'Tis the Season To Be......(fill in the blank)

As soon as we fill our bellies on Thanksgiving, we wake up the next morning with a hangover of Tryptophan from the turkey and sugar-high headaches from all the pie and we go SHOPPING! Yes, I am talking about Black Friday: the official start to what I call Holiday Shopping Madness. I am talking loads of people in mall isles not meant to fit that many people, cash register lines 10 people deep, oh and who could forget the insane bargains and deals and our wallets filled with coupons (but unfortunately, they always seem to exclude the things we actually WANT to buy....why is that?) Anyway, I will be honest:

I love this time of year, but it also gets to me by about the 15th day of December. Why 15th you ask? Well, hopefully by this time, I have finished my holiday shopping, so all I have to deal with is the traffic caused by those who are doing their last minute shopping and creating the madness that this time of the year causes. It is quite silly really, it is supposed to be the time of the year that we all love, time for us to sit down with families, retell stories from the year by the fireplace, drinking wine (if we are of age of course, hot chocolate for the kids, or just spike it with Bailey's?????), and watch the snow fall.....but nope. Quite the opposite. I try to stay as calm and relaxed while I watch everyone else run around like they are chickens with their heads cut off (best reference I could come up with). By the 15th, I am tired of hot chocolate, tired of traffic, and especially sick of hearing the Christmas music! Why is it that we have to start listening to it the DAY AFTER THANKSGIVING??? At least give me a week to digest my food before you start singing about Christmas. Do we really need a whole month to sing songs? Though I am quite pleased to see that GLEE came out with a Christmas album :)

Oh and those people at the Kiosks??? They drive me INSANE!!!! They are just waiting in the main walkway of a mall, purposely in your way, so that you HAVE to practically walk into them, which, by that time, it is too late and you have been seduced by the mall sirens! They lure you to their kiosk to share what they are selling. The other day, some lady grabbed my hand and put salt on it. My friend and I were both puzzled, staring at this pile of salt in our hands thinking, "what do we do?" Well, in order to wash it off, we HAD To to go her cave of a kiosk. While we both knew we weren't going to buy any of her products, it was quite fun to get hand make-overs....Dead Sea Salt exfoliates, lotions, gels, nail buffers, it was quite nice. She was disappointed when we said we were cooks, so there is no point in spending money to have nice hands, and that we are college students who don't want to buy an $80 dollar jar of gel stuff for our face. We walked away without buying any products, despite the incredible "deal" she was going to give us, but with super soft hands that even two days later are still soft!
Earlier this weekend, another man at a hair straightening kiosk put a black packet of gel into my hand and pulled, literally grabbed my wrist and pulled, me over to his station where he tried to let me let him straighten a piece of my hair. I held onto that free packet of hair serum and walked away, feeling a bit like a B****. But the next day, I tried that serum on my hair before and after straightening it and holy smokes, it was amazing! My hair was so smooth, for the WHOLE day, I did not even have to brush it throughout the day. I give him kudos.
I decided to return to buy the serum....I am always having problems with my hair frizzing up after straightening it and becoming ratty looking, requiring a brush, and finally I had found a serum that did not grease my hair up! When I returned, a different man tried to sell me a straightener. I WILL NOT GIVE IN, I told myself. He wanted so badly to show me how well it worked, but when I explained I already had one, he asked which one I had. " A CHI..." I responded, confidently, knowing that CHI is the best brand out there. And he had an immediate look of, "shoot, I won't be able to sell my straightener to her", but he continued. "But THIS one has ceramic plates"...."So does mine," I said to him, "how many times do you have to go over a piece of hair to straighten it?" he asked, "Only once," I said, "And how long does it take you," he asked? "Only 15 minutes," I was truly loving this. I continued to shoot down every single angle he had been pulling on everyone else. And then for kicks and giggles, knowing I had won the argument that mine was better and I did NOT need a new one, I said, "And mine has pretty red felt on the outside, so its nice and soft!" He was pretty frustrated with me by this point, But I was still buying his hair serum, he had something to be happy about.....

So back to the title of my post: Tis the season to be......I don't really know. Some days I am quite jolly, just as the song suggests, and I even walk around thinking Falalalala. I try not to become one of those angry shoppers and drivers who roll their eyes when someone cuts them off...what is the point in getting frustrated? Like my mommy always says, Don't Sweat The Small Stuff....and to the ma'am in front of me in the line impatiently tapping her foot, I can guarantee there are worse things in life to be frustrated about :)

Happy Holidays!!!!!

