HAPPY 2009!
Hopefully I will be able to maintain this blog a bit more, for my few readers... though they're privy to most of these statements through day-to-day conversation.
Much has changed in the months since I last posted... with braces fully removed and teeth prepared for gnashing, I have rediscovered the lovely world of SALADS! It truly amazes me how much I missed my teeth now that I have full use of them.
I have gone through 1.25 terms at JWU..... yes, 1.25. We work on a trimester schedule and were about 1/4 of the way through our 2nd term when it was time to go on winter holiday hoopla break. My first term was entirely labs, and I learned quite a bit and then some. Classes were: Principles of Beverage Service (a.k.a. 'bartending & mixology'), Purchasing and Product Identification ('storeroom'), Nutrition and Sensory Analysis, Fundamentals of Foodservice Production ('ffp' or 'how to flip an egg'), and Skills of Meatcutting (uhm... duh... 'meatcutting'). I was probably more excited about these classes than a number of my lab-mates, but I had been waiting for what seemed like an eternity (really only 2 years) to get to JWU and take these labs. Each chef/professor had insights and experience in the culinary field I can only dream of one day attaining so far... many had or are currently owned/ing a restaurant, a number were certified chefs (yes, there is a test and it looks crazy), and I like to think I got along well with them. If it's not already obvious, I think they're all REALLY REALLY COOL.
My current term is all academic courses... joy of joys. Communication Skills (I do really need this class), Sanitation (pass the exam, get certified, woot!), Career Management (resumes/ how to sell yourself), and Leadership (define LEADERS/leadership). I generally like the first two classes, but I am having some difficulty in appreciating the other two. They'll hopefully grow on me more as the term goes on. I will have little to no difficulty in passing them, but I might not truly ENJOY them. Oh well, I'll live.
I have survived another holiday season at Santé. It was good. Thank the PTB that it's over until Valentine's Day. I have managed to pick up another job... I am doing "work-study" in the cafeteria. Work-study at JWU involves working for minimum wage in a certain department of the school for a set number of hours per week... I am supposed to be working 13.25 hours, I was averaging 16-17. Good thing they pay me for all of it. Plus, this allowed me to lower my average to 9-10 hours per week in December while the holiday rush hit Santé. Hoorah for not dying due to exhaustion. I can definitely attest that going to class 24 hours a week (on lab cycle it's 4 6-hour days), working at one job anywhere from 14-21 hours a week, and then working at the other job 16 hours a week will KILL you. Or make you re-set your priorities. Good thing labs don't give much homework aside from the occasional paper at the end of the lab segment or I would've been very likely to have some sort of breakdown. Once I get back to JWU I plan on letting the chef at the cafeteria know that I can work weekend morning shifts again without too big of a toll on my sanity. It shouldn't be too bad of a balancing act... morning classes for 4 hours mid-week, Santé weekend evenings, cafeteria weekend mornings and office-work for an hour-ish other days, community service (required for my Leadership class) Mondays, and time for myself and, of course, Captain Obvious and my family. I may even have time to work out... O_O craziness!
The holidays went as usual here. Crazy, full of action, and lots of food. Sadly I was working for a good bit of my break so I missed out on VENISON dinners ( very very unfortunate), but I was home for Christmas Eve and Christmas as well as New Year's Day. Somewhat so on that last one as I was asleep until about 10:00 after having worked until 1-ish. Quite the day, really. My dad got his holiday request and the two of us spent most of the day cooking, turning out rounds of tasty appetizers to graze on for most of the day. Very much a hit with mom and the brother as well, so overall it was quite the success.
One down note is that I have just discovered that most of the images on my new website pages no longer exist... this is very distressing. The good thing is that I have *found* the pages and can send them to dad to actually put on the website. I just need to polish them a bit.
Overall, quite the busy half-year. I can't think of too much to add right at this moment.
SHORT CHEF AWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY~
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Summer fun?
Short Chef is back again, with some thought-points, even though my brain is a bit fuzzy right now.
One: it looks like I goofed on the spice section at the grocery store. One of the other chefs who works with me has let me know that what I find there is probably not all the real deal, and an Alton Brown special on spices has revealed that the cinnamon is probably cassia, which is a cinnamon-like tree bark that is usually sold as cinnamon in the states. Gir. I can at least take comfort in knowing that it's serving me well, though, and that I can get some neat flavors from what I have.
Two: My summer "training" has come to a screeching halt. Jaw surgery has gotten in the way. It was a pretty invasive process to fix my underbite, involving breaking my lower jaw and pushing it back to get the bottom teeth where they should be. It's a good thing they decided to only operate on the one jaw... having both halves of my mouth out of commission would be a disaster! I'm essentially on a liquid diet until I feel able to take on soft foods, which should be (according to me, but I'm no doctor) in a week or so. I heal quickly, the entire family does, so my goal is to get my recovery time down so that I can get back to work ASAP. I guess I'll be researching national soups... mmm, gazpacho.
I look a bit like a chipmunk/pufferfish right now, and how we've decided to keep the ice packs on my face is pretty comical. Giant socks, one ice pack in each, tied on the top of my head and under my jaw. It works, though, so I'm happy with it. I've been pretty lucky, no serious pain except for when I first got out and the anesthetics were initially wearing off... I'm on a pretty regular schedule of ibuprofin and antibiotics, but I think I'm going to cut back on the ibuprofin since I don't need it. As usual, I only had to take the hydrocodiene once.
This idea of soups has gotten me thinking, as right now, with 48 hours being past already from being discharged from surgery, I'm bored of sitting around, a little bored of protein shakes, and looking for some better sources of nutrients (blended PBJ be damned). I think I'll try and take my theme back up again, looking for chilled soups, as I don't think I'm technically supposed to have hot hot stuff yet.
Wish me luck,
Puffer-fishy chef signing out!
One: it looks like I goofed on the spice section at the grocery store. One of the other chefs who works with me has let me know that what I find there is probably not all the real deal, and an Alton Brown special on spices has revealed that the cinnamon is probably cassia, which is a cinnamon-like tree bark that is usually sold as cinnamon in the states. Gir. I can at least take comfort in knowing that it's serving me well, though, and that I can get some neat flavors from what I have.
Two: My summer "training" has come to a screeching halt. Jaw surgery has gotten in the way. It was a pretty invasive process to fix my underbite, involving breaking my lower jaw and pushing it back to get the bottom teeth where they should be. It's a good thing they decided to only operate on the one jaw... having both halves of my mouth out of commission would be a disaster! I'm essentially on a liquid diet until I feel able to take on soft foods, which should be (according to me, but I'm no doctor) in a week or so. I heal quickly, the entire family does, so my goal is to get my recovery time down so that I can get back to work ASAP. I guess I'll be researching national soups... mmm, gazpacho.
I look a bit like a chipmunk/pufferfish right now, and how we've decided to keep the ice packs on my face is pretty comical. Giant socks, one ice pack in each, tied on the top of my head and under my jaw. It works, though, so I'm happy with it. I've been pretty lucky, no serious pain except for when I first got out and the anesthetics were initially wearing off... I'm on a pretty regular schedule of ibuprofin and antibiotics, but I think I'm going to cut back on the ibuprofin since I don't need it. As usual, I only had to take the hydrocodiene once.
This idea of soups has gotten me thinking, as right now, with 48 hours being past already from being discharged from surgery, I'm bored of sitting around, a little bored of protein shakes, and looking for some better sources of nutrients (blended PBJ be damned). I think I'll try and take my theme back up again, looking for chilled soups, as I don't think I'm technically supposed to have hot hot stuff yet.
Wish me luck,
Puffer-fishy chef signing out!
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Summertiiiiiime..... Livin's Eeeasyyy
I've been on summer vacation for a little over a week (officially) and about three weeks unofficially and I am OFFICIALLY bored to tears (Yes, let's see how many times I can use the word "officially" or its derivatives in a sentence). At least, during the week.
I am in an interesting situation during the week. I have no car, and I am one of the few who has forgotten how to ride a bike after learning it once and not picking it up again for over 10 years. What this means is that I am essentially stuck housesitting/ cleaning/ plotting world domination dinner, as the grocery store, post office, drugstore, and any other useful place is at least a half-hour's walk/jog away with icky catcalling truckdrivers and general idiots making annoying noises as I go down the main road. There is a bus, but it only goes through during the two rush hours.
I got surgical hooks put in to my mouth yesterday. For me, general jaw discomfort for one or two days is no problem, as after almost 2 years of braces I've gotten used to it. To my annoyance, however, one of these hooks (basically a little wire jutting out of my braces that looks like a noose) manages to catch itself on my inner mouth continuously, making it pretty difficult to communicate like a normal person without causing a sharp, stabbing pain at the most inoportune moments.
