Sunday Afternoon Check-in

Hi folks. Things are crazy busy here at Chez Meg In The Kitchen. Classes started this past week. I have two pot luck cookouts this weekend. The cookout today is a fundraising effort for a local group started by some friends. They approached me about doing something special for the cookout. Of course I said yes! I'm bringing 4 batches of ice cream, frozen yogurt and sorbet plus waffle cones! I can't wait to show and tell you all about that one!

I had originally planned on four classes this semester. The first day of classes someone dropped their place in the Petit Fours class. I had wanted it, but thanks to Web Advisor I didn't get it. My advisor and the department head were kind enough to save that place for me. Now I have five classes this semester. If I don't lose my mind before Fall Break it'll be a miracle. However it also means that I can definitely finish this program in two years. Two years! I remember when I started I thought two years was going to drag on. Ha! It's flown by!

I'm really looking forward to this semester. I posted my schedule to the right. I'll post more about each class later this week. I'm really excited about these classes. I feel like I will not only be challenged, but get more time with certain products. We started my Dessert and Bread Production class with a laminated dough. Huzzah! I definitely wanted more time with that.

I'm off to cookout number two! I'm still weeding through the France trip photos. Happy Sunday!

Monday, the longest day, or Why haven't I made pita bread before???

My semester began on Wednesday January 6th, but because of the holiday, I just had my Monday classes for a second time yesterday. It's been a little hard to get in the groove of a new semester so far, partially because we had a holiday but also, I think, because i only have classes two days a week. It's also a little weird because it definitely doesn't feel like school.

I have two classes on Mondays. The day is a little longer than my Wednesday, but I have a break in the afternoon. I started the day with Cake Design and Decorating. Two weeks ago, we had to bake two types of cakes with which we will practice decorating for the first part of the semester. We used the same ingredients and measurements but two different mixing methods. The first was the creaming method, which most people know, especially if you'd ever made a pound cake before. You cream the butter and sugar, add the eggs, then alternate the dry ingredients and wet ingredients. This makes a nice dense cake that holds up well to the weight of a large cake. The other method was the Two Stage Method. I was not familiar with this, but I like it. You add the dry ingredients, the sugar, butter, and a little of the liquid (in this case the milk and eggs combined). You mix until fluffy then add the liquid in two stages... hence the name! It makes a lighter, fluffier cake.

This week, we split and filled the cakes and iced them. We practiced border decorations and writing. While it's not Cake Wrecks material, it wasn't fabulous either. I need to practice getting my icing more smooth on the sides. The top was pretty smooth though. That's much easier. This week, my homework will be to bake a cake, make buttercream, and practice piping. Pretty crazy homework, huh?

Here's my cake:

Monday afternoon and evenings are occupied by Artisan Breads. Best. Class. Ever. This is, as I expected, my favorite class. The subject mater is great, the instructor is great, my classmates are AWESOME! My lab only has 6 people in it. It's a nice size. Everyone is really interested in learning, working and teamwork. Our text is The Bread Baker's Apprentice by Peter Reinhart. Last week we made a white pan bread and a light wheat. The white bread was good, but the light wheat was fantastic. This week, we made french baguettes with a preferment called pate fermentee and pita bread. Both breads were great, but the pita was unbelieveable. It was so easy to make and a super-speedy bake. They puff up like little pillows then slowly deflate. The bread is soft and chewy. If you have any interest in baking bread at home, I'd suggest getting a copy of this book and also trying the pita at home.

Go here if you'd like to see photos of our bread from this week and last.

Choose your weapon!

I thought you would be interested to see the tools I need for school.


In this first photo, left to right, top to bottom:
-Digital scale, peeler on top of scale, pastry blender, 4 pastry bags in 4 sizes plus a few disposable pastry bags
-Bench scraper, bowl scraper, balloon whisk, 2 pastry tip cleaning brushes, measuring cups, measuring spoons, pastry wheel with fluted side and plain side, cake icing comb, kitchen shears
-Channel knife, zester, 3 sizes melon ballers, set of pastry tips, set of large closed star tips, set of large plain pastry tips, Bismark 230 pastry tip (the long one), a couple random pastry tips, plastic couplers, retractable Sharpie, Instant Read thermometer, and pen

The balloon whisk is very helpful for folding in stuff. I finally found the pastry tip cleaning brushes! A channel knife makes the long curls of lemon peel that you find in your Cosmo. The Bismark 230 pastry tip is for filling stuff like eclairs or cupcakes. I've been looking for one for a while. I'm required to have the pen, Sharpie and thermometer on me at all times. Along with a small notebook, it's considered part of my uniform.


