Sunday Night or Monday Morning

I just looked up at the clock, it is 12:12 am on Monday morning.  I have been so busy and haven't had time to write.  I have had midterms, written and practicals.  This week will be the finals.  I am trying to stay calm and take one day at a time.  I am so busy writing papers and studying that I really, really do not have time to write.  I am tired and going to bed soon but I just wanted to write something down here so I could at least say I have written in my blog lately.  I am not sure if anybody is reading these but just in case someone is, I am still here and hustling like nobody's business.  This week I will have all my finals and my practical, you know the one where you make so many dishes in three hours.  We get a week break starting next Monday, the 23rd.  I can't wait.

 

Well, I will write when I get my break so I can catch up on all the different regional foods we have been cooking.

Saturday, May 31, 2008

I need to catch up, I haven't written in a week.  There is a reason for that.  I have test at the minimum three times a week and papers to write.  By the time I get home and get acclimated with family, I throw in a load of laundry and find a spot on the couch to study and write.  When I look up at the clock again, it is somewhere between 9:30 and 10:00.  It is time to get my husband out the door with coffee in his belly (he is a night shifter) and a packed lunch.  He has been taking some great lunches from the food I bring home. This past week, we cooked prime cuts of beef, fresh red fish (round fish), flounder (flat fish) and lobster (oh my God) , scallops (top of the line), soft shell crab (you can have those, not much meat), mussels (found out I liked those) and shrimp. 

Yesterday, Friday, was a day I will never forget.  Ever.  Our menu included, Lobster, mussels, scallops, oysters on the half shell, Asian salad, goat cheese grits (yummy).   Assorted sauces, the best was the scallop sauce.  These scallops are hand picked my divers.  Top of the line, honey.

The lobsters were alive in a box.  There were two of them.  One of my fellow students and I were talking to them like pets and apologizing for having to boil them.  Yea, I thought they would be killed by boiling.  Oh no, our chef teacher took out one of the two lobsters out of the box and proceeded to show us how to kill a lobster with our chef knife while it is alive and laying on our cutting board.  I should have known when he went to my station and used my cutting board to kill this innocent lobster that I was going to definitely have to do in the other one.  He had already told me that I would do the lobster and mussel recipe but my wishful thinking had me to believe I wasn't going to be the killer.  WRONG.  I knew it wasn't going to be good when I started squealing at the sight of him picking up the first lobster.  I just kept thinking, it looked like a big crunchy bug.  He stabbed the dumb lobster in the head ( supposedly their brain is no bigger than the head of a pin) and came down across his face right between his beady little yes and he proceeded to slice his back in half down to it's tail.  All the while this lobster is still squirming.  Supposedly, they are dead when you stab them in the head and the rest of the movement is nerve endings.  Tell that to the lobster.  You can't tell me.  Well, then it was my turn, still thinking he was joking and I wasn't really going to have to kill a lobster.  I would have welcomed putting it in boiling water at this point, although I never wanted to have to do that either.  After he finally convinced me that yes, I was going to have to go to the box and get the other lobster and kill it at my station, it is kind of blurry from there.  I remember grabbing him out of the box, screaming, yelling at the chef about where to put my knife on the head, closing my eyes, screaming, stabbing, looking up and seeing the French chef teacher from the other class, and some of his students, at the glass window, laughing their asses off.  My teacher laughing and yelling instructions to me as I cut and scream.  All the while, a fellow student, the older gentleman, has his cell phone camera in front of me.  I hear laughter, crunching sounds from the lobster, I think I am still screaming, feeling lobsters tail curling under, crunching, feeling me struggle to finish slicing last part of tail.  Oh yea, and some young kid from the other class had the balls to come into our class and put his phone literally in my face, saying something about YouTube.  Part of the liver ended up on my reading glasses.  For some reason that part didn't gross me out.  I don't remember  having them on but I have to use them when I am reading recipes.  I was exhausted after that ordeal.  I felt so drained, all I really wanted to do was go home at that point.  But, I kept on because I am paying big bucks for these classes.  Digging out the liver and sauteing it with shallots and butter was a cinch, once he was cut in half.  I was not creeped out digging into it once it was already dead.  I guess because it looked familiar to me sitting there in half like it does when I order it out.  Jesus Christ, I am still feeling the trauma of it all, just thinking back.

I broiled the lobster tails after stuffing with bread crumbs, livers and shallots.  They went into the oven for the last five minutes.  I served with clarified melted butter.  They were yummy and I ate the hell out of them.  I killed that lobster, by God, I was going to eat one of them.  I talked one of my fellow students into trying one.  She had never tasted lobster, can you believe it?  She liked it so much that I had to fight with her to take home the tails to my husband.  I was glad she found something new that she liked.  I even got her to try the scallops, (she didn't like those).  She doesn't like or try many of our dishes.  I on the other hand will try everything.  It is not everyday a woman kills her dinner, cooks it and brings it home to her family.  In fact, how many women in the 21st century can say they have killed their dinner?  Probably not that many.  I like having different experiences, but jeez, I think I will leave the lobster killing to somebody else from now on.   