My current quandry is that I need to pick up a can of lychees and a mango/ some mango puree from the grocery store, if they have it. I was hoping to have this dessert for tonight, but as it is already mid-afternoon, I doubt it would be ready in time. I found an absolutely wonderful food/recipe blog ( here) while trying to find out what Lebanese pepper was. It turns out that it's allspice. Woo!
This search for the definition of Lebanese pepper had been sparked by a recipe for Kebbeh that I found in the "Madame" section of www.lefigaro.com while searching for world cuisine. I'm off to Johnson and Wales in the fall to start my official culinary school training, and I want to expand my food awareness, cooking skills and flavor palate before I head off. To do this, I have a dastardly plan of tackling one world-region's cuisine per week over the next 9 to 10 weeks. This week was initially Asia week, comprising Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Thai, and Southeast Asian, but I have some ground beef I need to use and Kebbeh just seems perfect for it. I realised with a great big Homer-of-the-Simpsons-esque "D'OH!" that I could easily spend a week on each of these cuisines alone, since each region of the country has its own specialty, but like my current German/Spanish studies, I just want a crash course. I think at this rate I'll just pick one dish from each country that I have the time and supplies to make per day, and then just take notes on the rest of the regions.
Now, last week was before theme-week started, but I made a dish that I think was absolutely incredible:
Roasted chicken with saffron rice and sauteed mixed vegetables. You can't see it, but there are green peppers and red onion mixed in with the orange bell peppers. I tried using a similar seasoning for all of the components of the dishes, so I ground some saffron with kosher salt, cayenne, and paprika as a rub for the chicken, a seasoning for the veggies, and I cut back on the salt and added a LOT more saffron for the rice.
One thing I've learned as I familiarize myself more with the different sections of the grocery store: deals are in the most unexpected places. I used to shy away from the "Mexican" section of the store, thinking that it was all the untrustworthy stuff, since it was all marketed at low prices. Now I see it as a goldmine for inexpensive lovely things. Take, for example, saffron. In the normal spice section, it is rare to find and usually is one of the more costly items. In this section, it is possible to get a big bag of "zaffron" for 99 cents. As I have learned from my attempts to relearn Spanish, zaffron IS saffron, as in Latin American countries "z" may be pronounced as "s". Woohoo! They also have a five-pack of whole cinnamon sticks for 99 cents, among other things, and a 10-ounce bottle (or thereabouts, I just have glanced at it and seen that it's quite sizeable) of vanilla extract for under $5. This all means that I get to have lots of fun on a low budget, which is what I'm aiming to do.
SHORT CHEF OUT!! ... for now...
I am in an interesting situation during the week. I have no car, and I am one of the few who has forgotten how to ride a bike after learning it once and not picking it up again for over 10 years. What this means is that I am essentially stuck housesitting/ cleaning/ plotting world domination dinner, as the grocery store, post office, drugstore, and any other useful place is at least a half-hour's walk/jog away with icky catcalling truckdrivers and general idiots making annoying noises as I go down the main road. There is a bus, but it only goes through during the two rush hours.
I got surgical hooks put in to my mouth yesterday. For me, general jaw discomfort for one or two days is no problem, as after almost 2 years of braces I've gotten used to it. To my annoyance, however, one of these hooks (basically a little wire jutting out of my braces that looks like a noose) manages to catch itself on my inner mouth continuously, making it pretty difficult to communicate like a normal person without causing a sharp, stabbing pain at the most inoportune moments.
My current quandry is that I need to pick up a can of lychees and a mango/ some mango puree from the grocery store, if they have it. I was hoping to have this dessert for tonight, but as it is already mid-afternoon, I doubt it would be ready in time. I found an absolutely wonderful food/recipe blog ( here) while trying to find out what Lebanese pepper was. It turns out that it's allspice. Woo!
This search for the definition of Lebanese pepper had been sparked by a recipe for Kebbeh that I found in the "Madame" section of www.lefigaro.com while searching for world cuisine. I'm off to Johnson and Wales in the fall to start my official culinary school training, and I want to expand my food awareness, cooking skills and flavor palate before I head off. To do this, I have a dastardly plan of tackling one world-region's cuisine per week over the next 9 to 10 weeks. This week was initially Asia week, comprising Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Thai, and Southeast Asian, but I have some ground beef I need to use and Kebbeh just seems perfect for it. I realised with a great big Homer-of-the-Simpsons-esque "D'OH!" that I could easily spend a week on each of these cuisines alone, since each region of the country has its own specialty, but like my current German/Spanish studies, I just want a crash course. I think at this rate I'll just pick one dish from each country that I have the time and supplies to make per day, and then just take notes on the rest of the regions.
Now, last week was before theme-week started, but I made a dish that I think was absolutely incredible:
Roasted chicken with saffron rice and sauteed mixed vegetables. You can't see it, but there are green peppers and red onion mixed in with the orange bell peppers. I tried using a similar seasoning for all of the components of the dishes, so I ground some saffron with kosher salt, cayenne, and paprika as a rub for the chicken, a seasoning for the veggies, and I cut back on the salt and added a LOT more saffron for the rice.
One thing I've learned as I familiarize myself more with the different sections of the grocery store: deals are in the most unexpected places. I used to shy away from the "Mexican" section of the store, thinking that it was all the untrustworthy stuff, since it was all marketed at low prices. Now I see it as a goldmine for inexpensive lovely things. Take, for example, saffron. In the normal spice section, it is rare to find and usually is one of the more costly items. In this section, it is possible to get a big bag of "zaffron" for 99 cents. As I have learned from my attempts to relearn Spanish, zaffron IS saffron, as in Latin American countries "z" may be pronounced as "s". Woohoo! They also have a five-pack of whole cinnamon sticks for 99 cents, among other things, and a 10-ounce bottle (or thereabouts, I just have glanced at it and seen that it's quite sizeable) of vanilla extract for under $5. This all means that I get to have lots of fun on a low budget, which is what I'm aiming to do.
SHORT CHEF OUT!! ... for now...
Sunday, June 15, 2008
End of the school year
High school has FINALLY come to a close, and with it my career at East Meck's lunch restaurant. Gold Feathers was a success, with Luis and I going full working-chef mode and scaring people (and confusing them) by shouting out kitchen slang for the orders, i.e. "3 beef, 2 chicken, 1 salmon all day" or whatever our tally was, and completely dominating on the orders. Our poor front of the house staff didn't know that we absolutely under any circumstances didn't want the people to change their orders on food, so we had a sliiight insanity mode, plus they kept crowding us to get the food, but we all knocked it out, the seven of us, and had 2 successful services. The "gold" or competition staff was me, Luis, Jaimie, Danielle, Candace (CeCe) (our ever lovely Maîtresse D'Hôte), Asha (key lime patissiere and Maîtresse D'Hôte for the 2nd service), Brandon, and Tommy. We got significant amounts of help from the first and second year students as well.
Work at Santé has taught me quite a bit about life as a chef, even though I only work there part-time. I've had to do the incredibly fun task of working out of a refrigerator when my station's cooler was broken! The plus side was that my cleanup was insanely easy since I didn't have as much to wrap and clean. We've stopped brunch service for the summer, though I don't doubt we'll have some early Saturday jobs or parties now and again.
I graduated from High School yesterday, and it was a nice, not-too-long ceremony. My maternal grandpa and my paternal grandma and aunt were able to make it from NJ, which has made the weekend all the more fun. I had to work Friday night, so to make up for my not being with them I told them to all come to Santé for dinner.
I GOT AN ICE CREAM MACHINE!! So I made a gallon of mint chocolate chip ice cream. It is INSANE. On that note, I need to go serve my ice-cream cake with STUFFS.
Matta ne~
Work at Santé has taught me quite a bit about life as a chef, even though I only work there part-time. I've had to do the incredibly fun task of working out of a refrigerator when my station's cooler was broken! The plus side was that my cleanup was insanely easy since I didn't have as much to wrap and clean. We've stopped brunch service for the summer, though I don't doubt we'll have some early Saturday jobs or parties now and again.
I graduated from High School yesterday, and it was a nice, not-too-long ceremony. My maternal grandpa and my paternal grandma and aunt were able to make it from NJ, which has made the weekend all the more fun. I had to work Friday night, so to make up for my not being with them I told them to all come to Santé for dinner.
I GOT AN ICE CREAM MACHINE!! So I made a gallon of mint chocolate chip ice cream. It is INSANE. On that note, I need to go serve my ice-cream cake with STUFFS.
Matta ne~
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Lotsa News!
Ho-kay! Updatings!
It's been a looong time since I've written anything, I've just been busy~ (gomenasai!)
