My first morning in Bali

I landed last night and took a taxi to the closest town from the airport, Kuta.  It's a surfer touristy beach town to the extreme.  Those of you from North Carolina can imagine it like Myrtle Beach but with only more "Wings" shops.
Last night was my first night spent away from home that was not on a plane.  I had a hard time sleeping.  Some sort of combination of jet lag, excitement, a noisy fan, and cats flighting.  So after stuggling to sleep for hours I finally accepted my defeat when I saw that the sun was just about to rise. 

Roosters are crowing
A cat walks along the peak of a tiled roof
The closest cloud are huge and gray-blue-- almost purple but they are slowly, gently, blowing away to reveal distant clouds twinged in pink
There is sky now.  Blue sky.
I am sitting on the ledge of a second story balcony, the only guest wake.  But there are a handful of hostel staff, and a brown tabby kitten, also enjoying the morning.
I can hear a dog's toenails clicking below me; running to some unknown canine adventure.
The hostel staff starts their morning duties: mopping, picking up trash, watering the plants.  But I have seen them all take a few moments to look at the sky.
I can finally see the color in the slowers and the tiled roofs in front of me.
While one minute ago it was night. It is now definitely morning.

The news

You might (or might not) have noticed that things have been a little quite over here.  It's because I've been keeping a secret.  A BIG secret.

No, I'm not pregnant.

I've finally, offically, have left to backpack around the world!  WOOOOHOOOO!!

I am writing this from the Hong Kong airport where I ate congee (rice soup) and shu mai (dumplings) for breakfast! I will be contecting on to Indonesia in a few hours where I will meet Chris and his best friend who have been in Indonesia for 2 weeks having a little man vacation.

I've been in a little bit of denial about this trip.  I wasn't sure that some sort of terrible calmatiy wasn't going to happen and interfer with our plans.  It wasn't until after 16 hours of flying that we touched down in Hong Kong and I looked out the window that I realized "OH SHIT. I"M IN ASIA!"

Once I get settled and find some internet I'll be sure to share the first of many photos and stories!! But for now, I've got to go do a little happy dance somewhere no one can see me!

North Carolina Barbecue Road Trip

Chris and I hit the road for a four day Memorial Day road trip across North Carolina.  North Carolina is famous for it's pork barbecue and Chris and I were determined to try as many bbq places as we could.

We ate sami after sami.  We took our barbecue taste testing seriously and had detailed score sheets for accurate comparison.

 

 

   








 

There were at least a long armed dozen photoshoots of ourselves.

And some very serious and delicious non-barbecue meals.

 

And we definitely had very full stomachs.

After 1000 miles of driving, 12.5 barbecue sandwiches each, 5 closed restaurants, countless songs sung in the car I can say without question I know North Carolina barbecue.

I also know that this was one of the best weekends of my life.

In the four day weekend we ate barbecue at:
Bridges--   Shelby, NC
Keaton's--   Cool Springs, NC (outside of Statesville)
Fuzzy's--   Madison, NC
The Pit--  Raleigh, NC
Skylight Barbecue--   Ayden, NC
Thig's--   Richland, NC
Big Oak--  Salter Path, NC
King's--   Kinston, NC
Bill Ellis--   Wilson, NC
Parker's--    Wilson, NC
(We tried to go to several other restaurants including B's BBQ in Greenville, Grady's in Dudley, Lexington barbecue in, well, Lexington, Speedys in Lexington.  You can't win or eat the all, huh?)


While we had so much amazing food this weekend I think I am going to be sticking to veggies for a while.

No more pencils....

This is offically my first week of summer. Wooooo!

And while I will be getting back to the grind stone soon I'm just enjoying the complete freedom that comes along with no alarm clocks (at least not mine, Chris is still being responsible and going to work), the lack of homework, and no more teacher's dirty looks.




I have very ambitious plans for the week:

Yoga (I haven't been in almost a month and I need to get to ohmmmming soon)

Terrible movies

And maybe I'll even make myself a meal to two... But it's much more likely that I'll just eat some strange combination of leftovers from the fridge.

Any other great summer activities that I'm missing?

Chocolate lava cake with tuile cookie and sugar bowl

My last class at Johnson & Wales was Advanced Patisserie. We learned about and created plated desserts.

For our final exam we had to make 4 desserts complete with cakes, decorative plate piping, sauces, some sort of ice cream holder, and a crunchy garnish.

From plan to reality I'm pretty pleased with the way they turned out!

 

CHOCOLATE MOLTEN CAKES    

6 oz                        Dark couverture chocolate (if you can't find couverture just buy the highest quality chocolate you can buy with a high cocoa butter content)

6 oz                        Butter

6 oz                        Whole Eggs

1.5 oz                     Sugar

1.5 oz                     Bread flour

5                            Chocolate truffles

Method of Preparation:

• Melt the chocolate and butter together
• Whisk together the whole eggs and sugar until they are well incorporated.  Add to chocolate mixture.
• Fold in flour
• Pour batter in greased tins , approximately 2/3 full
• Bake at 350 degrees for about 10-12 minutes
• The sides of the cake will be set at this point, although the center will still be raw and look very shiny.
• Remove from the oven and place a truffle in the center of the cake.
• Push the truffle into the cake until it is completely covered with cake batter.
• Return cakes to the oven for an additional 5-6 minutes
• The center of the cake will be set, turning from shiny to dull in appearance.
• Remove from oven and invert onto plate
• Serve immediately

Yield:  6 individual cakes

 

Ganache topped Chocolate molten cake with tuile cookie, raspberry and anglaise sauces, paired with salted caramel ice cream in a sugar bowl

 

TRUFFLES for CHOCOLATE MOLTEN CAKES

(These truffles are great eaten alone too. Try rolling them in chocolate flakes, sparkled granular sugar, or chocolate sauce for shiny truffles!)

2 parts dark couverture

1 part heavy cream

Example:              8 oz. dark couverture

                             4 oz. heavy cream

Method of preparation:

·      Chop chocolate and place in metal bowl.

·      Scald cream and pour over chocolate.  Do not stir immediately.  Let rest for 10 seconds, then slowly begin whisking from the center of the bowl.  Whisk until all chocolate is melted and incorporated.

·      Chill until the consistency of fudge.  Roll into 1” diameter balls. 

·      Label. Date.  Refrigerate, until ready to insert into chocolate molten cakes.

Cracking me up

Last Thursday Chris and I overslept, once we woke up we had to race.  I was heading to school and Chris was headed to the airport.

We were literally running out the door at 6:45 am. RUNNING y'all!

Chris made his flight and I made it to school on time.

At 10:41 I got this text message from Chris:

Just realized my fly was down


I've been cracking up for a week thinking about Chris going all the way through the airport, security, and an entire plane flight with his fly down.

Last 2 weeks at Johnson & Wales

This is my second to last week of school.

It's surreal that culinary school is almost over.

I have learned so much and I definitely don't want it to end!

It's been a crazy train of early mornings, massive cups of coffee, oven burns, and long days.  And as cheesy as it sounds I wouldn't give up a single day. I have learned so much and am so glad that I took the unexpected choice of going to Johnson and Wales.

I wish I had a whole entire year of culinary school left in front of me!  But, I know that I will keep on learning each day as a chef. I feel so lucky to have found a career, a trade that I love, have a talent for, and also love to learn about.


There are some things in the works for after my last day of class but I'm keeping them quiet for a little while!