Big Project coming up!

Hey everybody, Thanks for the great feedback and all the views for the past week, I have been so excited about my readers' responses!
I have a huge project due on Monday for my mythology class and I decided to do this final project as a culinary presentation. I will be comparing two holidays, the Celtic Beltane and the Hindu Diwali!
So, stay tuned and please excuse the absence of frequent posts. Can't wait to share the final product!
<3

Busy Day: Building,Breaking Dawn and Macarons!

Today, Jordan helped my dad fix an old chicken coop. He was so cute all bundled up! Amani helped too!

Cutie

I took an AWESOME macaron class. We made creme de cassis macarons with blueberry buttercream, coconut macarons with rum creme, mint macarons with dark chocolate ganache and sesame macarons with white chocolate ganache!

I made sweet treats for my friends and we went and saw Breaking Dawn! I made lion and lamb gingerbread cookies, cherry thimble meringues,mini caramel bread puddings and Jacob's cinnamon brownies.

Chinese Cooking, Photography and Thumbprint Cookies

I have been spending my Saturdays doing an all-day Chinese cooking class at the JC. It's been really fun, but we're all perpetually stuffed during this class (:
Today, we worked with stir-fry.

It has been raining like crazy this afternoon, it almost seemed like it was dark at 3 pm, it's been so overcast. I was a few streets down from my house when I noticed these lamp-posts shining on the wet streets. They were really pretty, but my lens kept getting wet. The affect was pretty cool, it was an interesting experiment!

Finally, I tried doing an indoor shoot when I got home. It was dark out, so I was using completely artificial light. Just trying new things and trying to improve!
These are shortbread thumbprint cookies that I've been making since forever, taught to me by grandmother. I'll post the recipe another time! <3

Stay cozy tonight! I hope you enjoyed the pictures.

June: a month of cakes and chocolate!

This month I was enrolled in a cake decorating class and also a chocolate class. I am also currently taking a vegetarian cooking class. I haven't done much cooking since I got a job as an intern at a bakery, until this week when I realized I'd stopped! So, I also made dinner on the 4th and have been working on creating one of my favorite lunches: Ochazuke with Hojicha green tea broth.

Cool spices mixed up for ginger cookies at work.

Freshly picked, local blueberries!

Practicing piping with butter :P

Red velvet in cake class! I learned at work that red velvet used to be just cocoa powder and the vinegar turned it slightly red.

Nowadays, most people use a lot of food coloring and expect a bright red from a red velvet cake. This recipe used vinegar and cocoa, but also some food coloring.

Chocolate feast!

Walnut fudge that I made in class.

Using my new piping skills at work! I know the flowers look sketchy, but it's actually a copy of the party plates we were given. They're supposed to look fake and kind of whimsical.

Cupcakes to match the cake. The girl was turning two and for her birthday, they were having a "ladybug release" party! SO cute! :D

The culmination of my cake decorating class. Vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream on an almond-infused yellow cake, with fresh strawberry filling and marzipan strawberries. My boyfriend and little bro helped me punch out the gum paste blossoms the night before so they could dry overnight. I filled the centers with yellow royal icing the next day in class.

Was lucky enough to draw "molten cakes" out of the hat at chocolate class! One of my favorite desserts (:

MMM Lava-ey

Got to draw this pug on a cake for the cake decorator to pipe at work!

Lychee at WHOLE FOODS.

Lunch: Pepper jack pupusas with fresh salsa and cabbage salad.

My newest experiment: Ochazuke a la Infusions in sebtown. They charge way too much for me to go there every day like I'd like to! They basically take quinoa, dried seaweed, veggies, tofu and green onions, mild miso and plum paste then pour this Hojicha (amaaaazing) green tea over it. Bon appetit!

The Months of January and February

I took a fantastic vegetarian cooking class this month.

I also had a chance to try out cakespy's sweet benedict.

To check out the original recipe, go to: http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2010/03/cakespy-cadbury-creme-eggs-benedict-dessert-breakfast-recipe.html

London!

Been getting all settled in here. Moved into my apartment with my three other roommates. They're all really nice and fun!
Gone out to a bunch of pubs, learned how to play darts...
Let's see...
We had an absolutely fantastic bus tour of London the other day ( : The guide was hilarious and did not stop to breathe for a moment the whole time!
I have been taking the underground to school. It's fun and public transit over here is SO GOOD!! I wish we had that at home! But I guess things are way more spread out at home anyway ( : But it's just so reliable and easy.
Had some good food. They have a lot of vegetarian food here. There is really great pre-packaged food at every cafe and everything that is vegetarian has a huge "V" on it, so it's really a no-brainer ( ;
One of the pubs we went to has an open mic on Thursday nights, so I might go do that in the next few weeks.
I have yet to contact my family over here, but I hope to soon.
Been learning so much about London and life and my classes started yesterday. They're really good.
Much love to you all at home!
<3