Wow, time flies! I cannot believe it’s been over three weeks since I have posted. My sincerest apologies. I unexpectedly took a break from the blog, which turned out to be okay for me. But now I seriously miss it and am happy to be back.
The last time I posted I left off on finishing the More/Fitness Half Marathon, buying new running shoes, and expressing my thoughts on the Boston Marathon Bombings. I still can’t believe it’s now a month since the bombings. And authorities have answered a lot of questions we had immediately after the horrible events.
So what else is new? Lots! The weekend after the half, I attended a class at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY. For Christmas, Nick gave me a “Baking for Profit” class to spark my interest in starting a baking business. The class was very interesting, even thought it was not what I expected. I knew going in that we weren’t going to do any baking but that we would learn how about starting a baking business. Well, although I didn’t learn about all the steps to starting a business, I did learn a lot of useful tips. The class was more about how to more efficiently use your kitchen for higher volume baking, which was very enlightening. The class was about eight of us so it made it easier for us to ask any questions we wanted and to offer our own tips and tricks in the kitchen. Before taking a break for lunch, one of the CIA students gave us a quick tour of the rooms where their baking classes take place.
How amazing are these cakes! I have been wanting to take a class about using fondant and gum paste. Maybe someday I will be able to make a cake like these. Check out the sugar flowers on the cake below:
I had to take a really close look to realize they weren’t real flowers. So pretty!
Since the lunch at the school was prepared by the students enrolled in their programs, I had high hopes for the meal and they definitely lived up.
On my plate was chicken sauteed with mushrooms and peppers, a tomato/cucumber salad, greens, potato salad, pasta, roasted vegetables, and the best quinoa I have ever had. We all loved the quinoa so much that we needed to have the recipe. The student who made it was so kind as to write out the recipe for us. I have yet to make it myself but definitely plan to.
In more news, Nick’s parents got a new puppy around the time of my half marathon. The weekend I took the CIA class I stayed with his family and got to meet the cuddliest pup ever, Sadie.
She is a German shepherd/black lab mix and loves to cuddle and nap. Since then, she has developed a lot more energy and runs around with the other dogs.
Another new thing that has happened will surprise you. As much as I love baking and baking new things, you would think that I would’ve had a French macaron at some point. Well, a couple weeks ago, my company had a French-themed lunch and the dessert was French macarons. I finally got to try one (or five) and now understand the hype.
They’re so cute and colorful.
The last weekend of April also involved something new – new beginnings. Nick’s brother got married in an intimate and fun wedding. It was the perfect wedding for Dan and Brit (the groom and bride) – the ceremony was short but full of laughs, the reception was beautiful, and the after party BBQ was a better setting to invite all of their friends.
(Mandy, me and Nick)
Last but not least I experienced something that most people have by this point in their lives – a drive-in movie. Nick’s sister, Jen, and her best friend, Mandy (aka ‘Tito’ <- I’ll explain this another time) invited us to watch “42″ at the drive-in and even though I wasn’t super psyched to see a baseball movie, I was sold by the idea of a drive-in movie. To my surprise, I really enjoyed the movie.
What news things have you done lately?
Happy Mother’s Day to all of the moms, moms-to-be, and mom figures!
Platano relleno at 
