Oscar Meyer Chocolate Box

Every day we must take on the onerous task of tempering and working with chocolate. The first day's work had me looking like I just got off one of Mike Rowe's Dirty Jobs episodes. One of my classmates even refused to continue to work with me as she didn't want to clog up her washing machine that night. It was hellacious work. So much dark, gooey chocolate, so little clean space to work in, so much patience.

Our job was to work the chocolate into shapes and make a triangle box with a top on it. Sounds easy enough. Chef made it look darn simple. Needless to say, at the end of the class you might as well have packed me a brown bag lunch and popped me on the short yellow bus. It was this woman that turned 'darn simple'.

With a sense of imagination I did make a box. Of sorts. I told everyone I made a coffin. It was dark and foreboding indeed. I carefully wrapped it up in several layers of plastic wrap disguising it as a slice of cake. I had to smuggle it out of school lest ANYONE see what I had done. What an embarassment.

When I got into the Bat Cave I tossed it in the trash. No photo. Oh hell no. Had I done that and posted it here I would have had to attach photos of a tsunami sized barf bag, some industrial strength eye bleach, towelettes by Hazmat and goggles by NASA. No sirree. No photos. I don't need that slice of Lucifer following my career as a Chef.

Today went far better. I didn't get all messed up and I made nice little squares that I can create a good little box with tomorrow. Then I just head to UPS and ship that sucker far, far away. There is a crystalized reason I did NOT get into the Baking and Pastry Program. I'm a savory type, not a creamy sweet carmely type.

Well that last line should get some comments!

350 Degrees Challenged

Its been about 10 months now living in the "indoor campsite" and I'm getting starved for the use of an oven. I have to make do with store bought baked goods. Like Costco's chicken, which is delicious to me since they brine it before roasting it, but its huge. I think it's almost bigger than my campsite refrigeratorette. I have to eat a lot of chicken before I can get it in that little thing. I'm not talking so much about eating roasted foods but actually cooking them.

I miss my roasted garlic chicken, roasted potatoes and vegetables and baked chicken thighs with feta, butter and rosemary stuffing. I can't do that here in my little slice of Oasis. I can't pop anything in the oven and walk away and come back in 45 minutes to a golden piece of baked or roasted joy.

One day, when I get somewhere kitchen blessed, I'll roast and bake the day away for a good 6 months. Appreciate your oven for me. When you pull something yummy out of your oven, think of me. When you bite into a luscious bit of crispy golden roasted chicken skin, send a thought my way. You really don't know how precious your oven is to me.

I browse online to look at ovens. Aww, sad isn't it.

Sugar High

Mom, mom. Guess what I did in school today? I made you a rose mom. Here ya go.

We worked with blinding hot sugar today. Got a blister on the finger in the process but I made my rose! I'm pretty impressed with myself since it was my first time ever working with moldable lava.

Its a safe bet that I won't be taking on this facet of the culinary world anytime soon. It looks good but I prefer others to get their 3degree burns for it. I'm saving my fingers for the expensive knife collection.

Playing with My Food Again

The second Saturday of this month was my catering day at my cousin's Art Gallery Art Walk. I decided to do something other than the usual cantaloupe duck or watermelon basket. Introducing the Radish Family Mice!

The mice moved in while I was out flying my kites. (lousy segue) but you see my dilemma with my other creation. I loved it and it was very well recieved by the artists and the public! I was happy.

Relax, Un-wine for a Moment

This week has the makings of a very good, easy-going week. We are studying Wines II. Today was a pleasurable tour through the Piedmont area of Italy where one of my favorite wines finds its home - none other than Barolo and also its kissing cousin Gattinara from the delicious, heavenly Nebbiolo grape. During our tasting of the Pio Cesare (my favorite producer) Barolo I couldn't help but think of a big juicy Porterhouse steak with slices of garlic and a drizzle of olive oil. It's really a shame not to have the food to go with the wine to further display the profiles of the various varietals and vintages, but I had to suffer through just rolling it down my mouth and into the wine keeper located between my rib cage.

We also tried a Chianti and then a Chianti Classico. What a world of difference even though it uses the same Sangiovese grapes and same first name. I can tell you not to order that Chianti in the cutesy little raffia decorated bottle but hey, you may want the bottle just to make a candle holder. So just pour out the wine (?) and stick in a candle. Serve the Chianti to your mother-in-law and you drink the Chianti Classico! Trust me on this. The first Chianti is a two pucker paint thinner. Have a problem cleaning your BBQ grill? Use that stuff.

Yesterday was also memorable. We had a taste of a really nice Moscato d'Asti [Muscat grapes]. It was a Frizzante, meaning it had a little zip of bubbly fizz to it. I really liked it even though it was white! It's a nice wine to take to a picnic on a sunny day (serve it cold). The flavor of the muscat grapes was really enchanting. Fruity, slightly sweet but so sunny and cheerful on the mouth. It felt like I swallowed Tinkerbell while picnic-ing with Peter Pan.

Tomorrow we are moving into the sacred land of the "Super Tuscan's". Some of the Tuscan Winemakers have a Devil May Care attitude about laws and regulations and make wines to suit themselves (bless their little hearts). Even though these great wines have a Grading of a mere Table Wine they will knock you off your table! Robust, hearty and unbelieveably round in the mouth. Yum (not a culinary term). I'll have to sneak in a T-bone steak or leg of lamb somehow to class. Those clever Italian winemakers add some Cabernet Savignon grapes to their flavorful Sangiovese grapes when making these wines. Its enough to make you want to move to Tuscany. Like I need a reason. Thank God for BevMo.

