Culinary Updates

This is my chaud froid platter:

Using mayo and aspic we made the white gelatin like base, let that cool. Then put the inlaid garnishes in and covered that with aspic, let that cool. Then added my canapes.
Starting from left to right:

Parmesan crisp with a goat cheese mousse, Radish salad on carrot cream cheese, Tuna Tartar with avocado salsa, Curried Chicken salad with Frisee, and more Parm crisps.
This was our first project with chaud froid and aspic. We poached our trout then added garnishes.
You can also see the inlaid garnishes in this pic. My final project was a MUCH smoother platter. This one is blah.
all of our fun garnishes we learned.
Do you see the apple swans? :)

Loving school so much still. Job update: I quit! Woo Hoo! And got another job as a server at a fine dining restaurant at school. HR is still going over all my papers, but my last day is tuesday at my old job so I am hoping to start up my new one within this next week. That's the most exciting news lately. Other than going back to Wisconsin in approximately 20 days! I cant wait!! Thats it for now.

Christmas break...

Andrew and I on top of Marmot in Jasper.
The snowboarders at Jasper.
View from in the trees at Revelstoke.
View from just off the highest Chairlift at Revelstoke.

Trees.

Revelstoke.

Making a jump for sledding in Sicamous.
Me, right after seeing the hill we were going to be sledding down!
My first Poutine!

Cindy and I doing the Canadian norm...
Here's my breakdown of my busy Christmas break...

-Last day of class was the 19th. We had a cleaning day where we deep cleaned the whole big kitchen then took our Range exam.

-After class I packed up our stuff for Jasper! On the 20th Andrew and I hit the road after his last exam and met up with Trish, Yvonne, Jared, and Laura at our neat little loft hotel room.

- The next 3 days we did a fun secret gift exchange, skied on Marmot, went in the hot tub, and out for a nice dinner. There was a lot of 'Times Up' playing too!

-Skiing was SO beautiful and fun! Even though I did get a bit cold it didnt put a damper in my day.

-After Jasper we hung out at Bryan and Debbie's house for Christmas. Opened lots of presents, ate turkey, and just enjoyed eachothers company lots.

-Christmas Eve we went to Trish's and had fondue! That was lots of fun too. I also skyped with my family back home and I really liked that.

-On the 26th we were on the road again with our married friends: Ryan and Cindy, & Dave and Ashley. This time to Sicamous, British Colombia. Another amazing trip!!

-We went sledding, had a campfire, went skiing at Revelstoke (and Andrew went 2 times!), played lots of games, watched movies, AND Gloria and Nick came out to visit which really made my trip. Let's just say fun is an understatement :)

-We drove back on the 30th

-On New Years Eve we started off seeing Trevor and Raelene, and played some Cranium. Then we saw the dumb new Tom Cruise movie...Mission Impossible 13 or something...haha. It was nice being with Laura, Bryan and Debbie though. Then we celebrated the night at our friend's( Dave and Barb, plus new baby Blake) parent's house. Played cranium again, hot tubbed , and ate snacks. A great night.

-The next week up until school started was just normal. I started back at work on the 3rd...we tried to hang out in Devon as much as possible because Yvonne and Jared were still in town.

-Andrew got new hockey skates, gloves , and a stick for Christmas so hes been skating lots and we played speed scrabble a lot too.

Thats it for now, Im in Garde Mange class right now,

...garde manger

[gahrd mahn-ZHAY]
A French term for the cool, well-ventilated pantry area (usually in hotels and large restaurants) where cold buffet dishes are prepared and other foods are stored in refrigerated units. Some of the items prepared in a garde manger are salads, PÂTÉS, CHAUD-FROIDS and other decorative dishes. The person in charge of this area is known as chef garde manger.

Read More http://www.epicurious.com/tools/fooddictionary/entry/?id=2674#ixzz1j7ius0Z8

but its bed time, see ya later.(Also I am coming back to Wisconsin in FEBRUARY! See you all then.

-e

Picture Updates!

