I'm Tired!!!!

L to R Chocolate Dipped Shortbread; White Chocolate, Cranberry and Pecan Scones;
Football-shaped Brownies; Spritz Cookies; Biscotti; Chocolate Chip; and
Oatmeal Cookies

Cake Pops I made at home for my Effective Speech Class. Did a PowerPoint on how I made them - everyone in class got one!

Naan and Pita Bread

My table mate sneaking goodies home in his pocket! That's a no-no!

What I really am is exhausted! We are coming up on Week 5 at school - mid-terms. All I've been doing is going to school, studying, reading, doing homework, studying for quizzes, vocabulary, more homework, trying to figure out how to do math, and writing recipes. We have to hand write every recipe, and we do about 10 or so dishes a week. Last week was cookies and brownies and boy it was fun!!!! But still at a killer pace. I think I'm going to have to start wearing Depends - I don't even get a bathroom break! Our table for some reason is the last to get done every time. But, we're learning. Here are some photos from last week. I did most of the cookies, but the boys at my table did the Naan and Pita bread, along with the muffins. I'm loving this class, but it's a lot of work both in and out of the kitchen.

Our beautiful - and TASTY - pies!

This week was pies and tarts. We make them in mini-tart pans so we're not each making 3 regular sized pies times the 15 in our class. Three of them I made. I piped the meringue on the lemon meringue pies and the whipped cream on the chocolate pies. The guys decorated the custard pies with the fruit. The bread on the left-hand side is our French bread. We left it proof too long and it didn't turn out very well. You have to totally multi-task and stuff is ready to be taken care of when you're not ready! That was a tough week, believe it or not. Did you know there are three ways to prepare fruit to go into a pie? Baked fruit - the traditional way to make an apple pie. You put the raw apples, spices, etc. into a raw shell and bake. Then there's the cooked fruit method where you cook the fruit and juice or liquid on the stove top, just till almost tender, and put it into a par baked - or blind baked - shell and bake it the rest of the way. Then there's the cooked liquid method. You drain the juice from frozen or prepared fruit, or if you're using delicate fruit like raspberries. You cook the juice on the stove top, finish it,then add it to the fruit in the par baked shell and bake the rest of the way. We learned all about custard and cream pies.

 Like I said, mid-terms are this coming week - I have four to take: one in the kitchen - the practical, where we have to bake a lattice-crust apple pie, spritz cookies, yeast dinner rolls, and biscuits. We have four hours, which I thought was WAY too much time allowed - until I went to open lab this weekend with my other table mate and discovered we went over by 10 minutes! Not as easy as it sounds, especially when all the doughs except the spritz have to either be refrigerated or - in the case of the yeast rolls - proofed twice. Plus I'll be sharing an oven with my other table mate who's just taking this class because he has to, not that he wants to. He just wants to get through it.That's hard when we're both making the same products but at different times because our class only has 4 mixers for the 7 people taking the final the 1st day (the other half will take their written exam the 1st day and bake the second) so the oven has to be set at 3 different temps...it should be interesting. Then I have a mid-term in the Baking and Pastry Theory class. You'd think it would be the same information from the Baking and Pastry baking class - NOT! We go into more detail and we're covering different chapters than the baking class. Then I have a mid-term in Purchasing and Product ID. I just got a B- on a quiz so I'd better start reading the chapters before the mid-term! LOL!

So, here's the real dilemma for me. I started putting my toes into the working world, part-time. I put my resume in at the school. I got a call from Career Services, where they wanted me to do office work because of my back ground. The career services person was so excited when she interviewed me - except that job can only be taken by a student receiving Federal Aid - which I am not. I really had no interest in office work - I need food service experience. There's a store room at school where all the supplies are kept and I wanted to work in there. Great experience and you don't need to be a Federally funded student. I worked in their one day for 3 hours for a class requirement. That's the job I thought I might get but the budget was cut and they couldn't hire anyone. The career services person said she'd put in a good word for me with the store room, as well as pass my resume along to some of her contacts. She said I was professional, interviewed well, and was passionate about what I wanted to do after graduation, but need experience.

 I got a call the next day from a local hospital, asking me to come in for an interview, which I did. The position was for the dietary office, talking directly to the patients about their meal choices and then entering it into the computer. I got a tour of the kitchen and cafe. Unfortunately, there were no open positions for either of them. I told him what I wanted to do and wanted experience in. He was honest with my and said I could very well get pigeon-holed in the dietary office, especially if I do a good job. Plus there were employees who hired in before me waiting for food production positions to open. We agreed he'd hold my resume and call if there was an open position. That was very nice of him. Then I got a call from the owner (with other investors) of several restaurants and delis around the area. He has one restaurant in a big hotel in downtown Detroit. I received the call when I was on my way to the interview at the hospital. This is a job I'd REALLY want! He does a lot of catering. His name is HUGE in town and Detroit. I had just sent him a letter a while back, expressing my desire to work for him, how I didn't have years and years to gain experience and I wanted to work for the best! He got my name from career services and wanted me to come in for an interview. I mentioned the letter and he said from my lack of experience I would never have gotten a call - it was only on the word of career services - and her word goes a long way! I'm excited to have the opportunity to get real world experience, but there's no way I could work 20-24 hours a week and take four classes - no way. If I do start work, I'm going to have to drop back to three classes, which will take me longer to graduate.

Dan and I still aren't talking or communicating. It hurts so much. Jason said I just have to give it time. I can't believe it will be a year in March when Dan asked for the separation. The pain and hurt will never go away, but it's getting easier. I'm not crying as much, but still have times where I break down, especially when I'm tired and overwhelmed. I finally got my health insurance situation settled.

The guy I'm seeing , Ramzi, is such a great guy. We have so much in common, especially the pain of going through divorces. We each know how easy it is to lose everything - how you need to grow and nurture a relationship, not take it for granted, and how you need to respect a relationship and your mate, and work on it every single day. He's great, too, because he knows how much homework I have and how busy I am. We usually make dinner either together or he makes it so I can study. He's a fantastic cook so that's fun. We've both gone through Divorce Care - him twice and me just half of the sessions. I still want to start over when I can find time. We are both going through a marriage seminar series at church. We both want to really know what it takes to keep a marriage together and learn from our past mistakes. There are several divorced and unmarried couples attending. We are enjoying it and it's Christian-based, so that's a real bonus. The last session, it hurt so much because a lot of it hit home for me - things I did wrong - things I could have done better. I felt awful. I wish Dan and I would have gone through something like this. But, this is a learning experience for both Ramzi and I and we are grateful for it.

Today is Super Bowl Sunday! I'm going over to Ramzi's house...his girls are with him this weekend and I'm going to meet them for the first time. I'm probably more nervous than they are. I can only imagine what's going through their minds. I hope they can just accept me - not as a mother figure, but as a friend and someone who cares for their Dad. I'm taking an apple pie I made in open lab yesterday (snuck it out!) God give me strength today and the rest of the week.