You're lookin' at it Baby. My next assignment or project for European Cuisine. Dare I call this assortment Cuisine? How's 'bout we jest call it supper.

We Hat Picked our mystery country yesterday and I somehow mistakenly picked Southern Germany! Yikes. No one wanted to trade with me. Iceholes! Our project is due next week and I have to put together a four course meal for it. Seems to me that mustard is a "course" with German food. Sauerkraut is like the only vegetable allowed and I'm really not pleased that I have to cook food that is considered Wurst!!

I'll have to make due. Considering the Chef is part German, I'll make him some Spatzel, Beer Soup and plenty of sausages with Krauts. (what did I do to deserve this!) The others picked places like Spain, Portugal, France, Italy - Northern and Southern and I picked the Land of 1500 different sausages. Whoopee.

I signed up for a wine tour this Saturday morning to Napa. The school has put it together along with a light breakfast, transportation and a lunch. We'll be going to Mondavi and a few others. Learning some inside stuff I guess. Should be worth the day's time. I shall report to the blogmeister upon returning (or as soon as I've recovered). The weather's been good so the trip should be very enjoyable. Let's see, no driving, wine tasting, free food, Yep its a keeper!

Well, time to dash off so I can put together my recipe for BEER SOUP! Gads. I never thought I'd miss the French. Or the Italians. Huh Joey. Ciao Ciao.

A Taste of Italy

Finally we have arrived at the sacred ground of Italy (right Joey?). Ahhh. The lusciousness of it, the aromas, the fragrance, the garlic! We covered Northern Italy today and my team had 3 dishes to divide amongst us and I chose the one I wanted ASAP. One of these days these guys will realize that I'm not the real leader and start choosing for themselves. Until that happens, I'm taking the lead and cherry picking what I want to do.

Our choices were a warm salad of steamed veggies with a warm proscuitto dressing, hand rolled strands of freshmade pasta in a ragu of pancetta, and sausages and a million other things, and then the Veal stew in a porcini mushroom broth. That's the one I didn't want anyone to screw up. A hearty veal stew. I am the only female on my team and these guys all seem like they know what they're doing up front. I've concluded they are "players" and therefore delegate the cooking list for the day. They even come up to me and ask who and what's to cook. I'm amazed. It makes life pretty easy for me.

The guy on the pasta must have missed the class on rolling out pasta. This stuff was the size of 3 slices of white bread squashed down thick. I have never eaten such thick pasta. I should have made that dish. Pity. Then the guys on the salad, which had beets, forgot to keep the beets separate so the end result was a reddish green/brown broccoli with red everywhere. I hate beets anyway but I should have made that dish too.

I'm not trying to sound like a snob. I just know that some things are just not right no matter what the recipe says. Take my Lamb Stew for instance. I added some port wine for a bit of flavor while the meat was browning, I tasted while cooking and found it a bit flat so I added my best friend of Garlic then decided after a while that it still needed something else so I kicked it up a bit with crushed red pepper flakes. None of which was in the "recipe". The end result was pretty good but a bit much on the heat of the pepper flakes. Even still, our neighboring Chef came in and tried my stew and I heard him tell our Chef it was good. Then he turned back and got a whole bowl of it and ate it! YES! That was the best compliment since it was between the two chefs! I'm happy.

I ate my stew for dinner tonight too. Yumm... nighty-nite y'all.

Napolean Never Had It This Good!

We've completed one week of our European Cuisines ending on the shores of Britain including the Loovely Land O' Errrland. (you know, shamrocks and leprecauns) Accents are so hard to to electronically. Bloddy 'ell.

How good was the food you ask? Eh. I made something called Colcannon and Boxty potatoes. The Boxty's are something like a hash brown with buttermilk in them. They were hard to cook, fell apart at the sight of a spatula, and tasted like a... hash brown. BFD. Waste of good buttermilk. Who buys buttermilk anyway?! If you do buy some to make these god-forsaken little burps of misery (cooking wise) then you'll be making them again and again just to use up the buttermilk. We shall call it the Buttermilk Conspiracy with Matt Damon at the lead. He'll carry a folding spatula in search of the Holy Teflon Pan. AFTER I struggled with the freakin' Boxty's (where do these people get these names for food?!) then the Chef gave us all some "Tips" on how to do this recipe without the food sticking to our skillets. Gee thanks Chef. I had to pick blackened bits of boxties off your chef plate and NOW you tell me.

The Colcannon was good, but then again, it was basically a hot potato salad with the addition of only cabbage and green onions. It did have a wad of butter though. We should just make food like this and serve it to our enemies to win wars. They'll die from artery clogging butter fat in no time flat. How do the Brits manage to live through their own food?

