E-lat-ed [ih-ley-tid] - gleeful, joyful, jubilant

Elated! That is how I felt after school on Thursday.  Cuisine II - done; accomplished; concluded.  Hallelujah!  As these section finals loom my emotional quality deteriorates... that is to say, I am not fun to live with.  When they are over I am as high as a kite - I am tolerant, loving, helpful, friendly - in short,  a delight- until I have to start it all over again.
The chicken cooperated on Thursday for the knife skills portion of the test.  I finished fabricating that bird in under 8 minutes which was the fastest time frame for the highest score.  Then there was the accuracy part of the scoring - I did okay - forgot to "french" the wing on the Airline breast - well truthfully I didn't really even know I was supposed to do that!  The julienne, batonet and brunoise - not so good, but my tornay of potatoes were praised (in a moderate sense) by the chef. 
After the knife skills pressure cooker we moved into the market basket portion of the practical final.  Chicken (shocker), potatoes or rice, and a few vegetable selections ( asparagus, tomato, eggplant, zucchini, yellow squash, fennel.)
I decided to keep it simple and hopefully execute well.  I chose to do a tomato provencal with a pan-fried tornay of potatoes and asparagus.  The protein, as I mentioned, was the Airline chicken breast and I did a brandy cream sauce with a brunoise of vegetables.  My garnish was a heart-shaped crouton ( a nod to Valentines Day.)  If I was really talented at this blogging thing I could take you right into the kitchen so you could feel the tension, the hum of emotion, the current of nervous strain as we students worked feverishly to accomplish our plan and present our 2 exactly matching plates hot,  and beautiful to the Great High Inquisitor Chef Instructor.  30% vegetable, 30% starch and 40% protein; 4-6 colors, 1 inch from the sides, nothing on the rim, no smudges or drips - white plate pristine except where the food lie in subjugation to the diner in a beautifully designed flow from 10-4 counter clock-wise.  Well, that was the plan at least.  I put my chicken on backwards - my flow was ... well, let's just say it came to a screeching halt.  It is that crazy wing thing sitting up on the chicken breast that throws me off - I can't ever figure out which way it is flowing and how to set it on the plate.  :-]  BUT, the Chef said no one had frenched their wing as well and the vegetable brunoise in the brandy cream sauce was a distinct improvement over my knife skills brunoise offering.  I do learn from my mistakes.  Generally, he liked my food, color, execution.  The best part about it was that IT WAS OVER!!
Bring on the written test - at this point, even with my small amount of success,  I was so ELATED the practical was over I could have conquered the world!!  I did.  I scored the highest on the written test (which wasn't really high enough, but hey perfection is not going to happen here) and rubbed it in to a funny fellow student who is always showing me up.  Driving home, in my one lane, totally unconcerned with my fellow commuters and whether they were passing me in faster lanes, I basked in the knowledge that Cuisine II was over and I was free... until Tuesday.
Next - Baking... I LOVE baking!