Sante has started doing brunch on Sundays... it's been variably busy. Sometimes 20 people, sometimes close to 70. The food, as always, is INCREDIBLE. For the past two weeks for family meal I've had eggs benedict... mmmmmm.... and I took my family out to brunch two weeks ago so that they could try it, and had the beef tenderloin tips with a poached egg and home fries. *Collapse* the beef was buttery and tender and just (really really)^infinity good.
My dessert didn't get into the JWU Nat'l High School Chef of the Year competition finals, but one of my classmates did and he WON THE ENTIRE COMPETITION! Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!!!!!!! He's getting a full ride to any of the campuses, for 4 years. O_O. He totally deserves it though, his dessert kicks butt and he practiced a LOT.
I've gotten substantial scholarships from JWU myself, but there's still a bit to pay. I'll make it manage. I AM NOT living at home, I refuse. At least for the first year. I need my freedom, if only briefly. Depending on my financial situation over the next few years, I might be able to maintain living in a dorm or in the right-next-to-campus apartments which are actually cheaper than the dorms. The drawback is no meal plan if I do that, but I'll figure everything out when I arrange a meeting with my financial planner. The key is for ME to make the final decisions and not have my parents choose. It's time they let me make my own decisions about my money. I will research options and make the most logical and practical choice. That's just how I roll... my sushi... or tuile-cigars... riiiight.
At any rate, we're having another Gold Feathers at school to feature the culinary team/ advanced Culinary students. There's 7 or 8 of us, so if we can work it out so that we have two four-course meal options with everybody working on a dish, that'd be tops. Hopefully we can have Luis and Asha on desserts, as that's their forte. I would like to do a good beef dish. Or fish. If I can do Asian food, then I'll be very very happy. I have a stepped-up "spaghetti and meatballs" dish that would be really good if I could get the flavors right on the bean thread vermicelli.
Passover is approaching! We're having anywhere from 5 to 8 people total for Seder dinner, so mom and I will be making a substantial amount of food. I won a bet at work and won some fresh chicken stock, but mom won't let me use it. Alas. I'll have to use it for making sauces! On the Passover note though, my grandpa is visiting and he had bought the 5-pound box of matzo that Manischewitz is selling for their 120-year anniversary... we're getting 2 boxes. The only issue is that I bought a box this week. This means LOTS of matzo bry. Woohoo! I'll eat that for breakfast any day!
After that, I have the competition results on Wednesday from States. If we go to nationals that will KICK ASS! Let's hope I have a functional jaw by then. I would be devastated if I could not compete because I was getting my jaw fixed. Aaaah the waiting!
It's been a looong time since I've written anything, I've just been busy~ (gomenasai!)
Sante has started doing brunch on Sundays... it's been variably busy. Sometimes 20 people, sometimes close to 70. The food, as always, is INCREDIBLE. For the past two weeks for family meal I've had eggs benedict... mmmmmm.... and I took my family out to brunch two weeks ago so that they could try it, and had the beef tenderloin tips with a poached egg and home fries. *Collapse* the beef was buttery and tender and just (really really)^infinity good.
My dessert didn't get into the JWU Nat'l High School Chef of the Year competition finals, but one of my classmates did and he WON THE ENTIRE COMPETITION! Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!!!!!!! He's getting a full ride to any of the campuses, for 4 years. O_O. He totally deserves it though, his dessert kicks butt and he practiced a LOT.
I've gotten substantial scholarships from JWU myself, but there's still a bit to pay. I'll make it manage. I AM NOT living at home, I refuse. At least for the first year. I need my freedom, if only briefly. Depending on my financial situation over the next few years, I might be able to maintain living in a dorm or in the right-next-to-campus apartments which are actually cheaper than the dorms. The drawback is no meal plan if I do that, but I'll figure everything out when I arrange a meeting with my financial planner. The key is for ME to make the final decisions and not have my parents choose. It's time they let me make my own decisions about my money. I will research options and make the most logical and practical choice. That's just how I roll... my sushi... or tuile-cigars... riiiight.
At any rate, we're having another Gold Feathers at school to feature the culinary team/ advanced Culinary students. There's 7 or 8 of us, so if we can work it out so that we have two four-course meal options with everybody working on a dish, that'd be tops. Hopefully we can have Luis and Asha on desserts, as that's their forte. I would like to do a good beef dish. Or fish. If I can do Asian food, then I'll be very very happy. I have a stepped-up "spaghetti and meatballs" dish that would be really good if I could get the flavors right on the bean thread vermicelli.
Passover is approaching! We're having anywhere from 5 to 8 people total for Seder dinner, so mom and I will be making a substantial amount of food. I won a bet at work and won some fresh chicken stock, but mom won't let me use it. Alas. I'll have to use it for making sauces! On the Passover note though, my grandpa is visiting and he had bought the 5-pound box of matzo that Manischewitz is selling for their 120-year anniversary... we're getting 2 boxes. The only issue is that I bought a box this week. This means LOTS of matzo bry. Woohoo! I'll eat that for breakfast any day!
After that, I have the competition results on Wednesday from States. If we go to nationals that will KICK ASS! Let's hope I have a functional jaw by then. I would be devastated if I could not compete because I was getting my jaw fixed. Aaaah the waiting!
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Snow Day
Snow in the South gets pretty interesting. The roads didn't ice at all and there was all of 5 (maybe less) inches of snow on the ground and school got canceled. Snow days at work, however, are a whole different ballgame.
Saturday, it snowed again for a few hours. We didn't have any reservations until 6:30, and we were all finished setting up our stations by about 4:00. So... once there was enough snow on the cars out back, the kitchen staff went to the tiny parking lot out back in our chef coats and aprons (who needs a jacket, hat, or gloves or any of that mess?) and threw snowballs at each other for 10 or 15 minutes or so!! I think that's the most fun I've had in a while. It was quite a sight, seeing my boss and my coworker running around in chef coats and white aprons and chef pants lobbing snowballs and ducking behind cars for cover. I even tripped once and fell on my bum >.> but it was fun. In the end we brought one tiny snowball in and got the dishwasher/prep cook with it! At the end of the shift, after we had all eaten family meal and I was about to walk out the door, Chef grabs my shoulder like he's going to say something important and all of a sudden WHAM! I get a snowball to the back of the neck. Needless to say, I ran him down, got the Maitre D' to pin him, and got him back. As an extra bonus, the Maitre D' had to walk me to my car b/c of some security issues that got Chef worried about any of us walking to our cars alone, and then he made a huge snowmass out of what was on top of the other chef's car and I think he got Chef back for me. Goooood times.
Best of all, I'm barely sick anymore so I can actually enjoy this! I got food poisoning Sunday so I was DEATHLY ill Monday; my school's mid-term exams started Tuesday but I was feeling wickedly congested throughout the entire day; Wednesday the same effects but lessened: there was a battle of sinuses as my body kept switching between a stuffed nose and a congested throat; Thursday no school, but I walked two miles to the grocery in 3-inch heel boots because I had no vehicle and the buses weren't running my street at that hour and my mom INSISTED that I wear boots and not my work shoes... fortunately I didn't have to go in to work that day as the congestion battle was still in full swing; Friday I only had one exam and my congestion was mostly faded and work was pretty good; and then yesterday (Saturday) was just awesome.
I'm having issues co-ordinating a food plan for a CON (Unitarian Universalist High School Religious Ed. convention of win) as there's some conflict of leadership between myself/the other co-leaders of the group and some members of other groups who want to muscle into our group even though we would be very well prepared and have everything covered that we needed to if they left us alone. Plus, my plan for a vegan/vegetarian weekend was shot down... It wasn't going to be entirely veg-friendly in my original plan, but I wasn't able to make that message clear when explaining it to the class b/c I kept getting interrupted. Alas. These bums will not get the benefit of the incredible black-bean patties that I got to make at work. Only those who sign up to help with food-prep will, so nyah. *shudder* One of the meals is SANDWICHES. Ugh. I can't bring myself to stoop to the level of cold-cut platters if I'm in charge of food... but that's a whole different beast that I'm going to stop ranting about now. I'm going to take the advice of my dad and make a Facebook group for this CON so that we can get some effective planning done before the CON happens. And it happens in 2 weeks. So we need to get everything together.
On another extremely awesome note, my culinary team won regionals so now we're headed to State competition in March along with two of our teams plus a team from a different school competing for cash in a competition THREE DAYS BEFORE STATES.