Friday, May 23, 2008

TGIF.  This was a rough week.  We have a different teacher and he is tough.  He gave us a test the other day.  All fill in the blanks.  He is not a fan of multiple choice, I hate to say.  I studied but not hard enough, I know I didn't make an  A on that test.  Well, if I did, it had to be a LOOOOOW "A".

We have been studying the parts of a pig, cow, and all the different types of poultry.  We have prepared chickens, lambs, pigs, ribs, veal, adult beef, short ribs.  Next week we will be cooking prime cuts of beef such as ribeyes, sirloin steaks etc.  Before taking this class, I was looking forward to learning about the different cuts of meat and what part of the animal they are from but now I am not so sure.  Yes, the next time I go to the grocery store and see beef shanks, short ribs and pork loin, I will know exactly what body part and how to best cook the cut of meat, but it also personalizes it.  It gets me thinking about those baby calves that are under 5 weeks old (veal) and how they take them away from their mothers.  Oh, Jesus, I better just change the subject.

We started out with seven in our class but now we are down to five and two out of the the five only show up about 80% of the time.  Today, we only had three people.  We were busting our balls to make every dish.  We had to make short ribs with a brown sauce, Beef bourguinnane, grill flank steak that was marinated for 24 hours with a mushroom brown sauce, wild rice pilaf with shitake mushrooms, meat loaf made with ground pork, veal and beef, a tomato sauce, green beans, garlic potatoes, and a  cauliflower, broccoli medley.  Since there were only three of us cooking, we had plenty of food to split between us to take home.  There were eight or nine meat loafs alone.   We had to also do all the clean up and when you have just three people to split the work in an industrial kitchen, it is more work for everybody.  We got through it and our teacher was proud of us even though we were an hour late getting out of lab.  I am just so thankful that we have a long weekend.  It is getting harder and harder and more exhausting every day but I am learning so much.  I know so much more than I did just two weeks ago.  I can feel myself being more confident and am still excited to be exposed to new knowledge.  I just have to keep reminding myself of that when I get overwhelmed in class. 

Friday, May 16, 2008

It is getting tougher now.  This was a long, tough week.  Finals and Practicals.  Midweek, we had a clean up kitchen day. Thursday and Friday were hustle and learn in our new intermediate class.  We have had two to three people out the past two days.  That means more prep and cook and clean up for those of us who are there.  My teacher said the past two days were easy labs and that we will be preparing eight or nine dishes a day from here on out.  These dishes have several ingredients and several steps of cooking.  Sometimes, blanching veggies separately before sauteing them and adding them to sauces to be braised at the end with meat.  I have had to cut up three chickens in the past two days and am already sick of chicken.  I happen to be nauseated as I write this.  Ugh.  I ate one of my chicken breast with a salad when I got home tonight.

I am cooking enough food now to bring home to my family.  I was actually able to take some to my parents tonight and let them taste test different recipes.  It will be worth the money and hard work if I can bring home food to my parents and my own home as well.  I hope to be able to bring home food every night next week. 

I can't wait till we start cooking shellfish and fish.  I love fresh seafood.  I hope I don't get sick of seafood like I think I am with chicken.  Something about the raw chicken smell getting it on my hands.  I can't seem to get the smell off even after washing my hands ten times.

This fast track program is still in its infancy.  They have only been offering the 9 month program since fall of 2007.  I am starting to feel that they are rushing us too much.  There is so much to learn in such a short amount of time.  Believe it or not, five hours a day is not enough for us to cook and learn all we need for that lab.  It is crazy fast and furious.  You have got to study every night and keep up with all the terms and visualize your recipes for the next day.  Writing the recipes is not enough, you have to study them so you can get in there and get your mis en place together asap.  You can't miss a class and know what is going on the next day.

Our servsafe classes are still two days a week.  We will have a midterm, our final and then we have to pass a National ServSafe Test for our certification.  We have to pass all three in order to pass the class and move on to our third unit in July, which I think will be baking.

Oh yea, I got the sweetest, most thoughtful Mothers Day gift from my son and his wife.  They are in Germany so they usually send me German crystal vases and trays etc.  Absolutely beautiful crystal that I will treasure forever.  I kept flowers in my large crystal vase but my cat, Monty (a dumb blonde) kept rubbing up against it and knocking it over on the kitchen table.  Getting back to what I got for Mothers Day... my son has read my blog and he and his wife decided to get me a black full apron and chefs hat with my blog name, Chef Joanie Maccaroni , monogrammed on the front of my apron and hat.  I wished I could wear it to school but they make us wear these half aprons,that one size fits all (meaning it is way too big for me) . I can't get mine to stay on my waste, of course.   I am glad I have my Chef Joanie Maccaroni  one to wear in my own kitchen.  I thought that was such a thoughtful gesture.  It was a nice ending to a truly stressful day at school.

