Food, photos, scraps
I wanted to post before I leave for Asia tomorrow~
I'm obsessed with these two songs.
Ellie Goulding-Black+Gold
Ellie Goulding-Starry Eyed
Yesterday my sister, my mom, a family friend and I were lucky enough to get a private pastry-making demonstration from Johnny Iuzzini, head pastry-chef at the famous restaurant Jean-Georges. This guy is adorable. I think I'm in love; he's cute, nice, and damn is he good with his hands. @w@ (Good lord maybe I should lock this entry) He taught us how to make cheesecake (ok, fancy little flat french cheesecake squares), strawberry sorbet, vanilla ice cream, and Jean Georges' signature molten chocolate cake. Actually, my favorite thing was the sorbet. It was pretty simple--sugar, strawberries, red wine, lemon, and vanilla bean. The texture was so smooth, apparently because of the wine, and the flavor was amazing. I need to buy his cookbook. (I'm so stupid, why didn't I buy it before and have him sign it?) Also, I'm going to have to suck it up and start using vanilla beans. They make such a huge difference. (They're also hugely expensive.)
When everything was done, we got to arrange the desserts (ok, copy his arrangement) and eat them.
shitty cell phone pic. I should have taken a picture of his. We couldn't even scoop out the ice cream like he did. I wish I could take pastry-making lessons! And I wish I had an excuse for making ridiculously extravagant pastries...
We talked about depachika in Japan (lol) and he sent me some restaurant recommendations for Tokyo. But we can't afford most of them. owo;; He also told us about his upcoming series on the history channel. It's going to be about him and a group of other chefs trying to recreate historical cuisine, like ancient Roman banquets and stuff, using only the ingredients and tools they had back then. Sounds so cool right? Keep an eye out for it.
Oh, and we met THE Jean-Georges on our way out! He was like, the most polished little French chef man I've ever seen. ;w;
Bought a new jacket. It's my favorite thing in my closet now.
Last weekend I visited my grandparents, who live in Rockport, Massachusetts. I've probably said this before, but it's such a cute town. You know that new Sandra Bullock movie The Proposal? It was shot in Rockport (and they pretended it was Alaska lol).
My grandparents have pear, apple, peach, and cherry trees.
And a lovely garden :>
BEES. MY GOD.
There are a bunch of quarries in the area, including this huge one. You need passes to go but we woke up early (I WOKE UP AT 7:30 HOLY CRAP), before the guard got there. It's friggin chilly in the morning, but the water is nice in August. I love quarries. Sea water can be so murky and gross, and salty, and I can't stand pool water, but quarry water is fresh, clear and totally refreshing.
I swam all the way across~
Me and grandma made a Boston cream pie for grandpa's birthday. The recipe is from the Tollhouse cookbook, by the lady who invented chocolate chip cookies!
We also made muffins with the fresh blueberries from the garden.
Ok, so I've wanted to try to make macarons for a really long time. Not the coconut macaroons you serve at Passover! The fancy-schmancy french kind. Like..the kind that are impossible to make!
Well...yeah. They are impossible to make.
HORRIFYING FAILUREEEEEE
Ok so we tried using a chocolate macaron recipe my grandma makes, only without the cocoa (because i don't like chocolate very much), and instead we added more sugar. I think this made the batter too runny somehow. Like, when the shells cooked, the bottoms spread out way too much and they came out really chewy. So we tried adding more ground almonds and making them smaller, which made them look a little better, but seemed to make them even chewier.
I think a big problem was my technique. At one point you have to fold the sugar and almond mixture into the fluffy egg meringue. (As my recent pastry lesson confirmed) I suck at folding. The powdered almonds got all clumpy in the meringue...ugh!
We made a Swiss Buttercream filling that was delicious (i mean, it was all butter and sugar, so...) but it was too light to balance the chewiness and strong almond flavor of the shells.
