Monday with a new attitude

Good afternoon to all of my fellow readers out there today.  Well, I went to school today with a renewed faith that all was going to be OK with school and me now.  For the past week I was not so sure ... I was not liking it much.

Spooky Cake and it was very good too!

I am just not sure really how to explain it but I think that once I got over the RP hump that I was back in the game.  I also have to tell you that I didn't want to learn any of this stuff about China and what they ate but in the middle of it all I have learned so many things that were so unexpected.  I mean I have to tell you that China is not so bad after all and it really sounds like all of their food would be very good.  I mean I like Chinese food well enough but ... this is the real stuff so it must be that much better right?

I found out today that the day that I am able to invite my family to my lunch at school will be 11/23 ... the day before Thanksgiving.  I am getting so excited about this now and I really can't wait.  All I need to know now is who will come and if everyone in my family is busy I do have a contingency plan that will be just as much fun.  I also plan on going to our local Chinese Restaurant and getting some chop sticks and maybe some of those way cool place mats that you see.  And I also thought that I would go to the Library and get some Chinese music to play to make it a little more real ... any other ideas out there that could make this a little more special?

There are some pictures coming from last week of the "forcemeat" and the skinning of the rabbit and the butchering of the pig.  I just don't have them in the computer as of yet ... but as soon as I do they will be here for you to see.

Today was bookwork day so we did not cook.  I guess the rest of this week we are just going to go over things and practice because next week are mid-terms again ... this time with a mystery basket.  Wonder what it will be?  Knowing our Chef I really don't think that it will be anything too regular ... we will have to work for this grade.  I happen to be pretty good with surprises so maybe that will work in my favor?  I sure hope so.

I do have a couple of pictures of what the new class did today in the kitchen that I will share with you.

I will get back with you later on how all of this is working out but for now I can believe that I have a new sense of what I am suppose to do and that would be to do this, finish this and graduate and do the best job that I know how.  And I will always remember that learning something new is not so bad even if it is against your will.

That will be all for now.  It is cool in my apartment and I think that I need to get on some warmer clothes ... so, have a wonderful evening and I will check in with you all tomorrow.  Good bye for now from 1HappyChef.  :)  You all have a really great evening and Happy Halloween from me to you!

I just wanted to powiedzieć, aby moje dobrym przyjacielem Angie, iż tak miły co powiedziała mi się dziś i sobie sprawę teraz, że jestem aprecjacji w jako członka zespołu. Nie miałam... Nie miałam miałem nawet wszelkie przyjaciół w szkole..., ale jest tak miły wiedzieć, że mogę zrobić. Dziękujemy, Angie i dziękujemy wszystkim jako przyjacielu... Ja będę was wspierać jak mogę więc mamy można uzyskać za pośrednictwem innego tydzień z dobrej jakości. Love, ya Ange!

"担心的是像摇椅 — — 它让你有事可做，但它不会让你失去一切。"

Good evening to everyone.  10 more minutes and it will be Monday morning.  I do not know what my deal is but I have school in the morning ... pretty early (8 AM) and I can not get to sleep.  I don't know what my deal is with Sunday nights and no sleep for Mondays.

Today was a good day for the Detroit Lion's ... yea team!

I just did the usual around the apartment and I got out the RP again and went over it to make sure that everything was good.  I did find one mistake and had to re-due just one page ... not too bad.  I have high hopes that it will be satisfactory for the Chef.  For not wanting to do any of this I think that I ended up doing a pretty good job with it.

Next we get to invite 3 of our family members to come and have lunch at the school when we make the things off of my menu.  I asked my sister Gretchen yesterday if she wanted to come for lunch and she said ... I am not driving across town for a meal.  I don't really get it because that is what she did yesterday ... to see me.  Anyhow, I have learned not to argue with her (or anyone for that matter) so I have decided to ask my sister Darcy and her husband if they are in town and they may be able to pick up my mom.  That would be very special for me when I fix Chinese.   I have discovered later in life that you don't get anywhere when you argue and not only that if you don't respond at all you are much more satisfied because it makes the other person really mad that you won't argue with them.  I get it now but it took me a heck of a long time to learn some of these life lessons.  Maybe I am paying better attention now?

So, until tomorrow I am going to try and get some sleep.  Good night to all of my very loyal readers.  Sleep tight and nightie night.  1HappyChef.  :) 

Anyone know what the quote is above?

Acorn Squash Soup

Acorn Squash Soup

Hi again everyone.  It is me again and I just wanted to tell you that I did make the Acorn Squash Soup in my Vitamix and it was to die for.  I have to tell you ... it was so good, so comforting, and oh so warm on a cool day.  Here is how I did it:

2 Acorn Squash

1 12oz. can Carnation condensed milk

1 T. Clover honey

Pinch of Rosemary

dash Cinnamon

dash Nutmeg

S & P TT

First I cut the acorn squash in half and put in an oven for about 45 minutes at 400 degrees to get the squash soft.  When that happened I took them out of the oven and let cool just slightly so I could work with them.