Well, I got to get to reading tonight. . . Read, Read, Read.

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Wow, new class, new teacher.  Found out this morning that our chef teacher we had before was switched at the last minute.  I was afraid of this new chef at first because I heard he is the hardest grader during Practicals.  He is quiet, soft spoken, more of an "all business" kind of teacher.  He also gives out more homework.  Oh well, I knew I would have to get used to a new teacher eventually any way.  Why not let it be now. 

He taught us how to cut a whole chicken into eight pieces.  We also quarter a chicken and deboned the leg thigh piece.  It has been stuffed and will be cooked tomorrow.  We didn't have time to cook it today because the President, called a meeting with all the Chefs during our class time.  That is not cool.  I might have to speak my mind on this one.  We only have five hours to make all these dishes and it is not like we can make it up the next day.  It is getting faster and faster and he is expecting us to be smarter and quicker with everything, plus keep up all our dishwashing in the process.  It is tough.  I never I thought I would be a dishwasher but we do it all in this class.  Oh, I guess I should say "never say never".  If you told me when I was working at Bellshouth (AT&T) that I would one day be a dishwasher and in cooking school, I would say, never, no way.  Ha, Ha, the laugh is on me.  When you are following a dream, you have to do the grunt work along with the fun, challenging stuff.  That is all there is to it.  It is humbling!

I am excited and still anxious but so far I have taken one day at a time and have done well, so I am going to keep doing what works.  Tomorrow is Friday, we have several chicken dishes to do tomorrow, so I should have dinner to take home.  Yea!!!

I have got to go.  Study ... Study ... Study .... I'm a student.  Tee Hee

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

I apologize for my last blog.  I was in the middle of writing and my computer froze.  I had time to blog but my computer wouldn't let me.  I wished I could remember that day and try to capture it but it is too late now. 

Well, we start our new classes tomorrow, Thursday.  This school doesn't fool around.  They would not even give us Thursday and Friday off and start our new class on Monday.  Today, was clean the kitchen day.  You have to clean the walls, every pan, stoves, sinks, stations, you name it and it gets cleaned and sanitized.  The new fundamentals class will start in our old lab tomorrow.

This past Monday was ServSafe finals and our Practical, you know, the one where you have to cook several dishes in a short period of time.  I finished mine, but barely.  Tuesday, we had our written final on our fundamentals class.  It was great, yesterday, because as soon as we finished our written test, we were free to go.  It felt great having the day off.

I am happy to say that our teacher is moving up with us and is going to teach the intermediate class.  We start deboning chickens tomorrow.  I think we are going to stuff some chicken and braise and roast.  I am bringing plenty of plastic containers.  I expect to bring home some chicken goodies tomorrow.

I have some great news ... I don't have to make hollandaise sauce anymore.  I had to make it again for my practical on Monday.  That was my last one.  YES!  I will never order Hollandaise sauce again in my life.  My eggs benedict will have to be minus the hollandaise sauce.  Yuck.  If you knew how much butter was in that sauce, you wouldn't order it either.

I was so stressed during my practical Monday that I almost walked out and got in my car and just drove away.  This little Joanie was on my shoulder saying, "YOU ARE NOT CUT OUT FOR THIS CLASS, YOU NEED TO JUST WALK OUT RIGHT NOW AND GET IN YOUR CAR AND DON'T LOOK BACK.  THINK OF ALL THE MONEY YOU WILL BE SAVING."  I said, "NO, I am finishing this test, even if I flunk it.   Little did I know that one of my classmates confided in me after it was over, that he came close to walking out in the middle of the exam.  This guy, always seems so calm and cool.  I guess I wasn't the only one entertaining those thoughts.  We had so much to get done in such a short amount of time.  Of course, our chef wasn't grading us.  They always have a different chef grading our Practical.  Our chef doesn't care if we don't go exactly by the recipe.  Especially, if there are extra steps in the recipe that you can skip or combine.  This chef, however, wanted us to follow the recipe to the letter.  It was a good thing I asked him before I started changing up the steps in my stew recipe.  He took off points with my other classmates who didn't strictly go by the recipe.  I was so happy for Monday to end.  I actually made a high B on my test.  The chef says my biggest problem is my frustration level.  At one point , when the chef came in and yelled that we had less than thirty minutes left, I slammed a pot down on my cutting board.  I let my frustration get the better of me.  He told me I just need to stay calm and I will stay on track and do better.  I know this but it is easier said than done.  I also have a bad habit of telling on myself.  Every time I showed my dish to the chef, I would tell him what was wrong with it before he could taste it.  He kept saying.  Stop telling on yourself.  I just wanted him to know that I knew how to make the dish but this or that happened.  I was sauteeing a chicken breast.  You have to make a pan chasseur sauce(wine, mushrooms, stock) to go with it.  There was only three minutes on the clock.  It wasn't enough time to reduce the liquid into a sauce consistency so I poured the liquidy sauce over my chicken breast and just presented it to him before the time was up.  I told him my sauce wasn't the right consistency, didn't have enough time.  If you finish all the dishes, you will get some points.  If you don't finish a dish, then you get a zero for that grade.  He just kept telling me, stop telling on yourself.  I have got to learn to keep my mouth shut.