PS: I have yet to break down and buy a new culinary gourmet gadgets...so Happy Holidays FRIENDS and RELATIVES!!! You know what is on my wish list!

MIA from CIA....but I'm back!!!

My sincere apologies for those of you who used to read my blog and have since my last post not had any evening reading. Life was crazy. But I am back and I have a specific topic to write about! I do not have enough finger endurance to type everything I have been up to recently. The main reason for this blog entry is REGISTRATION FOR MY NEXT SEMESTER CLASSES....its a big deal at this school because it is when the students choose which Wines trip they go on. Let me break it down for you: the Food, Wine, Agri(culture) class (official name of the course) is when we learn about the just mentioned, and we go on a trip to a wine country/region for 3 weeks. Well, I had the option of staying in the states or going to Spain or Italy.....first choice was Italy. I am taking Italian right now and just had my heart set on going. Ok, I don't want to keep you on the edge of your seat for too long to let you know where I am going, BUT I AM GOING TO ITALY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Unfortunately, there is no way for you to see my expression of happiness through a blog, but the amount of exclamation points should be enough!

As for the remainder of the registration process, here is what happened. It was so nerve-wracking my heart was beating out of its chest. Imagine 160 students logging onto the campus's registration website all at once and clicking SUBMIT all. at. once. Yup. The website SHUT DOWN!!!!! We were allowed to register at 2:00 pm today, so EVERYONE was on the edge of their seat waiting to click SUBMIT....well, when we clicked submit, the server CRASHED!!!!!! It was down for 30 minutes.....meanwhile we are all FREAKING out because we all want certain schedules and want a certain trip (there are only a limited number of spots for each trip). So finally the website starts working again, and I had to navigate around it to figure out if I had to re-fill everything out....but here is the good news: in all that craziness, my schedule saved, so when the server came back up, it automatically registered me! So I got my first choice for scheduling!! Karma was on my side, it feels great, no stress!!! I could go on and on talking about the drama that was created from this with the other students, but I shall not bore you with culinary drama.

As for my past couple months, here is what I have been up to, in list format, Beware: Its long: Ask questions via comments if you care to do so.

-Milked a goat (named Audrey, coincidence)
-Went to DC for the John Stewart/Stephen Colbert Rally
-Rode 30 miles on a bike tour to some farms
-Ran a 1/2 marathon
-Registered for next semester's classes GOING TO ITALY!!!!!
-Saw Harry Potter 7 at Midnight
-Saw Harry Potter 7 again the next night because it was SOOOO good
-Joined the cross country running team at school
-We won championships!!!
-Got my fastest time EVER!
-Found 10 dollars on the ground, that was pretty exciting seeing how I never find money
-Found out I love organic peanut butter
-Went zip-lining and obstacle-coursing in the beautiful Hudson Valley trees and foliage
-Joined the CSA on campus: Chefs Sustaining Agriculture (slow food movement, local, farmers, etc)
-Drank apple cider made only FIVE minutes earlier, hand pressed with an old wooden contraption
-Lost my cell phone to mouthwash: RIP Samsung cell phone
-Ran the Tufts 10 k for the 4th year!! (6 miles, ran under an hour!)
-Worked at the Hudson Valley Food and Wine Festival where I poured wine for wine snobs all day and talked about it...what a great day! I got paid to talk about wine!!!


That's about long enough of a post for now....what kind of questions do you have so that I can address certain topics in future posts?

Spelling error: my bad

IDLE!!!! Apparently I cannot spell. I meant to say IDLE hands cause trouble, not Idol hands. I am pretty sure my hands are not competing for any sort of hierarchy idol status.

Thanks, Mom.

