Chocolate Exhaustion

wow! I am completely, totally and absolutely exhausted right now. In a good way! 🙂

I walked in, totally unsure about myself and everything around noon today. Luckily I saw the executive chef right off the bat, who is a family friend (hence why I got this “job”) and he immediately gave me a hug and made me feel more welcome. He walked me back to the kitchen and introduced me to the head pastry chef, who was also very nice and welcoming. I put my tools and water bottle down and immediately set to work (good thing I ate such a filling, healthy lunch!).

My first task was to temper dark chocolate. I haven’t had my chocolate class yet at school so I was a little unsure at first but Adam, the pastry chef, was more than considerate and patient with me. He helped me temper the chocolate (heating it up in the microwave then letting it cool to a “temper” state where you can pipe out designs) and I actually piped out little chocolate designs that he was going to use on plated desserts later tonight! And, um yeah..ate one too many chocolate chips while I was at it!

After playing with chocolate, I made parfaits for dessert tonight. I made a thick key lime custard over a double boiler on the stove and chopped fresh fruit to make Key Lime Parfaits. Adam whipped cream and I topped put all the parfaits together—finishing them off with a chocolate design I had made previously. What fun!

To accompany the parfaits, Adam had me make almond macaroons!!!! They turned out great and looked so cute next to the parfait. I must have made about 8 dozen…I forget how different it is working in an industrial kitchen rather than my kitchen at home or even at school.

After I had done all that, it was about 3:00 and Adam figured by then (I guess!) that I was good enough to go by myself. He gave me some recipes and told me to have at it! I whipped up some dark chocolate grand marnier truffles and white chocolate champagne truffles, which I don’t have a picture of yet because they have to cool overnight and then tomorrow afternoon I will actually form them. And again….a couple more chocolate chips made it into my mouth! I did at this point, however, snack on my cherry pie larabar I had brought along in my toolbox. A girl needs more than chocolate alone to fuel her! 😉

Quail Valley makes all of its bread in house, which is pretty darn amazing because most places just get it in frozen. Adam specializes in bread and creates new bread every single week for guests. How excited was I to hear this?! He told me some of the different types he makes and asked me to choose which one to make today! Of course I opted for his “secret” sweet potato foccacia bread!!! We also made Challah in such a mass quantity I almost fell over while scaling out all the pounds of flour. The bread is to be baked off tomorrow so you (and I!) will have to wait to get a glimpse of that sweet potato foccacia. I can’t wait!

Let’s see…if you think I didn’t do enough today here’s some more! I also finished some carrot cake rolls Adam had started earlier, baked creme brulee and finished off some peanut butter chocolate mousse for service later. When Adam said I was free to go at 6:30 I was so tired I couldn’t even see straight! In that period of 6 1/2 hours, the only time I took a break was to go to the bathroom once….hard work but I learned so much!

I asked if I could make a salad and take home some of the freshly baked multigrain bread Adam had made right before I got there this morning. On my salad I put greens, dried cranberries, onion, cucumbers and tomatoes and topped it with the house specialty: white balsamic. When I got back to my suite, I heated up a bowl of chili, poured a glass of red wine and took it, along with my salad outside on the patio to eat and relax.  Now, of course this would be so much better I had someone to share this wonderful suite, food and room with……but I’m secretly sort of just relishing this alone time because how often is it that I can just sit back and relax?! I’m about to take a really long shower, get in my pjs and read a book I found on the bookshelf here. My book I checked out from the library is soo not good (what a total disappointment!!) and luckily I found something here. I’m going to read “Sula” by Toni Morrison, one of my favorite authors. I read Beloved and it sort of changed my life. If you haven’t read it….read it. No excuses.

Mmmm and just had to end this day by having 2 super charge me cookies for dessert 🙂

Tomorrow I am going to wake up, eat breakfast then go on a run. My dad is actually going to be in town tomorrow (my grandparents and uncle live here) and I think we are getting lunch. Then, I’ll be hitting the kitchen for round 2 tomorrow afternoon!