During the practical, I was blanching some pearl onions for my stew when my usual partner, asked me if she could put her pearl onions in my pot of boiling water.  I said yes, not thinking that it would be a problem.  That would be just one less pot for us to wash at the end of the day.  She and I knew how many onions we each had.  When the onions were ready to come out, I told her they were ready and to come and get them.  The chef was standing beside me and heard me.  He said that it was not acceptable for me to be helping her.  We do it in our class all the time, so I didn't think anything of it.  He explained that it is considered cheating and not to do it again.  We could have both got in trouble but he let it slide this time.  It won't happen again.  I will think twice before I help out anyone else.

I am happy to have survived the Fundamentals class.  It is going to get harder and harder but I am going to take one day at a time.  We will be busy cooking tomorrow and learning all sorts of new things about chicken, beef, pork, lamb etc ... 

I have some reading to do tonight to prepare for tomorrows class.  Gotta go, I'm a student .... tee hee.

Thursday, May 8, 2008

It's 11:00 PM and I just kissed my husband good bye.  He is off to work.  Now, I finally have the computer to myself... just put my daughter to bed too.

I took a night off tonight.  We had a family movie night instead.  It was a scary, haunting type of movie called "The Orphanage", everyone spoke in Spanish, so we read English subtitles.  My daughter says she likes foreign films where she can read the subtitles.  I  learn something new about her everyday. 

That is all for now.  I'll catch up later.

Monday, May 5, 2008

Wow, time is going by fast.  Our finals are next week, I have a ServSafe final and my cooking practical next Monday.  I also found out my paper is due next Monday after our teacher told us we didn't have to turn it in until the ninth week.  He made a mistake so I've got to hustle to get it written this week.  I have a externship this Saturday night at the Donnelly House.  It is a gorgeous antebellum home on Birmingham's Southside.  I hope I can get some experience there because my last externship was a bust.  I showed up at the Pelham Civic Center and nobody was there.  Come to find out, they had the wrong date (typo) on the externship calendar.  I was upset to say the least.  I did a little complaining about it when I got back to school.  Apparently, these externships have the reputation for being a waste of time.  We have to do these, because they are part of our curriculum, (100 points).  The chefs at the school don't have anything positive to say about these orientation externships.  The big externship at the end is when we will be able to get our feet wet.

Been researching for my paper.  I am doing it on the History of the Hamburger.  Oh my God, there are so many people that claim to be the inventor of the hamburger.  Ground meat patties have been dated back to the Egyptians.  Back in the 1200's, the Mongols would stash raw beef and sometimes lamb in between the saddle and their horse and ride all day without stopping to make camp.  At the end of the day the meat would be tenderized enough to eat. Kublai Khan later brought it to Russia.  They called it "Steak Tartare'.    The Russians called the Mongols, Tartars, hence the name "Steak Tartare".

Then again, the Roman army was known to eat ground meat in between two buns, eating and marching at the same time.  Sounds like they invented food on the go way before the Americans did.

Our teacher knows so much about the history of food.  He has a food history story just about every day in his lectures.  He is so amazing to me.  There is so much to learn about food that you could never stop learning and know it all.  No way!

These classes are getting harder and more challenging but I am learning so much more than I thought I would.  I guess I didn't  know what to expect from these classes.  I just wanted to learn about food.  Food is such a broad term to me now.  It is all about the history and how all these foods have evolved into what we are eating now.  When humans evolve so does the food we eat.  The way we prepare it, the convenience of food, the demands of the changing consumer.  It is so fascinating to me.  I could go on.

I am getting tired and it is now midnight as I close this blog.  As I close this, I am reminded that my husband is on his computer downstairs.  I think I will go get him and make him come to bed too.  He is actually off tonight so we can be snug as a bug in a rug together.  See ya. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Tuesday, April 29, 2008 11:00 P.M.

I have been studying for a test tomorrow in ServSafe class. We are studying Biological Contaminants, Chemical and Physical Contaminants. All the different toxins caused from pathogens and fish and plants, etc ... It is very interesting and very scary. I know too much now. I can't go into a restaurant now without wondering about the kitchen staff and the food they place in front of me. In this case Ignorance is definitely bliss. Too late for me now.