Left to right:
Honing steel, small offset spatula, medium spatula, large offset spatula, large spatula, Microplane, bird's beak paring knife (also called touree knife), paring knife, 5.5" utility knife, boning knife, 6" chef's knife, 8" chef's knife, 12" bakers knife

The spatulas will be used in cake decorating the most. The bird's beak paring knife cuts those football shaped potato thingies. The utility knife will be used most in garde manger this semester to cut things like birds out of apples. I really like the 6" chef knife when I'm cutting small things like herbs and fruit. I got the baker's knife for Christmas. I learned the hard way today that BOTH sides of the blades are sharp. One side is serrated, which I knew about. The other side is just a straight blade. I have a big gash across my palm. Oops. Better I do that now than in class and look like an idiot. The serrated side is for cutting airy things like cakes, while the straight side is for cutting dense things like pound cakes.

Yes, I like red. What of it?

Here they are all packed up and ready to go! I have to carry this to my labs. The bag is getting heavy!

Oprah hates me.

I had a dream the other night that Oprah taught my Safety and Sanitation class this past semester. She gave me an A. In my dream, my instructor for Basic Culinary Skills taught the other 3 classes I took. When it got to be time for Chef H to turn in my grades for those classes, he got really busy. Oprah offered to help out. At the last minute, she went through all of my grades (tests, quizzes, homework, etc) and changed my grades from As in those classes to Cs and Ds!

What do you think this means????

The grades are in! Drum roll please!

I am, for the first time in my entire academic career, a Straight A Student. Yes, devoted readers, I am officially a nerd. No weggies please. All of my grades were posted today and I am happy to report I got an A in everything. Even Purchasing. It's a Hannukah Miracle, y'all. It feels pretty good. Truth be told, it hasn't quite sunk in yet. It will when I see my name on the President's List, I am certain. My school has a Dean's List if you make at least a 3.00 GPA in a semester. If you make a 4.00, your name goes on the President's List. Too bad that goes out after Christmas, or I'd frame it for my mother for her gift.

I went to a cooke swap tonight. I made two kinds of biscotti. One had cranberries, currants and pistachios, the other chocolate chips, walnuts and anise seed. They were thankfully a hit because I still have 2 dozen at home. I got some good cookies to bring home too! Yay!

My biscotti


The spread




I also wanted to include a link here to my photos of Montreal. At the cookie swap tonight, my friend JP went all fangirl on me (just kidding) (Hi JP!) and mentioned the photos on my blog. I use a plain ol' Kodak point and shoot digital. It's the Kodak Easy Share M883. I got it while working at my old job, employee discount and all, you see. For most of the food photos, I use the close up setting. The header photo I took at Le Marche Jean Talon in Montreal. I actually took hundreds of photos in Montreal, but posted some of the best ones on Flickr, which you can find here.

I passed the Servsafe exam!

I just found out I got a 92. It's a high B, so I believe I can still squeeze out an A in Safety and Sanitation. I think I might actually get an A in Purchasing too! Tomorrow morning I will find out what my final grade is for Baking I. That leaves Basic Culinary Skills, which I should get by next week.

I have to go in to the kitchen tomorrow for a cleaning day for the Baking Lab. When I'm done, my semester is officially over.

Crunchtime.

Just checking in to let you know that I'm waist deep in final exams. Yesterday, I had a final written exam for Baking I. I think I feel okay about it. It seemed easier than I expected. I also had a final practical exam for Basic Culinary Skills. I got.... a 92. In our world, a 92 is a B. As in, one point less than an A. Sigh. Hopefully it won't impact my final grade too much. Tomorrow morning I sit for the national Servsafe exam. If I pass, which I will, I'll get a certificate that says I'm not likely to kill you. With food. This Friday is the final practical exam for Baking I. With any luck, I won't draw the card with puff pastry on it. (For the record, I'm just not that lucky.) Finally on the 8th, I have my final written exam for Basic Culinary Skills.

I'll be back tomorrow with Thanksgiving and cheesecake.

What I have been keeping from you.

Items from Baking lab, which would have been revealed here had I not gotten Swine Flu/Bird Flu/SARS/Indonesian Death Flu/whatever it was I had.

Puff pastry. From scratch. Surprisingly, it did not require ingredients such as unicorn hair, pixie dust or fairy wings. The ingredients are pretty much the same as pie dough. And it worked! It really worked!


We filled them with a mushroom stuffing. Yummy!


We also made this fruit strip thingy from the puff pastry dough. I hated it. Puff pastry with a lemon cream cheese filling with apricot halves, topped with a sugar glaze. I thought the cream cheese curdled in the time it took the thing to bake. Also the lemon zest was too overpowering with the apricots. I would never make this again. I'd use the technique, but with different ingredients.


Vanilla napoleon. Also with puff pastry. Also yummy.


Pear frangipane tartlettes. Frangipane is an almond paste.


Fresh fruit tart with vanilla pastry cream and clumpy apricot glaze.


Les croissants! Plain, ham and cheese and chocolate. Dude. So. Good.


Souffles with gruyere, dill and dijon. Fell pretty quickly due to lack of sugar to add structure.


Japonais meringue discs which became the...


