chef Tim said he suspected that the first person to decorate the sides of a cake with chocolate bits, almond slivers, or what have you, probably did so to cover up his or her mistakes. Ironically, I didn't have any mistakes on the side of my cake until it came time to put on the chocolate, which is when I bumped it against the edge of my cake turntable. I of course panicked for a good 15 seconds before I realized that I could just use more chocolate to cover up the gash. Problem-solving skills: I HAS THEM.

All of that said, I enjoyed applying the buttercream onto the cake. I could just spin my turntable and stand there with my spatula or bowl scraper, putting on or taking away buttercream, and just totally tune everything out. I was in the zone, man! Plus I already knew that I would have to turn the cake in late, so I was able to take my time and get everything just as I wanted it. It definitely felt like I was back in art classes again. Good times.

As you can see, I need to work on getting my layers to be more even. And oh man, that buttercream is LETHAL. I felt gross just having to handle the seemingly never-ending supply of butter as I threw in chunk after chunk of it into the mixer.

Pâte à choux dough used to make chocolate éclairs and cream puffs. These weren't that hard to do, but they were time-consuming just because there were so many components to make (the dough, the chocolate glaçage, the crème mousseline filling for the éclairs, and the crème chantilly for the cream puffs). To be honest, I think that my pâte à choux dough was better than the one Chef Tim made during his demo; it tasted way less eggy than his. Both the èclairs and cream puffs went fast. I brought home 23 in all (I had a cream puff in class; I'm allowed to indulge in the fruits of my labor!), and there are about 4 left as of right now. My dad alone ate three yesterday, and my mom joked that by the time I finish the program he will have gained 30 pounds.

Also, see the orange towards the top left-hand corner in the larger photo? Chef Tim was cleaning out the walk-in refrigerator and getting rid of items when he handed me the orange and said, "You look like you could use an orange. You might have a bit of scurvy going on there." He was especially sassy this week, I've noticed.

Shortbread button cookies I made on Monday because I had some free time. Chef Tim had one and said it was very good. HE LIKED IT. MY LIFE HAS MEANING NOW.

vi. This week's Chef Tim-ism: When he tried a piece of hardened starch at the bottom of the pot used to heat pâte à choux he said, "This tastes like Catholic school."

vii. I took my younger cousin to see Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. I had planned on reading the graphic novels beforehand, but I couldn't find the time to read past the first book. Anyway, it was fun even if you do kind of forget about it as soon as you leave the theater. Michael Cera was totally miscast, however. He doesn't exude the unsubstantiated confidence that Scott Pilgrim shows in the novels. The kid just perpetually looks nervous.

pretty soon he's going to merit a tag of his own

riseoverrun — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 05:12:14 GMT

Guys.

Today someone in class called out, "Chef!" to get Chef Tim's attention, to which he replied, "Who dat?"

I love this man so freaking much.

I can't believe this is the last week of Intro to Pâtisserie and Baking and that I won't have him as an instructor again for another six months. I'm going to miss hearing Chef Tim-isms on a daily basis.

my life in sugar town

riseoverrun — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 23:37:09 GMT

I'm making a food-themed music mix for my class tomorrow. Any suggestions as to what I should put on it?

I just know that I'm definitely kicking things off with "The Worst Pies in London" from Sweeney Todd because we're making pies (apple, pumpkin, and banana cream) this week. It will no doubt be both awesome and cruel to my classmates who are nervous about making pie for the first time.

you can't survive on ice cream alone

riseoverrun — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 17:28:03 GMT

Within the past month, my world has been compacted down to these few things: food, school, Inception, and sleep (or lack thereof).

I'm pleased to report that I did not lose my camera after all, as I mentioned in my last entry. It turns out that my mom had it tucked away in her carry-on bag, not her check-in luggage, the latter of which did make its way to our airport eventually. Which means, obviously, pictures of school projects.

Biscuits made using the aptly named biscuit method, meaning cutting pieces of cold butter into the flour. This is the same technique that I use to make pie crusts, and yet I got 2.5 out of 3 because my biscuits were slightly overworked. I attribute this to the fact that we combined the milk to the flour on a tabletop versus a bowl. I kept worrying about pouring in too much milk and having it spill all over the table, and so I ended up pouring the milk in smaller portions but doing it often, which resulted in more kneading and developing more gluten than was necessary. These still came out very good in my opinion, and a nice departure from all of the sweet things we make. I had one for breakfast nearly every morning until we ran out.

Double chocolate muffins garnished with powdered sugar. I actually wasn't a big fan of these because there was just too much chocolate for my tastes, but they were fun, if a bit messy, to make. We had to chop chocolate from an 11 pound block, melt it, and then pour it into the bowls of our mixers while they were running, so chocolate inevitably got everywhere on our uniforms.