Changing the subject! We have been cooking potatoes and veggies. Asparagus, eggplant, spinach. Oh, yea, today, I made creamed spinach and the teacher decided he wanted me to try to puree my creamed spinach and add cheese and fresh minced ginger to pour over the eggplant that I was frying. It was a pretty green which may not look appetizing to the public but I loved the flavor combined with the eggplant which was breaded with panko bread crumbs. I have never used panko bread crumbs (Asian, I believe). I think I will buy a bag at the store soon. I like them better than regular bread crumbs. They are light and airy. Crispy, when fried or baked too. My partner was making a tomato sauce to drizzle over the fried eggplant. It was good but I liked the spinach puree. My husband tried the green sauce and liked the combination too. He couldn't taste the ground fresh ginger but I could. I thought it could use more ginger but my teacher said it probably should be a subtle flavor, not to overpower the sauce. Honey, next time I make it for my family, I am definitely overpowering mine. I like the way my teacher will tell me to try something out of the blue or tell me what else I can do with the food I am preparing. The more I learn about the cooking techniques the more creative I am becoming. It is getting more exciting and challenging as we go along.

We are having an egg lab tomorrow. Not necessarily looking forward to tomorrow. I think we will be frying eggs, over easy, sunny side up, etc ...

I am tired, I think I will close for now. It is time to put in some zzzzzzzzzzzz's.

Friday, April 25, 2008

This week was a stressful week for me.  We had midterms on SafeServe classes on Wednesday and lab midterms on Thursday.  We had a substitute Monday through Thursday.  All of us seemed to be off on Monday and Tuesday.  We couldn't seem to get our rhythm going until about Wednesday.  I liked our substitute, he was easy going and joked around with us.  It was a good experience to have a different perspective for a few days.  It was nice while it lasted,  but I missed my Master Chef instructor. 

Our chef has so many stories and he has been all over the world.  He seems to be able to answer every question  and back it up with some experience he has had.  I didn't realized how much I missed him until he came back today.  I am hoping that he will get to teach us the next  unit we will start in May.  I am keeping my fingers crossed.

I did well on my lab midterm.  That is where you have to display your cuts and your skills in sauces.  I was soooo worried about the Hollondaise sauce, but it came out perfect.  The consumme, on the other hand, was a bomb.  It came to a boil. ( I had it on low, I swear I think someone touched the knob when I wasn't looking, does that sound paranoid?) I ruined it, but I strained it anyway and presented it.  It was cloudy and not clear but I knew what mistake I  had made and understand the techniques so I got partial credit.  Thankfully, I wasn't the only one who broke my consomme.  You only get a certain amount of time (I think it was three hours) to get your consomme, and three sauces and a homemade mayo done.  I messed up my mayo and had to start over but I had enough time on the clock to do a do over.  I feel like I am the slow one in the class, but I actually finished everything in the allotted time.  The pressure was on that last hour.  The chef would come in the kitchen and say you only have 45 minutes left.  You have 30 minutes left ... You have 12 minutes left ... Times up ... STOP!!  By that point I was already finished.  The one person I thought would have finished because he is an older guy who is laid back and very confident, didn't get to finish his Hollandaise sauce.  He just had to put his whisk down.  I felt so bad for him.

This morning (Friday), it felt good to have the midterms behind us.  It was much more relaxing today in lab.  Today we made several dishes involving, boiling and steaming.  My favorite was Poisson en Papillote with Summmer Herbs.  This is when you steam fish (poisson) in a paper bag (papillote) or parchment paper sealed around the edges.  We used fresh red snapper.  The recipe didn't call for sauteeing the herbs but I did it anyway, plus the chef felt it was a better idea than the crazy instructions in the recipe.  At home, I use a recipe mainly as a guide.  In class the first two weeks, I was going exactly by the recipes but the chef reminded us we can change and tweek it as long as we are using the right skills.  Anyway, after sauteeing the parsley, basil and spring onions, I poured it over the fish that was in a butter lined parchment paper, added wine and a little lemon juice (recipe didn't call for those last two ingredients but chef made the suggestion).  Chef, patiently showed all of us how to seal the paper and leave an inch border for the steam.  I popped it in the oven for about 12 minutes.  I checked it once by touching the top of the bag.  The chefs are big on always telling us to touch your meat, fish, chicken for doneness.  Touch it.  Get a feel for when it is done.  My fish came out perfect and flaky.  It was yummy except it could have used more herbs and salt in my opinion but I couldn't stop eating it.  I saved about 2/3 of it to bring home to my husband.  I am going to steam some fish again in a bag at home, real soon.  Question is, where can I get some really fresh fish?  I don't trust the grocery stores around my house.  I will have to ask the chefs at the school.  I am sure they can tell me.

I am glad it is the weekend, although I have studying and research for a paper I am going to write.  I will write more about my paper later.  It is late and I am waiting for a call from my teenager who I haven't seen all day.  It is Friday night, she is never home on Friday nights.  Oh well, she just called, will be spending the night with her friend.  I guess it will just be me, myself and I tonight. Since I have access to this computer with no interruptions tonight, I think I will close this blog and start my research.  Google, here I come.  Research, research, research ....  I'm a student.  Tee hee.

