CIA campus on Hudson River

repost from September 2008

CIA day 2

post originally titled 'pie dough'

Up and on campus before sunrise..(breakfast is served 5:30 - 7:00 AM) breakfast of chocolate chip pancakes, lemon poppy seed muffin, and what tasted like ham and cheese focaccia. Class lecture begins at 7AM.

8:15AM - Time to eat again...we taste the cookies and cakes from our baking the day before.

Today we learn to make pie dough. Chef’s method was the most amazing method I have ever seen. We created the flakiest pie dough ever!!!!! We will bake pies with the dough tomorrow.

Scones were next on the list. Ours were sun dried tomato, basil, and asiago cheese. They were very good...

There are 7 teams in our class, each team producing different items. Then we all taste.....that’s a lot of tasting.

11:00 AM - lunch...and we aren’t hungry. Rolls, soup, and an apple tart was my choice, and we’re back in the kitchen

3:00PM - Afternoon lecture was presented by Denise Hall on coffee/espresso. Afterwards, she took us to the Apple Pie Bakery (wonderful on-campus bakery) where we tasted the CIA’s specially chosen coffees. Along with fresh pastries baked by the students, we tasted 6 coffee varities. I’m not a coffee drinker, but the press coffee we tasted, along with the pastries for a touch of sweet, was delicious!

6:30PM - Dinner was at the Italian restaurant on campus...Caterina de Medici..my vegetable tart and pasta were an adventure into something new. Ah...but the tiramisu was wonderful.

Alarm set for 4:45AM.