I scraped out every bit of goodness and put in Vitamix container and then put in all of the rest of the ingredients listed above.  After putting the top on tight I let it rip until it was nice and smooth and oh so good! 

If it is a little thick for you just add a little more milk to thin it out.

Also, you don't need a Vitamix to do this ...(one of the only advantages of a Vitamix is that it cooks/heats it up as it is blending it) or you could use a blender or a hand blender or even a food processor or maybe you just might like it a little more lumpy and you want to just mash it together with a potato masher, and just heat it up in a pan or nuke it for a minute or two ... however you do it ... I am so sure that you will enjoy it when it is done.

I also think (and this is just a personal opinion)I believe that the left overs will keep in the fridge for about a week and I also think that you could freeze it without any trouble.

I just wanted to share this with you so if you had a couple of acorn squash laying around and you didn't know what you were going to do with them ... then this would be a very good thing and very healthy too.

Have a great day and I will catch up with you again tomorrow after school.  I was just looking for the Lion's game and can't find it so when are they playing?  I thought it was now ... anyhow ... Go Lion's!  Good bye for now from 1HappyChef.  :)

Sunday and relaxing...

Good Sunday afternoon to all of my readers.  Finally all is right as rain with me and the world today.  I am so happy to have the RP part 4 behind me so now I can breath a sigh of relief ... yes, life is good today!  I am still having a very hard time with my back and hip (sometimes the pain is unbearable) but I have been taking it easy and putting heat  and Bio-Freeze on it on and off and I have an adjustment scheduled for 11/10 ... so, that isn't too long off.

Not too much to report today here.  I am so happy that we aren't getting all of the bad weather that out East is getting.  I know that it will be here soon ... but the longer it takes to get here the better ... I say.

I slept in this morning, that is a first .. since I started school I haven't been able to sleep in ... I am up at the same time everyday.  But today even the coffee was cold that is how late it was.  I guess that I was really tired .. yep, really tired.

I have a couple of Acorn Squash in the oven for my lunch/dinner today.  I can't decide if I want to make it into soup in my Vitamix machine that I hardly ever use.  I used to use it all of the time when my sister Heidi was going to school with me ... I would make us fresh smoothies every morning to start off our day but since she doesn't go to school with me anymore I don't make them just for me ... too much trouble.  I think that it would be very good to make soup in today with the squash ... I can't wait.  Yes, that is what I will do ... I know that it will be very good and very healthy.  This is also another very good reason to use a Vitamix ... very healthy cooking.

I was going to change my clocks back this weekend but I guess that has been changed to the first weekend in November.  Wow, November all ready ... where has this year gone?  When I started school it was for a year and now I have less than 5 months to go ... wow.  So, I will wait until next week to change the clocks so I don't get confused.

Everyone have a really great day and I will post again after school tomorrow.  I will fill you in on the RP and tell you what comes next.  Go Detroit Lion's!  Good bye for now from 1HappyChef.  :)

Homework done

Planet Earth ...

Good evening everyone.  Hope that everyone is well this evening.

I am here to report that I have finally got on top of the RP and it is a huge relief that I got over the hump and was able to get it done to the point that they wanted it by Monday.

It was a very lucky break for me yesterday ... actually 2 times.  The first time I went across the hall to take a break and talk to the apartment mgr. for a couple of minutes and a "math teacher" walked in and ended up coming home with me and teaching me an easier way to do what I was trying to do ... and then I was getting very discouraged with looking up all of the prices for each item on the menu so I could price it out ... and guess what?  I happened on the web-sight called ... you will never guess .... Amazon and they price out ANYTHING!  After I discovered that it was all down hill from there.  I was on a roll and I am happy to report that I have just finished and it is complete up to the point that it is suppose to be and actually it is very nice and I am very proud of it.  I hope that the teacher likes it as much as I do.

Maybe I can figure out how to post a picture of my menu for you all to see.  I will try it before I end this post with you. UPDATE:  I tried to post it and I couldn't figure it out ... I will work on it for later sometime.

Also, today I had lunch with by very best sister Gretchen.  We just went to the Deli right down the street and had an omelet but it was very good and the company was even better!  Thank you Gretchen for a very nice couple of hours!  I love you!  I almost forgot she also brought me some very gently used items and I am very excited to see if they are a perfect fit for me. 

I also had a talk with the girl up-stairs today.  If there was ever a person in my life that you just can not make happy no matter what you do ... she is the one.  I was too excited about finishing this project for her to get me down today so I just let her go on and on and then she told me her and her husband were leaving for the rest of the weekend as it is their anniversary today (20 years) and I am thinking  ... "how did that ever happen" to myself but finally she hung up and I went on with what I was doing.  I have to tell you though ... it really bothers me to act like I did (I didn't care so I didn't hear a word she said ... I tuned her completely out) ... but I felt like telling her that if she wasn't happy here then she should move.  It is an apartment after all ... and I don't have any of the complaints that she has and I am right below her ... I don't know what she is talking about.

