Year in Review

Well, It's hard to believe that 2012 is coming to an end (and possibly the world? jk). I haven't posted in a few months so I thought an end of year recap would be an easy way to catch people up on what I've been up to. I graduated culinary school in May, got an externship and then a job at Amy's Bread, discovered that my Dad is pretty much the best person ever and brought my car out.

In November I decided to come home to vote in the election and to get my car. I gave myself like a total of 16 hours or something at home which made everything pretty stressful. Things didn't go exactly to plan and after about 20 minutes into the trip my car started smoking and overheating. I freaked out a bit and pulled off the interstate and did what anyone would do... called my dad. And after the following story I'm sure that you'll agree that I really lucked out in the dad department. My dad left work and drove 45 minutes to come help me out. After inspecting my car he quickly came to the conclusion that my car was not going to make it to New York safely. At this point I was getting pretty anxious since it was 11 am and I had to be to work at 9 the next morning and the drive takes 11 hours. So my dad decided that he would let me use his car to drive back to New York, get my car fixed for me and then drive all the way out to trade cars back. I don't know what I would have done without him. The drive back was thankfully uneventful, though a little boring. I took a grand total of two pictures haha

I made it back safely to the Bronx and then a week or so later I met my dad in PA and switched cars with him. So now my commute to and from work has become a lot better and less annoying (though don't get me started on NYC drivers, I may soon be blinded by road rage). 

I decided to quit Starbucks after the holidays, the stress of never having a day off is starting to get to me (along with the horrible customers that come in) and so I gave my notice and should be done in early January. The bakery is going well and we have been insanely busy because of the holidays. 

 Things have been going well, but one major disappointment was that I was unable to make it home for Lauren's wedding on December 1. She has always been one of my very closest friends since we were very small (see above picture) and I was really sad to not be able to share in her big day. The good part is that she is now living in PA not so very far from me, so we will hopefully be able to see each other more often.

Well, I think that's it for me. I had an eventful year which included surviving a hurricane and having to parallel park on a regular basis. I hope everyone is well and has a safe and happy Christmas and New Year.

One year in...

It's crazy to think that just a little over a year ago, I was being dropped off at some slightly gross place in Queens sobbing and thinking I'd made the worst mistake of my life. What a difference a year can make... (or something like that.) Well, folks I'm here to report that I'm still alive and well. I've not had much time to do anything lately, I've been working a crazy amount and then catching up on laundry and cleaning on my day(s) off. The bakery is going really well and I still love it. I've been getting to make different things and on the days that I work later in the day/evening I get to help the night bakers which means making a bunch of stuff you never see on the day shift. I also have been cooking for myself pretty much every day, which is nice. The other day I made veggie lasagna (Thanks Aunt Kathy!) and even my meat eating roommates loved it. I've also continued reading a bunch, the latest book I read is the new Junot Diaz book called "This is How You Lose Her," he is the author of one of my all time favorite books, "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao," and his new book was just as good. 

Also, I've been able to listen to NPR at the bakery every day. Now this may not seem that exciting to anyone but me, but there might not be anything better than making carrot cake and listening to Car Talk. Speaking of carrots... I was making carrot cake on Monday and came across quite possibly the biggest carrot ever...

I also made red velvet cake this last weekend and looked like the victim of a violent crime:

Oh, also, I'll be coming home for a day to do my civic duty and also to get my car on November 6th. It might seem crazy that I'll be bringing my car to the city, but it's been taking me around 1.5 hours on the train to get to and from work which is driving me crazy!!!! It will take around 30 minutes via my car and there is free parking at my job and plenty of free parking at my house, not to mention that the route to get from the Bronx to Queens that I'll take doesn't have any tolls. So in order to save my sanity, it seems like the smart thing to do. Now, if only I could figure out a way to steal my dog without my Dad and/or my roommates noticing I'd be golden.

Here's some food that I made recently for myself and some dessert for my roommates:

strawberry shortcake

Thai coconut veggies with brown rice

And lastly, my beloved Tigers have eked into the postseason for the second season in a row, while Miguel Cabrera is about to accomplish something that hasn't been done since 1967, which is to win the triple crown. It's nice to know that even after a year in New York, I haven't been converted into a Yankees fan.