...Japonais Meringue Cake.


Finally, here's what I did on the last lab of the semester. I'll spare you the graphic details. I burned my arm on the open door of the top deck oven. Ouch. It's pretty big. And ugly.

Chicken with Spicy Black Bean Sauce and Stir-fried Vegetables

I'm definitely feeling much better. Whatever bug I caught turned into bronchitis (free gift with purchase?) which is why I was so sick. Thankfully I'm feeling better since I'm getting on a plane at 6AM tomorrow to head to Detroit Rock City to celebrate my grandmother's 90th birthday! Ninety! Amazing! Can you imagine all of the changes she's seen in her life? It's mind-boggling, really.

As promised, here are the recipes from my class. This was SO good. I can't wait to make it again. Now, the recipe calls for chicken, but I believe this would be equally tasty with beef, pork, or shrimp. I added the sambal oelek because I was in the mood for spicy. I recommend adding sambal rather than the garlic chili version because the sambal is just chiles and nothing else. It's available in Asian markets everywhere. It'll keep forever in the fridge. Do let me know if you make this. I'd love to hear what you think.

Chicken and Snowpeas in Black Bean Sauce, 4 servings

2# (about 8 ounces each) Chicken breasts, boneless, skinless
1 Egg white
6 fl oz Chinese rice wine
2 TBSP Cornstarch
2 fl oz Soy sauce
2 tsp Granulate sugar
2 Onions, small
4 fl oz Peanut oil (or any flavorless oil)
1 TBSP Garlic, minced
2 tsp Fresh ginger, minced
3 TBSP Fermented black beans, mashed
4 oz Snow peas, fresh
To Taste (TT) Sambal Oelek

1. Slice chicken into thin strips, about 1" x 1/4".
2. Combine the egg white, one third of the wine, and 1 TBSP of cornstarch. Add chicken, refrigerate for 2 hours.
3. For the sauce, mix the soy sauce, sugar, remaining wine, and cornstarch.
4. Quarter the onions, separate the layers.
5. Stir-fry the chicken in 3 fl oz of oil. Remove and set aside.
6. If necessary, add the remaining oil and stir-fry the garlic and ginger for 30 seconds. Add the onions and mashed beans and stir-fry for 30 seconds. Add the snow peas and cook for one minute.
7. Return the chicken to the pan, add the sauce mixture and stir-fry until hot and the sauce has thickened.
8. Serve immediately with rice.

Notes:

-In the steps that ask you to add cornstarch to liquid, MIX WELL! Cornstarch gets lumpy when introduced to liquid. It may be helpful to use very clean fingers to break up the lumps.

-On the day we made this, we were out of Chinese rice wine in the kitchens. We used rice wine vinegar instead. I think I'd do it again. It gave this dish a nice tanginess that helped to round out the flavor. The choice is yours.

-When you remove your chicken from the marinade, pat it dry.

-I also added baby corn, which was good as well.

Stir-fried Asparagus with Shiitake Mushrooms, 4 servings

1# Asparagus
6 oz. Shiitake mushrooms
1 TBSP vegetable oil
1 TBSP sesame oil
2 tsp garlic, chopped
4 fl. oz. oyster sauce
TT crushed red chiles, optional

1. Wash the asparagus, trim the ends, and slice on the bias into 1-2" pieces.
2. Wash the mushrooms, trim off the stems, slice the caps into 1/2" slices.
3. Heat the oils in a wok or saute pan.
4. Add the garlic and stir-fry for a few seconds.
5. Add the asparagus and mushrooms and stir-fry for 1 minute.
6. Add the oyster sauce (and crushed red chiles if used) and continue to stir-fry until the asparagus is nearly tender, approximately 3 minutes.

Notes:

-If you are unfamiliar with oyster sauce, it's wicked salty. I found that in step 6, it was helpful to add some chicken stock. It toned down the saltiness and the stickiness of the cooked oyster sauce. I definitely recommend it.

-Feel free to add other veggies here. I added eggplant too. Tasty!

Tuesday, October 20th

Tuesday is my longest day on campus. Usually only a few noteworthy things happen to me. This past Tuesday was different. Here's my day, more or less.

1. Decided to take the bus to campus. Bus was taking too long. Drove instead.
2. Got back a quiz in Baking, 100%.
3. Took a quiz in baking, also 100%.
4. Breathed a sigh of relief when I learned my S&S quiz is the following week.
5. Made fantastic Chinese food in Basic Lab. I'll post recipes for you on Tuesday, too much studying to do until then. It was Chicken and Snow Peas in a spicy black bean sauce, Asparagus and Eggplant in oyster sauce and rice pilaf. We also made vichyssoise, but I was too full and have since forgotten about it.
6. Marveled at the unusually tiny class size in Basic lab. The undesirable folks have gone. Class and clean up went so well, we were out by 4:00 PM.
7. Got everyone in Basic lab class, including myself, to try frogs legs.
8. Had post-class beers with two classmates at Boylan Bridge Brewery.
9. Made plans with said classmates plus another to meet every other Thursday for dinner out or dinner in.
10. Went home and fell asleep.

