Choux pastry as final exam!

Hey there!

Guess what? I'm a little too happy today! Why? Because today was my final exam of Culinary Technics. First it was my oral exam, where I had to take a paper from a bag and start talking about that topic. That paper also included the recipe I had to make the next day, and as you can see in the title, the topic was CHOUX.

Do you know choux? (Say it out loud, who?) I hope you have eaten at least once some custard filled choux pastry. It’s a very tasty treat, sweet but not so much.

The story for today goes like this:

When I first arrived I realized I didn't have partner to cook with. I asked my supervisor and no one told me anything, until I was about to enter the lab, chef Cris told me -I don't know if you have noticed, but you are going to cook by yourself today-

I was in shock, I wanted to cry, laugh, scream or do everything at the same time. I wanted to know what I was going to do after working with someone during all this term. Everyone had partner but me. This was a real challenge, but I told myself I could do it. I had to.

Really determined I started cleaning my unit, preparing my mise-en-place and talking to myself.

I started preparing choux pastry and everything was awesome until the time to add the last eggs arrived, as some of you may or may not know, you have to be careful to get the right amount of egg in your pastry so you can reach the appropriate point. After 3, almost 4 eggs I couldn't get to the point and my time to get them to the oven had arrived. Geez!

Some more mixing, some more beaten eggs and it was done. As fast as I could I managed to get my pastry in a piping bag, made choux and went for the oven.

While my choux were in the oven I had to do the custard filling, so I started that task. I thought I was good with time, but uh-oh it was like… chasing me, real fast! So I couldn't wait until the consistency was filling-like, it was time to put it in the blast chiller and get choux out of the oven.

I couldn't take a picture of my plated dessert, but here's what went home with me

I went for them, opened some, filled them with custard and added some strawberries inside and a fan shaped strawberry, everything in a rectangular white plate. I was happy. I had completed my recipe and my unit was just a tad dirty.

Lucky me, some friends came to help me with the cleaning stuff. I’m still very grateful with them for their support!

Finally, the time of hearing our feedback and grades came. I was super-duper nervous! As we all heard each other's grades we became more and more tense. Soon Amanda got to me and she started the feedback by saying: -Congratulations, you worked alone and did an amazing job, finished on time with everything clean. The only thing is: I would’ve liked more consistency in your custard, but overall, congratulations, you scored 98/100-

I wanted to cry when she told me that, I was like – I can’t believe it, I did it! I really did it!

When the assessment was over, I went with chef Cris and Amanda, they both congratulated me, and I started crying. (You knew I was gonna cry sooner or later). All the other girls in the lab also said nice things to me and I was just… astonished with everything that had happened.

After all I shared choux with my friends and I’m still happy about today.

One word for today: SURREAL.

I hope you didn’t find this story boring, as this is on my top 5 of best & proudest moments. Don’t know which are the other 4, but…meeeh.

Lots o’ love ♥

ps. i won´t leave you just with the story, i'll share both, the custard and choux pastry recipes with you.

First Steps to Clean Eating - Broccoli and White Bean Mac 'n' Cheese

Who says clean eating is about starving, eating things without flavor or just veggies? I'm sure many people do, so as the little voice in my head (:

Well, I've got news- IT ISN'T!!!!! All week I've been trying (successfully..) to eat clean, you may be asking, what is clean eating? For me is a new lifestyle. I have eliminated from my diet all things processed, with trans fats, everything that has "hydrogenated" in its label, processed sugars, etc. I drink more water, more lean protein, less carbs and as always, I exercise, why? Because its better for my body and it  makes me feel good. 

Alright, this is no easy task, I have to admit that I've cheated a bit. I had a big package of chocolate chip cookies, so I've been eating them, no  more than 2 a day, I don't know if it's a good number, but I do it anyway. Also the last time I went to fill my refrigerator I found Cinnamon Pop.Tarts at half its prize, so I bought them, but really... I've been sharing them. 

Let me tell you it has been a long way to get here. At my 19 years I'm starting with this, you know? I was vegan as a kid, but something happened that I turned into a complete carnivore & sugar freak. Yes, I'm still eating meat, and as a future pastry chef, I'm still eating sugar, but not the processed kind, I try to be as natural as possible.

So... let's get to what we want: recipe!!! Today I did my first clean meal, from scratch. Cutting pieces of pineapple and making oats in the morning are not considered fancy cooking, right? Not even with sliced strawberries? Okay, this recipe isn't fancy cooking either. Actually it's very simple, quick and tasty.

my styling is not as good, I know, but isn't mine cute?

