Where is Spring?

I think it's hiding. I want Spring to actually come. It was warm out today, but not warm enough to not wear a sweater. I can't wait to wear dresses and flip flops. I'm sick of having to wear sweatshirts and jackets every day. I'm also tired of all the rain we have had. I want it to be sunny. Sunshine makes me SMILE :)

Back to Life

Well, spring term started today at 9am. Waking up wasn't fun. The whole past week Adam and I slept until at least noon everyday. It was so nice. Now I have to get up at 7:45 four days of the week. I liked sleeping in. Oh well. I guess that's what the weekends are for.

I had my first class this morning. I think it was called Principles of Food Service Management, or something like that. Class only lasted for about 15 minutes and I was back home by 9:30. I tried to go back to sleep, but it didn't work. I layed on the couch and stupidly turned the tv on. Instead of falling asleep, I wound up watching Tyra's talk show and then the View. No nap for me.

I'm off to class again in a little while. I hope that we will get out early tonight, but who knows. I'm really not in the mood to cook until 11pm tonight. I guess I'll find out soon.

Spring Break in NC

So I'm in NC for my spring break. I've having an awesome time. I love spending time down here. I've spent time with my sister and brother-in-law, it's still weird to call him that, and of course Adam. We drove down on Saturday and went straight to Deb and Bill's to play Rock Band. It's so much fun. I think we were up until 5am playing it.

Spent all of Sunday lounging around and watching basketball. Deb and I went over to the mall and got some cute things at the Loft. When we got back the boys were in the exact same spot we left them, still watching basketball. They are crazy about March Madness.

Adam and I played tennis and disc golf on Monday. I am officially horrible at throwing a frisbee. We also went for a walk around the lake. It was so pretty. I love the weather down here. It's so much warmer than at home.

Yesterday we slept late and then went bowling. Deb, Bill, and Adam are all in a league and go bowling every Tuesday night. They are pretty good too and bowling really well last night. It's a lot of fun to watch them.

And today, Deb and I are going for a one hour deep tissue massage at the spa. I can't wait. We went the day before she got married in August and it was amazing. I didn't want to get off the table. It's so relaxing. I'm so excited!!!

Wedding #2 of 2009

Yesterday I spent the day in New Jersey at my best friend's wedding. It was nice to get away from studying for the day. I drove there with four of her friends from college and we had a fun time. Two of the girls were going over chemistry notes for a test they had today and the rest of us were trying to understand what on earth they were saying.

The drive actually wasn't too long, only a little bit over an hour, even with some traffic. Once we got there we headed straight for the bridal suite. Karen looked beautiful and was glowing. She was ready to go about three hours before the wedding. I think they left for New Jersey before seven in the morning.

The wedding was beautiful. About four hundred people were there and everyone had a blast. Lots of eating and dancing and running around in circles. It was fun.

I got back home around eleven, dropped my stuff, called my mom to say I was home, turned my computer on, and went back to the whole studying thing. I had to finish my essay on corn, which surprisingly didn't take that long. I was thinking about what I was going to write on the drive home which helped. Once I finished that I climbed into my warm and cozy bed.

Today, I woke up and walked down to school to drop off my thirteen page take home final. I got to see my friend's new puppy dog, Dewey, too. He is so adorable. I wound up spending about an hour playing with him. I wanted to take him home, but Devon wouldn't let me, so sad.

Anyways, I have got to get back to working on my twenty-six page paper. Luckily I only have one final left and this humongous paper, then I'm done. Well for a week, YAY!!!

Poached Pears with Anisette

Yes. I had the privilege of making poached pears for my practical exam. How fun. I was actually surprised my chef gave me the dessert course. Especially since I told him I wanted to go into baking and pastry. Normally he makes you do something other than you want to do. I was really lucky with this one though. Poaching pears is one of the easiest desserts you can make.

Everyone else had to make weird stuff. The amuse bouche was polenta with forest mushrooms. The fish course was poached seafood quenelles served in a saffron fish broth (not like we ever learned how to make this stuff). The meat course was some variation of lamb chops with turnip puree, carrots, and green beans. (Yes, I said meat course, and yes, it is Friday, so just imagine how many of our guests couldn't eat it with lent and all). And then the dessert course was the poached pears.

Somehow everyone pulled it off. Everything looked wonderful and we served all of our guests in record speed. The first course was served at 12:10 and the dessert course was cleared by 12:55. I have no idea how that happened. We also had the kitchen entirely clean by 1:30. Of course we didn't get out on time though. Chef just had to spend 45 minutes going over comment cards and adding his opinion. What else is new. I don't think I've ever gotten out of a culinary class when we were supposed to, unless we aren't cooking (which has happened a lot this term).

Anyways, classes are finally over. Only the ten page take home final, twenty six page paper, and a garde manger final on Wednesday morning, then I'm free. Well, free for a week. Then spring term begins. Isn't college fun!!!

The Discovery of Something Yummy :)

On Tuesday, one of my classmates made this tasty dessert that consisted of mini pastry shells, Nutella mousse, and bananas foster on top. When I heard they were using Nutella, I was instantly excited. Nutella is one of the yummiest treats ever. Some one introduced it to me years ago, and I'm so happy they did. It is especially yummy on honey wheat pretzels.

Anyways, back to the Nutella mousse. I had to ask how they made it. I was surprised how simple it was. All you have to do is beat heavy cream with a little bit of confectioners' sugar until it turns into whipped cream. Then add Nutella. Instant yumminess!!!