Saturday, it snowed again for a few hours. We didn't have any reservations until 6:30, and we were all finished setting up our stations by about 4:00. So... once there was enough snow on the cars out back, the kitchen staff went to the tiny parking lot out back in our chef coats and aprons (who needs a jacket, hat, or gloves or any of that mess?) and threw snowballs at each other for 10 or 15 minutes or so!! I think that's the most fun I've had in a while. It was quite a sight, seeing my boss and my coworker running around in chef coats and white aprons and chef pants lobbing snowballs and ducking behind cars for cover. I even tripped once and fell on my bum >.> but it was fun. In the end we brought one tiny snowball in and got the dishwasher/prep cook with it! At the end of the shift, after we had all eaten family meal and I was about to walk out the door, Chef grabs my shoulder like he's going to say something important and all of a sudden WHAM! I get a snowball to the back of the neck. Needless to say, I ran him down, got the Maitre D' to pin him, and got him back. As an extra bonus, the Maitre D' had to walk me to my car b/c of some security issues that got Chef worried about any of us walking to our cars alone, and then he made a huge snowmass out of what was on top of the other chef's car and I think he got Chef back for me. Goooood times.
Best of all, I'm barely sick anymore so I can actually enjoy this! I got food poisoning Sunday so I was DEATHLY ill Monday; my school's mid-term exams started Tuesday but I was feeling wickedly congested throughout the entire day; Wednesday the same effects but lessened: there was a battle of sinuses as my body kept switching between a stuffed nose and a congested throat; Thursday no school, but I walked two miles to the grocery in 3-inch heel boots because I had no vehicle and the buses weren't running my street at that hour and my mom INSISTED that I wear boots and not my work shoes... fortunately I didn't have to go in to work that day as the congestion battle was still in full swing; Friday I only had one exam and my congestion was mostly faded and work was pretty good; and then yesterday (Saturday) was just awesome.
I'm having issues co-ordinating a food plan for a CON (Unitarian Universalist High School Religious Ed. convention of win) as there's some conflict of leadership between myself/the other co-leaders of the group and some members of other groups who want to muscle into our group even though we would be very well prepared and have everything covered that we needed to if they left us alone. Plus, my plan for a vegan/vegetarian weekend was shot down... It wasn't going to be entirely veg-friendly in my original plan, but I wasn't able to make that message clear when explaining it to the class b/c I kept getting interrupted. Alas. These bums will not get the benefit of the incredible black-bean patties that I got to make at work. Only those who sign up to help with food-prep will, so nyah. *shudder* One of the meals is SANDWICHES. Ugh. I can't bring myself to stoop to the level of cold-cut platters if I'm in charge of food... but that's a whole different beast that I'm going to stop ranting about now. I'm going to take the advice of my dad and make a Facebook group for this CON so that we can get some effective planning done before the CON happens. And it happens in 2 weeks. So we need to get everything together.
On another extremely awesome note, my culinary team won regionals so now we're headed to State competition in March along with two of our teams plus a team from a different school competing for cash in a competition THREE DAYS BEFORE STATES.
Sunday, December 2, 2007
POSTIFY
So... I think I've lost the camera temporarily. I know that it is either in my room or in the main room, in its bag. Therefore, no food photos. However, I just did a massive amount of baking for the Thanksgiving holiday and I'm about to do some more for Christmas. I think I did about 12 pies or so... pumpkin, apple, apple-cranberry, and pecan. They were quite tasty... at least the ones I had were. I also got good reviews from the people who ordered them. I currently have 6 or 7 pies to make for Christmas, so it'll be interesting to see how I can mesh that with work and school, considering that I don't have any long weekends to make the pies or prep at all. *sigh* I'll make it work.
^_^ Wheee I have a date with Captain Obvious coming up soon~~ It's going to be much fun! I think I'll make another batch of chocolates to take with us.
End of Semester is slowly creeping upon me... woohoo, halfway through the year!
Work is the incredible-- the only negative is that i have less time to spend with C. Obvious.
^_^ Wheee I have a date with Captain Obvious coming up soon~~ It's going to be much fun! I think I'll make another batch of chocolates to take with us.
End of Semester is slowly creeping upon me... woohoo, halfway through the year!
Work is the incredible-- the only negative is that i have less time to spend with C. Obvious.
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Hehehe
So... I didn't post... woops. Job has kept me quite busy. And school. But now I'm officially a college student! Yay! I start next September at Charlotte's JWU. Ye-ah!
The biggest expenditure (besides tuition) is going to be getting a bunch of "business casual" clothing for my classes. They don't let you in the building unless you're wearing it. Uwww.
I'm doing a massively awesome pastry goodness sale from now until New Year's... Pies, cookies, cakes, AND (this is the most important part)....
WHATNOT!
Woohoo.
Yay to anyone who actually reads this.
Pictures eventually, when i find the camera.
EDIT: I've made the school Culinary Team! Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!
The biggest expenditure (besides tuition) is going to be getting a bunch of "business casual" clothing for my classes. They don't let you in the building unless you're wearing it. Uwww.
I'm doing a massively awesome pastry goodness sale from now until New Year's... Pies, cookies, cakes, AND (this is the most important part)....
WHATNOT!
Woohoo.
Yay to anyone who actually reads this.
Pictures eventually, when i find the camera.
EDIT: I've made the school Culinary Team! Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Hisashiburi desu, ne....
Wow, it's been quite some time since my last post. I have no new pictures to post, as I've been very VERY busy. My new part-time job is quite fun, but it has very long hours, so I've been somewhat attempting to balance that, school, and my teaching job along with some down time, sleep, food, and homework. I'm lucky, I have a study hall in which I can get work done! Now, I just need to bring things to DO in it... my classes that are book- and homework- heavy are on the other days.
I have it very well at my job-- we all get 'family meal' at the end of the shift, which is usually a version of one of the specials or whatever we were serving that night, and it's always incredible! I haven't been able to work out in about a 3 weeks, though, so I think I'll just see if I can get veggies and/or meat and not the potatoes or rice. Whatever I don't eat, I usually box up and take to school with me the next day, so that works out nicely for me.
The biggest things I need to do are to remember to take a multivitamin in the mornings, cut back on coffee (I drink a cup in the morning as part of my Stewart routine, see earlier post), get better time-management, and find some way of making myself work out. I have mini-dumbbells at home, that shouldn't be so hard... I'm just exhausted when I get home, so the motivation isn't there. Ugh. Oh well, I need to get over that and just do it, ne?
Current goal(s): Make the school culinary team/ become Chapter Vice President of FCCLA.
I have it very well at my job-- we all get 'family meal' at the end of the shift, which is usually a version of one of the specials or whatever we were serving that night, and it's always incredible! I haven't been able to work out in about a 3 weeks, though, so I think I'll just see if I can get veggies and/or meat and not the potatoes or rice. Whatever I don't eat, I usually box up and take to school with me the next day, so that works out nicely for me.
The biggest things I need to do are to remember to take a multivitamin in the mornings, cut back on coffee (I drink a cup in the morning as part of my Stewart routine, see earlier post), get better time-management, and find some way of making myself work out. I have mini-dumbbells at home, that shouldn't be so hard... I'm just exhausted when I get home, so the motivation isn't there. Ugh. Oh well, I need to get over that and just do it, ne?
Current goal(s): Make the school culinary team/ become Chapter Vice President of FCCLA.
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
POW BIFF WHAM!
Curry chicken!! YAY! Served over egg noodles with a roux with awesome spices. Simple salad-- spinach, radish, scallion, and a little lime juice. I made biscuit-scone things from a recipe I found that was really simple and used the flour I had dredged the chicken in as half of the biscuit flour. Garnished with slivered almonds. IT WAS INCREDIBLE!! It had great flavors, I'm going to try and introduce it at the school restaurant.
Sunday, September 9, 2007
UPDATE!
Here are the promised pictures!
Mom went to a party up in NJ over the weekend, so Dad and I decided to throw her a "see ya later" dinner. Grilled flat-iron steak with steamed green beans and garlic-pepper mashed potatoes. I used a mix of Russet and New potatoes. I LOVE using red (New) potatoes, the skins are soooo pretty!
While mom is away, the chefs like to play!
Spring rolls, adapted from a nifty Johnson and Wales recipe book that was complementary with the Career Explorations program in Culinary Arts. I had NONE of the ingredients needed except for the rice wrappers, carrot, and rice vermicelli (aka Glass Noodles). Their version calls for shrimp... we used sautéed pork and apple. They called for lettuce... we used spinach! Curry powder made the whole thing just beyond-description excellent!
The sauce is a pomegranate reduction. I overdid the lime a bit, so it was more bitter than I would have liked. Next time, I'll juice the lime instead of putting in pieces.
Mmm, dinner rolls...
These dinner rolls were OUT OF THIS WORLD. My bread machine is awesome... set it to "dough" and in 1 h 30 you have any of a various list of doughs. These tasted like they came out of a restaurant.. oh wait, they did! My kitchen, that is! A little butter and jam and you had a perfect egg accompaniment for breakfast.
Shrimp, version 1!
Bacon-wrapped shrimp on basil, mozzarella, and pork scallopine. This one was my dad's creation. It was Saturday's dinner, along with the biscuits and spring rolls.