Last Tuesday was a good day. The frogs legs were okay. It was hard to not picture the critter as I was eating it. It was a bit stringy, similar to catfish, didn't taste that much like chicken, in my opinion.

Pie. It's what's for dinner. And breakfast. And lunch.

Friday's baking lab found me with a working camera battery and pie. Three pies, to be exact. We had three hours to make three pies. I was done first. No comment. Because of the instructor, a lot of people have been dropping the class. Unfortunately, it's almost all of the good people. So, I am left with people like the grandmother of 8 who forgot to put flour in her cookies and the Art Institute drop out who asked why we don't use baking soda in bread three weeks into class. Sweet. I spoke to another one of my chefs before Fall Break about this instructor. He offered to speak to the department head. Apparently, I am not the only one who has complained. The good news is that she won't be back to teach again. But I digress.

Here are my pies.

Apple pie (My illustrious instructor was kind enough to demo on MY pie how to cut the top. This was not my decision. Thus is the problem of being finished first.)

Cherry pie

Coconut cream pie

I brought home the coconut cream pie. I shared a piece with Mary Jane and have been powering through the rest. My love for pastry cream is strong. I make good pie. I make good pie crust too!

Pie crust is deceptively simple to make and homemade tastes infinitely better than store-bought. You mix a lower-gluten flour with a little sugar and a little salt. Cut in the butter. Add just enough ice cold water to bring it together. Roll. Done. You have pie. I suggest adding a little sugar to a dough to be used for savory pies as it helps in browning. It will not make the dough sweet, but it looks nicer.

I found this detailed recipe on Epicurious for pie dough. The only thing I'd do differently is to add maybe two teaspoons of granulated sugar to the flour as well, again, for color, not taste.

I don't recommend making the dough in a food processor since you have a lot less control. I really do prefer to mix and knead my doughs by hand. I find I have a better sense of when it's ready with my hands than by sight or smell. This pie crust recipe would be great for a chicken pot pie too! We've got some serious fall weather going on here. That would be great today.

I encourage you all to try pie dough soon! Report back with the results! I'd love to hear how it goes!

Speaking of going, here's what's left!

Fresh pasta, exploding blenders, and I need more practice shopping.

Since my last post, I got As on both tests, in Basic and Safety and Sanitation. I wish purchasing was going so well. Ugh. I hate the online class format. It's just basically read the book, answer questions and take a quiz. I much prefer to be lectured at by a teacher. I have a meeting with my teacher on Wednesday to discuss what I can do, review the two quizzes I bombed, and whatever else comes to mind. I'm sure I'll do just fine in Purchasing, I just need a little reassurance right now.

You'll have to use your imagination on the next part. I've been having some camera battery issues and thus, I am photo-less.

A couple weeks ago in Basic lab, we tackled soups. We made consomme, a flavorful, clarified broth. If you make a stock, it's usually a bit cloudy. To clarify it into a consomme, you add clearmeat to it and simmer. Clearmeat is a mixture of lean ground meat (the same flavor as the stock), mirepoix (carrot, celery, onion), lightly beaten egg whites, and an acid (we used a bit of tomato paste). You mix it all up raw (it's really gross), add it to cold stock, and put it on the stove. Once it comes to a boil, you turn it down to a simmer and leave it alone. The clearmeat mixture cooks and attracts impurities from the stock. It floats to the top and forms a "raft." The raft cracks naturally and acts like a filter. It's super cool! Making consomme was one technique I was most excited about learning. You end up with this crystal clear broth with a big flavor. Ours was beef. All I could think when I tasted it was that's what I want next time I'm sick. Yummy! If you try it, be sure to season the consomme with kosher salt! The iodine in other salt will make the consomme cloudy and all your hard work for not! This lab was particularly interesting because it was very apparent who the serious students were. We were the ones standing over our pots talking about how cool this process was. In the soup portion of this lab, we made a cream soup. I chose cream of mushroom. I put my hot soup in the blender, whizzed it up, then set the blender on the counter to take the lid off. I went to pick it up and the bottom of the blender stayed on the table. You know the bottom part that screws on so you can take the blades out? Yeah. Somehow came unscrewed or something while I was blending. Soup went everywhere! It was awesome. Especially since it was my lunch. Luckily, about 7 people in my class offered to share theirs with me. I should have gotten a picture of that mess. Too funny.

In Basic lab, we also made fresh pasta, the week before Fall Break. We made miniature veggie lasagnas in ramekins. CUTE! We also made ravioli and tortelini. The tortelini was so much easier than I thought it would be. We had three fillings we had to make, to be shared by our table. There were three of us at my table, the same three people from the previous week's sauce lab when we made communal tomato sauce. I made the goat cheese stuffing for the tortelini. I used goat cheese, cream cheese, garlic, shallot, mint, tarragon, basil and parsley. It was very good. If I'm not mistaken, this was the first lab we've had all year without a clarified butter sauce!