 

Ch-ch-ch-changes

Turning 25 doesn't mean you're suddenly mature

I could start this by saying how sorry I am that I haven't blogged in so long and how busy I am and blah blah blah; but the truth is I kind of forget about this blog 98% of the time. Anyhow, I went back to Michigan for my birthday to try and spend a couple of relaxing days at the beach. Dad, Sam, and Zach all took a couple of days off to accompany me to Grand Haven, and it was a blast. I even managed to get some pictures:

No Time for Rest, Feeling at home, and Figuring Stuff out

The house from my favorite movie The Royal Tenenbaums, it's about 5 blocks from where I live

I've lived in New York for about nine months now... That's crazy. On the one hand I cannot believe that I've been away from Michigan for that long and on the other hand I can't believe that I've only been here for that long - it feels like I've been here for way longer (in a good way). Life has gotten really crazy in these last few weeks; I'm working seven days a week and around 60 hours and you know what? I'm happy. Like really happy. The bakery is amazing and every weekend even though I have a hard time dragging myself out of bed because I'm exhausted from closing at Starbucks the night before; I get there and realize that there is nowhere else I would rather be. The people who work there are awesome and so kind that it's kind of unbelievable. They make me feel so welcome and like I'm an important part of the team and not just some lowly intern. I feel so incredibly lucky/blessed that I ended up where I did, because I have to assume that it would be much tougher to be working so much if I hated the place I was going. So not only have I been working like crazy, but I'm also moving... that will mean that I will have lived in three of the five boroughs in my short time here. Maybe I can go for some sort of record? I've also managed to be filling my not so spare time with reading, and have been reading about a book a day. Nothing super Earth shattering or important but it feels good to read none the less. I also managed to find some time to go see the new Wes Anderson movie (he directed the film mentioned in the above picture) and it was so cute and wonderful! I loved it and was glad that I got to see it early (it's in limited release). Also, the wonderful customer at my work is going to have me make a cake for her parents' wedding anniversary in September and has been telling her friends about me, so I think that I'll be doing some "free-lance" cake work. I like doing it and it will be a nice way to make some extra cash. Anyhow, I hope you're all well. Also, once I'm moved into my new place I expect all of you to come and visit and crash on my bedroom floor (not all at once though, it'd be pretty crowded).

Talk to you soon!

Kayla

Sore feet, no free time, and being content

Well, you are looking at the newest graduate of ICE (sort of - I don't officially get my diploma until I've finished my externship.) My dad, brother, and sister got to come in for the occasion and it was fun showing them around the city and finally making it to the museum of natural history. The cake that I made turned out pretty much the way I pictured it in my head when I sketched it, and despite a couple of flaws I was happy with the end result. Here's a picture my dad took:

It's still kind of weird to me that I made that. I am not the least bit creative but somehow I managed to do that... weird. Anyhow, I started my externship this morning and was really surprised when I awoke that I was really sad to not be going to school today. I guess it's not that much of a surprise since I've kind of always been a nerd... oh well. The externship went well, I made cookie dough, made a couple types of frosting, prepared cake pans, wrapped cakes, cleaned, more stuff I can't think of. I think that I was underestimating how tough this would be in addition to Starbucks, but I'm not complaining, it's fun. I went to the bakery which is in a part of Manhattan called Hell's Kitchen and there was a street fair going on today; so for the whole day whenever I looked outside I felt like I was back in Rochester, because it looked just like downtown Rochester when they have something going on outside. 

Here's another picture from graduation a very (un)flattering close-up (thanks dad!) It should also be noted that I had eight hours of class before the graduation ceremony and the air conditioning was not working.

My eyes look nice and wonky...

On a different note, I'm considering moving again. A girl I work with needs a new roommate (she lives with two other girls but the third just moved out.) It's in the Bronx but in a house that is really nice. I am going to look at it on Tuesday, I haven't decided for sure, but it seems like it would be a really great fit. I'll keep you updated. Hope you're all having a good weekend.

