First Day in the Kitchen

I was so tired after our first day in the kitchen. I came home, fell on the couch and barely moved til I went to bed six hours later. I felt like such a wimp for being so exhausted from only four and half hours of work, but I'm new to that kind of stuff (y'all, I've never even worked in a restaurant/ waitressed/ anything!). But let me make this clear: I loved it!

Chef Ginocchio turned us loose in the kitchen to get our mise en place all ready to go. Turns out I wasn't the only one who didn't know where anything was (we had a kitchen walk through the week before, but it was very general and no specifics were pointed out except the sinks...hint hint). There was quite a bit of running around (oh yeah, we had a time limit) looking for ingredients and tools, asking classmates only to find out they too didn't have a clue where to find stuff...good times. But the good news is that everyone eventually found everything they needed.

We made rolled biscuits, rolled scones and drop scones. The names are pretty self explanatory, but just in case...rolled biscuits and scones are made from a drier dough that is rolled out and cut, and drop scones are made from a wetter dough that is scooped and dropped. All three had pretty simple formulas (I have to get used to saying that instead of recipe; in baked goods, it is always "formula"): flour, butter, salt, a liquid, and a few other special ingredients like chocolate chips or apricots. I had never made  biscuits or scones before-although the ingredients and process of the biscuits is very similar to pie crust, which I have made-and I enjoyed making something other than cake. My group's batches came out pretty good-yay!

Speaking of my group, that is something I have to get used to. I almost always work alone in the kitchen and the couple times I've had help, well....define "help" again? I'm kidding. Kinda. It's through no fault of the other person, I just like to get in the zone while baking and the zone has room for only one. But I have two awesome ladies in my group and I think we had a good system going today. Besides, if I ever decide to take my baking to the professional level, I'm most likely gonna have to work with others. Although I can see myself trying to do it all alone...I could possibly run a small bakery all by myself, right? Yes? No? Maybe?

I enjoyed my first day in the kitchen and I look forward to many more! Maybe I can remember to take a picture of the processes and finished products next time so y'all can see what we are doing. :)

PS-If you knew what mise en place was, yay! If you didn't know what it was and Googled it, I like your style. And if you still don't know what it is, I'll tell you: it's just your organization and set up, having all needed tools and ingredients measured and ready for use. ;)