Exam Results

So, I did it.
And what's even more important: I passed.
Squeaked by, really. It was a hard day, and I'm not going to lie to you: there were some tears shed.
Especially when I found out that my best little buddy, Lin, did not pass. She was her usual calm and composed self, and took the news well, but I was pretty upset. She laughed at me. "Why are YOU crying? I'm the one that failed!" She said.
I will have more details for you at a later date, but I'm falling asleep as I type. I am physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausted.

Also, I would like to point out that this is my 25th post of the month, breaking the record of 24 posts in November '06. I am on a roll!

Epiphany

I think that's the right word...

Today has been strange.
The day before my BIG SCARY EXAM.
I've been able to kinda avoid thinking about the exam this past week. "Its a week away"
But these last couple mornings, I've actually woken up early, my heart racing, and my imagination chasing after it. All the "what if's" haunt me.
Today...I basically had nothing to do but think about the exam. I get so panicky!! And then a second later, I'm like, "You know what? I don't even care. Whatever".

It finally struck me, that maybe that is true.
I am actually pretty fine with the thought that I won't be going into the 3rd semester. Shhh, don't tell anyone, ok? It intimidates me, and since I'm already not 100% sold on the idea of being a cook for the rest of my life, I sometimes wonder if it wouldn't be a waste of time. Maybe I don't need to take the third semester...maybe I just want this to be a hobby, and I can just keep on learning as I go along my merry way, in my own time.

Anyway, getting back to the point:

I think that I'm not scared of passing or failing. Sure its nice to pass. And you never feel great when you fail. But I can deal with either scenario, and its not the end of the world.

I think I'm scared of the actual test. The challenge, the preassure, the watching eyes, measuring my every move. I always second guess myself. I dont' like when people can see my insecurity.
I'm scared of what they will think when I make a mistake.

Really, I just want it to be Friday night right now. Pass or Fail, I don't really care at this point. I just don't want to experience that gut-wrenching, heart-stopping, mind-numbing panic that I know will knock me to the ground when I am handed my menu tomorrow morning.

Peppy's New Look

What a stylin' little dude.
I think I might try to find some kind of stripe or decal to go on the hood, and the windshield will be replaced soon. Also...great news! The little green "N" on the back no longer cramps his style.
I took my road test today, and I'll never have to bother about those "one passenger" rules again! PAR-TAY!

Accident Prone

I'm beginning to think maybe I should just not get into cars anymore.
Something always goes wrong.
Remember Peppy, my beautiful shining specimen of a Honda Civic?

September '08- Day of Purchase

He shines no more.
Now he is bumped and bruised, and today something awful happened to him.
I was just merging onto the highway from Dallas, and as I picked up speed suddenly the hood flew up, smashing into the windshield!

Mike sympathizes with poor Peppy

Luckily someone pulled over and helped me tie it down so I could drive home.

There are some glass shards on my dashboard

The hood latch has always been a little "off", but I guess the last time I opened it up, it didn't close properly and it broke loose today.
Now I have to get a new hood, which probably won't be the same color as the rest of the car, a new side mirror, and a new windshield. A week before I leave.

Siiiiiiigh.

Oh ya! I forgot...

A week or two ago a few big cardboard boxes arrived at our doorstep...


filled with goodies...

it was like Christmas morning.

My delight was found in a springform pan (translation: CHEESECAKE!!!), a set of six prep bowls...

and a delightful large bamboo cutting board :)

I am truly pampered.

Stagette

Poor Rishelle...
She didn't suspect that when we made her wear an ugly sweater and plaid pajama pants in public, it was only the beginning of the embarrassment.
Andrew G. watches from the safety of Starbucks, probably very glad he is male.
The beauty treatment begins...back-combing, hairspray, makeup....
Dang, she still looks good :)
But she's not too happy with her new style...or her assignment.
A shopping list of about 10 veeerrrrry embarassing items.
The "M.O.H", Kelsey is enjoying this a little too much. Does she realize this is all going to come back and bite her in the-
"But I can't do that!"

In her own words.
Haha! Your friends will always honk for you.
Party afterwards! Great gifts, like this pair of used Granny Panties from Value Village!

Liz, consider yourself lucky we were unprepared for yours! You got off waaaay too easy :)

Not for the Faint-Hearted!

The following images are disturbing to the extreme, especially if you are squeamish about WARTS!
However, I polled you guys last week to see if a post of this nature would be welcome, and I discovered that almost all of you are as sick as I am! What can I say, warts are so weirdly fascinating. Just don't youtube them, ok? Cuz Katie and I did that, and I threw up a little bit in my mouth. I'm just partial to my own warts, I guess.

Ok, so when last I documented the Warty War in November, I was using a bottle of stuff called Compound W. I would soak my foot and then apply this white liquid. It was pretty harsh, but it certainly reduced the size of the warts, even though it did take a lot of skin with it! Seriously...it was disgusting. My toes were peeling, red, and raw, and they would really hurt after being on my feet all day at school. This isn't even the worst picture of it. I didn't want to gross you guys out too bad.
At one point my smallest wart on one of my toes was sticking out, and all the skin around it had peeled off, so I picked and picked, until the wart came off.
Eventually my Compound W dried up, and my warts were still there. Even the one I picked off came back.
It was a time of deep despair.
I left them alone for a while, thinking maybe there would be a delayed result from the medication.
No such luck.