The non-photographed dessert was a chocolate whip with cream puffs. I mentally thwack myself on the forehead for forgetting to photograph it, it was a work of incredible tastiness.
TONIGHT'S MEAL!
Shrimp version 2!
This time, we added a little bit of bleu cheese and served it over chicken! I took action and added a dash of chili powder as well, just to kick it up a bit. Served over spinach and a (sadly pre-made but WHAT A DEAL; my grandfather would be proud) pickled shrimp salad consisting of baby shrimp, peppers, and onion all pickled very nicely. Also came with a roll.
Now that we know how incredible THAT was, we're thinking of trying beef next time in a surf-and-turf idea. I have a feeling that that is going to take it to the next level entirely!
Dessert: a trio of mousses.
I worked on this one for a while, but it was well worth the effort. Lemon and orange mousse and a chocolate "mousse". The chocolate is more of a whip, because it has no gelatin. I'm working on that... I think I'll just try a version of the dark chocolate mousse I made back in July next time. The lemon mousse idea was from a Johnson and Wales Open House back in May or June. I played around with it to make the orange one. It was all very good fun. And now I have breakfast! Woohoo!
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK BLOOD!
I lie, that's the pomegranate reduction. I thought it had a nice arterial-blood shade though. I have some new Halloween tricks now! That and the glass noodles as some sort of squishy brain-mass or something... teehehehe.
And that is how I spent my weekend!
Mom went to a party up in NJ over the weekend, so Dad and I decided to throw her a "see ya later" dinner. Grilled flat-iron steak with steamed green beans and garlic-pepper mashed potatoes. I used a mix of Russet and New potatoes. I LOVE using red (New) potatoes, the skins are soooo pretty!
While mom is away, the chefs like to play!
Spring rolls, adapted from a nifty Johnson and Wales recipe book that was complementary with the Career Explorations program in Culinary Arts. I had NONE of the ingredients needed except for the rice wrappers, carrot, and rice vermicelli (aka Glass Noodles). Their version calls for shrimp... we used sautéed pork and apple. They called for lettuce... we used spinach! Curry powder made the whole thing just beyond-description excellent!
The sauce is a pomegranate reduction. I overdid the lime a bit, so it was more bitter than I would have liked. Next time, I'll juice the lime instead of putting in pieces.
Mmm, dinner rolls...
These dinner rolls were OUT OF THIS WORLD. My bread machine is awesome... set it to "dough" and in 1 h 30 you have any of a various list of doughs. These tasted like they came out of a restaurant.. oh wait, they did! My kitchen, that is! A little butter and jam and you had a perfect egg accompaniment for breakfast.
Shrimp, version 1!
Bacon-wrapped shrimp on basil, mozzarella, and pork scallopine. This one was my dad's creation. It was Saturday's dinner, along with the biscuits and spring rolls.
The non-photographed dessert was a chocolate whip with cream puffs. I mentally thwack myself on the forehead for forgetting to photograph it, it was a work of incredible tastiness.
TONIGHT'S MEAL!
Shrimp version 2!
This time, we added a little bit of bleu cheese and served it over chicken! I took action and added a dash of chili powder as well, just to kick it up a bit. Served over spinach and a (sadly pre-made but WHAT A DEAL; my grandfather would be proud) pickled shrimp salad consisting of baby shrimp, peppers, and onion all pickled very nicely. Also came with a roll.
Now that we know how incredible THAT was, we're thinking of trying beef next time in a surf-and-turf idea. I have a feeling that that is going to take it to the next level entirely!
Dessert: a trio of mousses.
I worked on this one for a while, but it was well worth the effort. Lemon and orange mousse and a chocolate "mousse". The chocolate is more of a whip, because it has no gelatin. I'm working on that... I think I'll just try a version of the dark chocolate mousse I made back in July next time. The lemon mousse idea was from a Johnson and Wales Open House back in May or June. I played around with it to make the orange one. It was all very good fun. And now I have breakfast! Woohoo!
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK BLOOD!
I lie, that's the pomegranate reduction. I thought it had a nice arterial-blood shade though. I have some new Halloween tricks now! That and the glass noodles as some sort of squishy brain-mass or something... teehehehe.
And that is how I spent my weekend!
Glee!
I have a job now!!! One that pays!! Yeah, the catering business is great-- as long as you actually have jobs lined up.
This job is incredible: part-time, weekends, dinner shift garde-manger. I'm sloooooowly working my way up to become (assistant) pastry chef. I went for a go-see Wednesday and it went really well! I felt all official in my chef coat, red bandanna, and Seabee cap... and I actually got to bring my knife bag of awesome! I do so dearly love my knives... they are very nice. It's just too bad I (don't think) I'll be able to use them at J&W U. They give you a very nice knife set though, and it's included in the tuition cost.
We had some Roadrunners from J&W U come to our culinary class last week. What/ Who are Roadrunners, you say? They are students who take a term off (or employees) to talk about the university and its awesomeness. At any rate, one of the Roadrunners is a former student of my school and was on our culinary team for competitions in FCCLA. She's a Baking and Pastry major, so we all got a nice lesson in prettifying puff pastry and making cute little apple tarts. They were adorable AND tasty! A very enjoyable experience.
I have some lovely photographs of the food from the past two nights, which I will be updating tonight. I just have to finish tonight's!
Jyaa ne!
This job is incredible: part-time, weekends, dinner shift garde-manger. I'm sloooooowly working my way up to become (assistant) pastry chef. I went for a go-see Wednesday and it went really well! I felt all official in my chef coat, red bandanna, and Seabee cap... and I actually got to bring my knife bag of awesome! I do so dearly love my knives... they are very nice. It's just too bad I (don't think) I'll be able to use them at J&W U. They give you a very nice knife set though, and it's included in the tuition cost.
We had some Roadrunners from J&W U come to our culinary class last week. What/ Who are Roadrunners, you say? They are students who take a term off (or employees) to talk about the university and its awesomeness. At any rate, one of the Roadrunners is a former student of my school and was on our culinary team for competitions in FCCLA. She's a Baking and Pastry major, so we all got a nice lesson in prettifying puff pastry and making cute little apple tarts. They were adorable AND tasty! A very enjoyable experience.
I have some lovely photographs of the food from the past two nights, which I will be updating tonight. I just have to finish tonight's!
Jyaa ne!
Monday, September 3, 2007
Labor Day FEAST
It's Labor Day weekend in the US, so I have NO SCHOOL TODAY!!!! Wheeee!! I got to spend my morning baking a cake that turned out to be pretty darn tasty:
Then I got to visit my most incredible boyfriend of 7 months, Captain Obvious, and give him some!
Here's a bit of what I gave him for his birthday:
The big thing in the middle is a mudcup (what happens when I leave eggs out of a torte, decide it's edible, and FREEZE IT). The things on the side are the actual tortes, which I turned into muffin-like things to make them bite-sized. I also made a version of the Milano cookies from my all-time favorite brand of cookies and made them from scratch out of an almond cookie and a mint-chocolate or raspberry chocolate ganache. The leftover raspberry ganache went into tart shells and made cute little choco-raspberry tartes.
I made some candies, but also forgot to photograph those. They were a variation on those found in the Hershey's chocolate recipe book from the 80's. They were a BIG hit, so now I'm going to play around with them even more and make more flavors.
Anyhow, back to today!
I decided I was going to try something new, since it was a holiday and I had the time. Lucky for me, the local grocery store had ground chicken on sale as well as some house-made sausages. One was blueberry cinnamon (not bad, I made them for breakfast). The other was sweet Italian (INCREDIBLE). I made chicken-burgers out of the chicken, with chopped scallions, Herbes de Provence, (gr, I DESPISE how hard it is to get proper French spelling in here without a long involved process), tarragon, an egg, and some breadcrumbs (probably about... 1/2- 3/4 cup for the whole pound and a half or so of chicken). They grilled beautifully!
Here are the results:
Chicken burgers, sausages, and ciabatta bread.
POTATO POTATO POTATO!
Kudos to Dad on his mad presentation skills of the vegetables! Tomato, lettuce, and fancy cucumber!
The full burger.
The all-inclusive plate, now with carrots! (Oh yeah, we had salad too)
Overall, a mad-awesome labor day. Much feasting.
BONUS PIC!! AND WEEBL REFERENCE!!
PEACHES! (and cream... and chocolate shavings)
Then I got to visit my most incredible boyfriend of 7 months, Captain Obvious, and give him some!