Oops, I did it again.

I got an A on my Baking midterm! Woot! ::running man dance::

I also had a knife skills practical in Basic yesterday, which I had forgotten about. I got an A on that too. We were out of potatoes, so we didn't have to do the fancy-schmancy tournee cuts that I've been working on. Bummer. There were only 3 or 4 people in that class that were actually bummed about it.

I have two more tests coming up. Tomorrow I have a test on cooking techniques and soups. On Tuesday, I have a test in Safety and Sanitation. It took so long for us to have tests the beginning of the semester. Now it seems like we're having tests every day!

Quick check in, with more excitement to come!

I just wanted to let you know that I got a perfect score on my Safety and Sanitation exam. Yup. 100% on the germ test. I've got some good stuff to share with you including the baking practical exam where everything went wrong and a field trip to a vendor. Exciting stuff, peeps.

Tune in next time! After Tuesday, I promise. I'm a little behind on studying for a test in Basic Culinary Skills. Being a straight A student is pretty cool, but I'm spending all of my time on homework.

Knowing is half the battle, or I gross you out because I care.

It turns out that my Safety and Sanitation class is more cool and exciting than I thought it would be. Of course, it helps that I have a great instructor who is passionate (srsly!) about sanitation, knows her stuff, and cares that we're learning and are comfortable with the information. I'm learning a lot in this class, probably more than my other classes. Allow me to share with you some of what I've learned.

One thing she said during the first week of class surprised me, but really it shouldn't. You're more likely to get a foodborne illness at home than from commercially prepared food. Yep. You are. And it makes sense. Professional kitchens are crazy in love with sanitizers. After dishes are washed, they are thoroughly sanitized with either a chemical or 185 degree water. It's unlikely most people do that at home. As well, foods are heated and cooled properly at home and professional cooks are cautious of The Danger Zone. Do you know what The Danger Zone is? No, silly. I'm not talking about the Kenny Loggins song from Top Gun. It the range of 41 degrees F to 135 degrees F, where bacteria flourish, thrive and are generally very, very happy. We use ice baths, ice spikes and other measures to cool foods down very quickly. Putting hot food into a refrigerator, especially at home, will generally warm up the inside if the fridge and put everything else in jeopardy. Crazy, huh?

We all know that our county has rules about cheeseburgers being cooked at least medium well, that most places ban raw (unpasteurized) dairy products, and you're not supposed to eat meat, fish and eggs that aren't cooked thoroughly. But how many of us know why?

And I know what you're thinking. I really do. Because I was thinking the same thing the first couple days of class. "Eeeeew. I'll never be able to eat again!" "OMG. My professor said diarrhea!" But here are a few things to think about.

1. Think about how many times you've eaten and NOT gotten sick. Really. I'll bet it's, like, a lot.
2. Sure, you like food. But I'll bet I can name two things you like more than food. Not vomiting. And not having diarrhea. Am I right?
3. The more you know, the more likely you are to not make your family and friends sick.

I've been studying up on what seems like a million foodborne illnesses, most of which I've never heard of. We all know the big ones, right? Botulism, salmonella, E. coli. That's just the tip of the microbial iceberg, peeps.

Listeria. I'd heard of it. I knew that something something Listeria something pregnant women something. You can get it from raw dairy products, raw meat and ready to eat foods like hotdogs and deli meat. So what's the deal with Listeria and pregnant women? If a pregnant woman gets Listeria, the symptom is...miscarriage. Damn. That's serious. In little kids, it causes sepsis, pneumonia, and meningitis. Not all foodborne illness makes you puke.

Not only do you get Botulism from dented cans, but you can get it from a baked potato that wasn't cooled right. If you're making baked potatoes ahead of time, to be reheated, for the love of all things holy, DO NOT wrap those puppies up in foil. Botulism likes that. A lot. The less oxygen, the more Botulism. Did you also know that if you don't seek medical attention, it'll kill you? There was an episode of Dr. Quincy, ME about it.

You're more likely to get E. coli from produce than from meat. Frail Voiced Vegan Girl is in this class. She thinks she's immune to foodborne illness because she doesn't consume animals. Wrong! Wasn't there an E. coli outbreak a few years ago that was traced back to green onions? It's always the green onions! And lettuce. And tomatoes. And and and.... Oh, yeah. Sprouts. That's a big one.

Clostridium perfringens gastroenteritis. Like, what? This is carried in the intestines of both animals and humans. It loves The Danger Zone (41-135F). You usually get diarrhea and severe abdominal pain. Here's the best part...commercially prepared foods are not often involved in outbreaks. Straight from my book. It's commonly linked to meat and poultry and foods containing meat and poultry, like soups and stews. Next time you make chili at home, and you get, uh, a little rumbly afterwards, it's not the beans that are bothering you.