Saturday, April 19, 2008

Crap, I blogged last night (Friday night) but the power went out in the middle of writing.  I lost everything.  I guess I will try to start over and remember what I wrote about.  I write what is in my head at the time, feelings and all and it is hard to remember.  It is hard for me to capture the same mood and thoughts again.  When that mood and rhythm is gone it is just gone for good.

We finished up sauces and will be cooking with dry heat method next week.  We have midterms next week.  I actually should be studying right now instead of blogging. 

All in all, it was a good week.  Learned more about sauces and made a Hollandaise sauce.  I will have to make another one for midterms.  It is tricky but I think I can do it again.  I screwed up only one of my french dressing yesterday (I broke the sauce).  Luckily, I won't have to do that one for the test.  We will have to do another consomme and Bechamel sauce for our midterm.  I have a long list of skills we will have to know for our midterm on Thursday.  I still need practice in my cuts.  I just need practice, practice, practice.

I have been bringing home sauces that were made at school.  Today, for lunch, I made fettucine out of a Supreme sauce.  Supreme is a veloute sauce (mother sauce) with cream added to it.  Today, I just reheated the sauce added some fresh grated, parmesan reggiano cheese and poured over egg noodles.  I served it with baked asparagus spears and a spinach salad using a "basic vinaigrette" I had to make in class yesterday.  Voila, it was a beautiful and yummy lunch for a Saturday afternoon.  I love being able to bring home dishes and sauces we make in class.  It makes life easier for me and my family gets to eat good too.  I am spending a great deal of money for these classes and it makes it worth every penny for me to be able to learn and feed my family simultaneously.  Love it, love it, love it.

Well, I have got to get back to the books.  Read ... Read... Read...

Thursday, Second Week

I am thoroughly exhausted today.  I bet I washed every pan in our kitchen at the end of the day.  We worked on small sauces which are offshoots of the original five Mother sauces.

 

I kind of felt like a real sous chef today because Chef told me to make a big pot of roux.  So I did and he showed me how to make a brown roux, which I have never made before.  It was probably 2 cups of clarified butter to 2 1/2 cups of flour.  I feel like we are really cooking now.  We worked in groups of three today and we all shared duties and helped each other instead of everyone making their own sauces.  I made the Chauccer sauce.  A roux for everyone to dip into when they needed a thickening agent for their sauces.  One of the hardest mother sauces to make is the dreaded Hollandaise sauce.  You have to work quick so as not to scramble the eggs.  It is tricky and hard to get to the right sauce consistency.  You can salvage it if it gets too thick by adding more lemon juice or warm water.  You have to add the melted clarified butter slowly so the egg will accept it.  I actually did it right today.  I made it yesterday and Chef did most of the whipping and just showed me.  I didn't get a chance to make it start to finish, yesterday, so I did it again today.  We have midterms next Thursday.  I will have to make a Hollandaise sauce and  some other mother sauces, soups.  Unfortunately, our chef will be out of town and we will have a different chef grading all our dishes.  I will have to practice cutting veggies tomorrow and the weekend.  Still not consistent with my cuts.  I am a little anxious about mid-terms but too bad soo sad, I have to take them.

 

Safeserve classes are getting into biology.  Microorganisms and pathogens and all the different ways bacteria can grow and multiply.  There is so much to learn about preventing bacteria from growing.  You have to know all about temperature control.  How long certain foods can stay out.  How high you have to reheat certain foods to ensure bacteria is killed, etc...  I must say that I have a new respect for restaurant owners.  They have to know about all this safe serve info, and make sure the employees are complying with every rule.  There is so many ways to cross contaminate food and spread germs.  You have to make sure everything is fresh from the receiving line all the way to reheating and serving  to the public.  It is serious stuff, if outbreaks occur, which they do pretty frequently.  I forgot how many the health teacher told us that get sick from food borne illness every year.  It is in the hundreds of thousands, and that is just the ones that have been reported through hospitals and health departments.

 

All in all, I may be exhausted when I get home but I still feel exhilarated, from learning something new every day.

 

My daughter and a friend of hers have private music lessons tonight.  Mom's got to get on the road.  I will write later, much later.   Study, Study, Study .....

Monday of Second Week

Jesus Christ and all the saints.  Monday was something else.  The day we make beef consomme.  It is where you have to float this RAFT of meat and mirepoix.  I started out dropping knives (plural) everywhere.  I went to get some white peppercorns and was holding it by the top and the top wasn't on very good and peppercorns went rolling everywhere like marbles.  I wasted about two cups of these and it was just too difficult to walk on them so I swept them in a clump away from everybody's feet.  I was in a hurry to get my Raft started for my consomme.  This is a soup made from veal or beef stock and it has to be very clear down to the bottom of the bowl.  You have to be careful once the raft is formed and floating on the top that you don't  break it up or it will make the soup cloudy.  So you can not let it come to a boil.  I am used to boiling everything at home and the concept of something being on my stove without ever coming to a boil feels foreign to me. 

