Cooking Class #1

Well, I had a wonderful day yesterday. I had my first cooking class: Breakfast in Paris. I went with a friend of mine, so luckily we were put in pairs. The first thing we did was an Almond Brioche Toast. It was super simple.

First we made the franzipan and then put it on the bread. Popped it in the oven for 10 minutes. Amazing.

Next was the Palmier Cookies. These were so much fun, but the chef threw us on both sides of the spectrum. First off, we're in Texas in the Summer. So, the puff pastry was sweating. This made it particularly difficult to fold it over itself. But we coated the puff pastry in sugar and mapped out where it would fold over. However, slippery as it was, I stretched out the dough. Yes, I know this is a faux pas. But what do you want me to do?

So, the chef came over and helped us out a little. We got it back under control. But we made up for it when our cookies came out of the oven. She used us as an example of what the cookies should look like. So take that.

The last thing we made were Crepes Suzette. These were especially fun. The batter was very simple, but we didn't use our own batter. We got to take that home for homework. :)

Now, I will say this. We were given a bum pan. It was very heavy, so flipping the damn thing was again, particularly difficult. My first crepe was too thick and was sticking to the pan so it burned on one side. I was, however, able to flick my wrist just so in order to flip it. It looked like a large flat pancake. Not a thin one, though.

Then it was my friend's turn. She has weak wrists, so pair that was a heavy pan, and she used a fork to flip, which worked great. Then it was my turn. Needless to say, I did this one much better. It looked like a crepe. My friend's second one also looked like a crepe.

We then watched the chef make the Suzette sauce. She messed up. Her heat was up too high, so the sugar didn't melt creating sugar rocks. We had a similar problem. Okay, not similar, exactly the same. Our heat was too high, and our sugar crystalized rather than dissolved. Ah well. We just strained it, but not like it mattered. The cognac overpowered anything else. They gave us too much too use and made no note as to not use all that is given.

It really was a lot of fun. We were able to take home everything we had left over. The Palmier cookies are of course gone. Some went, actually, during a particularly hot movie called Eclipse .

Oh man, ladies and gentlemen. If you have not seen this movie, let me know and I will go with you. I officially resign my post on Team Edward and am full force applying for Team Jasper. He was a Southern Gentlemen with a capital 'S' and 'G'. Just hearing him say, "My apologies, ma'am" made my insides weak. Amazing. If you are a Twi-hard, you must go see it.

At the end of the evening, I decided to bust out a recipe for Raspberry Jalapeno Jam. I will preface this by saying while it was a success, please use this cautionary tale to not do what I did.

To continue my Southern fantasy, I put on Cold Mountain and assembled my jam. I did everything to a T. I chopped the jalapenos, washed and crushed the raspberries. My first mistake was to turn on the wrong burner. I thought I was simmering the jar lids, but I was in fact heating my empty pot. So, when I went in to pour my raspberry mixture, the pot spattered and steam coated my hands and face. Yikes. So, instantly my hand got a steam burn. It was okay. No problem.

I made the jam. It was beautiful.

They sat out, I finished my movie. But by the time I was heading to bed, I noticed my hand was really bothering me. I knew exactly what it was. My mom warned me to wear gloves when chopping jalapenos. But, as any mid-twenties daughter, I ignored my mother's advice. Now, I'm paying for it. I'm in agony.

My plan for today was to take two gym classes and get my hair cut at noon. I got about 15 minutes on the bike with a cool water soaked towel wrapped around my hand when I couldn't take it anymore. I left and went straight to Walgreens to find something to soothe this chemical burn.

Well, I found something that is working remarkably. Not at this particular moment because the pain is coming back, but it does say to use 3-4 times a day. If you find yourself in my position, even after reading what not to do, go find Burn Jel Plus. It's in an 80s looking picture box at Walgreens, but you put it on for 30 minutes and it soothes. It's amazing.

Don't worry, I tried honey, yogurt, aloe vera, and any soothing cream I had in the apartment to no avail. I'm about to reapply the Jel and chill before my hair appointment.

Needless to say, however, I had a great day yesterday. And I did try the Raspberry Jalapeno Jam this morning. I will say this, it's really good. But the jalapeno is a little overpowering. If you make this recipe at home, consider using two instead of three jalapenos. I will post the recipe after I put out the fire on my hand.