Nearing the End

I cannot believe that my first semester of culinary school is almost over. It has flown by! Definitely a different experience than I expected. At first, I was very discouraged. Going from university-college to technical college was a larger, more difficult task than I expected. Then, things started getting excited. Instead of making stocks and soups, we were making real food. Then I started making good friends... and realizing what a gem the Rel Maples Culinary Institute really is.

All I have left is one week of school, and my exams. It shouldn't be too bad. In Culinary I we have a written exam and a practical exam, in Bakery Skills we have a practical exam, in Dining Room Management we have a written and practical exam, and in Human Resource Management we have a written exam. Luckily, I already completed my ServSafe Certification exam and passted! That was very exciting.

I will update later at the end of the semester. I need to post my photos of the Holiday Pumkin Oat n' Fruit bread I made for my baking creative project. All in good time...

Something Fishy...

Today was fish day in Culinary I class. I can't believe how many people don't like fish! It blows my mind. I wonder how many of them have ever had good fish, though. We are in a land-locked state, so it sorta makes sense.

We learned to filet a flat fish and a round fish. My group (Lanna, Mindy, and I) also got to tackle some mussels. The recipe was just for mussels, but we made a pasta dish with marinara for 1/2 of the mussels (top picture) and a garlic white wine cream sauce for the other portion (middle picture). Delicious.

Our other assignment was Flounder Patouille (the third picture down). Basically, that is just a fancy way of saying: seared flounder with red bell peppers, red onion, celariac, and terragon - wrapped in butter-coated parchment paper, and tossed in the oven for about 10 minutes.

Everything went pretty well today and I'm feeling quite good about my new cooking abilities! Today was our LAST culinary I class in the kitchen. Sadness! But, next semester will be fantastic! Good times...

Double Chocolate Chip

When Chef Hallman told us we could make any cookies (from the list) that we wanted... we went for the double chocolate chip ones. I mean... who wouldn't? They were DELICIOUS. Just so everyone knows.

We also made three peach pies (with double crusts - meaning there is a crust on the bottom and one on the top) in our group. We didn't get to try them, but ours looked amazing... as opposed to the other groups' pies that looked...well...sad. Haha. A trick that we learned is this:

- If you brush your pie crust with egg wash, it will brown & bubble

- If you brush your pie crust with heavy cream, it will look rich and shiny

We went with rich and shiny for something different. And, as I said before, it went over quite well. I hope that whoever gets to eat those pies appreciates them! (Granted, it could be me... tomorrow... in culinary cafe)

We also made Parker House dinner rolls - which were sorta fun, but not nearly as fun as making 2 lbs. of chocolate cookie dough. ;)

No pictures today - but, I'll try to take some on Wednesday. It will be our first production class. We will actually be serving real live people food that we made. Eeek! And... I'll be "chef of the day." Great. Haha. I'm sure I'll have some stories... and hopefully some photos to add to the blog as well.

My, Oh My, Sweet Potato Pie

How thrilled were we to be making pie in Bakery Skills? Quite. We were to make two flaky pie crusts, one graham cracker crust, one sweet potato pie, and one key lime pie.

Have you ever tried to make flaky pie crust from scratch? It is not an easy feat. It's quite hard to keep it from being too crumbly... which causes it to fall apart while trying to put it in the pie pan (not that that happened to me...). I definitely over-mixed my shortening into the flour. If you mix it slightly you'll get a flaky crust and if you mix it as much as I did, you get a mealy crust. A mealy crust might be desirable for a custard, but not so much for a sweet potato pie.

The pie filling came out quite well, though. Lots of brown sugar and evaporated milk (makes a more rich pie than whole milk). Yum. Mine might have gotten a little overcooked, but nothing too bad. You want the middle to be very jiggly when it comes out of the oven. Mine was only slightly jiggly. Fail. :)

The key lime pie came out pretty good... looking, that is. We didn't get to try either pie in class, but I got to taste the sweet potato pie today in Culinary Cafe. It was divine. I always thought pumpkin pie was the perfect fall pie... I was wrong. Sweet potato pie is amazing (especially with REAL whipped cream).

So, I am quite excited about the upcoming weeks. I have to make a ginerbread house or a specialty bread for the final baking project. I'll definitely put some pictures up of that. I'm also choosing my classes for next semester. Ace of Cakes... here I come (I'm taking cake decorating)!

Off to watch the most important election.... ever. I hope I won't have to stay up too late, considering I have to be in class at 8:00 am tomorrow. ;)

Offaly Good

Last Wednesday I had one of those moments when I knew I was doing the right thing - what I was supposed to be doing.

Las Wednesday was meat and poultry fabrication. Yep. We cut up raw meat and poultry. Most of the girls in the class were grossed out... and let everyone know about it. Not me! Lanna and I dove into that little chicken carcass like there was no tomorrow. I now know how to take a whole raw chicken and turn it into pieces that people might want to eat.

Justin and I made a whole roasted chicken and some smoked chicken breasts. They were delicious. One trick we learned, was that you don't have to roast an entire chicken on a rack. You can make your own rack from large-cut mirepoix (2 parts onion, 1 part celery, 1 part carrots). Just put a pile underneath the chicken, and let it cook. That way, it gets all that flavor, and air can still get up into the chicken. I thought it was quite fascinating.

Why is this post "Offaly Good," you might ask? Well, offal are all of the little bits and pieces that are a little, well, awful. Offal refers to the hearts, kidneys, sweetbreads, intestines, etc. from animals. The halloween Iron Chef was on the other night and it was "Battle Offal" in kitchen stadium. I thought it was pretty cool. One guy even made calf liver truffles. Yummmm.... We didn't get to do anything with offal in class, but we did get to talk about it a bit. In the end, it might have been better the way it was...

Sadly, no pictures today. I would have taken pictures of our beautifully roasted chicken, but my camera was dead. I'll do better next time. We'll be doing sandwiches and salads this coming Wednesday, so that should allow for some pretty pictures.