-Kayla

Life questions, being vegetarian, neglecting blogs

I was just thinking that it hasn't been that long since I last updated my blog and then I looked and noticed that I never even posted about the chocolate stuff I made. (Spoiler alert, I hated it...) I also feel like not much has happened but I guess it has. So, I will try to briefly catch everyone up with my life since my last update. (I posted a cute picture of Margot because how can you be mad about a lack of updates when you see that face?) Before I get into the school stuff, I actually have something that I need a little advice on. So, I got promoted to shift supervisor at Starbucks a few weeks ago and about a week ago my manager asked me about becoming an assistant manager. I had never really given it any thought and had not been very interested before, but I gave it some thought and told him that I would definitely consider it. I figure that even if I get a job right out of school it's not going to pay that great and it might not have the great benefits that Starbucks does. Plus an assistant starts at around $40k a year which it quite a lot more than what I currently make (plus you get stocks and 401k and all that great stuff). So after thinking about it I told my manager that I would like to pursue it. I was thinking that it would take several months if it even happened at all. There is also the fact that when you're promoted 99% of the time you have to transfer to a different store. However, today when I came in my manager told me that he talked to our district manager and I can do an interview in two weeks... He also told our dm that he would delay getting an assistant for a couple months so that I can stay at our store and do it. This seems to be happening really fast and I'm a little bit worried if it's the right thing to do. I need the money and I really like working at Starbucks and there's a definite safety net there; I just don't want to get distracted from my goal of baking. So, am I making a huge mistake by possibly taking this promotion? Or is it a good decision? I need some outside perspective please! Alright onto school. I cannot remember everything that we did, so here are some pictures:

Promotions, Finals, and Feeling at home

Well, I finished another term/semester/mod at school and am happy to say that I still have an A. The last few weeks of school have been a real test. I had to work with a partner that I cannot stand and have come to the realization that I am an absolute control freak. It's not a very flattering quality so I'm going to work on it. I had my final on Sunday and for the final we had a written portion and then we had to decorate a cake. We made the lemon-scented cake again, but this time we got to choose the flavors and determine how we wanted to decorate it. I chose to do raspberry jam with a framboise (raspberry liquer) flavored buttercream. We practiced our piping skills on Saturday and by Sunday my rosettes looked a lot better. When we finished our cakes we had to sit down with the chef one-on-one and discuss our thoughts on what our grade should be. I kind of hate having to self evaluate and tell someone what grade I think I deserve. I had a class in college where the professor didn't believe in grades, so we each had to meet with him and tell him what grade to give us. I was having flashbacks to that when I went to sit down with the chef. I finished my cake first and volunteered to go get graded first. There were different criteria like how the sides of the cake looked, the top of the cake, finishing details, the layers on the inside, etc. The sides of my cake looked kind of crappy because I had a little trouble with them, so he asked me what I thought I deserved out of 18. I said 13 because I was not very happy with the work and knew I could have done better. He told me that I am too hard on myself and gave me a 16. I ended up with an A (although a low A like a 93) so I was pretty satisfied. Plus the chef said some really nice things to me, which made me feel pretty good. Next weekend begins the chocolate mod along with more cake decorating. So stay tuned. (Oh - side note, I tried my cake before I got rid of it and it was delicious!)

On another front, I got promoted to shift supervisor at Starbucks today. I'll be making about two dollars more an hour which is really nice. I've come to the realization that I love it here. I've made some really great friends and I get to live in quite possibly the craziest place on the planet. I still am surprised sometimes to think that I actually did this; that I actually moved out here on my own without knowing anyone. I feel really proud of myself to be honest, hopefully I can say that without sounding boastful. On a side note: I'm re-reading "The Great Gatsby" and was reminded by one particular passage as to why I loved F. Scott Fitzgerald's writing. So, I'll leave you with that. Hope everyone has a good week. I'll see you soon!

"He smiled understandingly-much more than understandingly. It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life. It faced--or seemed to face--the whole external world for an instant, and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor. It understood you just as far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself." 

Ribbon cakes, cookies, parfaits and being good at balancing...