Winter is here...
we miss the fall...
and hardly remember summer!

Our kitchen remodeling project...that used to be a full wall, so the kitchen was so dark and not great. therefore we took out a chunk and half of the wall and eventually it will be a breakfast bar area with some shelves on the side. Now its just a mess.
AFTER WE PAINTED :) love it
BEFORE WE PAINTED

Minx sitting on the sleeping Andrew
Our kitten :)

So...
Life is still busy. This past weekend was Remembrance Day, so we had a long weekend. On friday we had Dave and Ashleys wedding, which was beautiful and SO much fun. We danced the night away. Saturday I went over to Cindy's house with Katie and her daughter Ava and we made some Christmas cards. Then, in the night, we went to a Haiti fundraising dinner. On Sunday we went to First CRC again (we are really liking it!) and after just cleaned cleaned cleaned! 7 loads of laundry later and furniture moving =our house in tiptop shape. For dinner we went out to Dad and Debbies house. We had apple soup! Quite tasty! and a Roast with potatoes for main course and crepes for dessert. This week should go by without a problem.

Oh, and the contest went really well. We got first PLACE!! All that hard work paid off :)

Here was our Menu:

Smoked Whitefish on a wild rice and lentil crepe with a grainy mustard celery root slaw

then,
Braised bison short ribs sausages with lentil and homemade rocotta cheese perogies. Pan roated guinea hen with a wild mushroom sauce and pickled beets.

for dessert: dark chocolate cherry triffle(the laters being mousse, whiskey and amoretto soaked pound cake , sour cherry compote, crumbled almond cookie, more mousse.

Early Mornings

This week I wake up and go to school by 7am so I can practice with my partner for the cooking competition/scholarship contest I am in. It'll be like this for abit. I feel like a real chef though putting in 13 hour days...WOO COOKING!

Also i got a letter from my best friend Emily today...Made my day/night/week/weekend! Miss her even more though. I miss a lot of people from home.

Weekend Recap...

Friday: I worked til 9pm

Saturday: Woke up and got to school by 10am to help with preparing food for feeding the homeless thanksgiving dinner. I sliced and sliced and sliced turkey! Then Andrew, Laura and I packed up and went out to the acreage (we brought minx too!) We spent the rest of the day lounging then Cindy, Ryan, Tyler, Wes, Brent, and Grant came over and we played a really fun card game that had us running all over the house! We eventually took the game to a bigger scale and had a scavenger hunt type thing in Devon. (My team won! )Then we had a bonfire. And earlier we ate homemade pumpkin pie that Cindy made from scratch..so good!

Sunday: We slept in and then listened to a sermon from BCRC on 1 John 3. Then the rest of the day was lounging , studying, prepping food etc.

Monday: Thanksgiving!! We woke up and the power was out! So we couldnt start cooking the turkey until we packed up everything to go to Trish's house and right as we are about to walk out the door the power comes back on!!! So noon the turkey was put in. Then we did homework and made more food until about 5 when we had dinner. Good times. I love my family.

Turkey Dinner...plus Minx

Turkey Dinner!:

Turkey, Stuffing, Sweet Potato Wedges, Buttermilk Mashed Potatoes, Corn, Gravy, Cranberry Sauce, Apple Pie, & Pumpkin Pie+Interesting Music+Laura& Andrew = AWESOME DAY
And this is me and minxy on a sleepy day :)

Happy Thanksgiving...

This weekend is Canadian thanksgiving! So Andrew, Laura and I will be celebrating on monday with a full on turkey dinner. Im SO excited to cook. Im thinking turkey, garlic mashed potatoes, corn , green beans, homemade stuffing and gravy, sweet potato dish and pumpkin and dutch apple pie...wish me luck!

This week went really well. I sent in an acceptance letter for a scholarship cookoff contest and got in! First year students are partnered with second years. So my partners name is Allen, and my teacher was so happy I got him, cuz he is one of the best students right now! woo hoo! so the contest is november 5, and we are going to meet this tuesday to start preparing for it. I am SO EXCITED. k bye