The Knives are Out!

It is pouring rain in New York City and I'm afraid that I might drown in a puddle. Tomorrow the main agenda is for me to find some fetching rain boots and to not be swept away by the rain.

It was a really fun day at school today. We tasted all sorts of dairy products -- 5 different kinds of butter, who knew there were more than two kinds of butter?! And then we tasted a vast array of dairy products. For the record, un-whipped whipping cream is just as tasty as its whipped friend is...

Then, and this is the exciting part, then we got to use our knives. No, we didn't cut anything edible, nor did manage to cut their own self, we just cut, parchment paper. I know, I know, big whop, right? I'll get to that later though. The first cut with the shiny new knives was exciting. One of the girls in my class refers to her knife as 'Big Daddy'...I doubt she's scene the play, but it is quite hysterical to her her talk to her knife in class. Coincidentally, she also hummed Barry Manilow's 'Mandy' while piping so I think she and I are going to get along just fine. As I said, no one cut anything but paper today, but it is really just a matter of time. I'm not sure that any of us are quite prepared to handle a 10 inch chef knife when the standard is an eight inch. And, I was fearful of my wrists as the girl next to me had only had two cups of coffee for the whole day and was a little bit shaky -- not a good thing with a 10 inch weapon in your shaky grasp!

Anyway, we cut the parchment to make these little cones called cornets. You use them for time when you are piping either just a little amount or for decorating and the like. Well, I'm pretty sure that's what you use them for. Let's all remember that one should never take anything I say on this blog as law, I am just a student after all. So, the cornets, or as another student suggested, culinary origami, were tough. Our chef just whizzed right through hers and I was pretty sure that it would be easy, as was everyone else, and boy were we wrong. Basically, the idea is to take a rectangle of parchment paper, fold it in half and cut it, and then fold it in half and cut it again. Then you fold your quarter sort of on the diagonal and then you cut the two cut the two loosely defined triangles and you have the basis for your cornet. Not that this will make any sense, but you take the two corners on the short side of the triangle and bring them together and then you wrap the third corner around and you have, theoretically at least, made a cone. You sort of finagle the cone into being "leak proof", ie: you look down the cone and make sure that you can't see the light in the bottom and then you fold the excess bit in at the top. I realize that this probably makes no sense, but I can just hear the cries of indignation if I had not posted some form of direction as to making them. Oh, and if I forgot to say this, you use your knife, sliding through the paper, to cut...

After making about 15 cornets, and finally feeling like I had the knack for it, I gave piping a whirl. Now, please understand, I don't pipe. I don't draw. I bake cookies and sprinkle coconut on cakes occasionally but I generally don't bake when there is true artistry required. So the piping was an eye opener. I can tell you that I will be practising. A lot. That 2 pound block of chocolate in my fridge from Trader Joe's, it's a good thing it was cheap because this weekend it is all getting melted over and over again to practice the art of the pipe!

As I said, it is rainy in the Big Apple and will probably be rainy till Sunday or Monday so if you don't see a post till Monday, I've not been mugged, I've just not got anything exciting to share because I'm holed up in the apartment to practice the piping! Thanks for reading!