Idol Hands Lead to Trouble

No, I'm not in trouble. It is just something one of the campus security guards said to me the other day at the school's annual Chili Cook-Off (yes, we have chili competitions). He was asking me how I was doing and how school was treating me after being at it for two years to which I responded that I was so busy I did not have time to think. He says, well, Audrey, what would you be doing if you weren't so involved...getting into trouble with campus safety? (Then he laughs and takes a bite of his chili, which was quite spicy, so his face turned a little red). I believe he is completely right.
I think back to last year when I was finished classes for the day at 3:00. I would go to work only three times a week, and I was only at work until 5. I would eat dinner, go work out, and then do homework. I did not have a lot going on outside besides a club I was loyal to. It just seemed boring most of the time. I wanted to get out, but did not have the motivation.
Since returning to school, I have really reached out and gotten myself involved with a lot of happenings on campus. I am that dork who goes to the student life sponsored events with enthusiasm. I became secretary of the CSA group on campus, Chefs Sustaining Agriculture (we work to bring awareness to students regarding where their food comes from. We go on field trips, host special guests, and have fun little events.) I work a little bit, not much, but enough to keep my contacts. I run cross country, but because of my class schedule and my other extra-circulars, i cannot always make it to practice (and a recent foot injury, slowly healing). I also took up a part time job to work on the weekends as a server at special functions here at school.

The best part is that I am meeting so many great people from all of these groups that I am really creating friendships that are worth keeping. It is always great to meet people with common interests, and it seems as though they have become my new friends, instead of the ones who sit around and do nothing.

But when it comes down to it, it is all about time management.

I sometimes question my capability to do so much, but back to what the security guard said: Idol hands lead to trouble. I'll let you all wonder what I would be doing (I AM a college student, after all).

Why Do I Choose To Make My Life So Hectic?

A question I am going to attempt to answer...I think it is because I feel productive and accomplished if I am constantly going places, meeting with this person, meeting with that person, completing a homework assignment, going on trips...etc, etc. My first week of class was slightly crazy. It involved me carrying tons of books around to each class, getting 15 minutes to eat lunch before I had to go to work in which I would leave work and then go back to class. My day would finish with me going to cross country running practice (XC), eating a quick dinner and then starting homework. Wake up the next day, repeat.

I didn't even have time to watch my TV shows online until the weekend!!! (life takes priority to entertainment).

This weekend was all devoted to homework, in which I have been very productive. I did take a break on Saturday and went to watch a hog slaughter.

Yes, a hog slaughter.

I have been feeling a bit uneasy and any sort of food tastes a bit off to me since going to the farm. The smells were not exactly those of rose petals and lavender. While we did not actually see the slaughtering of the hog, the screams and squeals of the poor animal were enough to make my stomach churn. The stun gun that is usually used to stun the animal before it is hoisted up on the hooks was broken, so other, more graphic methods, had to be used. I am quite happy I did not have to see this. I fully respect the killing of an animal for its meat (and other parts) now that I partially saw it. Maybe this is why I eat mostly fish instead of any other animal. Its just too much for me to watch. When people asked how the hog slaughter was, I just say it was an....slight pause, experience.

But back to the topic of this post, I have so far accomplished what I wanted when I returned to school, get as involved as possible. I just need to make sure I don't get tooooo involved.

Back in School Mode, Let's Dust Off Those Brain Cells

First of all, please excuse me for my 1 1/2 month hiatus (sp?) from this blog. I became super busy with work and other activities preventing me from writing. But I am back now! Currently, I sit in my room at school with my brain moving in many directions. I am back at school for the Bachelor's Program. It is another 1 1/2 years of education here at this fine institute I call the CIA. While the Associate's Degree was focused on the hows of cooking, more practical techniques, the Bachelor's Program (BPS) is more managerial business information. It is where the students wear business casual attire (no more chef whites) and carry text books, binders, notebooks, coffee mugs (no knife bags) around and drag their feet up the stairs of Roth Hall (basically the only academic building here on campus; the main building where all the kitchens and offices, etc, are). I am a legitimate college student. Six classes. But only 4 days a week (!!). I am preparing my binders and notebooks for class (and my brain). I am excited to be able to think critically again since that is all my high schools days consisted of.
I spent the first few hours of my day in orientation (we were just spoken to by different Deans of the school as to who does what and such and such). I spent the next few hours running into old friends whom I have not seen in a few months and catching up with how their summers were. I just feel so refreshed being back and starting a new chapter of my life.
I live in a single room like I did last year which is fantastic. I have suitemates, but we all have our own rooms and share a bathroom, so it is nice to be able to retreat to my own room. I must be getting back to preparation for tomorrow. I will try to write as soon as I can.