Bacillus cereus is a bacteria that produces two different toxins. It's the toxins that make you sick. The each cause an illness. One makes you throw up. The other gives you diarrhea. You can get this from cooked rice, like fried rice and rice pudding. Milk, meat and cooked veggies can also carry this. This can be prevented by heating and cooling foods properly and holding food at the right temperature. Think cookout or church picnic. Don't let that stuff sit out for more than 4 hours.

Did you know you can get a staph infection from food? You can. Staphylococcal bacteria are carried on the body, including the nose, hair, throat and infected cuts. You can transfer the bacteria by rubbing your nose then mixing the pasta salad by hand. If the bacteria is allowed to grow, it'll produce a toxin that'll make you sick. Cooking will not destroy this toxin.

Shigella can be transferred from feces to food by people who don't wash their hands. It can also be transferred to food by flies. (Again with the cookout!) It'll give you bloody diarrhea and abdominal pain and cramps. Charming.

Norovirus and Hepatits A can be transmitted from ready-to-eat food contaminated with feces and from shellfish from contaminated waters. Hepatitis A however is a vaccine preventable disease.

Our old friend Salmonella. Yes, you can get this from chicken and eggs. Did you know that you can also get this from beef and dairy products as well as produce? The best way to prevent this is to prevent cross-contamination. Buy color coded cutting boards and be strict about it. Sanitize. Wash hands and equipment if you're in doubt. I knew someone who got this and is now horribly lactose intolerant as a result.

If you eat shellfish, you're in for a treat. Neurotoxic Shellfish Poisoning. Amnesiac Shellfish Poisoning. Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning. They're pretty self explanatory. This happens when bottom feeding shellfish dine on toxic algae. Cooking, freezing, etc. doesn't prevent this. This freaks me out a little. Do you have any idea how much I love mussels?

Anasakis is a parasite you get from raw or undercooked fish. It has two symptoms. A tingling in the throat. Coughing up worms. Let me give you a minute to reread that. Coughing. Up. Worms. I've actually seen this in halibut I ordered years ago in a restaurant where I worked. I didn't know what it was, but I knew I wasn't going to serve this halibut to my guests for $25 a plate. (I sent it back) They are little round, pinky-yellow worms that make you cough up more worms.

I still have a few more flash cards, but I think you get my point. Cooking at home, being vegetarian, buying organic, none of this makes you immune. Heat and cool your food correctly. Wash your hands. Cover your hair. Wash your gadgets and cutting boards thoroughly. Buy food from stores you trust. Don't buy clams from some toothless redneck selling them from the back of his rusty 1974 Ford pickup. Ask your meat and fish guy where their products come from. This helps prevent foodborne illness. Burying your head in the sand because diarrhea is icky is bad.

This class that I previously thought was going to be lame will be one of the most useful I will take in culinary school. This is really good information. I'm still nervous about my test on Tuesday, but I'm feeling better about it. If you want to do more reading on the subject, here's a link to the CDC's page.

Baking I Lab, biscuits, coffee cake, and muffins.

Last week in Baking I, we had three assignments. Our current lesson was on Quick Breads, so we made biscuits, muffins and a sour cream coffee cake.

My biscuits rose higher than anyone else's. Mine were a little saltier too. My instructor gave me high praise saying mine were better than her's.


Blueberry muffins, where the frozen blueberries sank in spite of having been dusted with flour. Still tasty anyway.


Sour cream coffee cake. My streusel topping wasn't very good. Okay, it kind of sucks. My butter was way too soft. Lesson learned.

More tourneed potatoes, clarified butter sauces, and cow-eating cows.

I've got a couple riveting photos of knife cuts for you. I can tell you're excited. In the beginning of each Basic Culinary Skills lab, we practice our knife cuts for an hour or so. Here are mine for the past two weeks. Last week, Chef pulled each of us aside to review what's on our plates, what we're doing right and what we need to keep practicing. He told me that mine was above average work and that I needed to work on consistency.

clockwise from the plastic dish: tournee potatoes, supreme orange, brunoise onion, julienne carrot, rondelle carrot

clockwise from the plastic dish: tournee and batonette potato, bias cut carrot, minced garlic, minced parsley, diced red pepper, chiffonade spinach


Last week in BCS lab, we clarified butter and made Hollandaise. I don't have any pictures of that because Hollandaise is just yellow. Tasty, but not too exciting. We were also treated to an Italian Buffet by another class. It was good. There was a rolled eggplant, ham and cheese thingy that was right tasty as well as a braised cut of beef, maybe an oxtail?, that was magnificent. We're well fed, even if it is pounds and pounds of clarified butter.

