"BACKA!"

So Chef Adrain might be my favorite Chef ever. She's lots of fun yet all business at the same time. I already feel like I've learned a lot in this class. Last night we made Gateau St. Honore, random I know. And we were supposed to make eclairs as well but didn't have time. This week were finishing out the week with pies for thanksgiving and then next week we jump into cakes. (I'm nervous). Not because I suck at making cakes, but because I'm like a Nazi when it comes to frosting. I'm like the most OCD froster ever. So I might have lots of issues with that. Tonight were making some sort of almond cream puffs. I'm really glad that I decided to go to Le Cordon Bleu, the program is amazing, the Chefs are inspiring and the food is superb. Possibly one of the best life decisions I've made so far. If your into cooking, and you want to build a career on that, then I recommend Le Cordon Bleu :).

Butter Makes It Better

I have the feeling that I will gain like 10 pounds in this class. The amount of carbs and bread I'm consuming is ridiculous. On the first day we made coffee cake and cranberry muffins. And then last night we made jalapeno chedder biscuits and apricot scones. Yum. But since you can't just make one biscuit or one muffin you have to make an entire dozen, or two dozen. So that's a lot to bring home (my mom's gonna kill me for "making her fat" this next month). Baking and Pastries a lot easier than I expected, but it's also impossible to tell if you failed the dish until it comes out of the oven. And then you have no time to fix it. So I check and double check my mise just to make sure I have everything (last night I almost forgot the baking powder in my biscuits, which would have been bad). So if any of you five readers want some fresh baked goods, let me know! Haha :)

Been Crazy Busy

With everything going on in my life. Trying to get a job at Dancing Fox and studying for finals. It looks like I did pretty good on the finals, on the written I got 70.5 out of 75 and on the practical I got 65 out of 70. So it looks like I'll get an A in the class after all (which I totally deserve because I've worked my butt off in this class). Turns out Chef Cory's not so bad after all, he kind of softened up a bit after the first week and really tried to teach us important things we need to move up in the field. Like keeping our station clean. This class was the most difficult so far but I have to say I enjoyed the challenge. And tonight is all about fun! Tonight we get to shuck oysters (and eat them, but I don't know how I feel about that), we get to break down lobster (and eat that, YUM!), and we get to eat Reuben sandwiches with the pastrami we've been brining since week one. Plus we have all the leftover chicken from finals and lamb from not using it Monday. No one will go home hungry tonight! And I'm bringing containers :)

Hello Roger Rabbit

So we made rabbit! And it was delicious! It tastes kind of like a richer, gamey-er chicken. We also made lamb shanks and since Billy, Richard and Chef didn't want theirs I came home with four lol. So the rabbit was with fresh pasta and a dijon sauce. The lamb shank was with risotto and roasted vegetables. And we also made veal blanquette (bleh, disgusting). Veal blanquette is disgusting because it's basically boiled veal with a white sauce. It's just so bland. And hopefully I'll put some pictures up soon!

Here Comes The Weekend!

So this week was slightly fantastic, we made filet mignons, new york steaks and pork carnitas! The pork was my favorite :). My filet mignon was really rare according to Chef (a.k.a. delicious). Were supposed to cook our steaks to medium rare. My new york steak turned out perfectly. I didn't try it though, I was too busy eating my carnitas. Also, I worked on no sleep monday, was sick tuesday, and was sick and had pink eye wednesday, so it was an exhausting week to say the least. Still dealing with the pink eye. Yuck. And I might be driving back up to Sac tomorrow to help Chef with a holiday cooking class he has. Sounds fun eh?

"SLOW!" "My Boys A Genius!" "Say It Again!" "SLOW"

So as the title implies, tonight was fairly slow. And I get the feeling that Chef gave us off times because all my dishes were like ten minutes off. So let's see, I made Potato Pancakes with a Pecan Butter Stuffed Chicken Leg, an Airline Chicken Breast with Fruit Salsa and Dal, and Vegetable Curry. My potato pancakes weren't fried in enough oil so they got kind of crispy. The chicken leg turned out perfectly though. Then the airline chicken breast was grilled perfectly but my dal was oversalted O.o (which never happens). And my vegetable curry was magnifico! Voila!

Back At It Again

So it's Monday. And I'm back to cooking. Woooooooooooooooooo. Nah, it's not so bad. Tonight was just a slow night. And Chef got pissy once or twice. Which is never fun to deal with. And I had like a really great day today, I was all optimistic and stuff. And then as soon as I was on my way to school it went from happy to bleh. I just feel like I never get enough sleep because my back hurts so I wake up alot at night. Anywho, enough about the personal life. Tonight we prepped our airline breasts and tunneled leg and thigh pieces (of chicken, in case you were lost). And I thought I did very well. the first time I broke down a chicken I did a crap job but this time when Chef Cory broke it down as a demo I took very detailed notes. HA! And then we made fruit salsa. Which was a pain in my butt because we had to small dice everything. Do you realize how long it takes to small dice an entire cantaloupe?!! A very very long time.