Fake Bake

I have never really had any pet peeves in the food industry besides the usual chefs/line cooks who do drugs and smoke without washing their hands afterwards. This past week has brought with it a new pet peeve which I will call fake bake. It goes something like this:

Scenerio #1
"Hey! Last night I went all out and made dinner AND dessert! I grilled steaks and I made a pie!" said anonymous
"Oh really? Did you make it from scratch?" Friend of anonymous
"Well, no it was frozen." said anonymous
*raised eyebrow from me*
*thinks: so where did the 'made a pie,' come in?*

Scenerio #2
"hey guys, I thought I'd bring you in some croissants I made from work." Said I
"OH! You did make those. I forgot you worked at a bakery. First I thought 'there's NO way SHE made that!' hahahahaha. I made a pie!" said anonymous
"uh huh. And what pie did you bring?" said I
"Oh a Care-el-mel fruit pie. I baked it at 5pm, so it's still warm!" said Anonymous
"You made it from scratch?" Said another
"no, it's frozen." said anonymous
*laughing whole-heartedly inside. I thought 'the hardest part of that was opening the box.'*

I mean, I don't snub people who bring store brought pies. I know not everyone LOVES to bake but you know being cocky about the fact that you "made" and "baked" something when it clearly was store-brought drives me nuts. I don't know, to me that doesn't qualify as baking. That's just me though and perhaps my mind is skewed because I am a baker and nothing but made from scratch goods will do.

Well, now that I have that off my chest. Time to catch up on school. My new school is different and for the first 3 weeks I kept reminiscing about my friends back at Faulkner state and missing them to pieces and not enjoying the new friends and the new facility around me. Perhaps that is why I never wrote about my new school thus far.

This week really changed things. I started to enjoy the people around me, the laughter and the silliness. I must say though...I am UTTERLY sick of puff pastry. I work with it at work, and I have worked with it 3 other times in baking classes and once again I worked with it yesterday. With a good partner even diasters turn into fun, so here is our poached apple in puff pastry.

The kiwi are acting as the apples leaves and the strawberry...well it's just there for color.

NOW HERE'S MY SURPRISE THAT I'VE BEEN ITCHING TO SHARE!

It makes me this delicious drink and more.....

So of course Emiline was right! It is indeed an espresso machine! SCORE!!!!!
Check out Stud #2! (the title of Stud #1 will always go to Brandon)

"oh so shiny. Shiny and new, new!"

The first whole week that I got this, I kept dreaming of making all sorts of espresso drinks. I told my co-workers. Apparently, their looks said I am a freak. I guess their enthusiasm for food and drink may not be as high as mine. lol.

One last issue of importance. I LOVE heroes and was SO excited about the first episode of the new season. It makes me want to have powers too! If I were special, I would want to...have the power to wish for an appliance and it would magically appear. Yes, that is what my power will be.