Day 8

I love McCormick. Would you like to know why? In truth, there are many reasons, but today I have one reason in mind. At 6:45, I went to pull my car out of the driveway so my mom could get to work, and guess what happened? It died...in the exact same place it's died for the past 3 days. I'm not even kidding. I have become so conditioned to dealing with a dying car that it was mere routine to go get Poppy so he could bring his jumper cables and get my car started again. At this point, I have to admit that it's pretty funny. I mean, how could it be that I would have a week-long car problem during one of the only weeks I actually need my car? Pretty darn hilarious. (Or at least it will be when we look back at it.)

Because of the many car-related stresses in my life, I was not in the best state of mind when I arrived at work this morning (though I didn't set off any security alarms today, so that was a plus!) And yet, as soon as I arrived on the second floor and greeted my co-workers, everything changed. Suddenly, my mind was so busy with all of the things going on that I didn't have time to fret over my perpetual car troubles.

Today Breanne and I had to do a run-through of our Pinterest presentation, so we finished that up this morning, splitting up the slides between the two of us, and going over it a few times.

As we were working, JoAnne came and asked us if we were going to say good-bye to Paddy with them. Today was Paddy's last day, and it was actually very sad. Steph made these Chocolate Merlot bundt cakes and the sensory department made a beautiful breakfast spread for her with bagels and muffins and fruit salad. They put it on a cart and Steph rolled it over as we trailed behind.

Needless to say, Paddy was touched by everyone's thoughtfulness, and a bunch of employees showed up to snack and wish Paddy well. Being that I'm on the brink of a rather large good-bye myself, I found today to be particularly meaningful. It's just so hard to leave something you love. It doesn't matter what age you are. Change isn't easy, especially when you are cared about and care about those who you have to leave. The people at McCormick are extremely close, too. So for them, the loss of a co-worker is much more than that.

After the farewell soiree, the presentation run-through went well. Breanne and I got some suggestions from AuBrei, Steph, and JoAnne about what to perfect for tomorrow, but other than that I think we're good to go!

After the run-through, AuBrei took us to the Company Store!!! It was so exciting. At least, it was exciting for me. It was basically a small warehouse room with shelves of discount spices and I bought a HUGE container of cinnamon. Literally, if anyone needs cinnamon for the next 10 years, I think I have you covered.

Please note the embarrassingly large bottle of cinnamon

So that was fun. Definitely a necessary stop during my adventures in Spiceland. :)

I forgot to mention earlier that I didn't have to worry about lunch today (shocker). As we were on our way to the Company Store, AuBrei stopped in the party kitchen to taste the Buffalo Chicken Quesadillas they were trying. We had run the buffalo chicken quesadillas as a Panel some time last week and they were making some changes that they wanted people to try. (It's a rough job but somebody has to do it!)

So there were three different recipes. The first one honestly brought tears to my eyes- it was SO HOT! I'm not sure if my tongue was numb to the pain after that, but the other two didn't taste nearly as spicy to me.

Once I finished off my plate (and had a spoonful of the lemon mousse they'd made- see why it's the party kitchen? They always have awesome food!) I wasn't the least bit hungry, so I didn't have to worry about lunch. It felt so official tasting the different chicken versions, though. That's one thing I really love about this job. So that was lunch- sorry for going out of order!

The afternoon was much quieter than the morning. Honestly, it felt like a Friday, that's how quiet it was in the office. I guess people were at meetings or in different buildings, or something. I have no idea what it was, but after 1:30 it felt like there were 5 people in the building! That actually worked to our advantage, though, because it gave Breanne and I time to make our second treat for our presentation tomorrow without being the way of anyone in the kitchen.

The Blueberry Lemon Cheesecake Bars had a few more steps than the Deep Dark Chocolate Cookies, so we split up the work.

Yummy, yummy! Blueberries!

Breanne hard at work, layering the cream cheese filling on top of the graham cracker crust we made the day before

Somehow, despite the fact that both of us are educated, intelligent young women, we completely forgot to put the lemon juice in the filling. SO, Breanne hurried and juiced the lemon and kind of poured it over the filling and then mixed it in a little. By this point, we'd already begun layering the blueberries on top, so everything got a little more blended than it should have.... But, hey, that's half the fun of cooking, right? Making it your own!

Sprinkling the streusel topping over the batter

After our slight modification, we popped it in the oven and set the timer. Since it was a Thursday afternoon, we were relegated to the conference room attached to Cathy's Kitchen. Cathy's happens to be my favorite kitchen. (Perhaps I've mentioned that before) Plus, look what she offered us when we arrived!

She was going for a Ravens color. I think she nailed it. Purple cupcakes. See why Cathy is the greatest? I brought four home with me. It's really silly not to take the baked goods she offers. Whatever people don't take home gets thrown out. And we wouldn't want to waste all that deliciousness, would we?  

Since Breanne had to work on compiling info from the focus groups, I busied myself with tasks Steph and JoAnne assigned me. JoAnne needed little soufflé cups labeled with numbers for Descriptive Panel tomorrow (when the trained panelists come in). So I labeled those and then had to make some charts for JoAnne's shelf-life tests.

After that, I set up the trays for tomorrow morning. (It's a shame I only have one more day. I'm really getting the hang of it now!) And Steph asked if I could make the edamame for tomorrow, too. (Though I'm not totally sure what we're using edamame for...guess I'll find out!) It was great having the kitchen all to myself. I've always found cooking and baking to be really relaxing and rejuvenating and there's something about being able to cook in a big kitchen that just gives me a warm fuzzy feeling inside. I was in heaven. 

Breanne came in to chat a little while later and take a break from her note-compiling and snack on some of our left-over blueberries. These blueberries were so good! They were just from Giant, but they were some of the sweetest blueberries ever! And since we didn't use all of them for our bars, we left the rest out in a bowl as afternoon snackage. 

The two of us get along so well. I'm really going to miss Breanne once I leave. It's been so nice having her there. We have such a good time together. We even have little inside jokes now. Who knew I'd be lucky enough to have such a great fellow intern! Ah well. I don't want to dwell on sad things now. (That's better saved for tomorrow's post, right?) 

Steph was sweet enough to save a bundt cake for Breanne and me. And, you know, I never get tired of seeing baked goods with my name on them. 

There's something so heart warming about seeing that Steph saved something for us. I remember the thrill of having an aloha paradise bar with my name on it on the first day. I still get that same excitement over a week later! I think it's just something about having someone remember you, that really gets me. It's so nice, and will be something I will remember fondly about this internship, and Steph, for a very long time.

Although we'd set the timer on our cheesecake bars, Breanne and I were in the other room and we didn't notice when the timer went off. I only realized that the time was up because I had to go in the kitchen to get something (I can't even remember what anymore) and noticed that the timer was off! We had a mini panic as we hoped we hadn't completely ruined the recipe. Luckily, everything was just fine. I'll be sure to take a picture tomorrow. We had to cool it on the counter for an hour and then put it in the fridge for an hour after that.

Since we couldn't very well wait until tomorrow, Breanne and I tried it and it was GREAT! It's so light and fluffy and summery. Mmmm.... I'll post the recipe link tomorrow when I take a pretty picture. (Fingers crossed it looks nice!)

It was a lovely day. I found that I wanted to stay as long as possible. I guess I'm just having difficulty adjusting to the idea that this wonderful experience is coming to such an abrupt end. But I don't want to dwell on it tonight. Instead, I'd like to hold onto the happy memories of all the fun I had today.

Til tomorrow.