Day 9 of CCT – Canapés and Oppsie’

Let’s open this segment with what kind of day it is. Today is Wednesday and I shall be posting about what we did last night. But first I allow you a small glimpse into my world.

The day begins with the alarm going off. Fall out of bed (no don’t worry this wasn’t a problem this is an every day occurrence) and head to the bathroom. Go through all the rituals and it’s time to get dressed. Now I’m going to share with you something personal. As I’m getting dressed from my nice hot shower I like to use some powder. I use 2 acutally, one is body powder and the other is foot powder. I wear my shoes for a very long time (8am till 1am do the math it’s a long time) and if you’ve ever had a case of athletes foot you know how miserable it is. So as I’m getting all powdered up and now putting on my socks I realize I’ve powdered my body with my foot my powder and my feet with my body powder. *Sigh* Yep…it’s one of those days.

So on to last night and our canapé prep. All went pretty well. Since there were different ones we were prepping for we each took one and created it. We had a few issues –

1 - On the Onion Bacon Tarts I noticed a small mise cup of balsamic vinegar still sitting on the table. “A” was working on this. “A..what’s this vinegar for?” “Oh no..that was for the onion and bacon *sigh*” I’m like “Ok just checking” well an hour goes by we’re working on other things and cleaning up and I notice that vinegar is still sitting there. “Um..A..this vinegar is still here…” “Yeah…” “Are you going to add it to the mixture?” “Do you think we should?” “Yes I think we should! That’s flavor and the Chef is going to notice is there is no balsamic flavor.” He sighs and slumps off to get a pan because it’s going to all have to be reheated to distribute the vinegar. Wait…it get so much better!! When he’s done it’s about 1 cup of bacon and onion. I use that order because the main ingredient in the cup was bacon. But the canapé is Onion / bacon tart. I asked about that too “I used the 4 ounces of onion it called for…” was his response. 4 ounces… “Where did you get 4 ounces? The recipe calls for 4 onions.” DOH! Well it’s 10pm by now and there is no way he’s going to be able to caramelize 4 onions in time. He’s promised that will be the first thing he does when gets into class. I’m worried because the flavor is going to be way off. But we’ll see what we can do.

2 – Ceviche this is fish and herbs and peppers all mixed with lemon and lime juice. It marinates overnight to allow the citrus to cook the fish. Sounds simple enough. “G” was in charge of making this. She dices and chops and I end up helping out because my stuff is all done so I cut her onions and juice the lemons and limes. I go to do some dishes and come back and she’s stirring everything together. As I come back to the station she asks “Red how does this look? I don’t want to take a bite to try it though.” Ok well one you wouldn’t until the fish is cooked. But the bigger issue was “G? Where’s the fish?” Yep seems that ingredient was forgotten. She finds the fish, I help her chop it up and she stirs some more and asks me again how does it look? Looks great…add the citrus juice and mix it all up. “Oh yeah!” Ok so that’s all fixed.

3 – We had to make puff pastry. If you’ve ever used puff pastries and love those flaky layers, you have to make it! If nothing else do it at least once so you appreciate all the work that goes into this dough. I know you can buy it a Trader Joes for $5, but trust me the effort is worth it. Well if you’re anyone but me. Out of our group my dough was, well interesting. I’m obviously not a dough gal. At least not yet. This dough is going to be used in one of our recipes. Thank goodness that one recipe of this dough is more than enough. Because if we had to rely on each of us, well mine would have been the weakest link. It was Puff Pastry Fear Factor style :). I will take it home and see what happens to it when it’s cooked. Might be an interesting science experiment. Or end up looking like a re-run of I Love Lucy.

Well tomorrow night we assemble all these little bite sized snacks and present. May the cooking gods have mercy on our souls.

Until Tomorrow!...