Here's a bit of what I gave him for his birthday:
The big thing in the middle is a mudcup (what happens when I leave eggs out of a torte, decide it's edible, and FREEZE IT). The things on the side are the actual tortes, which I turned into muffin-like things to make them bite-sized. I also made a version of the Milano cookies from my all-time favorite brand of cookies and made them from scratch out of an almond cookie and a mint-chocolate or raspberry chocolate ganache. The leftover raspberry ganache went into tart shells and made cute little choco-raspberry tartes.
I made some candies, but also forgot to photograph those. They were a variation on those found in the Hershey's chocolate recipe book from the 80's. They were a BIG hit, so now I'm going to play around with them even more and make more flavors.
Anyhow, back to today!
I decided I was going to try something new, since it was a holiday and I had the time. Lucky for me, the local grocery store had ground chicken on sale as well as some house-made sausages. One was blueberry cinnamon (not bad, I made them for breakfast). The other was sweet Italian (INCREDIBLE). I made chicken-burgers out of the chicken, with chopped scallions, Herbes de Provence, (gr, I DESPISE how hard it is to get proper French spelling in here without a long involved process), tarragon, an egg, and some breadcrumbs (probably about... 1/2- 3/4 cup for the whole pound and a half or so of chicken). They grilled beautifully!
Here are the results:
Chicken burgers, sausages, and ciabatta bread.
POTATO POTATO POTATO!
Kudos to Dad on his mad presentation skills of the vegetables! Tomato, lettuce, and fancy cucumber!
The full burger.
The all-inclusive plate, now with carrots! (Oh yeah, we had salad too)
Overall, a mad-awesome labor day. Much feasting.
BONUS PIC!! AND WEEBL REFERENCE!!
PEACHES! (and cream... and chocolate shavings)
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
The Pictures, they are here!
Here are all of the photos that I've been meaning to put up but haven't. Truth is, I had lost the camera for about a week-- my mom had put them back in the "case" they're supposed to be in and I didn't know. I combed my room (a mess on a good day) for them (cleaning it in the process, yay!) and didn't find them. I looked in all the places around the house I had been recently. This morning, I tried again and decided to flip open the camera bag to see if the other camera was in there, and *shock* there were BOTH cameras! Yaaaay.
Without further adieu:
Great big bag-0-cookies. Yum! The combined efforts of the entire baking and pastry class bundled into one giant piece of plastic wrap.
Convenience! This is my class-issued apron that has now become a carrying case for the uber bag of cookies and some other tasty treats.. shown below!
Yaay! For Squished Pastry! This is what happens when you use an apron as a carrying case and the only method of carrying your goods is with a plate and some plastic wrap!
I hate wasting food, that's why I took 5 shortcakes. They were well-enjoyed by my family.
Ahhh, home again. And so is Dad.. whee! He brings BAGELS from NEW JERSEY! *happy dance*
It is IMPOSSIBLE to find bagels like the ones from "up north" here in the South. This one has sliced tomato, capers, and sauteed onions. If we had remembered to grab some smoked salmon at the grocery store, then there would've been that on there too. And cream cheese.
Shrimp! Joy! Shrimp cocktail, half plain, half with melon balls and cappacolla (Dad, fix my spelling please on the cold cuts) from Casa Del Sol, one of the best places in Hillsdale, NJ to get good Italian stuff. Especially cold cuts. And fresh mozzarella cheese. The cocktail sauce was made by my dad and contains ketchup, worcestershire sauce, and wasabi paste (we were out of horseradish!). It was AWESOME.
Course the second of that night of feasting: Parsley mashed new potatoes (new potatoes are those little red ones that taste so good with the skin on); blanched green beans with sauteed garlic, onion, and slivered almonds (yaay prepackaged snackfoods!); and a braised pork chop. The pork chop was floured before cooking with garlic, paprika, chili powder, salt, and pepper. YUM.
Now for something completely different!! This was a course in a 3-courser I made while it was just mom and I. This was course #2: Grilled eggplant with heirloom tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, and gorgonzola cheese topped with a basil leaf. I love summer only for the food-- the tomatoes come out with all sorts of tasty varieties!
This one was fun-and-a-half to make and eat! Fajitas turned into lettuce wraps due to a lack of tortillas! This is grilled steak, and sauteed veggies including bell peppers, mushrooms, onions, celery (odd sounding but was a nice subtle difference and filler), and garlic. The sauce was a brainchild of my dad's containing soy sauce, coffee, wasabi, and a few other things that currently have slipped my mind.
Here it is without the lettuce, and some crunchy noodles I picked up at the Bon Odori! Ta-da, instant culture change.
What do you do when papaya's on sale? You eat it! And make fun desserts out of it. This one was neat, involving a "bird's nest" idea. A ring of papaya with bananas Foster in the center topped with a mound of vanilla ice cream and some whipped cream with a plum sauce. WOW was it ever good. It was a tropical awesome-explosion.
Finally, the plate of doom. This was a way to use up a bunch of the cold cuts at once. It started out with an idea for an antipasto but turned into a platter of doom. Sopressata (sp?) hot and sweet, cappaccolla (hot and sweet), prosciutto, mozzarella (sadly it was the storebought not fresh), artichoke hearts, and tomatoes on top of a salad of lettuce, onion, cucumber, carrot, and sliced black olives. We had just re-located my dad's mandolin (slicer) from about 30 years ago or more and I had some FUN with it.
There are all of the photos I've been meaning to upload but haven't. Enjoy!
Without further adieu:
Great big bag-0-cookies. Yum! The combined efforts of the entire baking and pastry class bundled into one giant piece of plastic wrap.
Convenience! This is my class-issued apron that has now become a carrying case for the uber bag of cookies and some other tasty treats.. shown below!
Yaay! For Squished Pastry! This is what happens when you use an apron as a carrying case and the only method of carrying your goods is with a plate and some plastic wrap!
I hate wasting food, that's why I took 5 shortcakes. They were well-enjoyed by my family.
Ahhh, home again. And so is Dad.. whee! He brings BAGELS from NEW JERSEY! *happy dance*
It is IMPOSSIBLE to find bagels like the ones from "up north" here in the South. This one has sliced tomato, capers, and sauteed onions. If we had remembered to grab some smoked salmon at the grocery store, then there would've been that on there too. And cream cheese.
Shrimp! Joy! Shrimp cocktail, half plain, half with melon balls and cappacolla (Dad, fix my spelling please on the cold cuts) from Casa Del Sol, one of the best places in Hillsdale, NJ to get good Italian stuff. Especially cold cuts. And fresh mozzarella cheese. The cocktail sauce was made by my dad and contains ketchup, worcestershire sauce, and wasabi paste (we were out of horseradish!). It was AWESOME.
Course the second of that night of feasting: Parsley mashed new potatoes (new potatoes are those little red ones that taste so good with the skin on); blanched green beans with sauteed garlic, onion, and slivered almonds (yaay prepackaged snackfoods!); and a braised pork chop. The pork chop was floured before cooking with garlic, paprika, chili powder, salt, and pepper. YUM.
Now for something completely different!! This was a course in a 3-courser I made while it was just mom and I. This was course #2: Grilled eggplant with heirloom tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, and gorgonzola cheese topped with a basil leaf. I love summer only for the food-- the tomatoes come out with all sorts of tasty varieties!
This one was fun-and-a-half to make and eat! Fajitas turned into lettuce wraps due to a lack of tortillas! This is grilled steak, and sauteed veggies including bell peppers, mushrooms, onions, celery (odd sounding but was a nice subtle difference and filler), and garlic. The sauce was a brainchild of my dad's containing soy sauce, coffee, wasabi, and a few other things that currently have slipped my mind.
Here it is without the lettuce, and some crunchy noodles I picked up at the Bon Odori! Ta-da, instant culture change.
What do you do when papaya's on sale? You eat it! And make fun desserts out of it. This one was neat, involving a "bird's nest" idea. A ring of papaya with bananas Foster in the center topped with a mound of vanilla ice cream and some whipped cream with a plum sauce. WOW was it ever good. It was a tropical awesome-explosion.
Finally, the plate of doom. This was a way to use up a bunch of the cold cuts at once. It started out with an idea for an antipasto but turned into a platter of doom. Sopressata (sp?) hot and sweet, cappaccolla (hot and sweet), prosciutto, mozzarella (sadly it was the storebought not fresh), artichoke hearts, and tomatoes on top of a salad of lettuce, onion, cucumber, carrot, and sliced black olives. We had just re-located my dad's mandolin (slicer) from about 30 years ago or more and I had some FUN with it.
There are all of the photos I've been meaning to upload but haven't. Enjoy!
Sunday, August 5, 2007
Whoops
Wow, it's been a while since I said I would post the pics, hasn't it? It's been quite a busy past two weeks. We had a huge yard sale yesterday, so getting ready for that was quite time-consuming. I have also applied for numerous jobs and have been prepping for the Bon Odori!