In Baking Lab last week, we had a timed practical as well as three assignments to bake. The timed practical was 3 pounds of dough that we had to shape into baguettes and knotted rolls in 20 minutes. We could have an extra 5 minutes, but for every minute we went over, we lost one point off our grade. I'm pretty fast and even I was sweating the time limit. The dough was previously made and refrigerated. It wasn't allowed to warm up as much as it should which made it difficult to work with. The part of the dough that makes this bread, rather than a cake or scone, for example, is gluten which is a protein. Like all proteins, it becomes quite firm when chilled. Bread dough can be refrigerated, but it needs to be given ample time to warm up and relax or the dough will just tear. That's what was happening with this dough. I started to roll out a baguette, but it wasn't cooperating with me. I set the dough down and moved on to my rolls. They were only 2 ounce portions and could be warmed by handling. In the end, I finished in 20 and a half minutes. Someone in my class was annoyed when I finished first and actually said out loud , "oh god" with obvious disgust. (I've recently learned it was Frail Voiced Vegan Girl, but I'll get to that later.) I also received the highest score of 99 points, losing one point for going over the 20 minutes.



We had a big test in BCS. I got an A. We had two quizzes in Baking I. I got As on both. Somewhere in there I had my first test in Safety and Sanitation too. I got an A. Next week, I have a big test in Baking I and a big test in Safety and Sanitation. I'm going to be scarce this week because I have to memorize the names, foods linked, symptoms and prevention measures for EVERY foodborne illness. Do you have any idea how many there are? I'm feeling a little overwhelmed. As a former foreign language major, I can memorize stuff like nobody's business. There's just so much to know, it's almost ridiculous.

Alright, Frail Voice Vegan Girl. Yes, PeeWee, I have one too. Sadly, she's in all of my classes. Even Purchasing. While there isn't anyone who doesn't respect her choice to be vegan, the fact that she's so ridiculously misinformed about that choice has made her the laughing stock of class. We were talking about E. coli yesterday in S&S. The instructor was going over how you get it, which is from both ground meat and produce. Frail Voice Vegan Girl speaks up, but in a barely audible voice, "Is that from when the cows are standing around in their own filth and then they start to eat other cows?" Like, what? Personally, I was too shocked to laugh. Others were not. She got this angry look on her face and said, "They eat other cows." For those of you who are perhaps not familiar with cows, let me enlighten you. They don't have the anatomy to eat other cows, or any meat for that matter. They lack the teeth needed to eat meat, they have multiple stomachs to help them digest the fibrous plant material they do eat, and there is documentation to support that feeding meat to cattle will make them die. Like I said, it's not her dietary choices, it her gross misinformation. She got really angry two weeks ago when the instructor told us that tofu and fake meat products were potentially hazardous foods. She raised her hand. "Does that get into tofu from the slaughter houses?" If anyone can tell me who produces tofu in a slaughter house, I'd be grateful. She kept going on in that class about slaughter houses. Ah, good times. Good times. Oh, I forgot to add that I knew it was her that was audibly annoyed when I finished the baking practical first, because yesterday in BCS she was audibly annoyed when I answered yes when Chef asked if he spelled a French word correctly. She's my new BFF.

I forgot to give this post a title. Sorry.

There are no stupid questions, only stupid people.

In week three of culinary school, I think it's safe to say there are some stupid questions. For example, "why do you use yeast in bread and baking powder and soda in biscuits and other things?" You, dear reader, may not know the answer to this question. My classmates, however, should have read chapters 2 and 5 through 9 in Professional Baking by Wayne Gisslen and possible a little bit of How Baking Works by Paula Figoni. I assure you, the answer to this question is there. What is disturbing is when the instructor is unable to answer this question. She went on and on about creating flavor with the yeast, which is largely incorrect. Unfortunately my advisor and program head is not actually teaching this class anymore. She has a teaching assistant running the show. She is an elderly woman who calls herself a "retired chef" even though she graduated from Wake Tech two years ago. As a babysitter for 35 wide-eyed culinary students, most of whom will wash out by December, she is perfect for the job. As a culinary instructor required to explain the science of baking to a few in the class with a broad and comprehensive food knowledge and a drive and passion to be the best they can be, she is less than adequate. We were talking about chemical leaveners yesterday. Someone named vinegar as an acid with which the chemical leaveners would react. She wasn't so sure this was correct. The student mentioned red velvet cake. The instructor said, "Well, that probably has other things like baking powder in it." I'd had enough by this point. I spoke up. "No, actually it only has baking soda which is mixed with the vinegar. It's a very old Southern recipe, created before the invention of the double acting baking powders we have today. So it was leavened with what was available at the time." Another student, C., spoke up as well. "The vinegar reacts with the cocoa powder which turns the cake red." The instructor looked dumbfounded. In her thick Southern accent, she said, "Well, how about that. I didn't know that about red velvet cake." (Red velvet cake is a Southern Institution, by the way.) This woman was my TA for Baking Lab on Friday too. She was shocked when she saw me kneading my dough the right way, without instruction. She really is a nice lady and she likes me, which is good. I'll just have to study my book really well and take what she says in class with a grain of salt. It just bothers me that I'm not sure she has the basic knowledge needed to teach a Baking I class. Everyone keeps going on and on about the awards she's won for her cake decorating. That's all well and good, but it has nothing to do with baking. Maybe she ought to teach the cake decorating class instead. I had a good chat with C. after class. She's really cool and is one of the motivated second year students. She gets it. I like her.