If You Can't Take The Heat......

I think it was President Harry Truman that made this famous: If you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen....well guess what? I'm STILL HERE!

Oh goodness, Newport has been so hot the past week, especially Tuesday! The temperature was 102 degrees! Oh but wait, in the kitchen, it was easily 120, maybe 125! We were all drinking water by the quart-full, asking the food runners to fill us up every 30 minutes with nice cold icey water. Sure was refreshing. But we found the best secret was to soak a towel in cold water and then store it in the refrigerated drawers where we keep our food for service, that was its nice and cold to wrap around the neck or face. You don't know hot until you are standing behind a grill in long pants and a long sleeve jacket. And then of course there is the walk-in refrigerator which is a nice cold room that can cool the body temp down for a few seconds...

Yes mom, I am drinking lots of water, thanks for asking.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE my new job!!! I am SO happy I left Bar Harbor! Working at Castle Hill is everything I imagined it to be! The people are great (and actually have training and know what they are doing) and you can tell they love their jobs. I ask questions a lot, but they love answering them. Almost all of our products are locally sourced from areas around RI, MA, and CT. I currently work as a floater, so to speak. Because I am only there for two months, it did not make much sense to train me on my own station, so I work as the hot app/pantry wingman. I am training on both stations so that when the stations are busy, I can jump in and assist with plating and expediting of the tickets. Unlike The Mooring (last summer's job), the plates have many more components, so plating takes more precision and time. I have only been working there for about four days, but I have loved every day so far and I cannot wait to see how the summer unfolds.
I have had the past two days off. I spent yesterday at the Farmer's Market (like I said I would in my last post). I bought eggs, spinach, basil, garlic scapes, whole wheat bread, and yogurt. With the spinach, I made spinach pasta (which used the fresh eggs for the dough). I chopped up mushrooms and made tortellinis! I then minced the rest of the spinach with some basil and garlic scapes that were sauteed in oil and then added more oil to the mixture to make an herby oil sauce. I tossed the tortellinis in that sauce and oh my goodness was it divine!!! Just knowing that a majority of the ingredients were local was so much fun! I live above a computer IT store owned by an elderly couple and brought some down to them and boy were they happy!!!!

I can easily say Life is Good.

Back in Newport for the summer...as of two days ago

So I was supposed to be in Bar Harbor this summer, but due to conflict of interests between me and my job, I left. Thank goodness my boss from last summer in Newport was able to give me a job this summer. Good thing I left Newport last year on good terms! So I packed up my things from Bar Harbor and headed down to Newport...homeless! I drove to Newport and began my apartment hunt via craigslist and randomly driving around looking at signs in front yards. I am a little impatient sometimes, so halfway through the day, I was starting to get nervous I would not find anything and was considering just giving up and not staying in Newport.
All of a sudden, I got a call from a guy living right in Newport who was offering me the chance to look at his place. He had one room available, furnished. I stopped by that evening and met him and the other roommate. The second I walked up the stairs to see the place, I knew it was perfect! It was clean, organized, and it just had the perfect vibe! With a very affordable price, I took it because I knew that it would be gone if I waited another day. I moved in the next day. Thankfully a friend from last year was around so I could crash at her place for the night until I could move in.
The location is perfect! While I still have to drive to work, I am walking distance from anything here in Newport! I am right down the road from my favorite Tea house where I spent a lot of time last summer too (they had bubble tea, loose tea, and free wifi!) But there is wifi here at the apt, so that will save me some money from being tempted to buy tea every day!
I am quite proud of myself for finding this place because I did it all myself and thanks to good spending habits (actually, wait, no I have horrible money managing skills, so its more like thanks to good spending habits in high school where i spent nothing....) I was able to afford it easily.
My roommates are so nice too! One is late 20's and a cook at the Marriot Hotel down the road and the other is in his 40's and works for the town as well as a part time paramedic. They both like to cook, which is great!! While I am only here for two months, it is sure going to be a great summer! Especailly since I already have friends here from last year!

I will be working at the Castle Hill Inn, a Relais and Chateau property (look it up). I start tomorrow and the menu just looks incredible!!! Most everything on the menu is local and from RI, which I am totally interested in. I love this local/sustainable/organic movement, so being right here in the center of it all is just a dream come true. There are farmers markets every Wednesday and Saturday, so next Wed, since I am not working, I will be getting food from there and cooking dinner for Peter and Kristen (roommates), which they are stoked about!

