Hello everyone. It is Sunday afternoon here in Sydney, Australia. It is rainy and a tad cold outside, but it feels wonderful under the covers with the window slightly ajar and writing to ya'll. I have finally figured out my phone card and was able to make a few phone calls today. It was great to hear the voices from home. This week has been filled with lots of cooking and playing with choux paste.

I thought I would try to explain my week, as some of you have been alittle confused. So...cuisine runs for three days a week; Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. It begins at 7:25 with a demo by one chef, sometimes two, and ends at 2. Every week we change kitchens between kitchen 12, 13 and 14. Each kitchen has their own chef. Kitchen 12 is ran by what I think is the head chef, Chef Chris. Then next kitchen is 13, who is ran by another chef Josef and another chef only on Mondays. Then the last kitchen is 14, who is ran by three different chefs on three different days. However, all of these three kitchens are in one large area divided into the separate kitchens.

Patisserie is on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. This begins at 8 and ends at 2:30. Everyday we had a different chef, but stay in the same kitchen. Our chef on Thursday's is Chef Gert - he is so cool. I really like him. He is very inquisitive and likes to talk. He is messy when demonstrating with chocolate. I love that! Friday Chef is Karen, but pronounced Corine, or something like that. She is from Switzerland and has big huge doe eyes. Her teaching methods are a little different from all the other chefs I have. She is a bit tough on some students, some more than others. She finds fault and criticizes without telling any positives, not what I was taught. When I helped grade NHM 115 in college, we were told to begin with the positive, then tell the negative and then end with another positive. Chef Corine does not do this....it pisses some, most, of the students off. Then finally Saturday's chef Karen. I love her! She is so cool!!! Since school is not really in session we are allowed to do anything, within reason. Chef Karen is just awesome.

Cuisine this week started off doing pastries...weird huh? It went well. Chef Chris told me I was "right on spot". The next day we made risotto - it was good, it just needed alittle more liquid. Everything else, was right on spot. And finally on Wednesday chicken and souffle. I made a perfect sauce, finally. I was happy.

Patisserie was filled with making choux paste and piping out designs. Choux paste is what people make eclairs out of. Choux means 'cabbage' in french. When it bakes it spreads out and resembles a cabbage. We made choux puffs, filled with cream Chantilly on Thursday. Friday we made eclairs. Saturday we made Paris Brest - a dessert made for the cycling race from Paris to Brest. It was fun. We also made swans. By Saturday, my arm was a little warn from beating the batter.

Choux paste is a mixture of fat, flour, water and eggs. Your first cook the fat, flour and water together, to cook the flour. Then take this mixture off the heat and beat in eggs, in my case 6 eggs. Then you are able to pip the mixture and bake it. This choux paste can be used to make so many different desserts. We have to make eclairs for our final. So this was good practice for the real thing.

Today, Sunday, I called a few people and then went to the grocery store. I could spend hours there, just walking around. Then home to put things away and write to my faithful blog readers. I hope everyone is doing well. Well, tune in next week to see about my culinary adventures. good day mates.