What is the Bon Odori, you ask? It is Charlotte's version of the Japanese "end-of-summer" festival that is usually held on the 8th of August. Quite fun. Pics tonight (hopefully)!
What is the Bon Odori, you ask? It is Charlotte's version of the Japanese "end-of-summer" festival that is usually held on the 8th of August. Quite fun. Pics tonight (hopefully)!
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Let the celebration unofficially commence!
Great news... I got into Johnson and Wales University! It's all unofficial until October when I'll be receiving the big "yay-you're-in-here's-what-you-need-to-do" package in the mail, but for now I'll still be doing the happy dance. Glee!
It's been a while since I last posted, but that was because I was getting ready to go to J&W University for their Career Explorations summer program. One weekend, one class, one heck of a time. I applied for the Baking and Pastry program this year, as I had done Culinary Arts last year, and it is a complete understatement to say that it was AWESOME. The chefs/instructors are incredible and I learned more about the effects of butter on pastry than I ever had before! My inner geek was dancing for joy! In the labs, we got to test out what a class might be like. There were five culinary "teams" and three baking and pastry. This year, B&P made cookies and strawberry shortcake. The culinary students had a different palate, depending on their group. Some groups did Italian, some did Mediterranean, and some did Thai. After each group finished cooking, a baking and pastry class would bring up some of what they had made to a culinary group and we would eat the culinary group's food. Thumbs up to the group my group sampled! Your Italian was full of yum and awesome!
We had piles of food left on sheetpans after all was said and done. I absolutely HATE wasting food. I'm sure I got some weird looks, but I took my apron and turned into a carrying case for the food I took-- five strawberry shortcakes, all of my cookies that weren't eaten, and a few of my classmates' cookies. Boo yeah.
We then went to Carowinds as part of the weekend, where we all had these baseball shirts with egg-yolk yellow sleeves and detailing. I must've been really lucky, but I won four stuffed animals at the games! I also conveniently broke my non-existent nails trying to do one of the games. I thwacked my nail against the edge of the protective Plexiglas while rolling golfballs into these holes to make a pig go across a stage. I won, and got a stuffed husky dog doll and a gash in my nail as reward!! It was quite a pretty sight, breaking your nail when you keep your nails extraordinarily short for work... I hung out with my roommates during the Carowinds trek, since one of them was pretty familiar with where everything was, and we had a blast.
The next morning, when we had to leave, I found out after the slideshow of our collective escapades that I had gotten into the University! I have this piece of paper saying so, and I'm going to put it into this little "hehehe go me" book, once I make one. Pictures of everything will be uploaded later.
It's been a while since I last posted, but that was because I was getting ready to go to J&W University for their Career Explorations summer program. One weekend, one class, one heck of a time. I applied for the Baking and Pastry program this year, as I had done Culinary Arts last year, and it is a complete understatement to say that it was AWESOME. The chefs/instructors are incredible and I learned more about the effects of butter on pastry than I ever had before! My inner geek was dancing for joy! In the labs, we got to test out what a class might be like. There were five culinary "teams" and three baking and pastry. This year, B&P made cookies and strawberry shortcake. The culinary students had a different palate, depending on their group. Some groups did Italian, some did Mediterranean, and some did Thai. After each group finished cooking, a baking and pastry class would bring up some of what they had made to a culinary group and we would eat the culinary group's food. Thumbs up to the group my group sampled! Your Italian was full of yum and awesome!
We had piles of food left on sheetpans after all was said and done. I absolutely HATE wasting food. I'm sure I got some weird looks, but I took my apron and turned into a carrying case for the food I took-- five strawberry shortcakes, all of my cookies that weren't eaten, and a few of my classmates' cookies. Boo yeah.
We then went to Carowinds as part of the weekend, where we all had these baseball shirts with egg-yolk yellow sleeves and detailing. I must've been really lucky, but I won four stuffed animals at the games! I also conveniently broke my non-existent nails trying to do one of the games. I thwacked my nail against the edge of the protective Plexiglas while rolling golfballs into these holes to make a pig go across a stage. I won, and got a stuffed husky dog doll and a gash in my nail as reward!! It was quite a pretty sight, breaking your nail when you keep your nails extraordinarily short for work... I hung out with my roommates during the Carowinds trek, since one of them was pretty familiar with where everything was, and we had a blast.
The next morning, when we had to leave, I found out after the slideshow of our collective escapades that I had gotten into the University! I have this piece of paper saying so, and I'm going to put it into this little "hehehe go me" book, once I make one. Pictures of everything will be uploaded later.
Friday, July 13, 2007
Gourmet on a budget!
Some of the dishes I've put on here (such as the sushi platter) are dishes that require a considerable amount of cash to do unless you get a very good deal. Most people (myself included) don't have $70 to make one dinner with for four or more people. These next few dishes you can do with .
Here is an awesome chicken dish that tastes like something out of a fancy restaurant, but can come out of anyone's kitchen!
Pomegranate-Ginger Chicken over Lime-Ginger Rice with a Plum and Strawberry Sauce
For this recipe, I used chicken tenders.
The chicken is dredged in flour that has ginger, garlic, paprika, salt, and pepper. Note: don't waste zip-top bags on this-- use plastic grocery bags! You can throw them out when you're done. The chicken is then seared in a skillet with about 1/4 inch of oil (any oil will do, just not peanut) with slices of ginger or powdered ginger to taste (at least 1 t). When the chicken is seared on both sides and you hear your pan making the "gah I need more oil heeeeelp!" popping noises, add 1 c of pomegranate juice. Yes, it will make lots of steam, but that's okay, you're not killing the pan. I like using Pom, it comes in pint-sized bottles and is usually a decent price. At this point, you can add even more ginger if you want, just be careful about it. Turn the heat down to the lowest setting and cover the pan, occasionally turning the chicken.
Rice: Any rice will do. Cook it as you normally would, just put 1/2 t powdered ginger per every cup of uncooked rice in the water before you start cooking. As it cooks, halve a lime and then quarter the halves. Note: if lemons are a better deal, use them instead. If the idea of big pieces of citrus fruit in your rice doesn't appeal to you, add 2 T lemon or lime juice instead. When the rice comes to a boil and you turn off the heat, add four pieces of lime per cup of uncooked rice. Cover it, and let it cook itself.
Plum-Strawberry Sauce: I got this recipe idea from http://madame.lefigaro.fr/cuisine/recettes/164-confiture-de-fraises-tuiles-aux-noix. The recipe is for a strawberry jam with walnut tuile. I switched out the half of the strawberries for two plums that we had in the house. The cost of the fruit shouldn't be too much of an issue because you will only need 1/2 c sliced strawberries and 2 sliced plums. Quick translation of the directions: For my version, you need 1/4 c water, 1/2 c sugar, and the fruits listed above. Add the sugar to the water and boil. When it boils, add the fruit and let it poach for 23 minutes (i turned the heat down to medium for this). Then turn off the heat.
To serve: Put 1/2c to 3/4 c cooked rice into a bowl per person, then place three pieces of chicken on each bowl. To the side of each bowl or in a family serving-thing, put the fruit sauce. You can either put the sauce directly on the chicken or dip the chicken into it. Your choice!!
The drink is as follows: Divide up the unused pomegranate juice from the chicken recipe into glasses for everyone willing to try it, then add enough seltzer water or Sprite or club soda to go to the top of the glass. I didn't particularly like the Sprite flavor, but my mom thought it was pretty tasty. Garnish with a strawberry. I put some mint in there too for added awesomeness because I grow mint and had some on hand.
Now for something completely different!
Quick healthy food!
Yum! This one is about as simple as it can get, but it's great if you only have about 20-30 minutes to make something. Thinly slice enough carrot, celery, and potato for the people you are serving (I used one russet potato, one carrot, and one stick of celery for two people), and dice 1/4 onion for every 2 people you are serving. When steaks are on sale (in this case top round buy one get one free!), grab 1/2 lb per person. Grill the steaks to your preference and let it rest while you do the rest of the cooking. Sautee the carrot, celery, and onion in a pan with a small amount of oil (I used 1 T for the amount I made). Add garlic, salt, and pepper to taste. When the onions become translucent, put the veggies into a bowl for holding. Sautee the potatoes with paprika and garlic for about five minutes, then add 1 c water and simmer for five or until the potatoes are fork-tender. Slice the steak into 1/4 inch strips, and serve!
To serve: put 1/2 c potatoes into the bottom of a bowl, and put the steak and veggies on the table and let each person put what they want on their potatoes.
Short Chef, signing out. Itadakimaaaaasu! (Translations at http://dict.regex.info/cgi-bin/j-e/dict ).
Here is an awesome chicken dish that tastes like something out of a fancy restaurant, but can come out of anyone's kitchen!
