Hold

Ankles... sore... cant run....

No joke, I think my running shoes are just too old because every time I have tried to go running this last week my ankles feel like they are on fire. So for now I just have to be content walking my two miles. I am however currently in GA visiting my hot sexy beefcake, aka Paul. I just got back from the pool while waiting for him to get off work, alas I think I burned part of my arms.... curses. The mansion was officially closed last week till July 14 where we will open for a week and a half then close again for another week. In the mean time I have been working at The Body Shop (my part time job) trying to make my ends meet. I also painted my nails to look like American Flags for the 4th. Then a co-worker and I went out to a bar for Karoke which we then became bored of in our drunken stupor so we headed to The Fox and The Hound where we ate nachos! (Paul was our DD for the evening... oh great, now I want donuts...) So now I will be relaxing for the next few days before heading back to NC. I have also been taking care of the garden at work while everyone is away. Tomatos, chives, spring onions, zuchinni, squash, egg plant and even blueberries! I get to eat every thing that I harvest too! Lots of it has been chopped up and put in the freezer so it will not go bad. Yummy! Paul's birthday is coming up soon so I will have to start putting together ideas for his birthday cake! His sister gave me a pirate ship cake pan for christmas so now I finally get to use it! Although I did see in the store the other day a Transformers cake pan, so I may need to buy that for a later time...

Things in the culinary world that confuse me

Zesters are like the Buffalo Bill of the citrus fruit world....

Exercising

Exercising has been going well! At first I thought my run was about a mile to a mile and a half. But come to find out it is actually about two miles! Cool! and today, I was able to jog for the Entire first mile! I also have a before picture....still working up the go to post it. Probably not. In about a week the place I work will close for about three weeks, no good. Fortunatly I have another job and they are going to give me as many hours a possible and apparently I am eligible for unemployment for the three weeks I am out of work. I am not up for accepting unemployment, but I have no other options if I want to continue to live in my apartment. It is only for three weeks I remind myself not three years, so I try not to think of it as a total handout. But I still feel like a shmuck for accepting it.
Paul and I went to Carowinds on Saturday and had a blast. We both realized how old we are. We got there around 10:30 and by 6:30 we were exhausted. I could have gone on a few more rollercoasters but Paul was getting a headache and was wiped out. We got home and took showers, and got in bed for a 'nap'. So we lied down and talked for about an hour and around nine we both passed out till 10am the next day. It was oodles of fun. We ate funnel cake and cotton candy, and pizza! Then we got a suvinear cup! So sue me.


Ralenta.

Things in the culinary world that confuse me:
Why are rolling pins so popular for hitting men with? I am sure a Cast Iron skillet would work a lot better...

Running

Ok so note to self: Always type blog in a word document and not on the internet page! My entire blog just vanished! And the Undo button did nothing! I am sooo maaad!
I was copying it to go spell check everything then POOF! Gone! I didn’t even think to close the window so it would stop the auto-save ticker. Damn. Let’s try again now that I am on Word.
Running, I started it again today! I haven’t done it in about four years so it was very exciting to try again. About halfway through my run however I thought “What the HELL was I thinking!?” Let me recap what has happened since I moved.
My boyfriend Paul got a promotion at work and was moved to Georgia, so we now have yet another long distance relationship. This one isn’t as bad, last time he lived in Maryland and we were eight and a half hours apart, this time it is only three hours. I weighed myself for the first time in a loooong time and discovered that college did not do pretty things to my hips. I had put on 20 pounds since I first came to college. This is ok, I still feel sexy and Paul agrees, but I do feel a little sluggish these days. So, by starting to run again I am hoping to lose about 15 pounds (I am currently at 140) and stay active and healthy. Paul has always been an active guy, and now that marriage is right around the corner, I would like to be able to keep up a bit more. I also want to shed a bit of the weight college added and over all just feel a little bit sexier. If I get brave I will do before and after pictures.
I felt good after my run, exhausted, but good. So I decided to break out my bike for a test run (I recently had it fixed up) and about three blocks down the road I came across a baby bunny! It was lying in the gutter in front of a big house where they had a crew mowing the lawn, I figured the lawn mowers had scared him out of his hole, but there was no hole to be found. I gave him a push to try and spook him into moving, but to no avail. So I picked him up and brought him home (I tucked him into by bra and rode the bike, lolz). The all of my girlfriends next door squealed with delight and we put him in a shoe box with a blanket. I REALLY wanted to keep him but I knew he was better off with an animal care specialist so I put him in his shoe box and planned to take him to the local wildlife center in the morning. But then at around 7:00 the girls next door got a hold of the center and the woman agreed to meet us to pick up the bunny. I was sad to see him go… But! He is in the proper hands now! And I just realized I am hungry… So time for food!

