Grand Finale but not our final!

Breakfast crepes to start our Friday morning at school!  Ok, that put a smile on my face very quickly!  I needed it, as we had a fairly full day and I was still a bit worried about the dish I created and was going to have to present to my fellow classmates and Chef Haylee.  But before that was going to happen we prepared our Pad Thai:

I don't think I have ever even had the real (or should I say more conventionally cooked) Pad Thai so I have no idea what this was supposed to taste like.  I thought this dish was incredibly fresh tasting and can we all agree, very beautiful!  That is one thing 105 Degrees Academy is definitely doing, expanding my flavor profile for savory dishes!  I am beginning to realize more and more how important this is in raw food cuisine.  Which brings me to what came next:

The assorted cheeses we made ... out of ... yes, nuts!  You would never know it!  The cashew cheeses I made were plain and date and the macadamia cheeses were chipotle pepper/chive and sundried tomato/olive.  I am glad I kept one plain because, I wanted to see if it really did taste like cream cheese like Chef said.  Well, dog gone it, she was right!  I loved the date one also!  To be honest, I wasn't overly excited about making the cashew cheese because it is a bit of a pain to make so I had already decided it would have to be really good to be worth it to make again.  I would say it most definitely is!!  The macadamia cheeses were absolutely delicious.  The chipotle one I am very proud of because that was a bold move on my part as most people know me to hold back on most anything with a "heat bite" to it.


  And now, drum roll please ... my own deconstructed lemon cream "tart" ...

Well, I am proud of the way it was plated.  Most of you reading this who know me well, know how much I love that part.  (Nick Devries, and my son Kevin especially.)  I am also pleasantly surprised that I seemed to have balanced the flavors and textures nicely so I was also pleased with that.  I would have liked a slightly firmer custard though and a crisper cookie.  All-in-all, Chef Haylee, had such nice things to say, I felt pretty good about my first attempt at my own raw creation.  Now I have to focus on our final for next week.  I am making three dishes, none of which are a dessert!  What am I making?  Sorry, it is a surprise!  Keep reading ... until then I leave you with the grand finale of our day ... a sample of everyone's dishes.  They were all fantastic.  No surprise there, my classmates are incredibly talented.  Lucky for me because it really expands my learning!

 Notice there is only one dessert on the plate!!!  :-)