I have to wear my hair in a bun at school so that I can avoid wearing a hairnet; so at the end of the day when I take the bun down, my hair has dried in a weird direction and gets all twisted and looks pretty funny. I should have started this off by saying that I'm coming home in April. I'll be home from April 5-9, so hopefully I'll see you while I'm there. School has been moving along swiftly and I cannot believe I only have a couple more months of classes. I've been having a good time this semester and really enjoy my instructor. Getting a compliment from someone who is fairly critical feels a lot better than from someone who compliments everything. We've been making a bunch of stuff and I keep surprising myself by doing really well on it and being told so by my teacher as well. Enough bragging about myself though. I have some pictures!

insert clever title here...

I've sat down to write a new post like three times over the course of the last two weeks and each time have found myself with nothing to say. So, if this feels slightly forced or maybe not entirely interesting you have my apologies. I guess another excuse is that the weather has been amazing here (minus today as it's been raining all day - but hey it's not snow right?) Here's a semi boring description of my commuting plans: (this has a point I swear) I live uptown on the west-side and my job is on the east-side. So, in the afternoon when I get out of work I typically take a crosstown bus so that I can just take the train right home, instead of having to transfer trains and such. However, as I mentioned, the weather has been so nice lately that I decided to start walking across town instead of taking the bus. This means that I get to walk through Central Park on my way home everyday. (The above picture is of the big lake in Central Park that I get to walk past.) I didn't have school last weekend so I got to sleep in and go out with some friends which was fun.
School has been good, I really like my new instructor. He taught us some new piping techniques and once again complimented me on my work. We've also made some more cakes, but I think that I only have a picture of one, here it is:

We made Genoise cakes which is just a type of sponge cake, although if you say Genoise instead of sponge you sound much more pretentious (just make sure to use a very French pronunciation.) We made a chocolate one and also a plain one. I don't remember which one this is because I finished them similarly, but the plain one had raspberry jam and lemon curd. I've got to be honest and say that I would probably eat anything thing that has lemon curd on it, because it's pretty much the most delicious thing ever. My chocolate one was layered with raspberry jam, whipped cream and fresh raspberries. By the way I whipped the cream by hand, take that Kitchenaid... That was pretty much all we did at school, it was a pretty laid back weekend which was nice. Tomorrow we have an exam so I'm hoping I do alright.

I decided this year to participate in Lent, mostly because I have never done so, and partly because I wanted to kind of challenge myself. So, for Lent I decided that the only beverages I would drink would be water and tea (unsweetened). So, no soda, no juice, and worst of all - no coffee. So far so good though. Have any of you given up anything for Lent? Also, on a slightly more embarrassing note I have been marathoning episodes of Felicity on Netflix. I never saw it when it aired on tv, but I kind of love it. I've been getting a lot of flack at work about it hahaha. On that note, I am going to go study for my test.Talk to you soon.
Kayla

Let's all pretend that it hasn't been two weeks since my last post...

Alright, where to begin... Well a couple of weeks ago I went back home to Michigan to see my family and friends. I had a very busy but fun trip and got to see almost everyone that I was hoping to. I made it back to New York by myself and realized that it now feels like home here. Mostly because I have a routine that I was anxious to get back into. After I got back I went back to work and had a dinner out with my coworkers. Afterwards we went to a karaoke bar and somehow I ended up getting onstage with a couple of co-workers and singing a terrible (but secretly awesome) R&B song from the early 2000's in front of a room full of people. Somewhere a video of this exists but I am trying my best to never let it see the light of day hahaha. Now onto school:

placeholder

This is just a placeholder to let you all know that I am alive and well, and I will have a new blog post tomorrow. Bear with me, I haven't gotten to sleep any later than 430 am for the last two weeks so I'm a little tired.
Until tomorrow,
Kayla

Part two because I'm terrible at blogging,..

OK, so I had to split this into two parts because I could not get the pictures to go where I wanted them to, so before I threw my computer at the wall I thought I would just create a new post...

Oh that? That's just two pounds of butter that I got to beat flat with a rolling pin... no big deal

Apple tart with puff pastry

OK, That's it for school. In other news, I'm coming home in about a week and am beyond excited! I seriously cannot wait to see all of you! Alright that's all for now! See you soon! 