 

I was  dropping carrots, knives, peppercorns (I won't do that again) and my towels I keep on my waist (ooh germs).  I have a new motto now.  "I won't do that again".

To make a long story short my raft was quite floaty and did not break up.  My consomme did come out clear.  Successful, well sort of.  He got to looking at the color of my beef consomme.  It was light and I realized I had used the chicken stock instead of the veal stock that it called for.  We had both stocks simmering in the kitchen.  I just happened to follow one of my fellow students filling up her measuring cup and went to that stock pot.  We both made our beef consomme out of chicken stock.  The chef wasn't mad at us but he told us that if we do that on the midterm, we will flunk.  "I won't do that again".  I will always make sure I am using the right stock.  It was very weak and not as dark and rich tasting as some of the other students, but, hey, it was clear, right down to the bottom.

 

Consommes were trendy back in the 1950's and early 1960's.  They are not on menus anymore.  I can see why because it is bland and not very interesting.  I like texture in my soups.

 

I was glad Monday ended. 

Weekend Update

Spent weekend studying and writing assignments. Daughter was none too happy that I couldn't drop what I was doing to drive her and her friends to the mall or movies. I told her she could go if she could hitch ride with one of her friends mothers. She tried desperately to plan a movie outing yesterday, but apparently no other parent was willing to take them. I am usually the mom who winds up taking and picking up her friends and taking them where they want to go. I told my daughter this was one of those situations she will have to adjust to because I am not dropping my studies to haul her and her friends every time they get a whim to go somewhere. She is finding out real quick that it is going to be different now.

I pulled out my homework Saturday to get started and found that I had collected my test that I took Friday and put it with my notes.

I was so upset. I had to email my teacher and let him know that I had it and I would turn it in Monday. It will be his call if I have to take it over. I didn't look at it or change answers and it is now in a separate folder than my notes. I hope he believes me but if not I will take it over. I will NEVER do that again. I was in such a hurry to get to lab and just collected all the papers instead of leaving the test on the table for him to collect later.

I am going to be the sous chef today. I will try to write when I get home today. I got to get ready for school.

End of First Week

I wanted to write every day but by the time I get home, I am having to start studying and do the written work. Since this is a nine month program, it is very intense and we cover a lot of ground work real fast. I can forget my house right now. My daughter has a list of chores to do when she gets home, so I won't have to do everything when I get home. My family is helping out, so I believe I will get a rhythm going in a couple of weeks, and be able to accomplish more and not feel so frazzled. I have already had a couple of test. I think I aced them. They give us bonus questions, love that. Could always use the extra points.

This week we made light stocks and dark stocks. We use veal bones and baked them to make our dark stocks. We reduced them the next day. We are practicing our chopping techniques. I am also learning French terms, mirepoix (onions, celery, carrots) and bouquet garni (black peppercorns, thyme, bay leaf, parsley) roux (equal parts fat to equal parts flour) etc. I will have to learn and write something like 50 more by Tuesday.

We have already made clear soups, cream soups, chowders and bisque. I always wondered why seafood bisque are so expensive in restaurants, now I know why. They are so labor intensive to get them to the right consistency. I messed up on one step of my shrimp bisque yesterday and my wonderful chef instructor showed me how to rescue it and it turned out wonderful. It was light, creamy and you could taste the layers. The recipe called for brandy and white wine. It was on the burner and I poured the brandy, and it flamed up and about singed my eyebrows. He let me make the mistake first and then taught us how you should take the pan off and away from the burner to add your alcohol. I guess I was the guinea pig for that lesson. He was standing there helping me when it happened.

I am so grateful we have such a wonderful teacher for our first class. The only thing about that is, I may not be happy with the next chef teacher we have. I am sure some I will like and others I will have to tolerate. It is all about the learning process anyway.

I will have to admit the first 3 days were overwhelming to me. I was wondering if I had made a mistake in going through with this, but I am happy and exhausted and learning something new everyday. I get a buzz out of knowing that this time next week, I am going to know so much more than I do right now. I haven't felt like that in a long time. I love my family and am happy to take care of them and be here for my daughter but she is 15 now and can take on more responsibilities. It will only make her more mature, I believe. Kudos to my husband for being so supportive. I love him even more for it. Of course, he gets to eat whatever food I bring home from our classes. Quite yummy stuff if I do say so myself.

As I write this, my daughter is downstairs with another music student, playing a duet that they are practicing for solo and ensemble. The sound is floating upstairs, it is a very nice piece of music. I am talking about french cuisine and listening to some very fine music . At this moment, right now, I feel cultured and refined. I think I will bask in this for a moment... Ah Ah Ah........

