Sweet Aurom

As I walked home from work the other day I realized that I have nothing to be unhappy about, nothing. It's a nice realization to have too. I spend so much time stressing and complaining, and it's ridiculous to then realize that I do it for the should reason to have something to say. It's a sad truth, but finding that things are actually really good makes things a lot better. I am actually starting to get the hang of being busy and productivity is actually a really positive thing. I'm not dreading the bake off, I'm a bit nervous, but I know that I can do it. I found something that I really like doing and am actually good at, that's not an easy find at any age, and as much as I keep trying to make a future gray, it's actually really gold. Moving back to California is also not as bad as I keep twisting it to be. I get to have the people who mean the most to me back in my life. I get to see my sister, I get to mind vomit with Skipper, I get to drive the 101 with MFP, I get to hang with Doctor Sylvia, and lunch with Lil' Carney. I get to drive again, and will once again be able to shop at Trader Joe's and Target, not to mention Happy Hour at Vic's. Switzerland is awesome, and Luzern is the first place I have ever felt a connection to, but Switzerland isn't going anywhere, and it's time for another adventure. Life gets boring for me when I stay too long in one place, it's time to bring the Fro back into circulation, there is no point in wasting such good hair on the four walls of my apartment.

It must be obnoxious to have to read about how good I feel right now, but it has to beat hearing me complain about being tired and working too much all the time. Plus, it's still my blog.

I finished writing the list of everything I have to make for the bake off, so here it is for those of you who have no idea what I am doing (keep in mind I have nine hours to complete all items from start to finish, and there will be two Master Chefs around evaluating me for the duration):

1. Three Butter cakes (something like a pound cake)
2. approx. 24 "Schoggi-S" (Chocolate Italian Meringue cookie)
3. approx. 12 large and 24 smaller (bite-size) Coconut Macaroons
4. 20 Brioches
5. 10 Apfel im Schlafrock (a half apple packed in puff-pastry with almond paste)
6. 10 Prussien (caramelized puff-pastry cookies)
7. 2 pounds of "Apero Geback" (appetizer snacks, i.e. mini ham croissants, egg filled puff-pastry)
8. 4 different canapes, 5 of each (open-faced sandwiches that are decorated and gelled)
9. 4 different sandwiches, 4 of each (tuna, ham-cheese, roast beef, and cheese)
10. 4 different pastries, 8 of each (glazed lemon tartlet, fruit basket (with hand-piped chocolate handles), peach-tiramisu, pat-e-choux swans, and Mohrenkopf (chocolate fondant covered ball filled with vanilla cream)
11. 5 different types of bite-sized cookies, approx. 20 of each, and three types must be filled (sugar cookies filled with raspberry-strawberry jelly, almond ducks, mini macaroons, and three undecided)
12. 4 cakes out of a butter mass (undecided)
13. 1 recipe of my choice from my recipe book (undecided)
14. Pineapple-Rum Butter cream cake for ten people
    
15. Peach-Tiramisu cake for ten people
    
16. Butter ganache (for a piped out praline)
17. Either a basic ganache, gianduja (a mass made out of roasted nuts, sugar and chocolate), or french marzipan (the expert decides the morning of the exam what it will be)
18. Either caramel, nougat, honey nougat, or fruit gelees ( I have to make two of the four, one I can decide one the expert will decided the morning of)
19. 2 lbs. of praline, 6 different types, min. 2 different type of chocolates (white truffles, gold rum pralines hand-painted with dark and milk chocolate, white Italian nougat dipped in dark, pistachio marzipan dipped in dark, butter ganache pralines dipped in dark, nougat praline dipped in dark)
20. Two different chocolate forms (i.e. Easter bunnies, cows, dinosaurs)
21. 3 "fantasy pieces" (I am making a small "wood" treasure chest out of dark and milk chocolate with a marzipan octopus draped over it)
22. 1 show piece (I am making mine out of chocolate, that's all I am going to say for now...)

I will be graded on a scale of 1-6 for each item, 4 being a passing grade. My final grade will be comprised of my verbal, and written finals, made grades for the last three years, a language-economics-politics-law final for another class, and then the practical. The bake off is June 24 th, so I think that leaves me with less then 3 months.

If you are getting sick about hearing about baking, try another blog for a while, no hard feelings, but I am left with little else to write about.

Today's highlight:

"Never lose touch with the importance of the soul and one's sentiments. Life can be a vast, arid field where the seed one sows often grows away from all that is good."

The House Of Gucci, Sara Gay Forden
(yellow highlight:thick line)