today was cheesecake day. cherie asked for 2 students to volunteer to prepare the cheesecake side by side with megan the pastry chef. a few students and they had to draw lots. we didnt have a full class hands-on coz she reckon that 6 cheesecakes is too much (we eat all the food we prepare everyday!) ... so anyway... we proceed on to the demo/hands-on room where we had megan with the assistance of the 2 students (who turned out to be professional chefs in their own right! one of whom is m
y buddy nancy who went to cullinary institute of america, and giselle who went to corden bleu!) my goodness, i am surrounded by greatness and i didnt even know! so it was quite interesting to see three pros at work... 
this is the "cheese" filling that goes into the cheese cake. it's made of cashew nut, coconut oil (i think! excuse me it is 5am!) our chefs hard at work.... and their yummy creations!
our kitchen angel bringing out the cheesecake for everyone to sample after its set in the fridge for a couple of hours... (fyi, a kitchen angel is someone who PAYS to come to the school to be a helper to gain experience... unbelievable, i wanna open a cooking school! someone pay me to be my slave, how incredible is that!) 
verdict - i found the "cheesecake" too heavy. for someone who loves cheesecake, i could only manage one bite. it looks very pretty when its presented but i think its a bit dense for my liking. amazingly, some of the classmates finished their cake! and then it was time to say goodbye. some of our classmates were leaving us today so it was kind of sad. we made some good friends, nancy, sherrie, bridget, jackie, i know you will be reading this..., so glad to have met you wonderful gals, make sure you come visit me sometime! and oh ya, jackie, i just found out from some of the gals about your generosity, you are amazing! i dun think i could be so generous to give away my class to a complete stranger but well, its good karma. God bless you and i hope you have a successful business in teaching raw! we gathered in a circle and had a little ritual to say our goodbyes to the lovely people who were leaving. was quite touching... so in the afternoon, nancy, rhoni and i drove to mendocino. quite a quaint little town. reminds me of little house on the prairie.
being a city girl, this was quite a change but well, its an experience.
we then went on to see the ocean. mendocino is at the edge of the pacific ocean. little did i expect to see what i saw....
yes very foggy. really cold... rhoni and nancy standing literally at the edge taking in the foggy view and enjoying the incredibly fresh air. i was surprised by how much the fresh ocean breeze smelled of kelp. gosh i am thinking food in my experience (this course is infiltrating into my brain cells on interpreting my experiences!) i've never ever thought of experiences in terms of food!!
anyway.. was interesting, to smell of seaweed in the air! haha... i was wondering if my hair will smell of seaweed if i linger on here....
was a little disappointed how foggy it was, we could hear the sea otters and the birds but it was not very visual... and then.... God must have read my mind and decided to give me a treat! the sun came out and the view was just spectacular! really really amazingly spectacular, it really makes me appreciate God's beautiful creation.
after taking in the beautiful sights, the stomach roars... so nancy and i decided that enough is enough.. we are going seafood today! rhoni is a raw vegan :-)
we headed for the pier enroute harvest market (which is really a supermarket and a very good one if i may add!) and went to this really nice seafood restaurant where we had our "fix".... i've decided that my goal should be to eat healthy and not try to pretend that i could be a raw vegan... aiyoh how to be raw vegan when i love my fish and sashimi! plus the yummy food that my good friends and their husbands make (you know who you are!) ok i do think i can give up meat though. i have not really missed it.
i had the local catch with cayenne sauce (which is very nice), rhoni had salad and nancy had a fish dish with risotto i think! i must learn to remember names and places better! oh ya, nancy introduced me to this beer (which name i obviously forgot!) that was really nice. i must ask her.. and oh ya, nancy had a olilioberries cobbler ( i think that's what its called!)
what an end to a week. i didnt realise how tired i was until dessert came and i could hardly keep my eyes open... we went back straight after and i literally hit the bed!
i had fun... and now for a weekend of nutrition!
oh ya... i forgot i took two videos of mendocino coast (one before and one after, when the sun came out!) enjoy!
and when the sun came out....
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