MySpace, 2.8.06: coming down off my high

There's something awesome about walking out to my car with fresh pastry dough caking my palms. I mean, for reals. Our baking instructor was great. She told us that she used to be Emeril's pastry chef. I'm not a huge Emeril fan, but I guess you've got to know your stuff. She went through all sorts of culinary schools and has titles I have no clue about. She rolls a mean dough, is all I know.I made friendly acquaintances with a couple ladies who sat at my table, and we formed a team to work on our dough projects. They were sweet and let me do a lot of the hands-on stuff because I told them I was afraid of baking and dough specifically. We made croissants, danish, and strudel. I brought some of our leftover danish dough home and made danishes for dessert tomorrow night (Cass's coconut curry lentils, vegetarian lumpia, and rice). I'm just excited that my danish braiding worked out. I'm going to let myself take one class each month. I wonder what I should take next month.

Let's see, other stuff ... all this cooking makes me kinda homesick for my childhood home back in Cali (still my parents' home). It was nice having a garden full of fresh fruits and veggies, and an ocean full of fresh seafood. We could walk outside, dust off an apple or strawberry, and just eat it because we didn't use pesticides. We used to go clamming and eat clams right out of the ocean (not an American taste, but if you're pinay, fresh raw clams are amazing).

I'm up way too late working on paintings. Silver washes are prettyful.