So enough from me for now.  I am going to take a break and watch some TV and maybe have a drink or something to celebrate ... Yahooooooooooo!  Have a good evening everyone and good night from 1HappyChef.  :)

Friday

Good morning to everyone this very cool morning.  How is everyone doing today?  It was a little cool this morning ... I had to put my heat on for a couple of minutes to get the chill out of here.  It could have been worse though as a nor'easter is coming across the US and NY, NJ and PA have it a lot worse than us as they are getting slammed with snow ... something that I personally am not looking forward to.  So, enough about the weather.

Not much to write about at school these days.  I am having a very hard time getting into this MOD.  It is all about things that don't interest me at all and the math is just killing me.  I am trying to do my best with it and just get through it and pass the best that I can but to tell you the truth ... I think that it is much more complicated than it has to be.   I have been a part of  a very successful bar/restaurant for 27 years with RHS and I am so sure that he had his own way of doing things that were not shared with anyone ...but, I never saw him doing the things that we are learning to make it work and be the "best bar in Keego and the State of MI"!

I also have no desire to go back there (be a part of something like that again).  I will tell you that it was the best part of my life to be a part of something so great with a person that was so wonderful and the love of my life but as we all know  ... we can't go back and capture the past.  So, when I started school it was not my intention at all to re-capture the past ... I just wanted to be a better cook. 

The first two MOD's were in comparison very easy for me and I got in this sort of comfort zone so when we started this time ... I guess that you could say that I was not prepared at all.  I mean I can still cook what they want me to cook but the Monday class just  ... well, it just seems.  

I think that the people who are in charge of designing the classes for this school should take into consideration the different type of people and cooks who might sign up for the program and perhaps offer them something else at this point if they don't plan on owning/going into business.  I had a couple of reasons for signing up for this Culinary Academy and none of the reasons were because I was going to go out there and own and operate my own ... or anyone else business.

When I signed up I was at that point looking for work and stuck in my apartment for 3 years.  With no job out there and no interaction with people because of the money situation I signed up for very different reasons that perhaps someone else. I was already a fairly decent cook (I have learned a great deal to make me a much better cook since starting school) but one of my biggest reasons for signing up for school was to be around people again.  I needed to be able to get out of my apartment and interact with people for part of my day or I was going to go crazy ... so, I started school.  

Yes, a job would be a fine reward to have at the end of this but if the 3rd MOD is so out of the realm for me I wonder if I will even pass. I just can't seem to wrap my head or heart around this anymore and up until this point I was one of the best and brightest but I see it going all down hill from here.

I guess that all I am saying is that perhaps Dorsey should take into consideration why a person is signing up in the first place and maybe make the program to be more conducive to those people and maybe more "older" people like myself who don't necessary want careers out of this but just to improve what they know would sign up ... maybe if there was another choice for the 3rd mod or maybe just modify the 3rd mod a little?

I know that I have no idea what I am talking about but Dorsey is about the enrollment and money ... if they could change the program around a little and get more people to enroll ... then why not?  I don't even know if it is possible but it just seems to me that "anything is possible" right?

I am sorry for going on and on about this today but I had to get it off of my chest ... it makes me sad that it is just black and white and there is no gray ... I really like gray and in this case it would help me a lot.  

For now have a really great day and take care all.  I will be getting back to making my "China" menu and pricing it out.  I worked for 7 hours yesterday and I have only priced out 4 things on my menu and there are 21 menu items left to do ... wonder if it will even be done by Monday?  I think that this is just crazy ....

Over and out from 1HappyChef ... going crazy!  :)

Monday and still pretty nice out...

Bird of Paradise ... oh so pretty!

Good afternoon to all of my readers.  Not too much to report today as today was a bookwork day in the classroom.  I personally like it much better when I can be in the kitchen cooking and taking all of the great pictures.

So today was quite a bit of math problems that will help us with our Restaurant Project ... costing and pricing it out.  I still for some reason am not getting all excited about any of it as I know that I will never do this again as soon as school is over with ... my problem though is that I want to keep my 4.0 GPA so I need to do the work in order to keep that.  I just have not figured out how to do the work without learning something.  I think that it is always wonderful to learn what you can when you have a chance but this is just too much gobble gook that will just clog up my brain.  I just can't afford to fill up my brain with stuff when I know that there will be plenty for me to learn up the road ... something that is much more interesting to me that I would really enjoy learning.  So, for now I will just do what it is that I have to do to keep up with it and learn about China along the way and hope that this time goes by really fast.

Tomorrow we are learning about "Charcuterie" what ever the heck that is?  It has words like Pate, Terrine, Mousseline, En Croute, Forcemeat, Aspic, Gallantine, Ballotine, Quenelle and Foie Gras ??????  I will read the chapter tonight and see what I can get out of it and hope that some of it sticks.  I don't know though ... the further that we get into this the harder it is to say any of the words that you are talking about.  

For me I will be ready to butcher a pig on Wednesday and get into the kitchen and see what we are going to do with it.  This is much more exciting to me than bookwork and doing things over and over that I don't understand.  I am hoping to have some good pictures for you on Wed. and Thursday as well.  I am sure that we will be doing some kind of buffet but I have not heard what it will be about yet ... it probably has something to do with "Charcuterie" no doubt. 


Have a really great rest of the day and evening.  I will have my head stuck in a book for the rest of the night ... so take care and bye for now from 1HappyChef.

Saturday again

Good afternoon everyone.  Saturday again ... time is flying ... almost the Holidays and then I will be done with school.  Wow, where has all of the time gone to?

Not too much to report today .. just doing homework on "China".  I have to tell you that I am not liking it much but I am getting through it.  I was very unmotivated in the beginning today when I started but then I was sitting on my couch watching TV and I have a lap-top computer that I hardly ever use (except for Internet music) and I started looking up things (food) on China up and sort of was getting into it.  I had to save what I was doing on a thumb drive as I have no ink to print out all of this stuff but they say that we can print out anything at school ... so we will see on Monday if we really can.

Pretty nice out today here.  56 degrees right now and very sunny.  That would be very good for the College games today ... beautiful day for tailgating. 

Everyone have a really wonderful day.  I am going to take a break from China and see if I can catch up with my brother Chris and see what he is up to and see if he wants to come over ... and bring me some of the homemade salsa that he made last weekend.  So from me to you ... later from 1HappyChef.  :)

Thursday BBQ

Hello to all of my readers.  Lots to share with you today.  

Yesterday we had this big brunch buffet and today we had a BBQ buffet.

I do have to report that both days were incredible .... each in their own way.  The brunch was all sort of lunch/breakfast items with homemade sausage and some Grav Lox for good measure.  There were coffeecakes, pound cakes, fruit danish, muffins, assorted crepes, breakfast burritos, quiche, South West turkey sausage, crab cakes, salmon, beef wellingtons frittatas and creme brulees.  If that doesn't sound good I don't know what would.

For the BBQ brunch we had 3 different kinds of ribs (my team made the Kansas City kind), also my team smoked 5 chickens, and we also had beef brisket, braised greens, macaroni salad, vinaigrette slaw, smashed sweet potatoes, potato salad, smoked sausage, grilled corn on the cob, black eyed peas, banana pudding, bread pudding and 3 different cheesecakes (my team did a sweet potato cheesecake).  I can not even tell you how good all of these things were but I do have to admit that on Tuesday when we got the menu for the week I thought that we were goners.  With a lot of help from Chef Abbey we did it and we did a good job of it.  Thank you Chef Abbey for all of your help this week!

My smoked chicken ... ummmmm!

Today we also got our reviews for the mod so far ... sort of like a progress report.  I am happy to report that I am still caring an "A", which I though would be near impossible this mod but looks like I am going to be OK with all of the change.  Chef Abbey has been a very pleasant surprise ... thank you for all of your time and help.

Three different kinds of BBQ ribs.

Tomorrow they are having a special help day at school and normally I would help out but I just need some time off of my feet.  My back has been killing me and not to mention that I still am dealing with the "China Restaurant Project" and that is taking everything that I have to keep that going week to week so I don't fall behind.  So, I have decided to just stay home for the entire weekend and try and get ahead of the game with that.

I was right in the middle of this and our power went off for about 2 hours, I am so thankful that this blog post got saved before that happened and I didn't have to start over.  I hate living in an all electric apartment when this happens as you can't eat or anything.  What a pain ... we used to be able to BBQ on our decks when the power went down but now the City of Keego Harbor says no more BBQing on your deck ... fire hazard.  Boo hoo!


At the end of the day at school today I asked anyone if they had anything to add or if they had a quote that I could put in or something and this is what I got ... "The Cake is Baked".

So for now it is good night for me.  Have a really great night everyone and I will post more tomorrow.  Signing off for now from 1HappyChef.  :)

Brunch Buffet Wednesday

Good afternoon to all of my wonderful readers.  Hope that you are all having a really great day.  

Tomorrow is a "brunch buffet" and on the menu we will have:  Coffeecakes, Pound Cakes, Fruit Danish, Morning Glory Muffins, Assortment of Crapes, Breakfast Burritos, Assortment of Quiche, Grav Lox with Garnish, Breakfast Sausage, South West Turkey Sausage, Crab Cakes, Honey Fruit Salad, Salmon en C route, Mini Beef Wellingtons, Assorted Frittatas and Creme Brulees.

Table 1 or my team is responsible for 7 of those items.  We are down a team member and Angie and I are working like crazy to get all of it done on time.  Today we did pretty good.  We got the "pork butt" ground up with the spices and the patties made and ready to fry tomorrow.  We got all of our Mise en Place ready for our "sweet potato cheese cake". and we have our coffee cake and the muffins already made and ready to go.  What we will have to work on tomorrow is the Crapes, and quiche and the honey fruit salad and I can't forget about the frittatas.   I know what your are thinking it seems like we didn't do anything today but I assure you that we did a great deal.

Does anyone know what "brunch" is:  It is not quite breakfast, and it is not quite lunch, but ends with a slice of cantaloupe and you get a good meal!  

That is the plan for tomorrow to put out a very good meal that we will  call brunch.

On Thursday it will be more of the same only on Thursday it will be BBQ.  The menu for Thursday is as follows:  BBQ Ribs ... 3 different kinds., Smoked Chicken, Beef Brisket, Braised Greens, Macaroni Salad, Vinaigrette Slaw, Smashed Sweet Potatoes, Jalapeno-Cheddar Corn Bread, Potato Salad, Smoked Sausage, Grilled Corn on the Cob, Black Eyed Peas, Banana Pudding, Bread Pudding and Cheesecakes.

Of this BBQ menu my team is responsible for 6 of the items listed.  Of these we have already prepared the BBQ sauce (Kansas City sauce) and rub that is already on the 3 slab of ribs for our team.  We already have 5 chickens in a brine and so they will be ready to be smoked tomorrow.  We have everything ready for our cheese cake (sweet potato) and that just needs to be put together and baked off.

So, all in all I think that Angie and I are sitting pretty in the scheme of things.

For me it is more of the same tomorrow.  I should however have some very good pictures of the food we put out for our brunch buffet.  

I found out today that the "China" project that I am working on needs some more work because I was going to design my menu around a food truck and today I was told that I can not have a food truck so I have to start over with a real restaurant.  bummer ... I really thought that I had a good idea. I refuse to change the name ... I am going to stand my ground!

Have a really great day and night ... good bye for now from 1HappyChef. :)

The Restaurant Project

Good Sunday morning to everyone.  Hope that your weekend is planned and you are enjoying your time off.

This is week two of the Restaurant Project.  I think as I told you before my country is China.  This week we have to come up with a name for our restaurant, a concept and a menu.

This will be the name of my restaurant. 

Peking Decker's Food Truck    

	北京德克食品卡车

I have to tell you that this is not as easy as it sounds to just come up with a restaurant and then start from scratch and build it from the ground up.  I do know that I will never do this when I get out of school ... too much math involved.

I have however come up with the name and the concept and three Appetizers, two Soups, two Salads, three Entrees with Sides and two Desserts.  Not so easy in Chinese cooking because everything is almost all the same.  It all has all of the same ingredients in it ... except for some of the desserts but over all it is pretty hard to separate the rest into categories.

I will be more than happy when this faze of Culinary School is over with.  We are learning things that me personally will never use or do.  This stuff is not my cup of tea and I have decided that I just want to be a baker of fine bread in some small bakery somewhere and live happily ever after ... but this is a part of school so once again I will give it my all and see where it takes me ... probably to the looney bin but we will see.

So, for today you all have a wonderful day and I will check in tomorrow with how I did on this latest oral report.  Over and out from 1HappyChef.  :)

GO DETROIT LIONS!

A sweet sweet day ...

          



              Happy Sweetest Day from me to all of you!                                     Have a really sweet day ...

Mexican Thursday

Good afternoon to all of your wonderful people out there reading my blog.  I appreciate it so very much that you are interested in the day to day at Dorsey Culinary Academy.  Some times it is a very good ride and sometimes not so much.  I am hoping that everyone out there is enjoying this wonderful afternoon and this fairly nice weather.  Especiales abrazos y besos a usted mi amigo muy especial... esperan que el día es un maravilloso!

Chicken Kiev

Too bad for our Detroit Tigers ... but they are not out of it yet.  Anything can happen.  However it works out ...The Detroit Tigers have given us quite a show this season and they have made us proud.  They are doing a good job!

So, today at school.  What a day ... rush, rush and more rushing.  I think that it is a great deal of stuff to do in one lunch setting and then have all of the clean up when everyone has eaten.  

Chili Relines

First of all I am so sorry that I did not take a better picture of the Chicken Kiev.  You can not see the full effect of it by the picture but I am here to tell you again that it is very good.  

Chili Relines ... well, I did not think that I would even like them when I was grinding two kinds of meat and mixing it all together with the spices

Beef Wellington, Prime Rib and fruit

Lobsters

but I have to tell you ... I was so hungry that when he said we could eat the first thing I grabbed was one of the Relines (only because it was deep-fried) so how bad could it be, right?  It had both pork and beef in them with jalapeno peppers, onions and a whole lot of spices and wow, what a nice surprise.  Not too hot ... just right and very very tasty.

The buffet with the Beef Wellington, Prime Rib and fruit and of course the Lobsters are not anything that I did.  They were a part of the buffet and I just thought that I would share the pictures with you.  I did not eat any of those things so I can not comet on how they were but I did hear teachers going around all afternoon saying how wonderful that it all way.  I think that the 10 class mates and myself kicked some butt this week and i am patting us on the back for a job well done!  A special thank you to Angie for bringing Table 1, team 1 a Mexican tablecloth for our buffet ... it was a very nice touch!

So, I know that I said that I wasn't going to do anymore special credit stuff for awhile, I said that I was going to take a break, right?  Well, I think that I have decided to go to a class tomorrow called:"How to succeed in Culinary School".  I think that I already know most of this information but it never hurts to review does it?  I believe that I a already this type of student but who knows ... maybe I can still learn something new?  If I do or I don't it is only a three hour class and I get 5 bonus points ... in case I need them in the future for something. 

I will be saying good afternoon for now as I have to get dressed (out of uniform) and go and get some coffee and get some oil in my car.  Have a really great day and I will post again tomorrow.  Bye for now from 1HappyChef. :)

Mexican buffet tomorrow

Good afternoon everyone.  How is everyone doing?  I am kind of wiped out today as this buffet building is a very long and slow process.  I really enjoy eating Mexican cuisine but I have never cooked much of it and if I did it was nothing like the things that we are making for this buffet.  I guess that the difference would be is that I am making authentic Mexican food and the stuff that we make at home or get eating out is not usually the real thing.

Things are actually going a lot better this week everything considered.  I am still just a little behind but I am sure that it will all be ready for the deadline tomorrow morning at 11 AM.

Also, this extra job that I took on ... sous chef ... that has been some what of a challenge to get everyone to do their jobs and share the load.  It seems like there are the same ones all of the time doing it all and the rest just sit around and criticize.   

 Hay por ahí, esa persona muy especial que ha estado ahí para mí estos últimos días (especialmente cuando necesitaba ayuda con tareas) que se está constituyendo en un muy buen amigo mío que me ha hecho darse cuenta de que quiero empezar a vivir mi vida otra vez. Me refiero en todos los sentidos no sólo en el mundo culinario que tanto amo y disfrutar ya. No sé cómo explicarlo, pero me encuentro escuchando (realmente escucha) de las palabras a las canciones ahora y hemos sido día soñando en mi tiempo libre... se siente bien. Gracias querido amigo! Creo que ustedes saben quién es usted:

So for today I am going to say good bye.  I don't have any homework (well none due tomorrow at least) so I just took a shower and got on my jimmies and I am going to chill in front of the TV until it is time to go to bed.  I could use just a little break to get psyched  up for the big day tomorrow.

Everyone have a really great evening and I promise that I will have lots of great pictures and lots of news tomorrow.  Take care and good night from 1HappyChef.  :) 

Getting ready for Thursday Station Buffet

Chicken Kiev

Good afternoon all of my fellow readers.  Hope that you are all doing well today and that you are enjoying this really nice weather.

Fall is my favorite time of the year ... the smell of burning leaves in the air and all of the beautiful colors.

Tempura Veggies

More chicken, onion rings and hush puppies

Today in school we got our teams buffet instructions and once again all of this needs to be completed on Thursday at 11 AM.  So, I will admit to you right off the bat that today went a lot smoother for me.  I wasn't nearly upset and confused ... still a little mixed up on the menu (and our team is cooking Mexican and I am not familiar with that at all) but when I am done with this short and sweet post I am going to try and make some sense of it and see if we can stay ahead of the game and finish in a timely manor on Thursday.  I volunteered to be the sous chef today for the week ... I forgot what a headache that can be as I have not done that in awhile .... not since the first mod.  Anyhow, today it got done and I will do the best that I can for the rest of the week.

Also today we got our report cards form the MOD that we just finished and I got an 4.0 GPA and I went to school 320 hours ... all that there were to go.  I also got A and A in both classes CA104 and CA105.  So, for me this is very good news as I try very hard to do as well as I can ... I guess that I am doing that ... at least for now.

 

Also today we had something called something like a "deep-fry fest" and we were responsible for deep-frying two things to have ready to put out at 11:30 AM and our team did Chicken Kiev (it was very good) and tempura veggies. Chicken Kiev chicken is so good that it can't possible be good for you just because it is chicken.  I had 6 chicken breasts and I pounded them out pretty thin and then in a bowl I mixed 1 lb. of soft butter with jalapeno peppers chopped up and some parsley, thyme, tarragon and salt and pepper and then I rolled the butter into big logs and placed on one end of the chicken breasts and rolled them up then dipped them in flour and then in egg wash and then in the bread crumbs (that we homemade with bread that we made) and then you put them in the fridge to cool for a short time and then drop them into the fryer until crispy brown and then on a sheet pan and in the oven until done.  When I cut them in thirds to plate them you would not have believed how good the inside roll looked (and it tasted even better).  You can not see the inside the way I took the picture but we will be making it again on Thursday as that is part of our buffet so I will try to take a better picture then for you to see.  The tempura veggies are just a very thin coat of batter over any vegetable and deep-fried until a very light brown and the veggies are cooked through.

The plan for tomorrow needs to be reviewed and put into place so I feel as good tomorrow about school as I did today.  When you have a plan it always just seems to go a little smoother and makes the day a little bit easier.  

So, for now from 1HappyChef I will say good bye and have a great afternoon.  :)  PS>hi FP!

Warm one more day ... enjoy!

Good morning everyone.  Hope that everyone is enjoying this great weather ... warm during the day and cool down at night for great sleeping.

Not a lot to report today.  I am just working on my  "China" 10 minute oral report.  I have gotten on the Internet (Thank you Frank Pierce III for all of the information) and have printed it out so I can read and high-lite important things (I am not sure that I will ever have 10 minutes worth to say) and then type up the paper and go over it again so I can read it.  The Chinese have so many words that I can't even pronounce that I think that I will be in big trouble when I am trying to read it in front of the class.

Yesterday the "Special Decorating Class" was fun.  It was not as I had expected it to be but I did learn and have a good time.  The day overall was very long.  I am not sure that I will ever be able to build up that kind of stamina again.  I am working on it so we will see but being on my feet for 5-6-7 hours right now is about killing me.  Posted are some of the cakes .. they turned out very beautiful!

Next week ... after the 10 minute oral report we are going back into the kitchen to work on another buffet.  I think this one will be a little different as  it will be a "station buffet" with an "action item" ... what the heck is that?  I guess that I have a lot of reading ahead of me.

I just saw that CO got 8" of snow yesterday ... wow, hope that doesn't ever happen in MI.

Our Detroit Tigers are giving us quite a show.  The rain was out of their control but never the less the game was a very exciting one.  Keep doing well our Detroit Tigers and give us a show we won't soon forget.  Let's stomp on the Rangers!

Well, I wish that all of you have a wonderful Sunday.  As for me, I have to get started on all of this homework.  

Good bye for now and I will check in again tomorrow.  Signing off for now from 1HappyChef.  :) 

Thursday and "The Buffet"

Good morning to all of my readers.  I wanted to take a day and night to reflect on this past week in the kitchen before I filled you in on the buffet.

If I were to be honest with you I would have to say that it was very nerve racking for me.  We went from this very comfortable setting (Cake Decorating and Healthy Food) to this environment that I did not understand at all.   This part of the program is designed to get you ready to be out in the real world and it is about "building" things.  I do not understand putting things together at all.  I am a very good "hands on" person if I see a demo but for me to just figure it out is very difficult. 

Also, the menu that we were working from ... now that I am looking at it again and the project is  done I think that it was alright but on Tuesday and Wednesday I had a very hard time figuring out what was a "Canape Set". The menu read ... Smoked Salmon with Caviar and when all was said and done the entire process was not done like a pro in the kitchen.  I was thinking all along maybe very thin sliced salmon in rolls with some caviar (which I in my mind all along I was seeing ... capers) so that was wrong right from the start.  And then it never played in my mind that I needed some sort of base (little bread toasts) and some glue .. or doctored up cream cheese with herbs and then yes, the caviar and a garnish.

I would have to admit now that I need to read the information better and I need to re-read the Chapters in the book that apply.  I will never make it through this if I don't understand the process better and I don't think that I can keep my "A's for just showing up.  It would be really great if that happened but I really can't see it going like that ... I am sure that they expect you to learn something from this and I am sure that I will ... the question is ... what and how much?  Right now I feel very dumb!

At 11:15 AM our buffet was on the display table and almost ready to go.  We were aloud 10 extra minutes to put on the finishing touches like "garnish" .. apparently a really big deal in making it all come together and pop.  

11:15 AM and we are up ... THE BUFFET TABLE POPPED AND IT WAS A SIGHT TO BE SEEN BY ALL.  I was proud of the finished product.       Hal-la-lull a!   We did our first buffet and the word is that next week it should be easier.  I am hoping for myself at least to understand it from the get go and not always be second guessing myself as it really sets me back and I always feel as if I am behind the deadline.  Being ahead of the deadline is a much better feeling.

Here are some of the pictures for you to enjoy.  There were 11 students who put this together.  The 11 students were divided into 3 teams and each team had about 8 items to complete for the buffet table.  We started on Tuesday preparing and on Thursday at 11:15 AM is the display.

For the first time I think that we all came together and did well.  Our instructor Chef Abbey said that we did well ... thank you Chef Abbey!

Tomorrow I will have pictures from a class that I am much more familiar with.  I am going to Chef David's cake decorating class.  And I get to bring my cake home so ... I won't be loosing any weight this weekend.  This is a 5 hour class instead of the usual 3 hour extra credit class and I am very excited as he picked me to be his assistant.  I will post more tomorrow to keep you up to date on the day to day happenings at Dorsey Culinary Academy.

Have a really great day and good bye for now from 1HappyChef.  :)

Salmon

Good day fellow readers.  Boy what a day ... I am not sure where to start with this post.