Ralenta

Things In The Culinary World That Confuse Me:
Crème Bruleè means ‘Burned Cream’, but you don’t burn the cream… you burn the sugar on top…

Moving!

Totally sucks. I finally got my computer and internet unpacked! Now however I need to go back and read what my last post was so I can pick up where I left off...
I did think of a fun and clever way to end my blogs though, it will be titled "Things in the culinary world that confuse me" so here we go!

Ralenta.

Things in the culinary world that confuse me:
Why do some Orential Five Spices contain seven ingredients?

Just As A Side Note...

At exactly 12:03pm Wednesday May 20, 2009. I Finished College.

Salmonella

On Friday the 26th I pulled myself out of bed at the ungodly hour of 8:30am to attend a chocolate demonstration at school. I felt a little funny but passed it off as that weird feeling you sometimes get when you aren’t used to waking up so early. You have to understand, I don’t get up before 10:00am if I don’t have to. I love to sleep. Leaving the apartment at 8:50, I trudged to Starbucks to meet Bailey for a coffee before the demo. So with White Chocolate Mochas in hand, we headed to the auditorium. The speaker proceeded to talk for two hours about how chocolate is made. In my opinion, this was not necessary, seeing as how most of us were pastry chefs. That’s when I really started to feel bad. We left the demo early and I spent most of the rest of the day in the bathroom. And at 4:00pm I headed to work.
Work passed by as usual, however, as the night wore on; I started feeling worse and worse. My stomach was cramping, I had really bad nausea and horrible back pain. That night, I probably spent most of the evening in the ladies room. Finally at the end of the night during clean up, I couldn’t take it any more. I had my crew finish what they were doing and we all went home.
That night, I woke up every hour running to the bathroom. I started to think that I must have food poisoning. I had horrible chills, even though I was lying on a heating pad. The worst part though was the cramping in my stomach. Around 5:00am I called my mother and told her my symptoms and she told me to go ahead and go to the hospital. She thought I might have a bladder or kidney infection. I had to wake up my room mate Kate; for fear that I wouldn’t be able to drive myself. We got to the ER around 5:30am and they placed me in a room right away and began running tests. My boyfriend Paul came in about an hour after we got there and he stayed with me, after Kate had to go to work. They started me on saline solution and Demerol for my nausea. About two hours later, they informed me that they were going to do am MRI and an Ultrasound, but in order to do both of those, they had to give me a catheter. Most Painful Experience Of My Life. And my nurse was no saint either, she yelled at me the whole time, no sympathy or compassion. A little while after that, my doctor and another nurse came in and without warning gave me a pelvic exam. Second Most Painful Experience Of My Life. Then they took me to have my MRI and Ultrasound. My Demerol began to wear off and in the ultrasound room I became nauseous again. When I threw up, since there was nothing in my stomach the only thing that could come up was pure bile. It was scary because I didn’t know that pure bile was dark hunter green. They then moved me to an observation room where they continued to run tests. Later that evening around 10:00pm my parents showed up, they decided to come down when they found out they still didn’t know what was wrong with me and since they were keeping me over night.
Sunday came with pain and more tests. They finally let me eat, but I was on a clear food diet, which meant chicken broth, a popsicle, Jello, and apple juice, for all meals. Sunday was the day I had the most pain, they only medication they could give me was Demerol for the pain, since they didn’t know what was wrong with me. I could have Demerol every three hours, but after two hours it began to wear off, so I had to survive that last hour on my own. As soon as they gave me the Demerol I would sleep for about an hour and a half to two hours then wake up for that last hour or so running in and out of the bathroom. Probably the funniest experience of my hospital stay was falling asleep in the bathroom, multiple times. I would be in so much pain that I would sometimes be in the bathroom for that last hour before I could have more medication. So when the nurse would come to give it to me, she would have to give it to me when I was in the bathroom. Next thing I knew they were taping me on the leg telling me it was time to get back into the bed. I could have sworn I was already in the bed. Monday carried on much like Sunday, however, that afternoon, I was informed that I had salmonella. So at this point they put me on antibiotics. It was time to start getting better. Monday night they gave me potassium via IV and all of a sudden my arm began to burn, almost like it was on fire. Apparently potassium can do that to some people. So they took me off of the IV and gave it to me in pill form. Tuesday carried on much like Monday, and by Tuesday night I felt much better and they informed me I could maybe go home tomorrow. Wednesday morning they gave me one more antibiotic and then Wednesday afternoon I was sent home.

Amazingly enough I attended a Halloween party later that evening, Paul and I were pirates.

