Arriving to Malaga, Spain

Sunday June 16th

The flight was really short, 4 hours. I slept through most of it. I had the pleasure of sitting next to a cute little Spanish baby and her mother. The little baby girl really liked scratching my arm, and playing with my hair during the entire flight but I excused it because she was adorable. =D 

We arrived in Malaga, I got to see the beautiful scenery from the plane. Plaza de torros, Mediterranean sea. 

New Year, New Chapter

I haven't posted anything since July 2013-Travelled to Malaga, Spain. My life has been insane since then, roller coaster of emotions and huge life changing events. Since coming back from Spain I had post vacation glow. Everything I saw, the people I've met were absolutely amazing, breathtaking scenic views, the friendliest of people and one of the most delicious foods-tapas I have ever tasted. Nothing beats Spain.

Upon coming back from Malaga, I made a whole network of friends I would know to keep for a lifetime. I had the best roommate, Katharina. A humble Austrian girl, 26 who tells it like it is, enjoys tapas, beer and most of all churros dipped in chocolate. We shared a room in the home stay of the home of Fernando and Ana Maria. Two people I would grow to love as family, they have a son, Pablo who is close in age with us, he studies Media Journalism. The apartment we stayed in had an incredible view of the Meditterean Sea, a private pool and beautiful palm trees.

Everyday we had gorgeous hot weather and delicious food made authentically by our host mother, Ana Maria. Every meal I looked forward to, it was always different. The first meal we had was a Spanish lasagna. Now, any meal I ever had I mentally and photographically remember even if it's good or bad. I took my fork and sliced into the hot lasagna, placed it in my mouth and it was like the best bite of food I've ever had. If you know me well, as well as my sisters would I LOVE LASAGNA! It's up there in my favourite food category. I was in bliss...

I had suspicions that my host mother knew me better than I did, she had given me a HELLO KITTY glass, I just started giggling because I love hello kitty everything.

Every meal we ate on the balcony with the breathtaking view, every breakfast, lunch and dinner well most times if we didn't get caught up in the centro de Malaga, we would eat there chatting with our lovely host mother and laughing about what crazy things we saw or did that day.

I miss Malaga...

-J

Travelling to Toronto Pearson Airport, waiting for my flight to Brussels, Belgium

Friday June 14th. 

I waited last minute to pack, luckily my youngest sister, Carol came to my rescue to help me pack. By that I mean pack for me. =D She made it look super easy. It taught me some valuable lessons....

#1. I have too many black clothes

#2. Plastic bag everything. 

#3. Don't pack too much that your suitcase falls on you. 

#4. If you question it, you don't need it. 

I got to spend some time with her before I left, yay! sister bonding time! Friday night, I didn't sleep at all. This is very common for me when I'm anxious and excited. I stayed up the entire night watching movies and my mistake was putting on Final Destination and watched the last Canadian sunrise for a while. I got picked up, in the car I had the worst stomach ache. At first, I thought it was from hunger or just pure sheer terror from thinking of every worst case scenario that would happen on the plane. (it was my first time travelling)

We got to the airport and located the airline (Jet Airways) lucky for me, I had two excellent and experience people showing me where to go. I walked up to the counter and received my boarding pass, checked in my bag, and the lady was really excited I had a window seat. (I was no so...) I headed to the gates to where my plane was taking off. It's really important to get to the airport early for this. I walked through security and the night before, being me I youtubed how to get through airport security. LOL I was a pro. THANKS YOUTUBE! 

I waited a little under two hours for my flight. Checked in and ready I gave my boarding pass to the clerk. and proceeded to walk down to the plane. I was very calm at this point having processed everything that was happening. I got onto the plane, greeted by our flight attendants in three languages. I eventually found my seat and sat next to a gentlemen who spoke only Dutch. 

                                                       10 hours later....

I was in Brussels! yay! Tired and jet lagged, time difference got the best of me. I walked off the plane and went to my next connecting flight to Malaga. It was a 5 hour connection. I walked around the airport for 3 hours and the 2 hours.. I mingled with a lot of people on my flight. 

-J

Six Days til Spain!!! (seis)

Hello All! 

I'm still up at 3:26 am  on a Saturday contemplating what I should put in my suitcase. So far, I've made a bit of progress. I have a white bikini and my passport. I must say a huge improvement from last time I tried to pack. 

A lot has changed over the course of a week, relationships ended, new friendships formed.. I'm finding myself in the middle of peace and calm nature. I think the majority of it has to do with everything coming to a close. 

I can't wait to begin my trip to Spain. I'm looking forward to cervesas, churros and especially tapas. 

Yay! 

-Cat

Cote De Boeuf

Toronto. Ontario.

My sister, Carol and I went to Toronto to see the RENT musical at the ossington theatre on Saturday. As we were finishing up and leaving Delux Cubano Cafe, we walked past this butcher store. In most cases, a lot of people would scream at the sight of a pigs head resting on a white plate, but for me.. I find it fascinating! as would any other chef would.

In Waterloo you don't see most of these places nowadays.. it seems too obscene and unnecessary but I think we really need more adventurous places like these. =D

-Cat

Goodbye Blackberry =(

The past year, I've spent working at Blackberry cooking and servicing the staff there.. This dessert above is something I made for one the employees there. It's a vanilla genoise, layered with french vanilla pastry cream enrobed with white chocolate, coated with toasted coconut.

Everytime I look at this dessert it makes me happy and sad.. Hopefully in the next job I'll be able to bring such gluttony and decadence to the next.

-Cat

Experience or lack of it? just an ol' cook

This past weekend, I was updating my resume and realized how many places I've worked in. From restaurants to bakeries I found myself sitting back and wondering to myself what have I learned? With that mind set, it got me thinking about writing...

A couple of years ago, I had been introduced to the idea of potentially writing a cookbook, essentially a collection  of all my experiences from when I was first inspired to cook to entering the scary and rapid pace of the culinary college life. I have been thinking a lot about this lately and I'm waiting on a response from publishers. It made me think, I'm 24 years old and why this interest in writing? I started out as a cook and nothing more.. what seemed like moments ago, all I wanted to do was plate food on ceramic white plates, food stacked high and coated with a type of jus.

Now I found myself looking into the esthetics of food. I always appreciated food photography and the amazing pictures that some photographers can create. I thought, that's what I want to do.. but with my food.

So here.. I'm sitting writing one about baking and the experiences of it. I wonder how long this will take me?..... look back at blog in 20 years. lol.

-cat