Hello to all who still find my life exciting! I have found it very exciting over the past few days. Not only did I get to watch fireworks, but I sold our house so we can officially be Colorado residents. What a crazy weekend!
On Friday afternoon I got a call from a realtor who had a client that wanted to see my house. The timing was perfect because my mom was actually headed to my house and was able to show it to them. It was really exciting to get an offer and even more exciting to find out that the buyer accepted my counter offer after church yesterday. It is an amazing relief to know that all of that stress is about over and my hubby can come home after my surgery in September. No more worrying about paying rent and a house payment!!!!!!!!! I am so, so, so excited.
Besides going through all the craziness of house paperwork and negotiations, class was super crazy, but really fun this weekend. We made pate a choux, cheesecakes, and all sorts of cookies this weekend for a dessert buffet. Pate a choux is the dough that you use to make cream puffs and eclairs. It is a really bland, dough that ends up baking with a huge hollow air bubble in the center that you can fill with pastry cream. The process is really fun and pretty different from most other doughs, which makes the science part of my brain go crazy. It is amazing that without a chemical leavener, you can make a dough that puffs up so nicely and yet develops a crust quick enough that it leaves a big puffy air bubble in your product. The tastiness factor just adds to the excitement. Eclairs might possibly be my favorite pastry item of all. The combination of slightly salty dough with pastry cream and rich chocolate really does make your mouth water.
We also made cheesecakes. Normally I don't like cheesecake all that well, but this one had a rich, creamy texture that wasn't all dried out from the heat of the oven. As a class, we made 5 different flavors of cheesecake including mint chocolate, chocolate amaretti, ny style with a raspberry swirl, dulce de leche, and a raspberry passionfruit. They we all truly delicious and very beautiful.
Each team made two different kinds of cookies this week. We made checkerboard shortbread cookies and piped butter cookies. Each team made sucree cookies that we decorated with white chocolate and also mini tartlets for our buffet table. Tartlets are awesomely fun to make because they are so cute and tiny. Plus a bite-size tasty treat is always nice.
The dessert buffet set-up was really cool even though we were all extremely tired by the time we were done with production. We had several guests who joined us for tasting and everything looked really delicious. Here are some pictures of the weekend at school.
notice how sweet the swans are! They are also made with choux paste, but instead of piping in a filling, you cut the shell apart and make a swan out of it. I think they are so precious, but a little time consuming.
My 4th of July plans included both dinner and fireworks on Saturday and dinner and fireworks in the rain on Sunday. It was a little crazy to go to a 4th of July cookout that didn't involve sweating in the heat and humidity, but it was a lot of fun. I got to meet some more of Ron and Becky's friends, which was a lot of fun. Even though it ended up pouring down rain, we were able to shoot off a few fireworks of our own and even got to watch the Longmont fireworks from the car. The rain actually made them look really neat and overall it was a truly fabulous holiday.
This week will be super crazy because I am moving, baking a cake, and my momma is gonna be here to see me on Thursday!!!! I am so excited for her to come visit. We are going to do all sorts of fun CO stuff and I have to admit that while I have had a blast here, I haven't spent enough time in the mountains this summer. We are going to hike at Rocky Mountain National Park, ride our bikes around Lake Dillon, kayak in Breckenridge, and do some of the fun touristy things in Boulder and Denver. I can't wait. Plus I got a new bike today so I may have to add some extra bike riding into the agenda. My first task tomorrow is to go out for a ride!
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