Oh gosh, what a long post: Ill write more later!

I'm A GRADUATE!!!

Yes, that's right! I graduated from culinary school!!! I have graduated with my Associates Degree and plan to continue on for my Bachelors Degree in August. Its so exciting to know that I have a degree and something to show for my education! Part one is over, though it went by way too fast! I think the best thing for me to do at this point is to go out into the workforce and apply what I have learned.
Correction: I am not a "CHEF." Graduating from culinary school does not make one a chef. A Chef is a title given to an individual that deserves that title, a job, for instance. So if I am given the job as a Sous Chef, then I am a chef. Call me chef all you want (my parents have been calling me their little chef for a while now), but I am technically not a chef. Having a degree certainly gives me a leg up on the job ladder though when compared to one without a degree, so I may reach "chefdome" quicker than the other.
As for my time off this summer until I return in late August for my Bachelors Degree, I will be working in Bar Harbor, Maine at an inn right on the water! As for the people who know I was in Newport, RI last summer, they just cant help but be a little jealous that I keep working in these touristy-summery destinations. I am excited to go to Bar Harbor because I really like being by water and Acadia National Park is practically next to it, giving me full access to endless hiking and sightseeing and outdoor activities. While Newport was pretty and outdoorsy, it was just too many cars and shopping...hopefully having Acadia nearby will pull me away from the shopping!
And as you all know, I was taking Bartending classes, so I will be trying to get a part time job as a bartender/barback to hone my skills and see if I am cut out for the job.

I am ready to go and cook my heart away!

If you are in Bar Harbor area this summer, send me a message and we will meet up!

Let's go mix some drinks!

I finished my bartending school today.

It was a 6 day class, 2 hours each day. The first day was spent going over a powerpoint presentation just with guidelines and such for bartending. The second day, we practiced free pouring. There is a count system set up with free pouring so that you know how many ounces you are pouring based on how long you hold the bottle. Starting with 1/2 oz is 2 seconds, 3 seconds is 3/4 oz, 4 seconds is 1 oz, etc etc etc. And then we started making drinks.
We just used bottles filled with water, but it was more difficult to make drinks than I thought. It is easy enough to recall what is in a drink on paper, but once I was there actually having to make it, it was a bit daunting. With practice, I was able to completely memorize a few drinks, some I am still not positive on all the time. I always forget just one ingredient. But that comes with experience. To be honest, I just cannot wait to get out to an actual bar and try making real drinks, that will be exciting!

Heads up Mom and Dad: I'll be practicing with you two when i get home from college! Cosmos for mom, Manhattans for Dad!

The Next Television Network Star????

HEY!!! So The Gourmet Society (a club I am part of on campus) teamed up with Marist College (down the street) to start a cooking show series called Classy College Cuisine. Julie Lavin is the rep of Marist who graduated last year with a degree in communications. For the past year or so, we have been recording these culinary cooking shows at the school. But for this most recent episode, we decided to make it truly college-esque by making a "Microwave" episode. I'd like to call this my brain child. I did all of the research for recipes and testing of them to make sure they worked and then we got together at Marist to film it. Enough said.

Please watch it!!!!

http://classycollegecuisin.blip.tv/

Goodbye Kitchen...Hello Graduation in 3 Weeks!!!