Ugh, they were nothing like the macarons from our local French bakery!
artful arrangement fail
Some random stuff:
This is a blancmange I made a while ago. As you can see, I didn't process the almonds enough. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't good either.
My birfday cake. It was a lemon mousse on a hazelnut mousse. An unusual combination, but really good.
OK, so last Tuesday was my last day working at an intern at a small Veterinary Hospital on the Upper East Side (yes, I've been doing something other than drawing TF2 faggotry and reading the Hetalia kink meme). I have absolutely no relevant skills or qualifications (uhh, I got a B in Bio 14?)--I got it through a connection, and I wasn't paid. Well, I was paid in cute fluffy animals! *w* So many nedms. Well...I had to deal with a lot of really sick animals too. I even had to see a cat get put down, which made me cry! My friends already had to listen to all the sad/disturbing/disgusting stories, so I won't add them here. But it was a really interesting experience and I learned a lot about being a vet, even if I've decided I don't want to go to Veterinary school anymore. (I never actually wanted to be a vet, but I wanted to do wildlife conservation with a Veterinary degree. Now I think I'm going to major in Asian Studies. lol)
This is a kitten who lives in the hospital. A vet from another practice found him on the side of the road, suffering from roundworm and giardia. She left him at our hospital, saying she'd take him after a few days, but he's been here for like four months now! I said I'd foster him (even though I already have 4 cats...i'm fucking crazy), but the lady keeps saying she'll come get him, so I couldn't take him. It's not fair--he's a kitten, he has so much energy and he's stuck in a little cage every day. He's so cute...I hope that he'll be adopted soon.
Roberta, a Pekingese whose owners always board her at the hospital. She's the sweetest, friendliest dog ever. We let her stay out, and she follows us outside to the waiting room and into the examining rooms with the patients. She thinks she's a vet too. I want to steal her!
some other Pekingese with a really derp face
Crap:
:I Well, now I have to draw him in that.
I don't know it was funny at 3 am
....so gay
nobody ships it but meeee
I should get rid of that Angelic Pretty bag :<
I'm obsessed with these two songs.
Ellie Goulding-Black+Gold
Ellie Goulding-Starry Eyed
Yesterday my sister, my mom, a family friend and I were lucky enough to get a private pastry-making demonstration from Johnny Iuzzini, head pastry-chef at the famous restaurant Jean-Georges. This guy is adorable. I think I'm in love; he's cute, nice, and damn is he good with his hands. @w@ (Good lord maybe I should lock this entry) He taught us how to make cheesecake (ok, fancy little flat french cheesecake squares), strawberry sorbet, vanilla ice cream, and Jean Georges' signature molten chocolate cake. Actually, my favorite thing was the sorbet. It was pretty simple--sugar, strawberries, red wine, lemon, and vanilla bean. The texture was so smooth, apparently because of the wine, and the flavor was amazing. I need to buy his cookbook. (I'm so stupid, why didn't I buy it before and have him sign it?) Also, I'm going to have to suck it up and start using vanilla beans. They make such a huge difference. (They're also hugely expensive.)
When everything was done, we got to arrange the desserts (ok, copy his arrangement) and eat them.
shitty cell phone pic. I should have taken a picture of his. We couldn't even scoop out the ice cream like he did. I wish I could take pastry-making lessons! And I wish I had an excuse for making ridiculously extravagant pastries...
We talked about depachika in Japan (lol) and he sent me some restaurant recommendations for Tokyo. But we can't afford most of them. owo;; He also told us about his upcoming series on the history channel. It's going to be about him and a group of other chefs trying to recreate historical cuisine, like ancient Roman banquets and stuff, using only the ingredients and tools they had back then. Sounds so cool right? Keep an eye out for it.
Oh, and we met THE Jean-Georges on our way out! He was like, the most polished little French chef man I've ever seen. ;w;
Bought a new jacket. It's my favorite thing in my closet now.
