I can’t believe it’s over…

As of this last Friday, I am completely finished with my 6-month internship at the French Pastry School of Chicago. What an experience. There were certainly days when I didn’t think it would ever end, but wow those 6 months flew by. I can barely remember my first week, running around wondering what the heck I’d gotten myself into.

My last day was the students’ graduation day. We worked through the buffet, serving treats and trying to control the chaos of lots of hungry people. The interns and chefs were all there finishing setting up at 6:30 in the morning (graduation was at 9). One of the nice things about being part of the set up is that I FINALLY have nice pictures of the buffet! For both of my graduations, I couldn’t get nice pictures of the set up because of all the people! But during prep, I could take as many pictures as I wanted! ;) So now, at last, pretty pictures of the buffet ;)

The chocolate sculpture that one of the classes made with Chef Josh
Even some of the bowls and platters were made of chocolate!

Sugar Candies!
The sugar sculpture made with Chef Scott
And one of my faves, pate de fruit! ;)

Tarts and Petit Fours

The bread pieces made with Chef Pierre and Chef Jonathan
And the crocodiles were back for another celebration!! With those toasted almonds for teeth…they looked like they really needed to go to the dentist… ;)

And finally, the wedding cakes made by the cake program. This is one of my favorite parts, I love seeing what everyone comes up with for their final!!
I love the 3rd one back in the picture with the poinsettia and the damask. So pretty!!

So we got to be at the first part of the graduation ceremony, so I met up with my mom and Jennifer there.

And the interns got a group picture…I’m way in the back ;)

A little bit into the ceremony is a little blurb about each of the interns and then we headed back the to school to finish prepping for the reception. Mom snapped a picture of me before I had to rush out with the rest of my group. I got ANOTHER rolling pin. I have so many… 

Then the reception. John was able to meet us there and even though I had to work the whole time I did get to see him and my mom and Jennifer and they got to meet some chefs and eat yummy food.

Once we managed to shoo the final guests away, we cleaned. And cleaned. It wasn’t toooooo bad I guess ;) We basically had to put the kitchens back together so that work could resume again as usual on Monday (the weird part was knowing I wasn’t going to be there…). Once that was finally over, the school treated us all to a sushi smorgasbord and we got to sit and eat and chat and celebrate another successful term.

It was definitely bittersweet to say good bye. I’m going to be honest with you, there were days when I didn’t want to be there, when I felt like it would never end, when I’d wonder why I was taking my time to do this in the first place, but looking back, I have a lot of amazing memories with the crazy ladies that I worked with as interns, I learned so much about working, time management and being able to just get the job done. I learned how to push through the tiredness, the crazy students and the cleaning. Oh the cleaning. I’m amazed I still have the motivation to clean anything anymore ;)

And now for the next adventure. I wonder what it will be?

All I want for Christmas…

is yooouuuuuu ;)

Well, I figure since I’m stuck home sick (but definitely on the mend) I might as well write up my letter to Santa. Because, as I mentioned last year, Santa is very technologically savvy and I imagine he appreciates it when I make my Christmas wish list easy for him ;) Besides, do you KNOW how much it is to pay for postage to the North Pole?? (I don’t myself, actually…but I imagine it expensive to pay for postal penguins and/or polar bears…) So. My Christmas list is here, because I’m 99.99% sure Santa is an anonymous follower. Again, for Santa’s convenience, I’ve linked my wishes to their site for easy shopping and ordering. Aren’t I wonderful like that? ;)

A Cooper kitchen thermometer. I am in desperate need or an accurate thermometer for my baking endeavors. All of my other probes have broken…due to poor quality, NOT user failure.

Air brush colors! From Americolor. When I was in the cake part of my pastry schooling, I received a totally awesome airbrush and compressor from my fabulous parents. (As students we got it half off!!) but I haven’t been able to use it because I don’t have of these:
 

Americolor Gel Colors. They also make amazing gel color for royal icing/fondant/etc. We use this brand at school and it’s awesome.

Classic Fluted Cutters – for my cookie projects ;)

I like the Square ones too

And last but not least, icing squeeze bottles. They come in two sizes, I’d use both ;)

And that’s it! Definitely a themed list, yes? ;) Well Santa, there you go! I’ve tried to be really good this year…

Ward Christmas Party!

The Good News: The Christmas Party was AWESOME

The Bad News: I’ve been totally sick since yesterday morning and was sick through the entire party…and I’ve spent the ENTIRE day in bed. I don’t think I’ve ever done that before. And yes. I’m still in bed. I had John bring me my computer. I think I’ve gotten out of bed 4 times the entire day, for no longer than about 5 minutes. Blech. More good news would be the Ibuprofen kicked in and I can sit up and type. So now I can tell you about the party!

I am mostly here to tell you how I ROCKED the decorations. When we first met as a committee and the chair asked who wants to do what, I immediately raised my hand and said “I want to do decorations!” So decorations it was. We had decided early on we wanted to do a Charles Dickens/Christmas Carol/Old Fashioned Christmas kinda thing. And we wanted to keep it pretty simple. So we got several ward members to lend us some fake Christmas trees and lights (white only: I’m a purist). I got some pretty Christmas ribbon (50% off at Michaels! ;) to go on each tree as well.
I put together some centerpieces with some cylindrical vases, curly ribbon and ornaments from the dollar store (gotta love that place for mass production of party stuff) and then placed fake poinsettias (also from the dollar store) around the vase to complete the look on the table.

I think the best part of the set up was the stage where santa was going to be and where we had the spiritual program at the end. We had santa talk to the kids at the beginning of the party and give out candy canes. One of the committee members has this enormous 9 foot tree that was covered in lights and I added ribbon and some of our extra ornaments from home (I totally bought too many at target while black friday shopping, so this was perfect). I also built a faux fireplace to go next to the tree. It turned out great! I couldn’t get it done over Thanksgiving weekend, so I had to work on it a little at a time in the mornings before I went to work. Someone brought in stockings, and we got to hang them off the mantle! It really pulled it all together. The gift wrapped boxes were for donations for needy families.
I love the tree and the fireplace together!

Overall, I’d say it looked pretty good!! ;) We had a great turn out, yummy food and I was also in a group of carolers that went around and sang carols. We also sang the music for the program at the end. The only bummer was that I felt sick to my stomach the whole time. But the program went really well too. As a committee, I think we were all really pleased with the way everything went.

And now I’m off for now to listen to the Christmas devotional!