First We Wait...then We Bake!

I survived. My first four hours of baking and pastry school was exciting and nerve wracking and well, a little tedious. My class is an odd assortment. Mostly ladies, the folks seem to hail mostly from around the NYC area and come to the still nameless culinary school for a variety of reasons. Out of the 15 or so in the class, two people have been let go from their jobs and twice that many were ladies like me who already have a degree but were looking to do something more with their educations. IE: They got a degree in something liberal-art-y and can't find a job that doesn't require them to answer phones in a dental office. Anyway, they seem like nice folks who will be fun to bake with for the next few months.

And speaking of baking, there is going to be a lot of it. In fact, if you are going to be in the Tri-State area anytime prior to August, send me an email and I'll send you home with a few dozen pastries. After all, there is only so much that my house-fiance and the homeless people I meet walking home can eat!

Today was just an orientation and one of those hideous meet and greet around the table type deals. It was painful. How many times do we have to hear your sad tale of just wanting to make cupcakes for the rest of your life and how Mom approved but Dad wanted you to get a 'real job'? Ugh. It was a touch tedious but like I said, they all seem like good people. And they all look just as hideous in their checkered pants as I do.

Tomorrow there was a rumour we are baking something but I'm not going to hold my breath. We have to go through scaling and measuring and I'm sure how that will go as I am terrible at math on the best of days and the whole American system versus Metric system is bound to make my hair curl a little. Hello, I was an English major for a reason! Oh, and my scale. My scale has a lock and unlock button that I will have to use (now please read this with your best imagined New York accent) 'glue with some Elmer's AND make sure it's glued into the UNLOCKED position'. Oy. That will be interesting. Oh yes, and there is something called a dairy tasting going on tomorrow too. I can hardly wait to taste the different teaspoons of butter and cream and milk, oh my.

Speaking of cream and milk, I've discovered the new love of my life (sorry Collin), it is called L'Arte de Gelato and it is a little slice of West Village heaven. We walked down to it three nights in a row now and even though the walks are done out of a need to slim down (ahem, this is pastry school I am attending, one has to off-set the tasting somehow), we always end up with gelato on the way home. Collectively, house-fiance and I have experienced a plethora of flavours and they are all divine. They are featuring an olive oil gelato at the moment that was actually pretty tasty and their marscarpone and fruity yogurt varieties are also heavenly. So, if you are in the area, check it out: 75 Seventh Ave South. I promise you won't be sad you did.

I will let y'all know how the scaling goes and if I violate the school's strict no swearing policy...until then, thank you for your support.