They started growing again, and I reeeeally don't want more than 3 warts, so when my mom brought home a little bottle of Oil of Oregano (which apparently cures everything from sore throats, to warts, to cancer...ok, that last one has not been confirmed....) I decided to give it a go.
The process is basically the same as before: soak the foot for 10 minutes, the wart will open up (it really does...like a flower. Gross!) and then put a little drop of the oil on.
It doesn't hurt, and it doesn't kill the skin around the wart, so its an improvement I think!
I was doing it regularly for about a week or two, and I noticed the wart started getting little dark specks in it. Naturally, I got the camera out and zoomed in. And then cropped and zoomed some more! Here is what I saw...prepare yourselves.
EEEWWWWWWWW!!! See all those little strands? Yuck!! Some are dark, and some are still white. I think its a good sign when they go dark.
There hasn't been much progress since this pic was taken, and one of the warts on my toes is getting pretty hefty, so it might be time to switch to a new treatment.

I hear apple cider vinegar works. And covering it with clear nail polish is supposed to suffocate it.

Hey, its worth a try!

Finding a fail-proof wart cure might be my life calling.

Camera Jealousy

I love putting lots of pictures up on my blog. It just makes blogging so much more fun!
It does sometimes present a problem for me though.
Sometimes I like my photos...and then a lot of the time I don't.

A lot of the time I take hundreds of pics, and then when I'm going through them on the computer I want to throw my camera across the room because none of them turned out! Either they're not as sharp as I would like, or the angle is a little wrong, or it didn't focus quite right...or at all.
I have shaky hands, and I don't know anything technical about photography at ALL, so 99% of the time I am the one at fault, not my camera...

Actually, my camera is pretty good, as far as point-and-shoot goes. I think I did a little damage to it, in Ireland though. Some adventures got pretty damp, and there are spots on the lens now. I guess I should get it cleaned. The point of the matter being, maybe its not in its best condition right now.

So when Mike, Katie, and I went for day trip to Wells Gray Park on Wednesday and Mike's gorgeous (10,000 ton) SLR camera brought home the goods, and I only got a few not-perfectly-clear snaps, I became a little camera jealous.

And now I don't want to post any pictures because they are not good enough.
I'm throwing a little pity party now.
Bye.

The Imperfect Cook: Bakeshop Edition

As you are probably all aware, my BIG, SCARY, practical exam is coming up in just over a week. I'm doing my best to study, and going over the possible items. Banana Cream Pie is one of the listed desserts, and since I haven't made Pastry Cream in ages, I thought I'd better review.
I'm not a huge fan of bananas, but desserts do tend to get eaten one way or another around here!

Here we go!
The ingredients are simple:
Milk, Egg Yolks, Whole Eggs, Sugar (divided into two equal portions), Cornstarch, Butter, and Vanilla.
First, we are going to heat up the milk. I usually set it to somewhere around medium. I don't want to boil it!!
Add one of the parts of sugar, and stir! I hope you are appreciating the fact that I am performing this left-handed!
Now for the egg yolks, and whole eggs...beat them! Muahaha!
Once they are well beaten, throw in that cornstarch and stir it all up!
Well done, well done.
Now the milk is getting a lot hotter. When it gets all frothy and steamy, with a little burbling under that foam, it is ready!
Now I am going to temper it with the egg mix. I don't want to add it all at once, because I don't really fancy cornstarchy scrambled eggs for lunch.
Whisk it as you slowly add the milk.
Now you want to have this pot of water on. You want a pot big enough that the steel bowl you are using for you milk/egg mix will fit inside, with the rim resting on the pot. Its a double-boiler! Hooray! Fill it a few inches with water. It doesn't need to be really full, just enough to produce a lot of steam. Have it come to a steady simmer, but a full boil can sometimes be too hot, so be careful.
When the steam is coming fast and furious, put your bowl on it and start whisking!!!
Faster! Faster!! FASTER!!! No scrambled eggs!!!
It will take a few minutes before it starts to thicken. When you see it start to boil, take it off the pot, and toss in your butter and vanilla (which looks disturbingly red in that pic...eww)
This is a nice consistency. Do it like this.
Now, because there is so much dairy in this (like...all of it) you don't want it to be sitting around at that warm "cooling-off" stage for very long. I would prefer to keep everyone alive and not being violently ill after eating my desserts. Just a personal preference.
So what I did is scrape my pastry cream into a smaller (cool) bowl, then rinse out my big bowl, fill it with ice, and then stick my pastry cream bowl on top of the ice....you still with me?
See? Big Bowl-- Ice. Small bowl-- pastry cream!
This cools it down really fast, so there's a lot less risk of bacteria growth.
While we are doing away with salmonella poisoning, lets chop up some banana!
Toss in the first layer.
When the pastry cream is no longer steaming, and feels cool-ish, splat some on top of those weird, mushy little circles. I think it was always the banana texture that threw me off.
Next layer! I used a particularly shallow pie pan, so I'm only gonna get these two layers in, but you might be able to fit another layer with a deeper dish.
Beeeeeautiful!
And there she is. Don't even start me on the mint garnish. Mint...and Banana?!?!
I...I don't know why I did it...I'm...sorry....it won't happen again.
The recipe probably makes enough for two good-sized cream pies. I made one small pie, and a bunch of tarts. So...go ahead and cut it in half if you want.

1 Liter Milk (you are probably better off with whole milk...I sinned, and used 1%)
250 g Sugar, divided into 2 parts
4 Egg Yolks
2 Whole Eggs
75 g Cornstarch
1 Tablespoon Vanilla
60 g Butter

The best thing about this recipe is....it can be used for ANYTHING! It doesn't have to be Banana Cream! It could be Butterscotch, or Chocolate, or Coconut! Or even...LEMON! (this one needs a few small adjustments...namely using water instead of milk, increasing sugar and cornstarch, and of course...adding lemon!) OR you can cut the cornstarch in half, and voila-- pudding!
And I can guarantee that it tastes better than any store-bought product!
You should try it. Its goooooood.