Ah, To Be Home

So I made it to New York. My parents, who were kind enough to drive me, and I got in last night. Strangely enough, it's almost the same distance from Salt Lake to MN as it is from MN to NYC. Like within 50 miles. If I keep up with this pattern, the next time I move it'll be to either Lafayette, Louisiana or Sundance, Manitoba.

I think I'll break it.

No new recipes as of yet, since I spent the day unpacking and getting drenched (55 degrees, but minor torrential rains, a flood of less than biblical proportions, and small Asian ladies being blown into the sidewalk by the wind).

Instead, here is some of the scenery from the drive in.

Scenic New Jersey:

The lovely Holland Tunnel:

And exotic New York:

I think for the next 6 months it'll be me trying to pretend that the buildings are mountains.

Although I did manage to try one of the neighborhood places for lunch, the Park Plaza Restaurant:

It's a lot bigger on than it looks. The bathroom inside is not.

The lunch counter where I did not eat my lunch.

Tomorrow I will be brave and bold and venture out to find a Best Buy, where I can return the wrong cable I bought for one that will work, and a matress pad for the brick I call a bed. And if I'm very, very good, maybe lunch from a hot dog cart. High class all the way.

What I Learned On My Retirement Vacation

The baking is finished. Three treats made with no spares, which is not good. I like to be able to taste what I'm cooking, which is what I should and normally do. But for some reason this time when I doubled the recipes, when I should have had 5 dozen, I managed to only get 3. Apparently my cookies should have been a little smaller. But I did get twelve packs out of it, which is what I needed. They're a cookie or two shorter than what I was hoping for (sorry guys!), but still good.

Since I'm going to be on the road for the next couple of days and more out of the loop than normal, I'll share all three now to make up for it.

Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies

1 cup peanut butter

1 cup packed brown sugar

1 large egg, slightly beaten

1 tsp. baking soda

3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Beat together everything but the chocolate chips until smooth and well blended. Stir in the chips. Drop dough by slightly rounded teaspoonfuls onto an ungreased baking sheet, about 2" apart. Bake one sheet at a time for about 7-8 minutes so that cookies are puffed and slightly golden, but still soft to the touch. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet on a wire rack for about 5 minutes. Transfer the cookies to the wire rack and let cool completely.

Makes 2 1/2 dozen.

I got chocolate in my peanut butter.

What I learned: Do NOT always follow the recipe verbatim. Ovens are different, pans are different, ingredient brands are different, altitude is different. Unless you're working in the same kitchen with the same everything the testers used, your end result will be different. The original version of this thing said bake for 10 minutes, my Mom (who is the source of all three recipes) changed it to 8, and I'm changing it to 7. By leaving the cookies on the sheet for a few extra minutes, the cookies still bake and I can monitor them a little more closely. But I was still burning some cookies on this one.

Chewy Chocolate Cookies

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup cocoa

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 cup Karo syrup, light or dark

3 egg whites

Spray cookie sheets with cooking spray. Combine flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, and salt. Stir in corn syrup and egg whites until blended. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto prepared sheets. Bake at 350 degrees for 7-9 minutes until set. Cool on a wire rack.

Frost with a powdered sugar and cocoa frosting made with skim milk (or do what I did and dip the rounded teaspoonful in powdered sugar before baking).

Makes 2 1/2 dozen.

Not a test cookie.

What I learned: Always do a test cookie. I had just enough to do one, which I promptly burnt at 7 minutes. If I had made the cookies as small as I was supposed to, I would have been able to do a couple extra to figure out a better time. Instead, I hoped I wouldn't kill anyone and tried 6 minutes.

Caramel Candy
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
2 1/2 cups light cream
4 Tbsp. butter
1 tsp. vanilla

Put everything except vanilla in saucepan and cook over a low heat stirring constantly. Cook until a very firm, but not hard ball is formed (about 45 minutes to 1 hour). Remove from fire, add vanilla, and pour into a buttered square pan. Cut into squares when cold and wrap in wax paper.

Parchment paper works too. Not as well, but it works.

What I learned: This one I learned the most from. Always have a chair while doing long-distance cooking. I gave up on the standing thing after about 10 minutes of constant stirring. Plus I now understand why my grandmother always had a chair either in or nearby her kitchen. It's not lazy, it's smart.

And when they say constant stirring, they mean it. Not as good as a gym workout, but definitely needed.

Invest in a good thermometer. This is one I learned a while ago, which is absolutely vital when cooking candy. They come with a list of terms and temps on them, so you don't have to do the cold water stage test (small spoonful of syrup being cooked is dropped into cold water to evaluate characteristics). For those in the lowlands, it should happen around 250 degrees. For those in the mountains, stick to the cold water stage test, since the thermometer has a tendency to lie when you change altitudes.

Finally, unless something magical happens at school, I don't think you'll be seeing me working as a confectioner any time soon.

And with that, the great cross-country move has begin. Talk to you Monday from New York!

I Hate The Food Network

I have managed to live for the last 3 years without cable television. I spend more time with friends, more time out doing photography and playing music, and more time cooking and baking. The fact that I don't have five million channels at my fingertips doesn't bother me at all. I actually like the quiet. That being said, I have watched more TV in the last month than I have in the last year. And it is all because of the Food Network.

For the past 48 hours, it has been nothing but a marathon of Ace of Cakes, Worst Cooks In America, Throwdown, Iron Chef America, Good Eats, Food Network Challenge, and everything else they play on there. As soon as one ends and I think I can start my day, something else will come on that makes me stay in my seat.

This makes it next to impossible for me to get anything done, let alone pack for the big move that happens on Friday. At this rate, I'll be lucky if I can remember to throw a few things into a box and leave. Although it would be interesting to see how I'd try to get by with a waffle iron for a curling iron...

The only good thing to come out of this was an incredible craving for something from Bruges Waffles. My mortal enemy decided to show a Throwdown on Liège waffles and now that's all I can taste. For those who don't know, a Liège waffle is a denser and sweeter waffle made with pearl sugar, which carmelizes as it cooks, until it looks like this:

Must make mental note to learn this while at school. Until then, mmm...waffles...

Tomorrow, I'll attempt to finish putting together the first round of guinea pig tasters for some people back in Salt Lake. Full report and recipes to follow. As long as I can hide the TV remote as well as I hide my own Easter eggs.

The Obligatory Welcome Note

Welcome (finally) to the blog. It's taken far longer than it should have to start this thing, but I guess the same could be said for the purpose behind it, so I kind of need to get cracking. Because in one week I will be starting my classes in pastry chefery at The French Culinary Institute in New York City.

The program takes about 6 months, during which I will do nothing but eat, sleep, and live food. But mostly eat. At the other end, a Grand Diplôme and a life in unflattering, oversized white coats, covered in flour and sugar, where I get up everyday before the crack of dawn. I can't wait.

This blog is meant to be a way for me to share all the lovely lessons that I learn (and all the not so lovely mistakes), as well as all the experiences I get in a city I never thought I would live in, working on a career I never thought I would have the time to get around to.

Here's hoping I don't gain 30 lbs. and my oversized coat stays oversized.