career college

Yoshi and I are invited to another party for the new year.
We are going to be at Yoshi's co-worker's place on Jan. 1.

I made Tirami Su cake again as a gift. ...
Yes, yes!! It went much better than before! I guess I am getting a hang of making it

I really appreciate the quality of the continuing education courses at George Brown College, one of the best career colleges in Canada. I have taken 3 courses so far. The Baking Basic, the Art of Cakes and the Art of Breads. The recipes they gave were so professional and the instructors were all experienced professional chefs. With the recipes and the instructions that give you the small tips for making it better, you can be a baker or pastry chef!
Yes, indeed. It is the career college. Once you graduate from the school, especially learned in full time courses, you can get a job right away! Those diplomas or certificates are effective, trustworthy for companies, you know.

Anyway,
I will upload the picture of Tirami Su later.

またティラミスを作ってしまったょ。
なんか結構イイ感じに仕上がったv
かなり慣れてきたね、私！

ジョージブラウンカレッジという職業訓練校（？）の、パートタイムコースで、ケーキやパンを習っていたのですょ。
調理関係だけでなく、ビジネス、ガテン系、ファッション系、医療系と、いろんなコースが揃ってるこの学校は、めちゃハイクオリティの教育機関　フルタイムのコースをとったなら、とぉっても価値あります。

Welcome to George Brown The Toronto City College, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

custard cream

Grrrrr....! I bombed it ...
I tried to bake a sponge cake yesterday but ... I screwed it up.

It was one of the goo blogs that I recently like to browse. The blogger, who is called Kotori-san, told me how to bake a cake with a frying pan. Isn't it innovative?
Well, I ended up trying to use the conventional oven, though. You need a lid that can completely shut the pan. A frying pan with a lid works like an oven, according to Hanamaru TV. But I didn't have a frying pan with a lid so... Anyway.
Doesn't matter because I failed it before baking..

I put melted butter in when I was whipping the eggs. It was supposed to be the very last but I DID IT!! I couldn't believe the whipped egg collapsed in a second or two. I was like, " ....NOOOOOO...!! " Silly me!!

Things could have been worse, right? Fortunately, I didn't mix flour yet so I changed the plan. I reduced the flour two thirds and added milk. Yes, it was going to be custard cream!
Why custard cream? Because this recipe is also what I wanted to challenge. I had scribbled its recipe from some Website on the back of the slip. There was no butter mentioned in the recipe, but I guessed it wouldn't make much difference.

Check this out.. Whoa, what a miserable look. Custard in a plastic container..
It tastes OK but I put vanilla too much ( precisely, I spilled it over the tea spoon). And some lumps remained when finished. I wanted it smoother. .... Yeah, I judge it well-done for the first time.
I was going to bake some choux today but, because of the bad conditioned roads ( see the picture from yesterday's diary), I hardly went to supermarket today. I remain running out of bread flour so the plan cannot be carried out.
Sucks!! Sucks!!

whole wheat bread

I baked whole wheat bread yesterday.

The bread is one of the 10 recipes I got from the Art of Bread course.
Ah..., that was a shame. I missed a class so I didn't see the demo. Whole wheat bread was the recipe I most wanted to learn in the course but I couldn't make it. As a matter of fact, I had a miscarriage so I had to take D&C operation. It was an easy operation but I was anesthetized. I needed to stay in bed for a couple of days .... Anyway.

The basic steps to bake bread is quite simple. Merely put the ingredients together, mix it very well, let the dough rest and then bake. There are some tips you have to follow but basically this is it.
So I thought I can make it to bake whole wheat bread without the instructor's demo.

... Hey, hey! Take a look at this picture! Isn't it great?
It was the first time for me to handle whole wheat flour. Whoa, what a tough dough it makes. It was like twice as tough as the dough used white bread flour. In the recipe, you need gluten flour to boost gluten. What is gluten? It is a very sticky substance that makes the dough come together. I thought that gluten flour makes it easier to work on but it didn't... Phew, I was dead tired. I hope I won't get any muscle ache. Heh, heh.
It's fun to bake bread!!

Christmas party

Yoshi threw a Christmas party this evening.
He was taking Conversation Club, ESL, one of the continuing education classes at University of Toronto. He invited the classmates there. It was, for me, the first time to meet the people. I was a tad nervous.