Pomegranate-Ginger Chicken over Lime-Ginger Rice with a Plum and Strawberry Sauce
For this recipe, I used chicken tenders.
The chicken is dredged in flour that has ginger, garlic, paprika, salt, and pepper. Note: don't waste zip-top bags on this-- use plastic grocery bags! You can throw them out when you're done. The chicken is then seared in a skillet with about 1/4 inch of oil (any oil will do, just not peanut) with slices of ginger or powdered ginger to taste (at least 1 t). When the chicken is seared on both sides and you hear your pan making the "gah I need more oil heeeeelp!" popping noises, add 1 c of pomegranate juice. Yes, it will make lots of steam, but that's okay, you're not killing the pan. I like using Pom, it comes in pint-sized bottles and is usually a decent price. At this point, you can add even more ginger if you want, just be careful about it. Turn the heat down to the lowest setting and cover the pan, occasionally turning the chicken.
Rice: Any rice will do. Cook it as you normally would, just put 1/2 t powdered ginger per every cup of uncooked rice in the water before you start cooking. As it cooks, halve a lime and then quarter the halves. Note: if lemons are a better deal, use them instead. If the idea of big pieces of citrus fruit in your rice doesn't appeal to you, add 2 T lemon or lime juice instead. When the rice comes to a boil and you turn off the heat, add four pieces of lime per cup of uncooked rice. Cover it, and let it cook itself.
Plum-Strawberry Sauce: I got this recipe idea from http://madame.lefigaro.fr/cuisine/recettes/164-confiture-de-fraises-tuiles-aux-noix. The recipe is for a strawberry jam with walnut tuile. I switched out the half of the strawberries for two plums that we had in the house. The cost of the fruit shouldn't be too much of an issue because you will only need 1/2 c sliced strawberries and 2 sliced plums. Quick translation of the directions: For my version, you need 1/4 c water, 1/2 c sugar, and the fruits listed above. Add the sugar to the water and boil. When it boils, add the fruit and let it poach for 23 minutes (i turned the heat down to medium for this). Then turn off the heat.
To serve: Put 1/2c to 3/4 c cooked rice into a bowl per person, then place three pieces of chicken on each bowl. To the side of each bowl or in a family serving-thing, put the fruit sauce. You can either put the sauce directly on the chicken or dip the chicken into it. Your choice!!
The drink is as follows: Divide up the unused pomegranate juice from the chicken recipe into glasses for everyone willing to try it, then add enough seltzer water or Sprite or club soda to go to the top of the glass. I didn't particularly like the Sprite flavor, but my mom thought it was pretty tasty. Garnish with a strawberry. I put some mint in there too for added awesomeness because I grow mint and had some on hand.
Now for something completely different!
Quick healthy food!
Yum! This one is about as simple as it can get, but it's great if you only have about 20-30 minutes to make something. Thinly slice enough carrot, celery, and potato for the people you are serving (I used one russet potato, one carrot, and one stick of celery for two people), and dice 1/4 onion for every 2 people you are serving. When steaks are on sale (in this case top round buy one get one free!), grab 1/2 lb per person. Grill the steaks to your preference and let it rest while you do the rest of the cooking. Sautee the carrot, celery, and onion in a pan with a small amount of oil (I used 1 T for the amount I made). Add garlic, salt, and pepper to taste. When the onions become translucent, put the veggies into a bowl for holding. Sautee the potatoes with paprika and garlic for about five minutes, then add 1 c water and simmer for five or until the potatoes are fork-tender. Slice the steak into 1/4 inch strips, and serve!
To serve: put 1/2 c potatoes into the bottom of a bowl, and put the steak and veggies on the table and let each person put what they want on their potatoes.
Short Chef, signing out. Itadakimaaaaasu! (Translations at http://dict.regex.info/cgi-bin/j-e/dict ).
Saturday, July 7, 2007
Well whadd'ya know...
It turns out that we had the stuff to make chocolate-coated mousses all along! I made some last night, and I plan on finishing the batch today. It was LATE when I got started, so I had to store stuff so I could get some sleep.
Here is the finished product:
Here is the finished product:
Friday, July 6, 2007
Finer things in life
Here is a list of some of the little things that make life awesome:
The next time we make it, we're thinking of making it more candy-like and dipping it in chocolate coating. It will be even BETTER.
- A big cup of tea
- A good book
- A good movie (such as Matilda!!)
- Homemade pastry/ confections
- Comfortable clothing
- Hugs
- A few special individuals (family-inclusive) who you can trust and go to for anything
- Your favorite noise level
- Good memories of anything
- Being able to step back and go "whoa, life is pretty neat"
The next time we make it, we're thinking of making it more candy-like and dipping it in chocolate coating. It will be even BETTER.
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
Breakfast and whatnot
Some people may criticize the French, but I find their food and people (the ones I know, at any rate) to be quite nice. I may be biased because I have French family members and because I speak French almost fluently, but nonetheless...
Breakfast this morning was crêpes. Dad woke me up nice and early at 5:20-ish so that I would be awake and civil enough to make them by 6:30. It worked, we had a nice large batch. Here's a picture of one:
Yum!! Chocolate crepe with fresh whipped cream (called Chantilly cream for those who want to be really fancy and put added stuff in there like brandy or extra powdered sugar) and fresh fruit. In this one we have cherries, but my brother was being picky and a standard Stewart morning-grouch and complained (although he has two volumes: loud and LOUDER, even when it's not even 7:00 a.m. which can be really annoying at times), so he had blueberries in his.
And even though it's about a week late, here are the photos of pie! Pie-nots were consumed before photos could be taken... sadly.
Mmmmm pie. Full of apple-y goodness. For wacky British humor on pies, just see www.weebls-stuff.com. The section labeled Weebl and Bob. The other toons are just as hilarious, although not pie-related.
A side note about Stewart morning grumpiness: This is just applicable to the Stewarts in my family, I know Stewart is a common surname, so don't call up an Inquisition. Here, we may be awake 10 minutes after we get out of bed, but we're not civil. We DO NOT talk unless to say that the coffee is done, that breakfast is ready (if it's being made for more than one person), the dog needs to be walked or given food and water, or the comics are good. An occasional "Good morning" or "Hey" can be heard, but that's about the limit of pleasantries. News goes on, lights go on, newspaper is divided up amongst those who are there, and if all is well with the universe and the morning routine is not disturbed, it only takes about 30-40 minutes to civilize. If morning routine gets disturbed, the person feeling the most out of it usually retreats to a dark spot in the house, i.e. the living room or their own room, and wakes up some other way by vegetating a bit in front of the TV or the computer, respectively. After that whole ordeal, most of us can be very nice people to work with! Good thing it only takes 30 minutes or 15 if on "gah, I need to get out of the door or I'm going to be late" mode. This is why you will always find eggs, coffee, and milk in our house. That and a good loud alarm clock.
Breakfast this morning was crêpes. Dad woke me up nice and early at 5:20-ish so that I would be awake and civil enough to make them by 6:30. It worked, we had a nice large batch. Here's a picture of one:
Yum!! Chocolate crepe with fresh whipped cream (called Chantilly cream for those who want to be really fancy and put added stuff in there like brandy or extra powdered sugar) and fresh fruit. In this one we have cherries, but my brother was being picky and a standard Stewart morning-grouch and complained (although he has two volumes: loud and LOUDER, even when it's not even 7:00 a.m. which can be really annoying at times), so he had blueberries in his.
And even though it's about a week late, here are the photos of pie! Pie-nots were consumed before photos could be taken... sadly.
Mmmmm pie. Full of apple-y goodness. For wacky British humor on pies, just see www.weebls-stuff.com. The section labeled Weebl and Bob. The other toons are just as hilarious, although not pie-related.
A side note about Stewart morning grumpiness: This is just applicable to the Stewarts in my family, I know Stewart is a common surname, so don't call up an Inquisition. Here, we may be awake 10 minutes after we get out of bed, but we're not civil. We DO NOT talk unless to say that the coffee is done, that breakfast is ready (if it's being made for more than one person), the dog needs to be walked or given food and water, or the comics are good. An occasional "Good morning" or "Hey" can be heard, but that's about the limit of pleasantries. News goes on, lights go on, newspaper is divided up amongst those who are there, and if all is well with the universe and the morning routine is not disturbed, it only takes about 30-40 minutes to civilize. If morning routine gets disturbed, the person feeling the most out of it usually retreats to a dark spot in the house, i.e. the living room or their own room, and wakes up some other way by vegetating a bit in front of the TV or the computer, respectively. After that whole ordeal, most of us can be very nice people to work with! Good thing it only takes 30 minutes or 15 if on "gah, I need to get out of the door or I'm going to be late" mode. This is why you will always find eggs, coffee, and milk in our house. That and a good loud alarm clock.
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