My first day, all over again

Living your life in 9 day stints has its ups and downs. Just when I'm feeling comfortable with a teacher, a technique, and a classroom -- BAM! We have a ginormous, anxiety-inducing exam and then it's on to the next thing.

Today we started Viennoiserie. I've been wondering what this word meant since I started school, and today I found out the answer: Nobody has any idea. I assumed it was all stuff made in Vienna. Nope. Basically, it means "sweet, delicious bread. Sometimes you eat it for breakfast" (this is how my chef explained it).

OF COURSE I forgot my camera today, because I always forget it on the first day of class. Luckily the only thing we made is muffins, and I'm pretty sure everyone knows what they look like. My group made ham, cheese, and red pepper muffins.

Oh! We got to pick our own groups for this class. It is miraculous. I'm surrounded by allies. Fast moving, highly competent allies. We mixed brioche dough for tomorrow, so I'll have some exciting updates to show you.

A few clarifying notes, since I got many questions from yesterday's post:

1. The ice cream maker I have is not for the kitchenaid, but the cuisinart version (see here:http://www.cuisinart.com/products/ice_cream/ice-21.html). I looked around and theirs seemed to be the best... also the basic version has pretty much the same features as the higher-tech one. It might be slightly noisier than the more expensive version, but it's not that noisy and churns the ice cream in about 20-25 minutes.


2. A few months ago I picked up an after-job job (as opposed to my after-school job at Teach For America) baking brownies for a chocolate shop. If you would like to learn more about said chocolate shop and their delicious products (that they can ship anywhere!), visit there website here: (http://www.davidsonchocolate.com/). If you'd like to send me some for Valentine's day, I won't complain. But I do get more than my fair share of chocolate, so you might want to send them to your significant other instead.


3. This has nothing to do with anything, but today I found out (via facebook) that a girl from my high school class is married with a child who appears to be over one year old. I realize that people my age are getting married... but having babies?! Babies that can walk and talk? Yowza. I mean, I hang out with 18 year olds all day and eat cookies. I live in a slovenly heap by myself and have recently moved all of my furniture to one corner of my apartment in an effort to take up yoga. My refrigerator usually only contains the following: booze, pickles, and a few kinds of ganache. I'm thinking I should be concerned... should I be concerned?