We really are treated to some excellent wines that would cost $60 retail and upwards of over $120-$200 in a restaurant per bottle. (getting some return on our tuition) Our instructor is a wine connoisseur and wine writer for The Connisseur's Guide to CA Wines, a monthly magazine. He is very informative and knows a vat full about wines.

We savored (I did at least) a Tignanello Super Tuscan today. Wow. I feel like I was introduced to a bad habit. This one can grow on your palate and deflate your wallet at the same time. It's a double hitter! Maybe more hits actually...

I was also impressed by a new kid on the block (for me) called an Amarone Valpolicella. I learned that these grapes get "rasinated" after picking to add more VAVOOM to the wine during fermentation. Rasinated is just what it sounds like. Most of the moisture is evaporated making the shrivelly little morsel even sweeter and stronger. This whole experience of the Amarone "raisinated" grape had me feeling like I ran into a old classmate from High School. You just have so much to catch up on, all night long. I definitely want to meet more family members named Amarone.

Its been a great day learning so much more than before and tasting so many varietals from different regions. The weeks not over yet! Hey, someone's gotta do it. Pick Me! Pick Me!!

Help, Stuck in Classroom!

This is week two of being inside a classroom with computers and chairs. My hip joints are beginning to complain about all this sitting down. I don't want them to memorize the shape of the chair. Maybe I could get a smaller chair. Humm, wonder if that would reduce the size...... oh, nevermind. Anyway, after sitting so long when I go to get up my legs and hips refuse to agree on how to manage this simple task and I stand in a sitting position and have to make deliberate steps to get the system back up and running (or walking in this case). I feel like a crooked stick figure trying to walk. I don't see them younger kids having this affliction.

Brats.

So here I sit blabbering on the blog when I need to focus on all the homework we have been given in our Culinary Management class. We are divided in teams - (I'll not rip apart my team as yet but I feel the train 'acomin') - and have to create an entire restaurant from the ground up to break even point. This involves a LOT of excel spreadsheet activity and math skills. Thus, my playing around here on the blog. I seriously dislike math but I know I need it. Okay, honestly? I HATE IT! Ahhh. That felt better. When you look up Math in the dictionary you'll see a picture of my head hitting a wall over and over.

I am starting on my Kitchen layout and trying to install the big ticket items and stuff it all in 700 sq. ft. It should be easy enough but somehow it isn't. I feel like I'm in a maze or stuck in a crop circle. Nothing makes sense. I created a menu and now were are working on the recipe cards which we will have to break down by the ingredients needed and the cost of those ingredients. Then we can add it to the spreadsheets to see if we're making money, charging to little/to much, ad nauseum. This goes on and on... Its mind boggling. I don't know how I'll do it if I keep sitting here writing about it. But this is so much more fun.

Oh no. I just remembered that I also have to create a menu - one that I would give customers, one that looks nice with borders and decorations and frilly shit. Oh boy, one more thing to do. Well this happy little face must take leave of the blogosphere and head back to brain mushing. Love to chat but gotta dash. Kiss-kiss.

2nd Place in the Thai Cooking Competition!

Yes, my team mate and I got second place in the competition along with 13 other teams. LOL The first place winners got an all expense paid trip to Thailand courtesy of the Royal Thai Government and week to cook with the Chef that visited our school to instruct us on the principals and food profiles/ingredients of authentic Thai foods.

It was a great experience! We had 15 clock hours of extra instruction, which means we started our normal Academy day at 7am and began Thai instruction after our day was over. The Chef gave lectures then demonstrated the methods and techniques of cooking and then actually cooked dishes for us to taste and after that we went to one of our Skills Kitchens to cook the dishes ourselves.

Last week was a long one that had me wondering why I signed up for it but in the end it was truly worth the extra effort and time. I had to cram in my new Culinary Management classwork and homework into the few hours I had left by the time I got back to the old tent I call home. Somehow in between I had to find time to shower, iron uniforms, shop for food, eat and try to renew my health insurance which is expiring at the...oh wait! It expired on the 31st of July! Opps. I missed that. Now I'm without health insurance. OMG. Guess I'll get on that next week. Some things slip through the cracks.

Our competition was interesting in that all 15 teams of two had to cook the very same thing with all the same ingredients. They came out pretty different dispite that oddity. We made Pad Thai Noodles with Pad Thai sauce. Spicy yet delicious. We had to cook over the wok burners which are 100,000 btu's worth of flame. I call them the Jet Engines. They are really powerful and HOT. They cook in seconds and burn in a hurry if you're too slow. The woks we use are entirely made of carbon steel, including the handles. Try to imagine how hot those handles get when it is all metal under 100,000BTU's of heat. Intense. The oil gets dangerously hot in about 5 seconds. Its fun. We quickly add all the ingredients one by one and then plate from the wok. One poor fellow burned himself today on the wok. I felt bad for him. That had to hurt. Someone else cut themselves with the knife. Two teams disqualified ASAP. That's all it takes.

I got a nice certificate for my efforts, made a new friend in my team mate, shared beers with class mates during our break, get to put this experience on my resume and I feel pretty good about myself. What a great day!