There had been quite a lot to do for two days. Yesterday, I made Tirami Su cake. Today, beef salad, macaroni mimosa salad, Inari-Sushi and Maki-Sushi. I was worried if the guests liked the Sushi because it contained cooked Kan-pyou and Shiitake mushrooms and Den-pun, the pink-colored dried fish chunk. Hijiki inside Inari-Shushi. They are the traditional fillings for Maki-Sushi in my hometown but the guests might not like them.. Those could be weird unknown food for them…

It was the French guy who showed up first. I don’t remember his name. Honestly, I couldn’t catch how to pronouns his name even though I asked a couple of times. (Sorry!) Hey, I should mention this. He is so good looking!
The guests were supposed to bring one dish. He handed me a plastic bag with quiche inside after “Nice-to-meet-you”ing each other.

The second came two girls called Tanya from Thailand and Maura from Italy. Tanya has long black hair and likes taking pictures. She brought some Pat Thai (not sure the spelling..), Thai style noodle with nuts and herbs. Maura looks cute with curly red hair and big eyes. As soon as she took off her shoes and came in, she started to make excuses. “ This cake is what I bought from a store. I was going to bring home-made but I screwed it up !! It is in garbage. My host mother doesn’t have a scale with kilos but only measuring cups and spoons. I use kilos. ” blah, blah… For your information and her dignity, she is good at baking cakes. All the classmates know because she had made yogurt cake and they had tasted it. They’d already had a small party in class in halfway through the course. Don’t worry, Maura. It happens to everybody.

Wang Hee came in after that. She is fashionable Chinese. She had another plan but dropped by before that. What a nice girl, she brought some food.

Finally, outgoing Maggie, from Hong-Kong, and Joanna from Taiwan arrived. They both brought nice Chinese food such as Peking duck and crispy Pork, steamed crams and something.

We had a blast until the needle on the clock indicated 11 past.
There was no need to be nervous. All the guests were friendly that no one treated me like a stranger. I talked a lot out laud with the people that my throat started to hurt. It ended up to be a wonderful party we ever throw.

Tirami Su

I made Tirami Su Cake this evening.
Because Yoshi is throwing a Christmas party tomorrow, I decided to duplicate the cake I learnt in the cake-baking course.

... Because I wanted to review the recipe by myself too. Jay and Janice (see "friends of mine") want me to teach how to make it but I was not confident enough. You know Mascarpone cheese, which Tirami Su contains a lot. It is quite expensive to buy so I don't want to waste it by screwing it up. If three people fail all at once, the waste would be three times as much. ...Noooo... too horrible..

I needed Mascarpone cheese and other stuffs for the party, I went to a new super market that I never tried before. It was at around 3 p.m. when I got there. ...Wow, the super market was so huge! I had a bit of hard time to find where the stuffs I want to get.

It was almost 5 p.m. when I got back home. I started to make lady fingers soon after. What are lady fingers? They are fluffy, rightly brown biscuits shaped like lady's fingers. According to the recipe, you make tens of lady fingers and 2 round discs for the bottom and side of Tirami Su cake.

By the time the lady fingers are done, it was high time to get started making dinner! Oh, my goodness, I was busy!!

After dinner, I got started with Tirami Su filling to make.
When you make Tirami Su Cake, you have to be prepared. Prepared for whipping cream and egg white over and over again! Like thousands of times!! Gosh, I wished I had a mixing machine..
You need to whip egg white too when making lady fingers. .. I don't know why, although I exactly followed the recipe, I ran out of the batter!! Why, why, why was that??!!!! I tried to make it up somehow but, you know, short is short. I remade a quarter of amount. ... the exhausting whipping again.. I got much more tired imagining another egg white and whipping cream to whip for Tirami Su filling ...

Making Tirami Su cake is time-sensitive.
You have to be efficient. If you fool around, the whipped egg white will collapse quickly. The gelatin you melt in water will be set quickly as well. I am like thousands of miles away from "efficiency." Sadly, it is true. Oh, gosh, I am slow..
So, I was very happy when I finished with the Tirami Su successfully !

I made simmered Shiitake mushroom and Kan-pyou for Maki-Shushi that I am going to make tomorrow, after that. A lot of work. It was half past 11 when I finished them all.. I am exhausted now. I think I can sleep soundly tonight..