Last weekend I visited my grandparents, who live in Rockport, Massachusetts. I've probably said this before, but it's such a cute town. You know that new Sandra Bullock movie The Proposal? It was shot in Rockport (and they pretended it was Alaska lol).
My grandparents have pear, apple, peach, and cherry trees.
And a lovely garden :>
BEES. MY GOD.
There are a bunch of quarries in the area, including this huge one. You need passes to go but we woke up early (I WOKE UP AT 7:30 HOLY CRAP), before the guard got there. It's friggin chilly in the morning, but the water is nice in August. I love quarries. Sea water can be so murky and gross, and salty, and I can't stand pool water, but quarry water is fresh, clear and totally refreshing.
I swam all the way across~
Me and grandma made a Boston cream pie for grandpa's birthday. The recipe is from the Tollhouse cookbook, by the lady who invented chocolate chip cookies!
We also made muffins with the fresh blueberries from the garden.
Ok, so I've wanted to try to make macarons for a really long time. Not the coconut macaroons you serve at Passover! The fancy-schmancy french kind. Like..the kind that are impossible to make!
Well...yeah. They are impossible to make.
HORRIFYING FAILUREEEEEE
Ok so we tried using a chocolate macaron recipe my grandma makes, only without the cocoa (because i don't like chocolate very much), and instead we added more sugar. I think this made the batter too runny somehow. Like, when the shells cooked, the bottoms spread out way too much and they came out really chewy. So we tried adding more ground almonds and making them smaller, which made them look a little better, but seemed to make them even chewier.
I think a big problem was my technique. At one point you have to fold the sugar and almond mixture into the fluffy egg meringue. (As my recent pastry lesson confirmed) I suck at folding. The powdered almonds got all clumpy in the meringue...ugh!
We made a Swiss Buttercream filling that was delicious (i mean, it was all butter and sugar, so...) but it was too light to balance the chewiness and strong almond flavor of the shells.
Ugh, they were nothing like the macarons from our local French bakery!
artful arrangement fail
Some random stuff:
This is a blancmange I made a while ago. As you can see, I didn't process the almonds enough. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't good either.
My birfday cake. It was a lemon mousse on a hazelnut mousse. An unusual combination, but really good.
OK, so last Tuesday was my last day working at an intern at a small Veterinary Hospital on the Upper East Side (yes, I've been doing something other than drawing TF2 faggotry and reading the Hetalia kink meme). I have absolutely no relevant skills or qualifications (uhh, I got a B in Bio 14?)--I got it through a connection, and I wasn't paid. Well, I was paid in cute fluffy animals! *w* So many nedms. Well...I had to deal with a lot of really sick animals too. I even had to see a cat get put down, which made me cry! My friends already had to listen to all the sad/disturbing/disgusting stories, so I won't add them here. But it was a really interesting experience and I learned a lot about being a vet, even if I've decided I don't want to go to Veterinary school anymore. (I never actually wanted to be a vet, but I wanted to do wildlife conservation with a Veterinary degree. Now I think I'm going to major in Asian Studies. lol)
This is a kitten who lives in the hospital. A vet from another practice found him on the side of the road, suffering from roundworm and giardia. She left him at our hospital, saying she'd take him after a few days, but he's been here for like four months now! I said I'd foster him (even though I already have 4 cats...i'm fucking crazy), but the lady keeps saying she'll come get him, so I couldn't take him. It's not fair--he's a kitten, he has so much energy and he's stuck in a little cage every day. He's so cute...I hope that he'll be adopted soon.
Roberta, a Pekingese whose owners always board her at the hospital. She's the sweetest, friendliest dog ever. We let her stay out, and she follows us outside to the waiting room and into the examining rooms with the patients. She thinks she's a vet too. I want to steal her!
some other Pekingese with a really derp face
Crap:
:I Well, now I have to draw him in that.
I don't know it was funny at 3 am
....so gay
nobody ships it but meeee
I should get rid of that Angelic Pretty bag :<