So today was my last day in a cooking class here at the Culinary I of A. I worked in the American Bounty restaurant at school. I say that the past three weeks was the best class I have ever had at this school. I was on the family meal station in our kitchen, which at first, I was really bitter about because I have been on family meal a few times now and pastry as well and I just wanted to cook on the line. **Family meal is basically providing lunch for the kitchen staff and servers and is often looked down upon**I was going to try to switch, but someone told me that Family meal was able to order and make whatever they wanted and that during service, we were able to cook on the line to assist when busy. And with me trying to always look on the bright side, I stuck with it.
I am so happy that I did not try to change. My partner and I worked together so well, making for a very well oiled (extra virgin olive oil) machine. We had our menus written out for all 15 days of the class so we always knew a few days in advance what we would be doing. We wanted to be as prepared as possible. We always did prep the day before so that all we had to do when we came in was heat food up and finish cooking. We came up with some pretty delicious menus. We even made our own corned beef!! Tried making sauerkraut...fail.
Anyway, chef and I got along very well. You know how you know within five minutes of meeting someone that you are going to get along with them? Well I knew that with Chef. He had a crazy amount of energy that showed he loved to teach and cook, but did not want to play games. Of course he was serious about teaching us! This was our last cooking class before we graduate! Of course we have to be on our A game!! He pushed us, in a positive way, which I think was the perfect teaching style that worked for me.
He often joked about how I asked questions a lot, calling me high maintenance, but it was all in good fun. He and I had a discussion about how one of my classmates yelled at me for being so positive all the time and always looking on the bright side and he told me to "never lose that quality, no matter how much it drives them crazy. They just don't understand how you are able to look past the bad and find the good. They are jealous." Hearing those words from chef was very motivating because people call me out on my positivity all the time. He would come up to me and ask if I was happy, just because. He often tried to make fun of me and pretended to complain I was doing something wrong just because he needed someone to take his frustration out on...who better than someone who will just laugh with him?? He once came up to me and was telling me how my partner was complaining that I was always miserable and difficult to work with and I said, "Chef...I think you're lying." and he said, "ok, fine yea, so?" and laughed and walked away (you had to be there I guess).
I gave him my business card on the last day of class and on the back I wrote, "the girl who is always happy." He smiled.


I will be working as a server for the next three weeks as my last class and then I graduate!!!

Guess who is gonna be a bartender?!

I AM!!!

I enrolled in Bartending classes starting May 17th. They are with the bartender at the school's restaurant. She has a small school out of her home. Full bar, all the materials. She gives a manual and has powerpoints and lectures and everything. Very hands on she says. It is a five day class, 2 hours long. I worked out dates and times that I am available with her. And it only costs $250 dollars!

I have always wanted to take bar classes just to have that foundation and practice because good bartenders make bank! And of course it is good to have that knowlege because it makes you that more valuable having the knowledge of mixed drinks. (And I can impress people of course)!

I'll keep you all posted as to how my classes go once I start them! SO excited!

Apple Cider Update: WARNING: This post contains sad news

Sooooo about that hard apple cider project I was taking part of.....it is now fermenting in the green metal compost bins of the CIA. Let's see if I can explain what happened in a scientifically correct manner:

The pulp which was being pressed for its juices was removed and taken to the trash. To quote my friend who took part in this epic removal of the pulp: "You should also know that after determining that the apple pulp was entirely eradicated of any remaining juices, we made an effort to take said pulp to the trash. Unfortunately, in this process, the bag of pulp exploded over the stairwell under which we were carrying it. This is in part an apology for the smells and residues that linger in said stairwell. It was for a good cause. Promise. "

Well after the pulp was removed, the juices were happily left to ferment and bubble away. GO YEAST!! Well, yeast needs sugar to live, so it was quite happy in that pool of delicious appley sugars. But once the yeast runs out of sugar to eat, it turns to alcohol, which is why some people add sugar to any fermenting beverage--not to raise the sugar levels, but to raise the alcohol levels. Well, what happened here was that the yeast was so hungry that it ate all of the sugars before more sugar could be added. And before more sugar could be added, it turned to alcohol. And we all know what happens to alcohol if it continues to ferment...the birth of VINEGAR!

Yes. Our hopeful apple cider turned into apple cider vinegar, horrible vinegar at that (according to the above person whom i quoted). They threw it out.

Mission Apple Cider: FAIL.

Oh well.

Drum roll please.......I PASSED!!!

YAY! I passed the practical. Well, I knew I would pass, but I passed with a pretty good grade. 85. I was hoping for something in the 90's based on my performance from last year. I played it pretty safe this year and made sure not to oversalt my food (resulted in me undersalted some stuff, oh well)

Here is the menu:

Fish Course:
Seared Scallops with Beurre Blanc over spinach, pine nuts, and macerated raisins

Main Course:
Poached chicken with vin blanc sauce
Fresh Pasta tossed in herbs
Sauteed Mushrooms with Madeira and thyme
Broccolini

I cooked everything nicely, I just didnt salt it as much as I should have and by the time the food got to the chef, it had cooled down a tiny bit, so he took off a few points for that.