I don't want a story, just your dirty dishes.

At the end of class, we are all expected to clean up. Somehow, I always seem to be in the dish pit. I am okay with this. I know how to wash dishes in both the three sinks and the commercial dishwasher and I can do it faster than most everyone else. I keep trying to explain to people that anything that doesn't need to be scrubbed can be run through the dishwasher. They don't get it. Twenty times in a row I hear, "um, Meg, can this go over here?" "Where do you want me to put this?" "I don't think this came clean in the sinks, should I bring it over here?" This tells me that they have never worked in a restaurant. Even if you've waited tables, you understand how the Dish Pit works. If not, the El Salvadorians will be happy to show you the first time. After that, you'll learn not to interfere with The System. "Just set it over there with the rest of the dishes," I say over and over. The chefs repeat over and over, "if it doesn't have to be scrubbed, send it to the dishwasher."

I keep finding knives in the dish area. This is bad. Kitchen knives are big and sharp. They will cut you. They are also expensive. You don't want someone else handling your knives because they will either be damaged or stolen.

I am beginning to think we need a common sense test before acceptance into the program.

But, wait! there's more!

We had our first sauce making lab yesterday. I made Bechamel, a white sauce, Veloute, a stock based sauce, and Espagnole, a brown sauce that a little more complicated. Chef said mine were excellent. We also had to clarify 2 pounds of butter. I let mine go too long and made clarified brown butter. I was not the only one, thankfully. I also poked my left index finger with the point of my chef's knife. Luckily, I was not the first to shed blood in class. It was just small prick of my finger and I can barely see it today.

End of second week review

Hi everyone. I've been studying hard. I have a lot of reading to do. A migraine this week has put me behind a little. Not to worry. I have a Study Hall Monitor is keeping a close eye on me. That's really where he sits when I'm studying.


I finally got my new messenger bag today! Yay! It turned out really cute! I couldn't be happier with it. Like I said, the quality is great, the style is unique. If you're in the market for a new bag, give Holly Aiken a hollah.


The main color is called parchment, the stems are called olive and the inside is the same royal blue as the flowers. You can see the two pockets on the inside.


In Basic Culinary Skills lab on Tuesday, we started the class with an hour of knife cuts. We lay them out on a plate, label it with our name, and leave it out for Chef to look over. Here's what I have from the second lab.


The cuts are as follows, from the green stuff clockwise:
Spinach, chiffonade (shiff-uh-nod)-a thin, ribbon-like cut of a leafy green
Onion, julienne (julie-n)-a thin, usually matchstick-like cut, in the case of an onion, a thin straight cut following the shape of the onion
Potato, tournee (tour-nay)-a small, 7-sided, approximately 2" long, football-like cut of a firm vegetable, usually potatoes
Carrot, brunoise (broon-wahz)-a small dice measuring 1/8"x1/8"x1/8"
Carrot, rondelle (ron-del)-an 1/8" thick round cut
Orange, segment or supreme (like creme)

And finally, from Friday's Baking I lab....the moment you've all been waiting for.


I didn't get a photo of my challah knots (rolls), because I forgot my camera on Friday. They came out pretty good. I need some work with my braiding technique, as you can see the challah is a bit wonky. The baguettes came out great. This was an authentic baguette dough too. Flour, water, salt and yeast only. It was the first dough we made yesterday. The new instructor came by as I was kneading the baguette dough with the proper technique. She looked really surprised at what I was doing and asked me if I had done it before. I also figured out why my lean bread from last week and this week are too light when they are cooked. For one, the oven temperature is lower than it should be but that's not something I can change. Also, if I add a bit of egg wash before and after the proofing, it should help get some color on the crust.

In other news, we had a guest this week in our main culinary classroom. A very, very chirpy cricket. He didn't shut up all week. Hopefully someone finally killed him. You have no idea how difficult it is to concentrate on the instructor when there's a cricket echoing from the drain under the cabinet.

Elvis says I'm done procrastinating. See ya next week.

Purchasing, homework and lessons learned.

I got my first grades in Purchasing. I received 100 points on my homework assignment and 88/100 on the first quiz. The quiz is taken through Blackboard, an online educational program-website deal. When I was taking the quiz, I went through and answered all of the questions right away. My plan was go back and review my answers and correct them if necessary before submitting the final quiz. I accidentally hit submit instead of going back to the first question. Oops. The good news, I still got a B and knew most of the information off the top of my head. It's the first of 20 or so quizzes, so I'm not worried.