Monday, May 28, 2012

Chicken picatta

So yeah, it's not really my field, but I'm okay with the culinary side in addition to sweets... and I wanted to try some new meals that BF and I would both like now that I've moved into his apartment, so I figured I'd start off with this one.

...Success!






I didn't have an ovenproof skillet, but transferring the chicken to a greased nonstick baking dish worked just as well. The green beans are sauteed in olive oil and worked great as an accompaniment, and went very well with the sauce.

Cons: Lemon flavor was a little strong. Next time I will use half as much lemon juice. Pros: Overall, so good I can hardly believe I made it myself, not even very hard, and not a pain to clean up after seeing as it only requires two pans to wash by hand with everything else in the dishwasher.

Seriously, make this. It's so good.

Saturday, May 5, 2012

Aaaaaaand cakes!

As promised, the cake table at the "Greatest Day Of Fun..."

First, several sheet cakes representing various campus activities and the school itself. WIGIS stands for "Wildcat Interest Groups for Incoming Students," and yes, the school mascot really does have a lazy eye:


 

All of these flanked the massive, multi-tier affair that my cookie cake toppers adorned. I was largely uninvolved with the creation of these cakes except for the SGA cake (that's my writing) and the main attraction (put red fondant on top tier, and helped three other people apply dots). The mustached chef in back is Emmerich Zach, the man who organized it all and who taught me to make these kinds of cakes and cookies - the Greek, DECA, and Nutrition Society cakes are his work.






 The rest of the cookies got put on trays at either end of the table. Turns out I wasn't even the only one doing the loose ones... so many cookies!




Hungry now. Time to partake of the feast.




Friday, May 4, 2012

Back to the kitchen

Pastry student is graduating with associate's degree this month!

I was also approached last week by a chef instructor, asking for help with making cakes and cookies for a campus event that happens tomorrow, so I spent six hours in the kitchen today putting icing onto shortbread cookies. See!







The ones with wooden skewers in them are cake toppers. The rest are representing the majors offered at this school (Culinary, Baking&Pastry, Criminal Justice, Business, and Fashion), the school's organized sports, some party/spring themed designs, the Johnson & Wales crest with its griffin mascot, and, by request, Snoopy and a camel.

I'll get photos of the cakes tomorrow when everything is set up.