Monday, June 4, 2007

Points For Effort?

I have been keenly aware of the advantages and disadvantages of being in a baking and pastry program.

Advantage: doing something I love.

Disadvantage: sometimes dealing with people who can't remember more than one sentence of instructions at a time.

Advantage: Learning new recipes and the skills & attributes that must go a long with them. (i.e. patience, listening, faith in your own intuition.)

Disadvantage: Eggs.

One aspect that has been an advantage AND a disadvantage is being able to taste all these awesome recipes. Some of these treats, I never even heard of. Some, I never once dreamed of trying to undertake. In either case, I have been surprised by my own abilities and delighted with end product. This, in turn, means...I have to try them! You can't NOT try something you've toiled over for 4 hours. You can just give your hard earned puffy deliciousness to a bunch of snotty culinary students, who think baking is a ladies sport. NO! You have to try the deliciousness! The only problem is to stop with the taste. My instructor gave some very good words of wisdom, admitting that he always tastes what he bakes, but doesn't make a whole meal out of it. Thus he's as skinny as a 20 year old, which just isn't fair!


With the above picture in mind, consider what happens everyday. Towards the end of class, when golden brown things are coming out of the oven and your sweet tooth starts to beckon, think of how hard it would be for you to not sit down and just have a taste.

P.S. Interesting fact about these puppies. They are more of a cake donut that a true donut and they're actually baked for cooking. Frying comes in for presentation, it's just to get a brown color. Vanity. Vanity.


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