Highlights of the Week

Todd made plans for us for Valentine's Day to have dinner at this Portuguese restaurant that I had circled in my Zagat's guide (food bible for NYC) called Alfama. He didn't tell me where we were going until we got there, but the whole night was just perfect! I've been telling him about this one area of the West Village that I LOVE and could get off the subway there and just roam around aimlessly. There isn't anything in particular that I see or go to when I am there, but it is a charming place to walk around. Well, guess what? That's exactly the stop we got off at! The restaurant was a 2-3 block walk and was just fabulous! You name it - we had it - caviar, lobster risotto, lamb chops, chocolate souffle cake. Service was good and the place was adorable. Like I said, perfect. (The dinner itself was not very Portuguese, but I bet that's because it was Valentine's Day.) We'll definitely go back on a more routine evening to taste what they do with more typical Portuguese dishes. The first thing we do in class each day is practice working with chocolate. Writing and piping designs with melted chocolate is something that takes A LOT of practice to master, so we start working on it on Day 1 of pastry class. Each morning, the first person in the room turns on the double-boiler and melts up a batch of chocolate so we can all practice. We've learned to make our own "bags" out of parchment paper so that we can do this anywhere! Including at home, which I also do every evening. Our homework assignment for Thursday night was to take a round cake cardboard home, cover it in parchment paper and pipe some of our chocolate designs onto the board. Previously in class, we'd only worked in straight lines, so going in a circle around the board was a challenge. We were supposed to practice 4-5 times and bring in our best attempt. Here is a picture of the "homework" I turned in today. It's not perfect, but I definitely feel like I'm getting better every day! I've also posted a few pictures from class, both practice as well as our chef's (Chef Kathryn) demo. Last night, Todd and I met my cousin Rene and her daughter (Isabella) out for dinner. Rene and her husband Chuck are in town for a business trip (Chuck) and a long weekend in NYC. Unfortunately, Chuck had business commitments, but we did enjoy getting together with Rene and Bella. We plan to "lay low" this weekend, eat in and I have to study for a BIG test coming up on Tuesday (on Sanitation and Food Safety). Also have several homework assignments and research to do for Pastry class, so I'll be sure to post with those results! Have a great weekend!