I have to say some things first: I made a lot of changes to the original recipe, didn't follow quantities or times. I used coliflower and broccoli, yellow bell peppers instead of red, refried beans, Oaxaca cheese, etc. Sorry, I'm in college student's budget = really limited. Feel free to make the recipe and follow instructions to a T, so I may know if it is as good as I thought in the first place (;
Here is what inspired me to do it Clean Eating Magazine, this mag is great, even with the clean eating stuff the pics will keep you drooling page after page.

Broccoli and White Bean Mac 'n' Cheese. The recipe is as .jpg so you just click it and save it (: [It has nutrition facts, awesome, right?]

New year & my first amigurumi friends

I'm starting this New Year with lots of projects in mind, after a very hard end of year I'm here with a renewed energy, excited about all the things that are to come. Since I've been absent for a long time now I wanted to start with something cute.

I don't know if you've ever heard the word amigurumi [Japanese], it is the name given to the art of crocheting little "friends" (may be dogs, monsters, cakes, birds, whatever). It may seem hard but it's really fun and quite easy once you know the basics about crochet.
Today I want to show you the first little friend I did with this technique. It’s a pastel color birdie; he/she is really cute. If you're interested in learning about this I’ll post the pattern later so you can have a friend like mine.

Since these birds are really easy, they are a fun beginner project. They take no time to make so easy + fun + the cute factor equals a great gift for children and even for some grown-ups. Another amigurumi was an also pastel colored piggy.

Lately I've discovered that from the things that seem really simple you can learn a lot. For me crocheting and amigurumi are ways to take stress out of my mind. They fill me with energy about trying something new, not being afraid of making mistakes, because later, as you go on, as you work, you learn from previous mistakes and make everything a lot better next time.

I'm sure 2012 means changes and learning. I'm eager to learn a lot more about everything; you name it, amigurumi, cooking, food science, energy, or anything that comes my way. I'm determined to take all the opportunities I can, I’ll smile every day, there's no reason for me not to. So, I encourage you to smile too. Seize the day, the opportunities. Live to the fullest & don't ever regret being yourself.



Much light & love♥

Something more than sugar

This is me! ^  :D

These days i've been cooking for me like everyday, since i can't eat dessert always and just as my complete meal i've been experimenting with my savory side. I must admit that i have a really good touch with that kind of food that wasn't my specialty.

I know that by now you may have noticed that I'm a sugar-color freak, and yes, I am. But since time (and my oven) isn't helping much, I´ve decided to give my blog a twist with the things I'm able to do in my tiny room (:

So since I love to crochet and it doesn't require much I've been crocheting, scarves and amigurumi (don't you love those cute-tiny-things?) So one of the themes I'll be posting about is amigurumi.

Another theme is painting nails, I know that since I am studying culinary arts, I'm not supposed to wear any nail polish, but I have some free days out of the kitchen so I paint my nails :D Great right?

And the last but not least topic of my posts is... all things handcrafted. Don't you like when a friend gives you something he did with his own hands? I do, and I also love to give presents that I've made, that's why I´d like to share the things I know about crafty world with you.

Getting into what we're interested... here's my most recent mani, since it was for Halloween I did some happy zombies (:

I hope you enjoy the things I post from now on & that you find them useful. If you have any suggestion I'm eager to hear it, also if you want me to post something special or do tutorials of some things. I'm happy knowing that you like the things in my blog.

Crafty Hugs & sugar kisses

Unpacked, New Kitchen & Roomies

Hey everyone! i know I've been absent for a really long time but I must tell you what I've been up to these days.

First of all, I'm already at my "new" apartment, everything's in it's place, I know which one's the hot water, i cook every now & then for the week & I'm in a new city. Everything here is new to me so i'm learning, and will be learning for a long time.

Another thing I have to say, is that for the first week I was out of internet and also my pc broke, so it was in the ICU 'till it came back to me this week. I'm really very (very) excited to be writing again, but maybe some of the things I will post will not be made in this days, i will dig in my pictures to see what i have. The reason is because i'm still in the transition path from hs to college. Everything is a little bit harder, i spend more time on class, less hanging out w/friends, but i'm enjoying it. Also i'm in a new kitchen, new territory, new oven, new everything, I don't know if my roomie would be annoyed if i spend all day in the kitchen, but right now i don't feel like figuring it out.

So, i promise i will be doing some more testing and photographing ('cause i can't live without it) in the days to come, but please be patient (patience is something i need to work on). Meanwhile i leave you this picture.

Maybe resolution isn't as good, but it's from like 5 or 6 years ago, one of the first cakes i decided to give to a friend in his birthday. I LOVE MICKEY MOUSE SPRINKLES! ♥

Thanks so much for stopping by, soon you will be rewarded with great recipes (:

Hugs&kisses for you all :D