Eating, Experimenting, Tasting, Testing, Mixing, Rolling

Coming from someone who used to be called the ‘Professional Student’ by my family (PS), it may seem strange that I would have trouble doing what I used to do as a career.

Studying.

Actually it was research that I mostly did in school, but we will just pretend it was studying for now.

Seven long years of university, 5 for my undergraduate degree and 2 for my Master’s degree, has sucked every last ounce of studying out of me. It almost seems like a blur when I look back on those years now. So many pointless assignments, so many pointless exams, so many pointless papers. But they have to be done! And I became very efficient at cranking them out.

Fast forward to today. I sit down to try and study for my Food Handler Certification exam. And I can’t get past the 1st page of chapter 3. Granted, the first two chapters were a breeze and about 2 pages long. So they don’t really count. It’s not that the material is difficult because compared to my advanced statistics courses, this stuff is a breeze. It is just that I am not in the habit of studying anymore.

I have study ADD!

Of course, it doesn’t help when the TV is on, my GMAIL is on, and the OVEN is on. Oh, I didn’t mention I am baking for a big order this weekend? Obviously I had priorities and they didn’t include studying!

I am writing about this as a cry for help. I was never great at studying. I never pulled one studying all nighter in my 7 years of university. I just preferred sleep, that’s all. :)

My cry for help is to ask all of you students for studying tips and tricks. I need to snap back into school-mode for the time being so I can learn this manual!

So what was I doing instead you ask? Eating, experimenting, tasting, testing, icing, cleaning, mixing, rolling, and baking of course!

First, I needed some baking marathon fuel.

A delicious wrap!

Did I mention this was delicious?

The contents:

• 3 small carrots chopped lengthwise into strips
• 1/3 sweet onion
• 1 handful baby organic spinach
• 1/2 avocado
• Black pepper

I sauteed everything above except the ‘cado.

These wraps are so tasty!

(Click to enlarge)

And a huge orange:

A Bird’s eye view:

Dessert #1:

Might I just say I thought this Cherry Jocolat bar was disgusting!?!?! BLECH! There was something about it that just didn’t jive right. I think it was the tartness of the cherries. Actually the only two flavours of Jocolat bars I have liked are the Chocolate Mint and the Chocolate Coffee ones. I also hated the Chocolate Orange too! I thought I would like these much more than I actually did.

Sugar Cookies: Part 1

Want to see how the type of flour affects how your dough will turn out?

I made the mistake of using Whole Wheat Pastry Flour (for cakes and pastries mostly) for my sugar cookies today (right hand glop). I tried to save the sticky batter by turning it into blueberry muffins but it was a huge flop- the muffins were much too crumby (pun intended).

Fast forward to the beautiful White Whole Wheat Sugar cookie dough on the left. This was my second attempt and it turned out perfect!

Note to self: Don’t ever use WWPF in sugar cookies again!

Especially after a couple hours chilling in the fridge.

Then it was time to roll and cut and make super cool shapes:

Part 1 of the decorating. Glazing the base!

Aren’t those carrots CUTE!?

I was in the kitchen doing these from 2:30-5:30pm. I didn’t take one break. I get in the ‘baking zone’ as Eric calls it.

Part 2 tomorrow is piping the cookies with icing! That is the fun (and difficult) part!

I know I promised that I would tell you what the big adventurous surprise is that Eric and I are doing tomorrow, but you will have to wait patiently, on pins and needles, until tomorrow morning! :) This post just got much too long! lol. I will also be showing you my new tea stuff tomorrow AM.

Oh and what was dessert #2 you ask? A cake shaped sugar cookie (sans icing). YUM! I will try to post my recipe tomorrow.

HAPPY OFFICE NIGHT!