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 ...