Our class also made a Scotch Broth (lamb or beef stew), London Clam Soup (think fog colored soup), Shepard's Pie, which for some reason the Chef made some connection to the Johnnie Depp movie Sweeny Todd, about cutting up people and putting them in these pies and selling them to the unsuspecting public. So for that reason, I don't know how it tastes since I don't eat people.
We did have some good Fish and Chips and a nice platter of broccoli and cauliflower with a Mornay sauce.

In the end, it was all good fun. I love the swearing, yelling, ecentric pace of 12 chefs a'blazin'! The energy is exciting. You're running here and there with hot pans of grease and boiling pots of water constantly passing behind you by someone running to the sink pit. Its like a wild game of dodge ball, blind man's bluff and Rover, Rover all at once. I really like our Chef too. He's a hoot. He keeps calling me Barbara so finally yesterday I taped my name tag with masking tape and wrote Barbara on it! I then told him that I probably won't respond to Barbara SINCE that's not my name and if he calls me Debra I probably won't respond to that either since he hasn't called me that in a WEEK! Ha. We laughed.

I've been perfecting my Dead Pan humor in his class. Its been very difficult for me since I really find my own sayings funny to myself. It's like my voice box is possessed by someone else sometimes and I hear what comes out of my own mouth and its pretty darn funny. So I laugh. So I'm currently trying to tame the funny beast that lives inside me. This is a lesson in restraint.

But I digress..... Back to foods. Next week we creep up in the still of the night on France and Italy then we wage a fierce battle of tongs and vegetable peelers for two days until we make mincemeat pies from them! We shall clear the streets of France of all the Slotted Spoons in the Red Light districts and we shall pry and fry the remaining spaghetti westerns from the very hands of Italian Producers! Onward Kitchen Soldiers!!

[somewhere along the line my reality base is fuzzing up, doncha think?]

Grazing in the Saddle Again

Finally, we are back to cooking. Our current class is The Principals of European Cuisine. Monday we cooked Scandanavian and Russian, Tuesday we tackled Germany and devoured it and today we invaded Spain and Portugal leaving just the bones behind! Yum. Every day gets better tasting. Monday was not a favorite by the way.

I love the buffet style dining we get to do after we're all done. We break up in teams and each team is assigned different dishes to prepare so we get to taste it all. Today my dish was an Ensalata Mista. Basically a mixed salad. It was almost like a Nicoise Salad but without the tuna fish. Boiled eggs, cooked red potatoes, blanched asparagus, fresh artichoke hearts boiled in lemon water and chilled in an ice bath, tomatoes blanched and peeled and cut in 8ths, all tossed with a Sherry Vinigarette with minced garlic and a touch of lemon juice then garnished with anchovies and lemon wedges served over Romaine and Butter Lettuce. It was really tasty.

A nice summer salad that is quite filling. I was glad I got a chance to learn how to fix the artichokes. I have been wanting some instruction on cutting them up and preparing them differently than I always do (which is just steaming or boiling them whole). I learned something today and I ate a lot of interesting foods. We had white bean and linguica sausage soups, a Red Bean and Ham Hocks soup, a Caldo Verde soup, a couple of fish dishes, some gazpacho, and a sweet dessert with strawberries and raspberries and a Sangria drink. We also stuff our plastic containers with more to bring home on the sly. Hey, we gotta eat.

I brought home some more of my salad and some dessert. I gotta get me more plastic wear!

New Food Favorite

I cooked up a new idea the other day and its my new favorite so I'm cooking it again tonight for my Cousin Guy.

I had 3 pieces of boneless, skinless chicken thighs and a big "what to do" with them thought. The day before I prepped up some fresh tomatoes by chopping in 1 inch pieces, adding to them some minced garlic, chopped shallots or onions - fine dice (smaller than the tomatoes), added salt and generous pepper, red wine vinegar (didn't have that so I just added some red wine to my apple cider vinegar) and olive oil. Sort of like a tomato salad. Then I put it away in the fridge. My thought being that I would use it as a dressing over fresh baby spinach leaves which I've done before and I love.

But when I browned the chicken in the skillet they looked so lonely I thought I'd add the tomatoes to cheer them up. I poured them over the simi cooked chicken and let that simmer for about 1/2 hour. I removed them from the pan when they were done with a slotted spoon to get all the tomato up and on top of the happy chicken then poured off most all of the juice then added my spinach to saute. I usually put garlic and crushed red peppers in my spinach but not this time. I had some left over Mac and Cheese as my carb section and it was really tasty!

