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!

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)!

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.

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 ).

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:

Finer things in life

Here is a list of some of the little things that make life awesome:

• 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"

I'm sure I left out a few things... and for good measure, here's a picture of some homemade dark chocolate mousse adapted from the Biltmore Estate's recipe for White Chocolate Mousse:
















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.

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.