On the oral exam, where the chef asks questions about cooking, I got a 10/10, so yay!!

I would say it was a success, its no high pass like last year, but im still happy!

Smooth sailing till graduation!!!

5th Term Practical Tomorrow!!!!!

Hi Blog Readers,
So if you have been loyal, you have been reading this for a while. Last February, I posted about my 2nd term cooking practical where I had to cook a soup and entree (protein, starch, 2 veg) for me and the chef that was grading me in 2 1/2 hours. I did awesome! 95!!! Well, I have to do the same thing again tomorrow, but for my 5th term practical.
This is different than second term because we do not make a soup. Instead, we make a fish course. The recipes are all from food we cooked last year in our beginning classes, minus the seared scallops and beurre blanc which we practiced in Cuisines of Mediterranean. For the most part, everything I learned last year continues into what we make in the kitchens this year.
I spent all last week typing up recipes, timelines, equipment lists, etc. I know exactly how to set it up already from last year because it worked so well for me that way. It took a lot less time to make my time lines than it did last year! While most everything seemed unfamiliar at first, the more I looked at it and studied it, it all started to make sense. I am actually quite excited for my practical because I really enjoy this kind of cooking, you know, just a nice meal for me and one or two other people. Its great! This is how I LEARNED to cook (you're welcome Mom and Dad...and Steve).
WISH ME LUCK!!! I'll be sure to post about how it goes tomorrow night!! Or if you are my mom or dad, you will get a phone call from me

When life gives you apples, make apple cider!

From bottom to top:
--7 bushels of apples
--apple pulp
--pureeing of apple pulp
--final contraption of the apple pulp straining juice, this will sit until all juice is pressed and then will be bottled.

Yes, I am in the process of making apple cider. It started with a phone call from a friend asking if I could drive him and two of my other friends to get 350 pounds of apples (since I have a big enough car to fit them all). Slightly taken aback, I say, umm, what are you buying that many apples for? And they say, we are making sparkling apple cider (apple wine, hard cider). So begins our journey to Meadowbrook Farms, about 30 minutes from school, where we buy 7 bushels of apples, costing 10 dollars a bushel, (about 75 dollars total) which breaks down to about $.20 per pound!
Our night begins by setting up a nifty contraption in which to make the "to-become-hard cider." We buy four 18 gallon plastic storage buckets and cut a hole in the bottom of two of them (we are making two sets of fermenting juice). We then take an oven rack and lay it over the bottom one (without the hole). We lay a sheet inside of the one with the hole on top of the oven rack. The idea behind it is to put the pureed apples into the sheet, and the juice drips through the sheet into the bottom bucket, where it will then ferment. The pulp is being pressed to squeeze the juice out. Once the juice is all pressed, we will bottle and cork it (we know people who supplied us with corks, bottles, and a corker contraption). It will then ferment in the bottle, creating apple wine or hard cider.
The couple who I am making this with already made apple spiced cider this summer using this method, so we know it works, but they made only about 1 gallon where we are going to yield about 14 gallons. And they are taking it one step furthur by fermenting it....illegal? maybe? dunno...
After setting up our contraption, we got to work pureeing the apples. We had a small little food processor, so with that, we were able to puree 3 1/2 bushels in 3 hours. We started around 9 pm last night and finished at 3 am this morning. We worked in shifts, so I chopped apples to be pureed until 12:30 then someone took over for me. I have attached pictures of what we have so far. I also attached a picture of the final contraption.

The cider should be ready around the end of June to drink.

Wines class: the 3 weeks when drinking and studying consumes my life

Wine Studies: The hardest class in the school. I survived! It was difficult. Three weeks long (though now that it is over, I wish it was longer). We divided the class into three parts--New World (USA, Canada, eh?, Argentina, Chile, Australia, and New Zealand), France and Italy, and Spain and Portugal. It is a lot of information very quickly and a lot of memorization is required. I enjoyed the class though. It was nice to have a challenging class again where studying consumed my life.
Every day, we had wine tastings which included about 10 wines. We had to spit the wine though (but I didn't always do that since some of the wines were "out of this world" delicious).
It is one of the most failed classes in the school (three people in our class failed this block and lots of other came very close to not passing). I just did my best to not let it stress me out. I know a lot of people who just died during it because they were not used to all of the studying necessary to pass the class. I did fairly well in the class, though not as well as I hoped. There were two quizzes, a test, and a paper. On the second quiz ( France and Italy) I did not do so well. I just could not learn the information in time because it was so broken up from a weekend, so that brought my grade down unfortunately. I am still very happy with my grade considering the reputation of the class.
I really enjoyed learning about wine. It has always been a subject that overwhelmed me and I did not like to try new wines, but now that I have a wealth of knowledge, I can use it in my future culinary applications. I cannot wait till I am 21 and I can go to a wine store and actually KNOW what to look for!

