Week 6 at CSU

This week was filled with many different rotations, each coming with their own challenges and unique learning opportunities.  This was probably my favorite week thus far.  I can't believe I only have two weeks left at CSU!

Monday, July 11: My weekend was somewhat extended, as I didn’t have to work today until 1pm.  I spent the afternoon and evening at Durrell Dining Center, which is on its second week of hosting Kallah, a Jewish Renewal conference that was in its second and final week on campus.  Because there are many dietary restrictions, the menus are very different.  They entire kitchen also had to be koshered, which required deep cleaning and discarding of all non-kosher food.  I spent part of the afternoon with Sarah, the assistant student manager, learning about the duties of student managers and assistant student managers, including hiring, scheduling, pay rate, and promotions of hourly employees.  After that, Kyle, the production chef, put me to work in the kitchen. 

The middle stage of the risotto 

I made mushroom risotto, which required constantly stirring with a huge paddle for about an hour.  Unfortunately, because many of the conference guests are vegan, we had to omit the cheese from the risotto.  I was quite disappointed!  During dinner, I spent time with Tina on the floor learning how to make menu updates (the menu boards are electronic) and performing pre-service and floor duties during meal time.  It was interesting to learn how the dining hall has to make changes according to certain dietary needs and the amount of effort and time that goes into accommodating them.

  

Tuesday, July 12: Lori and I explored Estes Park today!  On the way up, Lori took me to Glen Haven General Store for the perfect mid-morning snack – a cinnamon roll!  The store is known for their cinnamon rolls and it certainly didn’t disappoint. 

Mini library!

Up close of the Glen Haven cinnamon rolls

View from the top of Bible Point

Bible Point

Maybe a little more frosting would have made is superb, but I still enjoyed it quite a bit.  Next, we hike Bible Point at the YMCA of the Rockies.  It was a pretty steep incline, but pretty short otherwise.  At the top there is a grave of a young teenager from the early 1900s marked with a cross, and a mailbox with a bible in it that visitors can read and write notes to put in the pages.  After the hike, we drove around Rocky Mountain National Park and stopped at the Alluvial Fan that flooded in 2013.  It was incredible to see how much land it completely destroyed.  Finally, we grabbed a late lunch in Estes Park at Ed’s Cantina.  I had a bison salad, which actually tasted just like ground beef!

Wednesday, July 13: Today and tomorrow will be spent at the Bakeshop.  I helped at the bread bench making focaccia and testing new challah recipe.  We decided the challah needed some honey to make it a little sweeter.  After baking the bread, I moved over to the finishing bench, where I worked with David, the assistant pastry chef.  I realized I wasn’t as comfortable frosting cupcakes as I thought.  He really helped me stay calm, which was really difficult!  My mind was thinking about a million different things – putting enough pressure on the bag, swirling correctly, holding my hands in the right position, the list goes on!  I practiced frosting imaginary cupcakes on parchment paper until I got the hang of it, then I moved on to the matcha green tea cupcakes. 

Tester challah loaf

Items for the dessert tray

20 dozen cupcakes later, I worked on a small dessert tray that included fruit tarts, chocolate-dipped strawberries, and cream puffs.   

Thursday, July 14: My morning had quite the sweet start.  I made cream cheese frosting for red velvet cupcakes, then frosted orange cream, cookies and cream, raspberry, and red velvet cupcakes.  After a few hours of frosting and decorating, I made caramel with Lauren, which required patiently standing over the stove and taking the temperature of the sugar, corn syrup, water, butter, and cream mixture.  To finish the day, I made frangipane pilling for almond croissants that I will make tomorrow.

Friday, July 15: Before heading over to Durrell in the afternoon, I made a quick stop at the Bakeshop to finish the almond croissants. 

Almond croissants

The dough had already been baked yesterday, so today we filled, glazed, and baked the pastries.  They were absolutely divine!  The most difficult part was waiting for them to cool before we could eat them.  In the afternoon, I worked at Durrell getting ready for the final dinner of the Kallah conference.  The dinner tonight was going to be served at the Lory Student Center and was only for adults, which made providing the kids’ meals somewhat of an extra challenge.  Durrell made all of the food and provided the serving utensils, silverware, plates, etc.  The afternoon was spent counting and organizing all of the items.  Before loading the truck with the food, we served 20 children at Durrell who weren’t attending the dinner later in the evening.  I supervised the group as they came in, telling them about the dishes that fit with their dietary restrictions (gluten free, vegetarian, vegan, soy free).  As I learned on Monday, this group has a large number of guests with dietary restrictions.  After serving the kids, we loaded the warming trays the food, loaded the truck with the trays, and dropped off the food at the student center.  It was a busy night to finish the week! 

Saturday, July 16: For the last four years, I’ve gone to a running camp for high school and college Maine runners and unfortunately I’ll miss this year.  Coincidentally, the director reached out to me and told me his daughter just moved to Fort Collins!  I was so happy to make this connection and this morning we went to Silver Grill Restaurant in Old Town.  They are famous for their cinnamon rolls, which of course I had to try.  I was a little disappointed because it didn’t have cream cheese frosting, which is personally the most important part of the cinnamon roll!  Despite that, it was a great way to start the weekend reconnecting with Amanda.

Silver Grill breakfast

Sunday, July 17: My friend I drove down to Longmont early in the morning to the Longmont Trail Half Marathon, where we met another teammate.  I was the only one registered for the race, but my friends joined me for part of the way.  Having never actually run an official half marathon, it was a lot of fun and a great experience!  After the race, we went to Boulder for the day.  We had an amazing brunch at Zeal, which had everything from acai bowls to carrot pancakes with coconut "whipped cream" to superfood smoothies to savory egg and tofu dishes.  It was fantastic!  I also ordered their Kickstarter coffee, which was coffee mixed with grass-fed butter and coconut oil.  I fell in love immediately!  After brunch, we walked around Pearl Street for a few hours, window shopping and making our way through a huge arts fair.  Boulder is such a great place and I would love to go back.  Being that today is National Ice Cream Day, I made a trip to Walrus Ice Cream in Old Town after dinner to take advantage of their deal on saturdaes (their version of a sundae).  It was a superb way to end the week!