Because I had brought so many muffins home (22 in all, minus one that I gave to my bus driver), I asked my mom to bring them to her work and give them away. I made sure to have her tell people that I received 3 out of 3 for them, and I made this sign as even further enticement. Don't ask why I drew a vanilla muffin when the sign clearly mentions chocolate muffins. I really have no answer for that.

This past week was all about crèmes, specifically crème brulée, crème caramel (also known as flan), and crème anglaise. These were by far the most stressful competencies yet, but this was also the first week where I received perfect scores for every project. And of course I completely forgot to take pictures in class before transferring everything into containers to transport it all home! I could just kick myself.

I think out of the three, my crème brulée came out the nicest. The texture was nice and creamy, and the layer of burnt sugar was nice and consistent. We used gas-powered torches to burn the sugar, and I'll be honest, I was kind of scared to handle the thing. I just do not like fire or heat, and I was afraid that I'd leave it on for too long and completely scorch everything. I tried so hard to be conservative that when it came time to present to Chef Tim, he told me to do another pass with the torch because the sugar on top could stand to be more golden in color. More time with the torch? Nooooooo. But I did it and I survived, and I got a nice layer of caramel on top that made such a satisfying crunching sound as the spoon punched through the surface.

The other two, however, were complete pains in the ass. We had to make a simple caramel sauce for the crème caramel, but the batches I was sharing with two other people kept burning or going just slightly beyond the precipice to where it became bitter. It was only on the third try that we managed to not burn our caramel, and that was only because we were being super conservative and took the pot off of the flame a lot earlier than was recommended. Our caramel topping was much lighter in color than everyone else, but Chef Tim let us slide because he knew how much trouble we were having with it. Eh, I just labeled it "blonde" caramel and called it a day.

Crème anglaise was an ordeal to make just because you had to stand over a stove top for what seemed like an incredibly long time, constantly stirring its contents to make sure that the eggs didn't cook or curdle. The goal was to get it to a certain thickness so that you use it for drawing designs when you plate desserts, but it goes from thin and soupy to straight-up curdling so quickly that it's no wonder that at least a half dozen of my classmates had to do their crèmes over. I did not have to do so, thankfully, since I was already running a little bit behind. I'm just glad to know that there will be a payoff for all of that work, as one of my classmates is going to take all of our batches of crème and make ice cream out of it. Yum!

Finally, we had an extra project of either bread pudding or cheesecake. I choose to do the latter, but I wasn't able to finish it in time to bring home yesterday, which resulted in a disappointed mother of mine. Note to self: Do not announce beforehand what you're going to be making. People will be on your case if you are unable to supply the goods.

So, Inception. Uh, is there anything to say besides that I loved it? That macro that's been floating around of Floyd from 30 Rock after seeing Tarzan on Ice is so, so apt; after the movie ended, I immediately thought to myself, I want to see it again, right now if possible. I've NEVER had that reaction upon leaving a theater before, that's how much I was in awe of this film. And I've just discovered that there's a theater about 15 minutes away that's playing it and that only charges $5 for matinee showings. Five dollars! I think the last time I've been to the movies for that cheap was back when I was in elementary school. Needless to say, I'm going later today.

I owe some people emails and/or comments, so I'll get on that once I get home. Pinky swear!

what goes up must come down

riseoverrun — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 02:27:21 GMT

Today was all over the board:

+ I got a perfect score on yesterday's Food Safety and Sanitation quiz.

- I spilled the container of milk for my blueberry muffins in the walk-in refrigerator.

- Said blueberry muffins looked really sad when they came out of the oven.

+ Yet I still got 3 out of 3 on them.

- I have to redo my biscuits tomorrow because they weren't light and fluffy enough.

+ There was a free pasta feed in one of the lobbies after class.

+ The garlic bread was AMAZING. I actually had two pieces of it yesterday when Chef Tim did a test run of it, and obviously had more today.

+ I received lots of compliments on my new Pride and Prejudice and Zombies shirt that I got for $5.

- My muffins got smushed in transit between school and home.

+ I received a $5 Starbucks gift card that I won from an online trivia game in the mail.

- My mom told me that Delta Airlines lost her and my aunt's luggage. My digital camera was in one of her bags.

+ Kimberly and I made plans to see Inception on Saturday! Spoil this movie for me and I WILL CUT YOU LIKE THOSE GIRLS IN GANGS WHO HIDE RAZORBLADES IN THEIR MOUTHS.

I'm going to sit down and do some serious flisting after I finish the reading for Safety/Sani class. I feel so uninformed with what's going on with you all!