Seriously? I'm stuck on Family Meal!?!

When I moved to Banquets back of the house (kitchen), I was put on family meal....meaning me and my partner were responsible for cooking lunch (family meal) for the students who were serving. We did not have a part in the cooking for the class, what a lack of a learning experience, or so I thought. I have a little experience in catering previous to coming to school, so I have an idea of how it all works, but being stuck on family meal is something I would consider good for me.
My chef pretty much refused to order anything special for us to make for family meal, except for the protein of the day. He wanted us to learn how to use what, and only what, was available in the kitchen that day (since that would be a real life scenario).
I found it difficult to scrape something up to cook because of course I want to make a delicious family meal....the class before us served baked chicken almost every day with some lame over dressed salad, garlic bread, and a some over cooked vegetables. I wanted to actually make something palatable. But now I see why it was so difficult. The kitchen barely had any useful ingredients to begin with!
I am most proud, however, of when we ordered in flank steak and I made the same beef wellington sauce I made for Christmas break. We had all of the necessary ingredients in the kitchen, i was SO excited to make it! I took Madeira wine and reduced it with tarragon and shallots, added veal stock, reduced it, then added in honey and some cornstarch to thicken. It tasted great! I even impressed one guy in my class who never really took me seriously until he realized that, oh my goodness, I can cook!
As for the flank steak, my partner did not quick hold up his end and we ran late on serving family meal, but the sauce was sooo good! My mom can vouch for me since she ate it at Christmas dinner.

Banquets and Catering

I finished my cuisines of the Mediterraneans class. It was bittersweet. I definitely saw improvement as the days progressed. I saw an odd pattern when it came to grading. On the first day of every new country (4 different countries/regions were studied), I had an average grade, but as the days progressed, my grade progressed. I guess that says something for my improvement! All in all, the class was a very good experience. It made me be sure to come to class prepared, to know everything, to not be afraid to ask questions, but to think about the question before actually asking it, and much much more!

I have moved on to the Banquets and Catering class. For the past 7 school days, I was working the Front of the House, so I was a server. Our class catered about 90 students who come into our dining room each day for lunch. They are served a 3-course meal (app, entree, dessert) by us. It is fun for me since I used to be a server, but for others, not so much. I understand how facing people is difficult...but in order to be a successful chef, you have to have some sort of people skills! I have enjoyed it thus far. On Thursday, I move to the back of the house, so I will be cooking for the students.

1/2 way through the hardest class so far!

I have been in the Cuisines of the Mediterraneans class for one week now. I have to say it has been the most difficult class (in a good and bad way) that I have taken here at school. The chef expects a lot, but not too much. She re-iterates how the class has prerequisites, and we have to meet them. We have made stupid mistakes just because we do not do our research. To make this easier to understand, here are the Pros and Cons

Cons:
*Chef is not afraid to tell you your product sucks
*Chef will tell you to start something over, rather than learn how to fix it
*Chef will make you look and feel like an idiot...in front of your classmates
*Chef will talk down to you like you know nothing
*Chef will threaten us....not life threatening or anything, but you know
*Chef expects us to know certain things in the class that we just do NOT know....

Pros:
*Chef is not afraid to tell you your product stinks: she tells the truth
*Chef will work with you if you cannot figure something out (I made churro dough FOUR times before I got it right!!!!)
*Chef will compliment you, if you deserve it
*Chef pushes you to do your best and try your hardest
*Chef constantly reminds us how much money we pay to go to this school and that we should do whatever we can to learn


I think I can say she is the best chef I have ever had because I am really learning from her. She instills a sense of urgency and fear to complete everything on time and to do our research. She does ask questions in class about how much research we have done for that day....often times, it is very little....getting better at that!
*Chef does not spoon feed us information