Valentine's Day!

Ok, I'm a little late but as promised, here are the pictures and the menu from Valentine's Day. I made all of this for my boyfriend and myself over the course of 3 hours so that each course had plenty of time to settle. I was nervous he might not like something but he LOVED everything! I decorated the table with my nice dishes and a center piece I made ^.^
First was the Fig and Toasted Almond Brie which I served with baguette slices.

The second appetizer was steamed oysters. I had never had oysters before. Despite how strange and someone gross they looked in the jar, they were pretty good. Always up to try new things. =)

After that settled I made up some Spring green's salad with Heart Shaped Croutons I had made and a Olive Garden copy-cat dressing. The main course was Sesame Seared Tuna with a ginger dipping sauce that I found on Martha Stewart's website. That was wonderful!

Finally for dessert I served Raspberry Mouse filled Dark Chocolate Boxes. I had a bit of a hard time making the boxes the night before. I had to make the cookies, dip them in dark chocolate and then when they cooled, glue them together with chocolate dipping sauce and left them in the fridge over night to set. They didn't want to stay in place when I was making them but they were practically inseparable by the time I served them. lol
We watched My Big Fat Greek Wedding and WALL-E and gave each other a little gift. Over all it was a wonderful Valentine's Day. I love being able to cook for the ones I love. Hope everyone else had a good V-day as well! Take Care!

Craziness

Wow, it's been forever since I've posted on here but things have been really crazy. I haven't had a chance to cook or bake anything here lately except what I can make in my dorm room. But Valentine's day is coming up and I've been very busy trying to make it perfect! I'm not going to say what I'm doing yet but I will definitely take pictures and tell everyone what I did. ^.^ I'm hoping it won't cost too much to make everything. Money is kind of tight this year so my boyfriend and I didn't want to do too much for each other. I can't help it though, I love giving people gifts.
I found a school in Raleigh that has a culinary arts degree program! I can even specialize in baking and pastry. I want to go there next year but I want to make sure that I would have the same job opportunities as I would if I stayed at a University and got a 4 year degree in Hospitality Management instead. I feel I should just go to the Culinary school because I don't want to manage some chain restaurant, I want to be the one actually making and designing the cakes. We'll see, I'm going to go talk to the people at the school Friday and get all my facts straight first. Think that's all for now, post more after V-day. Take care!

Happy Snow Day!

ZOMG everyone! It's snowing! For some of you it has probably been snowing for the past month or a lot longer. For me, this is the coldest it's been all winter and the first snow I've seen in at least a year! I can't wait to make some snow cream ^.^ I hope it sticks enough to at least make some snow balls or a tiny snowman. We are suppose to get about 6 inches so I hope the weather man was right! So exciting. I use to live in Wisconsin and Iowa so I'm use to the snow but the people around here... They run to the store and get bread and milk. That was the strangest thing I had ever heard of when I first moved here. This county is also not prepared for snow, so I can kind of understand why people freak out when it does.

Ouch

For those of you who know me, you know that I like to be stabbed. I have 8 wholes in my ears, belly button pierced, and 3 tattoos (and I'm far from finished with my body art). I was looking at google images and found this... I don't know that I could ever go that far. Maybe if I could keep my industrial I would do it. Has anyone else ever seen this before? In real life? That looks pretty painful. She must have slept sitting up for a year. I know that was totally random, just thought it was post worthy. Take care!

Back to school

I know it's been a while. I just havn't really had anything to type about. I don't want to bore my few readers with what's going on in my life everyday; I try to stay food/baking based in my posts.
The last time I baked was for money! After bringing Christmas cookies to some friends and fellow employees, I had 3 cookie orders! Some of the people I gave cookies to also told their family members who have told me that they would pay me for baked goodies as well. I am so ready to just open a wedding and specialty cake store and maybe even a cafe. College is taking too long...If it wasn't for the fact that I want (and pretty much need) a college degree of some kind to fall back on, I'd just be working and living at home. I want to just go to some pay-as-you-go cake decorating classes. Good news is there are some right here near my university. The only thing with that is, I have no oven or room to practice what I do learn in the classes. =/
I have been looking for places to live next semester. There are some pretty cheap places...if I want to live with 2 other people. I would almost like to live by myself though. I have been up at school for 3 days now and my roommate hasn't come back yet. It's actually been very nice having my own space and then just hanging out with people when I actually want to see them, not when I'm forced to everyday.
I have also been trying to find a job. I am NOT going to work at an Outback again. I think if you can make it at an OB you should be automatically hired at any other restaurant. I would like to work at a Barns and Noble or Starbucks. A lot of places aren't hiring right now but I really need the money so I'm hoping I can find Something (even a serving job) in the next month.
I have not been able to cook at school except for with a little George Foreman Grill, until now! My mom bought me one of those electric skillets. I have actually been able to have eggs for breakfast! I love that thing. It makes living here bearable. I just hope my roomy doesn't try to use it; she doesn't wash anything with soap and with my luck she would probably use a metal spatula or something *.*
I'm going Monday to job hunt and turn in applications. I'll also swing by and talk to someone about the decorating classes. I really wish someone on here who has the same interests would talk to me and give me their opinion! I guess I should just do some more searching. *sigh* Hope everyone has a safe and enjoyable week!

Ginger Bread House!

My boyfriend and I made a Ginger Bread house for the first time. I used a piping bag with a tip and he used his fingers. So you can easily tell who did which sides =P It was a lot of fun. I think more of the candy decorationg pieces ended up in my boyfriends tummy than on the house. It turned out ok but then when I went to move it from the table to the counter, it caved in on itself. lol It was still fun to make and it's not like anyone was going to be eating it or anything. One of my cats would probably have knocked it over anyway. Hope everyone has a Great Christmas! Don't get any coal.

Christmas Cookies

I am so behind on Christmas baking. I have been in the kitchen almost none stop for the past couple days. I wish I had more time, now my presents won't even get to where they need to go by Christmas =/ But oh well, treats still taste good a couple days after. I have made a bunch of different kinds of cookies and also some butterscotch caramels. I had a few cookies that I didn't know what to do with so I decided to try out piping for the first time. I think they turned out pretty good. For my first time at least =) I have to make roles and Christmas dinner dessert. I'll probably end up making cupcakes or something since my brother is picky. They have some really cute desserts on Martha Stewart's website. I love her stuff but some of it is kind of hard to make, especially the crafts. I finally found a cake decorating book that I liked. I'm going to attempt to use fondant soon. I'm kind of scared, I've read a lot of mixed reviews on it. Some people tell me I shouldn't buy the pre-made store stuff and others say it's fine. I've also heard that it's very sensitive to make and if you don't really know what you're doing it's easy to mess up. So if anyone has any suggestions I'd take them gladly. I am getting money for Christmas that I am going to use to buy some cake decorating and fondant tools. I might get some fondant at Michael's just to experiment with.
I am going to go see The Tale of Despereaux today. It looks really good and I hope it isn't full of little kids. I am all done Christmas shopping and am pretty much done baking as well. Now it's time to relax =) I hope everyone else is finished too. Other wise you are either very brave or very dumb to wait this long to shop, it's going to be crazy. Hope everyone has a good rest of the weekend!