I'm going to do the same again tonight since I think its a keeper. Tonight I'll make it with Orzo Pasta and my spinach that Guy loves.

I heat up a skillet pan, add some olive oil and sprinkle in some crushed red pepper flakes to warm them up nicely (when I begin to smell the heat of the peppers) then I add some sliced garlic and heat that up briefly, not till golden since that ruins it and turns it bitter. I add the spinach and toss to get it all oiled up and cook it down, add some salt and voila! A tasty spinach.

Simple and easy is my game plan. Its a beautiful day here in sunny San Fran. Bright blue skies and the weather has finally broken its menacing heat wave. I'm alive once again!!

Wine, Whine, Wine

Well, our Intro to Wine class is over today. I'm happy to say I scored Aces on both tests, scoring better on the Business Mgmt test! Go Figure. We ended class with some Fortified Wines, like Sherry's and Port's before being released back into the system. We were fortified!

We learned from a Master Taster, Chef Roy Sandoval. He taught us the stuff other wine teachers don't. Other classes are shock! that we can come within a percentage point of the alcohol content and within a year of the vintage on a blind tasting. They didn't learn it from their teaching chefs.

Show me a lable and I can now read it like an open book (or a flat label) and tell you about it. I'm really hoping we get Chef Roy again for Wines II and Business Mgmt II.

By the way, we did taste a bottle of Chateu Neuf du Pape in class and I have to say that it was NOT a good vintage to my tastes. Not what I'm used to. Too much acids and tannins still. Should have been aged more. I still can't wait to open the one Shannon and Lisa sent me. They. Are. So. Cool! You guys ROCK!

We start Monday morning on the Principles of European Cuisine. Free food once again! It'll give our slogged tongues a break from all the wines, champagnes, and fortified wines. But I'll be getting up again at 5:15 again instead of this couch potato 6:15 style of luxury. Oh well, at least its light out on the streets. All the homeless are up and out of the doorways when the sun shines. I have no clue where they go since they don't have a job or a home but they're always mysteriously gone. I don't see them in the parks or on bus benches either. Odd.

I'll be working again this Sunday at a luncheon buffet for George Lucas' Indiana Jones opening movie. I think it will be a big event. More to follow when I get home that afternoon. Should be interesting.

Cheers and Happy Friday!

My First Job!

I did my first job last night from the staffing agency that I hired on with. I work in a Chef capacity at events in San Francisco.

I was really really nervous on what it would be like, how I could get there and more importantly, how to get back home safely. I was stressing Beeg Thyme.

I decided to take a taxi there which cost me $10. The event was huge. 2400 people! It was for the telecom giant CISCO. It was cool they way they had this 125,000 sq.ft. building all decked out with food stations, theme areas, entertainment and all. Pretty amazing. They had 3 "kitchens" going, probably 5 booze stations, and hundreds of wait staff.

I was in Kitchen 2 where our food station was way the heck in another zip code. You know, like when you go to the airport to catch your flight and you're cutting it close but you notice that your boarding gate is the VERY LAST stop. You have to kick butt to get there all hot and sweaty. That's where our food station was. 12 blocks past the last frickin' gate. We had trays of food to deliver all night long. The Turkish Kabobs were put on these grande sized clay glazed trays and must have weighed 5 pounds each empty. As the evening wore on they gained weight (just like I do when I see food) to 90 pounds. Trying to negotiate through a packed crowd required a lot of dexterity and agility, none of which I thought I had anymore. Somehow I came through with some.

Then there was the issue of my shoes. I wore my official chef shoes which are steel toe reinforced so they weigh about 10 lbs each and are extremely uncomfortable. I will not be wearing them to other events unless I know I'll be in a "real" kitchen. Even with 2 Dr. Sholls inserts they hurt. The other annoying thing was that my insert for my left shoe kept sliding forward during the night so I had to keep untying, fixing and retying all night. I gotta buy some crazy glue. I would get tons of arch support where I didn't need it and nothing protecting my heel which did need it.

My feet are big complainers today still. They're still barking like a pair of mad dogs with every step.

The hardest thing of all was walking home from the BART station at the Civic Center and Market street where I was dropped off by another chef. I had a long walk ahead, maybe 10- 12 LONG blocks. In those shoes. In that neighborhood. Up hill. If anyone wanted to mess with me last night I could've kicked 'em in the family jewels or just beat the heck out of them since I wasn't too happy about my long walk.

I have to work another job Sunday at the same place for a George Lucas, Indiana Jones event but this time I'll take my car since parking is free on Sundays. And I'll wear my Merrills for comfort.

The good thing is that I eat some good food, bring some home too and.... uh, um... the food is good anyway. This agency job will work on my resume. Plus I'm making some income finally. I need some input into my outgo.

All in a daze work. ugh.

Having Some Fun

Well, I just finished round 2 of a 6 month event at my Cousin Guy's Art Gallery, 2611 Gallery, (his website is added on my main blog page) doing the fruit and cheese platters. I love the event as I get to "play" with ideas to spice things up a notch.

This time I tried a new style of making Art from fruit by creating a Duck from a Cantaloupe Melon. I had a great time getting it done. Then I added a Watermelon Basket to put more fruit in. I really was thrilled with the outcome.

The Gallery is always a fun night for me since I get to meet the other artist's and talk with them, see their work and eat good food! Nice things will come from this event. I feels it in me bones.

The Wines of France

We're studying the wines of France right now and so far we tasted the Alsace region of white wines and today we entered the Loire Valley region. Again white wines. The region of both is cold and damp so the wines are more acidic which is something I do not like in a wine. I know some people just love a brisk refreshing glass of lemon juice but not me. We tried a Muscadet wine which had to be like sucking on a handrag dipped in vinegar. Blech! By the time we got to the Sauvignon Blanc I was sure I was smelling cat piss. Some people like cat piss. Not me.

As my dearest friend Joe says, White Wine is for old people and children. I know I act like a child from time to time and I know there have been times when I've been SHOCK (a papa John word) to see myself in the mirror, but you won't catch me (or Joe) drinking white wine as a habit.

I actually asked the Chef if it would help if I added sugar to my wine. He didn't really think people did that. I would consider it if I lived in the Loire Valley region of France. I would also consider sobriety. With white wine the color ranges between Straw to Gold. As it matures it gets darker. The stuff we drank today started out like a Marilyn Monroe platinum and ended in a Paris Hilton blond. One non-existant and the other wacked out. I got confused in my tasting and realized at one point I was drinking my spitoon wine! I figured it out since it was more filtered and thusly, tasted better. blech. My classmates got a laugh.

I hope tomorrow we get in our Short Yellow Bus and head to a warmer region of France for some good Reds. The Redder the Better. At least this class is teaching me the regions to avoid like the Black Plague if I ever set foot in France again.

But, I live to suffer through another day of wine tasting. Oh yeah, we also take a business management class in the mornings too. Wine class is just more fun to talk about. Until tomorrow. Happy Cinco De Mayo mi compadres!

You Are What You Eat

How can you even cook something this beautiful?! This is a member of the cabbage family. I'd say the rich Second Cousin twice removed. Its called "chou Romanescu" and it is a beautiful example of fractals in food.

There is so much to appreciate with food. Fork, knife, spoon. That pretty much covers it.

Okay, lets all get terribly spiritual here and say this is the only veg that grows on Tom Cruise's property.

I love this vegetable. Its sooo amazing. Can you see why I love food so much??

Gotta Love This School!

Today in class, we tasted an Alsace (region) - Gerwertztraminer (grape) which is from France. But the name of the grape sounds German you may say. Yes, but the French had a war and took over that section of Germany a long time ago and now it's in France with the German name. I'm guessing the French never changed the name as a little reminder to the Germans. Something along those lines.

But I digress! (we tend to do that a lot in class with the wine tasting part) The wine was unbalanced, too acidic and young. I can't believe I knew that after the first taste!! If I tried to correct the balance I'd end up with more acid, compromising what little flavor this wine had. Its only redeeming value (my opinion here) was that it had a big alcohol content which I blind guessed right at 13%! Another stunning thing I'm learning in this class. Its soooo much fun. Especially at 11am! HA I guess this is the reason I'm always leaving this class feeling so happy. I'm learning something. hic.

Thursday we tasted a couple of California wines which was a better tasting experience. A Cabernet Sauvignon and a Chardonnay. This is just the best school ever where we get to eat and drink our work! I miss the cooking part but the wine class definitely softens the edges. I think in the Advanced Wines class we get to pair the wine with actual food. Then guess what we can do? Yep. Chef Lunchtime. Just another reason to breathe.

By the way, this wine stuff is easy. I could teach you and you'd learn it in 3 days. We're being taught all the back door stuff no one teaches you b/c they'd rather you didn't know how easy it is to know what you're buying. Then they'd lose their importance!

I'll drink to that! I have to go now and further educate myself at Bev More. Ta-ta.