Well, back to reality, I have dishes in the sink and the laundry is not going to fold itself. Study, Study, Study .... I am a student... tee hee.

Second Day

I have a lot of work ahead of me. Just learning to cut consistently is going to be a challenge. I cut my finger. I grabbed the blade. Hello. I don't do that at home, why did I have to do that in class. It is still killing me. I am the only one who cut herself. The teacher was watching me and I got nervous. I do so much better when I am not being watched. I had no idea there was so much to learn on just about everything. Chopping cuts, stocks, light or dark? soups and sauces. The list goes on and on. I have a good bit of reading tonight and a test tomorrow in sanitation. I found out I did more homework last night than some of the other students. Some went home and crashed. The first week is going to be an adjustment for everyone according to Chef ??. I am glad to hear I wasn't the only one who was exhausted last night. It will get better and I am learning so much already. I like the funny stories he tells about Julia Child. I can't remember if I mentioned that he used to work under her. I am very lucky to have this particular Chef teaching the fundamental class. The seasoned students tell me he is the best.

Day One

First day was intense.  Five hours of lectures.  One hour of food safety, and four hours with our cooking instructor.  We have a great teacher who is one out of 700 Master Chefs in the world.  He studied abroad and he worked under Julia Child.  He is an encyclopedia of knowledge but claims he still has so much he could learn about food.  I am not mentioning names in my blog because I am not sure how these people would feel about me using their names here.  I liked his personality and he made sense when he spoke about food and the creativity aspect.  I will learn about sauces and soups, chopping etc.  Today we will be chopping.  I had no idea the different types of cuts.  A lot of the terms we are using are French terms.  I could go on about this but I have to go get ready for class.  I hope this blog will not be boring.  When I have time, I will be more specific about what I am learning.  I just have to learn it first.  Oh yea, lots of homework.  I spent my evening reading until I went to bed.  Goodness, I will have to get used to that. 

Well I Did It

I finally decided to pursue my dream.  I am going to Culinard school.  I have been a stay at home mom since March, 1996, when I decided to take my buyout with BellSouth (AT&T).  I don't regret that decision because I have a close relationship with my daughter and  raised my stepson through the toughest years of his life.  I am happy to say that my stepson is an adult with a family of his own.  He served in Iraq and is now in Germany with his family.  My daughter has just turned 15 and has now received her driver's permit (ugh).  We are slowly teaching her to drive.  We are going to take it very slowly.

 

I am happy to say that my husband and daughter are very supportive of my decision to go back to school.  My daughter thinks it is cool.  I am not sure if she thinks it is cool for me or for her because I won't be home in the afternoon when she gets off the bus.  She is seeing it as more freedom for her but I am not concerned because my husband is a night shifter and is home during the day.  He will be upstairs asleep (maybe), he is a light sleeper during the day.  Anybody who has been on night shift knows what I am talking about.

 

I am excited and nervous about my classes.  Orientation is Thursday, April 3.  I start on April 7th.  My class time is 12:30 to 5:30.  I haven't had to stay focused for five hours straight since I worked at BellSouth(AT&T).  It is going to be an adjustment but I can do this. 

 

There is so much to learn and I hope to be a sponge and just absorb it all, learn everything I can and have the best attitude in class.  I am looking forward to studying again and a little apprehensive about taking test.  It has been a long time since I have taken any test that counted towards grades.  Can you say test anxiety?  I hope that it will be better than I remember.

 

I am going into this with an open mind.  I really don't know what my long term goal is yet.  I just want to take one day at a time.  Once I take these courses and finish my externship, I should know which direction I want to go.  I am excited to be going down a different path because anything could happen.  Not knowing what is around the corner is exciting.

 

Well, Thursday, April 3, 2008, orientation day.  Count down, three more days till my first class.  Heard a fabulous chef, who teaches the advanced classes is scheduled to teach a fundamentals class, my class.  He doesn't normally teach this particular class, how exciting.  Maybe he likes the schedule, 12:30-5:30.  I have my tools now and have to figure out a way to mark them so I can distinguish them from the other students tools.  Thank God, they change the hats to berets for this session.  The other hat was tall and I know would've have been severely goofy on me.  I don't wear hats very well, except for baseball caps (who can't wear one of those?)  I am so excited and nervous all at the same time, I can't wait to see how much I have learned by this time next week.  There are only going to be 8 people in my class.  The max you can have is 12 students.  I hope the class size doesn't change but if it does, that is ok too.

 

In a few more hours, I will be attending my first class.  As I write this, my husband is taking my daughter to the doctor.  She woke up this morning with a sore throat.  I usually take her to the doctor but luckily my husband is off tonight so he is taking care of her.  Kirk being a night shifter does has some advantages.  It is a beautiful day and I am ready to get going.  Here I go ...