Ouchies

So tonight I got my first "serious" injury at LCB. I mean, I've cut myself, but it was a tiny cut. Today I burned the entire inside of my index finger (ON MY CUTTING HAND O.o). So that was fun. Other than that I burned my refried beans (the second cooking not the first), my cranberry beans, I overcooked my lentils, etc etc. the only thing I didn't ruin was the hummus. So I got one out of five dishes correct. Luckily they weren't graded :). And hummus is the only dish not cooked, har har. So we made a wierd cranberry bean/asparagus dish, and no it's not cranberries and beans, there are actually beans called cranberry beans, weird right? Then we had refried beans, which was awesome because now I can make fresh refried beans for taco night! And we made tabbouleh, which is like a cold salad with a riceish grain in it. Pretty good. And last but not least we made lentil salad. Which was epically weird.

And Then You Have A Bunch Of Ecoli Dancing Around On Your Carrot

Anyone who reads this should give a nice round of applause to the D-Shift Foundations II class. Tonight was ridiculous. We had four dishes to make: (now I could give you the fancy French names for these but I'm so tired from the gym I'm not going to go all the way back out to my car to get names that you won't understand anyways) green bean saute, glazed carrots, risotto, and leek salad with vinaigrette. So the green bean saute was delicious. Very easy to prepare, just green beans, bacon and red bell pepper. The glazed carrots were a pain in the butt because the carrots had to be tourned (ugh, awful). The risotto was really good, it was flavored with saffron (yum!), which is ridiculously expensive. And the leek salad was surprisingly good. The leeks were cooked, with the vinaigrette on top. Nice little tangy kick in there. So while all these dishes seem relatively easy, they take time, especially prep time. And today, due to a long quiz, a long lecture and a long demo, time was something we were definitely short on. We started cooking at 10. And were supposed to have all our cooking done by 10:45 so we have time for clean up. So we have forty five minutes to perfectly cook four dishes. But we actually went over the time and no one checked the time until Chef was like "oh goodness it's 11!" So everyone shut off the thing they were cooking and we cleaned the entire kitchen, dishes and all in thirty minutes! It was crazy! D-Shift, I applaud you. I am glad to be called one of your own.

I Actuially Had Some Funny Title. ..But I Threw It Away. ..

Ahhhhh today. ..today was. ..unexplainable. I got to school early super stressed out to ask Chef if he had seen my notes and my recipe cards because they had gone missing. He said no, I freaked out even more and checked with the front desk, who also hadn't seen them. So I rushed back to class to check my Mise en Plase with someone else because I was sure most of mine were wrong due to the fact that I didn't have my notes and BAM! my bff Billy had picked up my stuff the night before and brought it for me. So I hugged him thankfully and got to work correcting my Mise. Then, I struggled to pay attention to demo because I hadn't had anything to eat because I had been job hunting before school. So I made myself a cup of coffee during practicals so I would stay awake. Turns out, I stressed for no reason. I had a ridiculous amount of leftover time after I finished my three soups (Dubarry, French Onion, and Consomme). And then I made my steamed rice and rice pilaf in no time at all. Both which I made with Consomme instead of water (for the steamed rice) and stock (for the pilaf) and it added tons more flavor. Yum. So I was stressed out for nothing because it all worked out in the end :). Thank you Jesus :).

"Chef, How Do You Spell Scouch?" "DO I LOOK LIKE WEBSTER?!"

So first, fun facts. AP Flour is actually just 50% cake flour and 50% bread flour. So if you ever run out of AP flour (and randomly, for no good reason, have cake flour and bread flour) you can mix some cake and bread flour together and BAM! AP Flour. Next fun fact, have you ever wondered the difference between mayonnaise and Miracle Whip? Mayonnaise is made with egg yolks and Miracle Whip is made with egg whites. That's why mayonnaise is much richer (and Miracle Whip tastes like crap :P). EGADS! So tonight was a busyish night? I'm not actually sure, I pretty much missed the entire thing, (I had too much coffee before hand, plus another cup when I got there AND a cup of sweet tea {yum!}). So I was like working at such a high speed I can't remember anything!! Anywho, we made four soups tonight. Clam Chowder, Cream of Cauliflower, Caldo Verde and Shrimp Bisque. The Shrimp Bisque is very very shrimpy. It needs to be cut with some sort of bread or mixed with pasta or something. I didn't really try any of the Caldo Verde cause I made it last minute and put it in a container so I could clean up. It's like a broth kind of thing flavored with sausage and kale, I brought it home for my dad cause he likes greens. And I brought the Clam Chowder home for my brother cause he likes Clam Chowder. My friend said my Clam Chowder was pretty good (I didn't taste it because I'm not a fan of Clam Chowder). And now to get some sleep! (Gotta study for a soup practical tomorrow, yay).

Voila!

Soooooo the practical. Bleh. First, I made a perfect Mornay. Second, I spilled half my Beurre Blanc reduction on my cutting board and I used an aluminum skillet to make it. So it turned out a little too thin and slightly gray. Hmmm let's see, what else. Then I made my Robert all wrong because I didn't make the reduction, I just added the white wine to the demi-glace. But that turned out fine I suppose. Then my hollandaise totally crapped out all together and so Chef said I could try again (I think he likes me :D) so I did but then it was still too thin. I'm hoping I at least got a 25/30. Ans then we made Consomme and French Onion Soup. DELICIOUS! Well the Consomme is basically like a broth but the French Onion was soooo good. I put two little toasted baguette pieces in it and then spread gruyere cheese all over to the top and melted it in the oven. Yum. Well, sorry this is so late but now I gotta head to school again! WOOOoooooo. ..

"I Like That Stringy Gooey Kinda Cheese Thaaang"

Ahhh it's so nice to be home. Tonight was slowish. We had a written quiz and then we had time to practice our sauces for tomorrow's practical. Yaaaaay. (Not). We have to make four sauces and two of those are derivatives of other sauces so we have to make the mother sauce first. So a four sauce test turned into a six sauce test. And we only have two hours to finish all six and season them perfectly and clean our station. AGH! I'm just concerned about the fact that if I try to rush and mess something up I'm screwed. Because before the test were going to mise everything out and that's all we get so if we mess up, that's it, were done. My station buddy made me laugh so hard I cried though lol. I can't even remember what I was laughing at. Silly Billy. So wish me luck America! I'm going into a two hour panic attack tomorrow night. Or well, tonight actually. Same difference.

WHAT?! No Way!

Got out on time on the last night of the week! That was about the only good thing that happened last night. My parents dropped me off at school because we were already in Sacramento so I forgot my lanyard. Luckily, someone in my class had a spare they lent me. Then, my back was really messed up so I had to sit down during lecture so I didn't get very good notes. Then we had to make hollandaise, mayonnaise, and beurre blanc. My mayonnaise turned out great cause I've made it before. Then with the beurre blanc I burned my reduction the first time so I had to start over. Then the second time I thought I ruined it again so I went up to taste Chef's beurre blanc and had to spit it out it was so gross. So then I had to taste mine four or five times to get the seasoning right and was spitting it out after each taste. Yuck. Then on the hollandaise I made it wrong the first time and the second time I made it the pan was too hot and I cooked the eggs!! AGH! So I asked my suite partner if I could have half of his and the seasoned it and turned it in. It was just an all around hectically, horrible night. I'm ready for the weekend though :)