Kayla

Sorry that I've neglected this...

I’m sorry!!!!! For real, it’s been forever since I last posted and I feel terrible about it. However, I started back at school this week and I actually have stuff to post about other than weird Starbucks customers and homeless people. (Although I have had plenty of encounters with both - trust me.) Anyhow since I last posted Christmas happened, my friend Charlotte came to town, I got sick, and most importantly I booked a plane ticket home! I’ll start with Charlotte’s visit first.

Delicious Falafel!

Char came to visit on the 28th and I managed to take the bus to the airport and pick her up without getting lost! I was quite proud of myself for that. I ended up staying with her at a hotel in Flushing and we took the train to and from Manhattan. By the way if you come to visit, don’t stay in Flushing. The only cool part about Flushing is that you can see where the US Open is played. (This might not be anything exciting for people who are not tennis fans…) I don’t remember exactly what we did but I will try to recap anyhow. On the first day that she was here we went to the Upper East Side to visit the MET (which by the way was amazing as always), we grabbed lunch at a local diner, and then walked through Central Park afterwards. I think that day we also went and saw “Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” but I can’t be sure, we also went to a tapas bar (Spanish food which is fun to tell people about because they ALWAYS think you said topless :-\ ). After the tapas bar we went to see Times Square and the Christmas tree while they were lit up at night. The next day we went into Manhattan, first to 59th street to visit Dylan’s Candy Bar, where I found these shirts that Lauren needs to own immediately:

After the candy bar we went into the Times Square area to do some shopping. I warned Charlotte that it would be packed (after all this was only a couple of days before New Years) but we went anyway and were astounded to see just how crazy it was. After braving a couple of stores we walked over to Bryant Park, where there happens to be a branch of the library. I pretty much fell in love right away. The building is enormous and beautiful and it’s filled with books and history. Can it really get better than that? The answer is no. After some more walking around we went to Brooklyn to get some pizza. I should point out that after being quite warm it had gotten very cold this day. It was somewhere around 27 degrees when we got to the pizza place, which had a line half a block long. Charlotte questioned whether this pizza would be worth the hour long wait, but after I assured her that it was, she agreed to wait. And after an hour in the cold and not being able to feel our toes, we got inside and had the most delicious pizza in the world. (I would say it’s an exaggeration, but I truly believe this.) After pizza we walked down to the water to see the awesome view of the city skyline at night and then trekked back into Manhattan to go see a comedy show at the Upright Citizens Brigade. If you are ever in the city I really recommend going to the UCB. It’s only five bucks and it’s always funny, no matter what show you’re seeing.  On Charlotte’s last day in the city we ventured into Chelsea (an area in Manhattan) to see my school and the Flatiron building. We then walked around to find a place to eat lunch and stumbled upon a Mediterranean restaurant that had a falafel pita on the menu, so we of course went in. The restaurant was kind of fancy but super reasonable. It was about 12 bucks for the falafel and fries; and it was delicious! (I just had to google it, but it’s called Barbounia.) After lunch we walked a block down to Crumbs Bake Shop and got a cupcake for later. I got a peppermint hot chocolate one and it was pretty good. After a quick visit to my favorite Barnes and Noble (aka a four story one), I rode the train with Charlotte back into Queens so that she could catch her flight back home. I had a great time having a friend visit, but I have to admit that being a tourist is exhausting. I was glad to get back to my normal routine.

Peppermint hot chocolate cupcake

The Library!

Alright, onto school. This weekend we made puff pastry. I’ve kind of been dreading it because it’s a laminated dough, like the croissants, so it involves a lot of rolling the dough out and doing “double turns” and other fun things. I was worried that I would end up messing it up like I did my croissants. Well guess what? Turns out I’m pretty good at laminating dough / making puff pastry! I was pretty excited when I had no trouble rolling out the dough to the length of the table. We also got to use a “sheeter” on Sunday which was pretty neat since it rolls out the dough for you. I don’t remember what else we did, but here are some pictures. Wait! We also made stroudel! It was crazy, we had to stretch this little amount of dough into a huge sheet. OK, now here are the pictures: