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.