The Beginning to an End

So I will go into detail about what happened at the hospital next post, it's kinda long.
Almost a week after arriving at the hospital I was allowed to go home. A few days of in bed recovery and I was back to work! Kinda... Two days after my return the head chef came to me "you just finished culinary school didn't you? For pastry? Bring me your portfolio tomorrow, I want to see it." So I ran home and threw together a Portfolio and by the end of the week I was a bonified Pastry Chef. Literally. I was in charge! I skipped like.. 8 rungs of the culinary work ladder, I couldn't believe it! It was rocky at first, I was slow, uncoordinated, the ovens didn't work like the ones at school, I was there from 3 when I got out of school till midnight or one in the morning. It was tough. But it got better, I got better, soon I could bank out 100 desserts a night with no help. My head chef boughte new toys and equipment (they had
Never had a pastry program before so we were a bit unprepared). It was wonderful, everything I thought it would be! There were things I didn't like, the sales staff were a bunch of mindless coffee drinking bubble heads and the breakfast chefs Never cleaned up after themselves. But I love it! When I leave here (I don't know when) I don't think I will do banquet style food service anymore though. The sales girls really piss me off. I am hoping that if I prove to be awesome enough I will be allowed to hire an assistant. But we shall see!!

Friends in Low Paying Places

My foot was in the door now I just had to land the interview. Easier than I thought apparently. My future boss was running late for our interview, a bad impression for me, but she finally came out of the back room and we chatted. She practically threw me into the position. Banquet Server. For those of you who have no clue what that is, it is just like being a waitress, only you serve food to lots of people all at once. I had 2 days to find a tuxedo shirt and vest, which I eventually found in the children's section of Burlington Coat Factory. As I got ready for work I put my new uniform on, looked in the mirror and began to cry. This is not what I went to school for, this is not what I wanted my job to be. My boyfriend helped me pull myself together and dropped me off at work (He was really from Maryland at the time and just visiting.) It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, I worked with a bunch of older women who loved me (I was good for heavy lifting) and I eventually became quite the popular worker, granted there was only about 10 of us. Over the summer, business slowed down and I managed to pick up a second job at The Body Shop. It was a nice change, make-up and pretty clothes were part of the uniform and I got to work with girls my own age (19-20) for the first time in my life. I usually have worked with all men or older women. In between all this I made some sundresses, new raving clothes, and a few costumes. My roommate received a new addition to our apartment, she ended up being crazy too... I spent my second Christmas away from home, the first one being when I was in Georgia. This one however was the first I spend with my boyfriend, he had moved to Charlotte 6 months earlier when he got transferred at work. It rolled around to July again and I was on the cusp of receiving a promotion at work. Well, I received the promotion, I just hadn't gotten the pay raise to go with it. I was made a Banquet Captain, meaning I was in charge of people and making things happen. Awesome! It went well for a few weeks, but going to school full time plus a full time job and a part time job and a not so perfect diet finally caught up with me. On October 26, 2007 I fell ill. At first I passed it off as food poisoning, then by four in the morning of the 27th I had chills and kept running to the bathroom. I woke up my roommate and we went to the hospital,

A Pastry Chef?

You may find yourself asking "why a pastry chef?" Well, I always loved to cook. I cook very well infact, ask anyone really, but what did I love more than cooking? Sweets. Sadly, Betty Crocker was about as far as I could go. So instead of going to school for cooking, I went to school for dessert...ing. Lots of fun really, I have always hated school, like... REALLY hated school, but in this school, I cooked for 6 hours, then got a grade! It was like God was making up for my evil second grade teacher who sent me home in tears almost everyday. I moved to the Carolinas to begin school, a day I wont forget. As I prepared to go to class, I broke down and said to my mother "I don't know if I can do this." Four more years of school? In a state 8 hours away from home? Not to mention I dont know ANYONE here. I was assured I could in fact do it and with a Starbucks coffee in one hand she kissed me and left. Now four years later, after 3 mentally unstable roommates and 1 that really wasn't all that bad, I prepare to take my final exams and walk across the stage. I wont be hard to miss, I will have on ruby slippers, sequence and all. But the point of this story actually starts about two years ago upon my return to Charlotte after a 3 month stint in Georgia for a Co-Op (imagine a study abroad only you dont leave the US). I was jobless, in a new apartment, with that one roommate who really wasn't all that bad, and completly broke. Fortunatly though, I apparently had friends in low places, well, low paying anyway.

Day One

Lets start at the beginning shall we? I am 21 years old, about to graduate college, about to get married, completly obsessed with small furry animals, technology illiterate, about to move for the 7th time in 4 years, and oh yea, I am a Pastry Chef.