I'm Alive! oh...and Food & Wine!

Running all of these blogs at the same time is a lot harder than I thought it would be. Especially lately since I'm working from 2-10:30 and by the time I get home all I want to do is eat and go to bed. I will keep posting those dining reviews periodically (I mean heck, the vacation is long over!) but I just wanted to kind of fill you guys in on a few things, mostly about Food & Wine!

A few weeks ago I switched from morning production to Food & Wine training. We had to get more training to learn all about the festival, the menus, alcohol policies, and all that jazz. It was actually kind of fun though. We got to take a different tour of Epcot, we did different memory tests on our recipes, played a spice game and really got into the start of the festival. We also got our new hats which was exciting!

 You can buy our hats in the festival marketplaces this year!

Packets of all the dishes for Food & Wine that we had to study

Then eventually, Food and Wine started and it was time to bake for it! It has been fun and definitely a learning experience. We've already run into a night where we ended up staying til midnight and dealing with busy nights. I was placed at our PEO bakery to make lava cakes and we pump out thousands of those a day. I think 1 tram made us nearly 1,300 cups or so. There are so many different components to each dish but they are all great fun and delicious too! Here's a look at some of the things we are doing for the Desserts & Champagne, Ireland, and Scotland Marketplaces so far:

 The Dessert Trio available at the Desserts & Champagne Marketplace

 Banoffee Tart: Chocolate Tart Shell, Bananas, Toffee Sauce, Whiskey Cream, Chocolate Curls and Shortbread Crumbles at the Scotland Marketplace

 Look at all the Chocolate Orange Cupcakes!

 Hazelnut Cheesecake with Frangelico Sauce

 Chocolate Orange Cupcake with Cream Cheese Butercream (I put Hidden Mickeys on some of my cupcakes so keep an eye open!)

 Pistachio Mousse with Morello Cherries

 Chocolate Pudding Cake with Bailey's Ganache from the Ireland Marketplace

Cut Open

I really do enjoy baking for the festival and the crew that I do it with for the most part. While on this program I have learned how mature I am compared to some and what it's like to bite your tongue just to work with someone. A few weeks ago shortly after my mom and brother left my depression hit a wall and I found myself having a mental breakdown fully dressed in my costume in an empty tub. You have rough days in Disney and everyone you work with isn't a Princess or well mannered Prince, that's how it is everywhere. But I've grown and learned from it all, it's never a total 100% negative thing. I can already tell that at the end of the festival I will look back on it and be proud. When you go to our marketplace most of us making these desserts are interns. There's us and our 2 chefs, we are students cranking out these desserts and that's cool. It's an experience I will already cherish, and this is just working, I haven't even gone to eating around the world as a guest yet!