Today I was totally confused and could not find my way most of the class.  I don't think of myself as a dumb person but for some reason today I just was having a very hard time understanding what the game plan was.

Finally I asked Chef Abbey what in the heck we were suppose to do and how were we suppose to do it and I sort of got it for the rest of the day but I walked away today very disappointed in the lack of work that I had accomplished today.

I will try and explain so you will understand it better ... heck, I don't understand it.

For the next 6 weeks we are doing "buffet's" on Thursdays and preparing for them on Tuesday and Wednesdays and then finishing up the dishes on Thursday and putting them all out in a buffet.  Sounds simple right?  We were very lucky in the fact that we got to keep our old team ... we are very capable of finishing the tasks at hand in a timely manor .. so, that was a very good thing.  But our assigned dishes for our team are:  Smoked salmon/caviar, cucumber cream cheese on pumpernickel, peanut butter and jelly (cashew butter and jam), Lamb brochettes with sauce, stuffed mushrooms, chicken in phyllo and profiteroles with chicken moose.  Sounds pretty easy .... well it isn't.

So, after my little talk with the Chef he showed us how to write it down so it made more sense to us and so we could get a feel for what was a today project and then tomorrows work and then the final on Thursday on the buffet table.

My first project was to cure/cook the salmon because that process takes 3 days so if I hadn't have done it today it would not be ready for the dish.  I get all of my Mise en place ready as we were taught and then my day got ugly.  I went in the walk-in cooler and got a piece of salmon that I thought that we would be using and guess what?  Not so ... I had to put it back and get a salmon that looked about 1 foot bigger than the one in the picture above and then ... look out here I am fighting with the stupid fish that is so big (18-20 lbs.) and slippery that I can't lift it, scale it or anything else to it.  Plus ... we had never cut a salmon before so before I got real scared Chef Abbey stepped in and helped and showed me how and what to do.  He cut off 1/2 of the head and cut down the back bone and showed me what to do and then I had to do the other half.  What a trip ... I was covered in scales and fish blood and guts but I will tell you that in the end I did get a very nice fillet and I put the curing ingredients on it and put a pan on top of that and weighted it down with 4 #10 cans and so Thursday we are ready to go with the fish at least.  The rest remains to be seen ...

I will tell you that I stopped at Rite Aid on my way home and the cashier said ... do you smell fish?  Well, what do you think ... you could see all of the shinny scales that I was covered in ... I came right home and washed me and my clothes.

So, as days go I did learn something today.  Thank you Chef Abbey for teaching me about salmon today!  I am truly hoping that once we do one week of this that it will become easier and I will feel like I accomplished something ... I mean I did the fish and I helped Molly and Angie with their bread that they were getting ready for some of our dishes but all in all I just wish that I got it a little better or maybe I just need to understand the time line and what can be made ahead of time better.

My clothes are in the dryer and I have had a little snack for my dinner and I did some homework that is due on Thursday and I am ready to quit.  I have reviewed and reviewed the menu for Thursday so hopefully tomorrow will go a little easier and feel a little more productive.

Everyone have a really great night and I will post tomorrow and tell you where we are with our portion of the buffet.  Maybe I will have some pictures ... I should have taken a picture of the fish but I was so covered in it I did not want to touch my camera ... maybe tomorrow ... Good night everyone from 1HappyChef.  :)

Monday

Good afternoon everyone.  Hope that everyone is enjoying their day and the sunshine.  When I left for school this morning it was a little nippy but when I got out it was just beautiful out.  Way to go all of our MI teams yesterday ... good job all of you!

Dana Burnstein, Denise and Diana Lewis (WXYZ)

Today was our first day back after a 10 day break and they switched things up on us this MOD.  We used to be in the kitchen on Mon., Tues. and Wed.. and then had classroom on Thursday but now we have classroom on Monday and then are in the kitchen the other 3 days.  It will confuse me for awhile but I am sure that I will eventually get it ... or else.

This is going to be very different.  It will be all about different regions in the Country ... my region will be "China" they told me today so basically my next 12 weeks will be based on this region.  Next Monday I have to have a 10 minute oral report done all about China, the culture and the food they eat and why.  Good thing I had that speech the other day and had to speak in front of 310 people to get me used to talking in front of people.  It should be a breeze to give a report to 15 other students, right?

We also got not one but two new instructors ... For the Monday classroom we will have Chef Daniel and for the hands on in the kitchen we will have the one and only Chef Abbey.  He is very smart and I know that I will learn a lot from him.  I don't know how much I will learn in Chef Daniel's class as most of it is "math" and we all know how much I like that .... not so much but I promise that I will do my best.

So, as I promised yesterday the posts and pictures will start regular tomorrow and everyday from now on.  I am sorry that I slacked off for a short time but I didn't want to write and bore you so I waited.

Go Detroit Tiger's tonight ... give us another win!

Good bye for now from 1HappyChef.  :)