Day TWENTY FIVE. Spices and Nuts.

Day TWENTY FIVE. Spices and Nuts. Lazy morning again studying in bed. I had intended to go to a street farmers market to buy veggies & fruit this morning, but the weather as finally turned cold and rainy (in the 40s) so I opted for no adventures, but to study the morning away. Today my only class was a lecture on Nuts and Spices. Pretty exciting. A bit better than the dry lecture we had on bread. The chef running the lecture, had not heard of 2 spices and 1 nut that we were to discuss, but they must not be that important for pastry if he's never used them. We had a fill in the blank work sheet to go along with the PowerPoint presentation again (like the flour lecture). When he was talking about nuts, the line was "Pecans are more expensive than Walnuts and are used in premium goods. They are grown in _____." Chef asked if anyone knew where they were grown, I chimed in and said "In my parents backyard!" The class got a chuckle out of that one. Shoot. Its true, they are grown there. Chef was impressed and asked what we used them for. Pecan Pie & Baklava. "Baklava? No not baklava" -- Maltese whispered to me. Some students had not heard of Pecan pie. Um what? Its in my top 5 favorites people. At the end of the class, after a lovely rendition of "Guess that spice in a cup" Chef did a review of everything. "Where are cashews grown? (Africa and India) Where are Hazelnuts grown? (Europe Turkey, Italy). "Where are Pecans grown?" From the back of the class far from where I was sitting was heard "Michelle's parents backyard!" Class dismissed. Vermont and California wanted to go out for dinner. I am trying to be on a budget, but we ended up going to a restaraunt, I got falafel for twice the price of the place I was planning on getting it from near my home. Oh well. It was still good to get out. I was so tired during the meal. I swear whenever I do eat out with these girls, it is on one road, near their flats, and no where else. California & Vermont actually went back to the bad nacho bar on Saturday night. Lame. But these girls love to chat, and I love to eat, so it all works out. At dinner, the song 'Hero' by Enrique Iglesias came on. The music in this place was rather random. Vermont thought the song was from the mid nineties, I knew it came out when I was in Hawaii, so I said 'it came out in 2000 I remember where I was when it came out'. [I looked it up 2001]. Poland said "I was 10 years old in 2000" ('Ahh... yah I was in college in 2000' I thought to myself). I think they will be shocked if I ever tell them how old I am. But until then, it will remain a mystery. Unless facebook has already unearthed that for them. Back to home, and my bed. Goodnight!