After class today, I was craving Nutella like no other. I didn't have class tonight because the professor was out of town, so I came straight home, dropped my stuff, and went to the supermarket. Nutella was the first item in my basket. I also bought strawberries, apples, broccoli, potatoes, chicken, ground beef, milk, and heavy cream (for the mousse of course).

Once my basket was too heavy for me to carry, I checked out and walked back home. I put everything away, except for the Nutella and heavy cream, grabbed the confectioners' sugar, threw everything into the mixer, and viola!!! Nutella mousse. Ahhhh, it is delicious. I quickly put it in the refrigerator so I wouldn't eat all of it at once, and I've been slowly nibbling on it all night. Mmmmmmmm, yummy :)

Finals = Yuck!!

I would love to meet the person who invented exams. I think they must have been nuts. Exams are no fun. I understand that they are supposed to test what you have learned, but why do we need to know what we have learned and what we haven't. If you don't know it, you don't know it. And what is with grades. Why do we need those? Such a pain in the butt.

I had a great weekend in NC with Adam. We went to Crystal and Ben's wedding Friday night and had a fun time. After the wedding we went downtown to a club and danced there for a few hours. Then we went back to Deb & Bill's, played some Rock Band, and finally fell asleep around 6 in the morning.

It was beautiful down there too. 80 degrees and sunny. It was wonderful. I got to wear a skirt and t-shirt every day. It was awesome. I didn't want to come back. Especially to study for finals.

Anyways, I have a PR final tomorrow night, a take home final due on Monday, and another final next Wednesday at the lovely hour of 8am.

So I finished class around 6:30 tonight because of the crazy beer week event we had tonight. It actually went pretty well. I was running around like a nutcase since I was the helper chef. And of course I wound up doing all the dishes. Everyone seemed to leave me by myself with a whole pile of chocolate covered pots and pans.

After dealing with that mess, I came home opened my notebook and started studying for my PR final. And that's what I've been doing all night. My brain hurts.

Yay!!!

I made it through the week. Yay!!!! I had my last entrepreneurship class tonight. The one that I had to dress up for. That part was not fun. And sitting through 7 team presentations wasn't fun either. Our presentation went really well though. Which I guess is all I can ask for. My team has been really hard to keep in touch with and I always wind up finishing stuff at the last minute. I'm so glad it's almost over. Now all we have to do is finish our final paper and do peer reviews. I think I can handle that, hopefully.

Anyways, I get to wake up in about 6 hours and walk to the train station, so I can go to the airport and fly down to NC. Yay!!! I can't wait. I think I'm going to try and sleep on the plane though.

Tomorrow is going to be a late night. We've got the wedding to go to, and then I think we are going downtown after. So a nap is definitely going to be necessary!!!

It's Only Tuesday

I feel like this week has been going by so slowly. It's only Tuesday and I feel like it should be Friday already. Ok, well I want to to be Friday already. On Friday I get to fly down to North Carolina and see Adam. I can't wait.

Even though I didn't do too much today, I feel like I ran around like a nut. I got to sleep in until noon and then started walking to class around 1. Luckily I left early because I got almost halfway to campus and realized I left my uniform at my apartment. So I walked all the way back, picked it up and walked, once again back to class.

Class was fun. Garde manger is fun and I really like the class and my chef. He has so much experience in the food industry and is a great teacher. Anyways, we got to make sandwiches today. I was chosen to make a grilled vegetable and mozzarella cheese in puff pastry sandwich. I have to say it was kinda weird. I liked each of the individual parts, but I wasn't fond of everything once it was put together. When we sat down to try all of our creations, I was surprised how many of them were either fried or in puff pastry. When I think of a sandwich, I think of meat and veggies in bread. Oh well.

After class I headed over to the library, where I thought I was going to spend my whole night. Luckily no one showed up for the 6 o'clock meeting, so I just walked back to my place. Five minutes after I got home, calls started coming in saying that people were coming. I told them I wasn't going back to the library until 9:30 when I had to go back to meet with the other half of my group. I'm tired of running around like a nut for everyone else.

So I chilled out and relaxed for a bit, then went to the library for 9:30. Six out of the seven people in my group were actually there. I was really surprised. Anyways, we got done what we needed to get done. I'm still waiting on one person to send me their stuff, but other than that we are good. I can't wait until this group project is done. It's been a real pain in the butt.

Came home after the meeting, turned the tv on, sat down, and that's where I've been since.

Happy Anniversary!!!

I can't believe it's been a whole year that we have been together. I feel like this year has gone by so quickly. We've had an awesome time together and I'm so happy that Deb and Bill introduced us. Well at least they sort of did. Deb and Bill told both of us that we had to come to their engagement party, because we had to meet each other. We weren't really given an option. I had flown down the night before and stayed up all night with Deb, planting plants and getting stuff ready for the party. Then we spent the day cooking and cleaning and getting everything in order for the party.

Seven o'clock rolled around. I was running around in high heals. I saw Adam come in, and I knew who he was right away. Deb and Bill never actually introduced us. But once I stopped running around, I sat down next to him and we started talking. Three hours later, Deb and Bill come over to us and ask if we had met yet. How nice of them. (The picture to the right was taken one year ago; it was our first picture together).

Anyways, we wound up staying up all night and had the best time. We've been together ever since. :)