Oh NO!

I might be deployed! UGH!

Been a while...

Hi all....if anyone is even reading this

Had my last culinary class :(

The prior week was beef and this past saturday was Salmon. Didnt get much out of my salmon class since i made sweet potato salad from scratch so i missed out on all the tip and techniques of Salmon.

So that is it for my adventures in Beginning Basic Cuisine. Had so much fun and learned a lot. I want to go to culinary school so bad. Maybe even venture into a career as a personal chef and even teaching. However, like everyone I have bills to pay and since I have a full time job culinary school is not an option at the moment. Plus i'm not getting younger. My SO doesnt want me to go to culinary school. Thinks it will be a waste of money since i'm so old and doesn't think there is a career for me in it.

There is so many opportunities in the culinary arts that doesnt involve being a chef in a resturant. I was kinda hurt when my SO said that 'YOU ARE NOT GOING TO CULINARY SCHOOL'.

I'm sad...i'm so sad.

HPM

My second Adventure in the Culinary Arts - Pork

Well another weekend and another protein - Pork. Arrived at OCI an hour early to enjoy the cool, well not so cool, morning near downtown Portland. I took a few pictures and shot some short video clips of the school. Mostly the staff were around prepping the kitchen for us students to come in and try our hand at the fixin's of the day.

I ran across the street to Starbuck for a Green Tea Latte then off the sit in the waiting room/resturant at the school. The students trickled in with anticipation of what we were to tackle in the professional cooking.

The baking and pastry students menu - creating an assortment of bread and us cuisine student Pork.

After an hour of lecture going over Flavour which is aroma and taste off we went to the kitchen. We practiced tieing up a pork shoulder and tenderloin. Once the basics were covered on how to prep our roasts and chops off we went in high speed to create a variety of pork dishes. A part of us were involved in the hungarian gulash, pork roast, and different methods of cooking pork chops.

Since I had mentioned last week that I wanted to do some grilling I was put in charge of making the grilled pork chops. Laid before me were 16 frenched pork chops and a hot grill. Since we learned last week how to get those beautiful cris-crossed grilled marks it was my turn to put that into practice. Tongs in hand I laid five chops on at a time. I did screw up the order of what step i was in the process of grilling the first with the first five chops but got the hang of it with the ones that were left over. Most had those wonderful grilled marks and I sweated a lot standing in from of the grill but enjoyed every moment of it. During the grilling I also was tasked with making braised cabbage. It is sort of a sauerkraut type dish but not as sour and a very nice side dish to the pork. A group also made a very nice macaroni salad with bacon, yellow peppers, and spinach.

This dish was very easy to make. First, I had to slice the bacon that was sauteed and later added onions. During the slicing I found out how easy it would be to cut your thumb...I had nicked the solar nail of my thumb a few times. But it is still all there and thumb is in one piece. Next on the chopping block was the chinese cabbage which was really easy to slice with a very sharp knife. Had a better time of that since it was easier to handle. Tossed half into the saute and added some broth. After the cabbage whilted the rest of the cabbage was put in and left to simmer a bit. Juggling two dishes was pretty easy since both didn't really need full attention. Once the pork chops were grilled off they went into the oven to finish cooking.

We used different preparation for our pork dishes. Some were placed in a brine, some marinated, and some just seasoned, grilled and roasted. Boy we had a lot of pork. Other students prepared a couple different salads and our veggie dish was lemon herbed asparagus spears. Were didn't do a heavy assortment of veggie dishes as we had last week but we had a wide assortment of salad dressings this week all made with fresh herbs and berries. A very nice selection. Our final task was a group slicing. We all grabbed our blue, cooked food, cutting boards and sliced our roasts up and placed them real nice like on different platter. They were tagged with the dish and the cooking and preparation method. Our pastry class dished up three different types of breads for us to have with the main protein dish.

We had a very spread of dishes with it skewed with pork dishes. We sat down to sample the different pork creations and were very impressed with how juicy, flavorful and visually pleasing they were. Actually they were pretty easy thanks to our top notch chef instructors who were at hand to help, assist, and guide us. After the dining area was all but empty a lot of pork and salads were left over. Me being the pig I am actually came home with A LOT of pork. I'd say I could feed at least 8 people with the main pork dish. All I would have to do is a starch and veggie dish to complete the meal.

Well, going back to yesterday. It was friggin hot yesterday and the forecast for the weekend was a string of triple digits. Me not having a car or home without air condition and a suseptability to heat injury rented a car. Yes, I rented a car and it put me out $120 bucks. And you know what! It was only 89 F in Portland and yes it was a bit warm but I would have survived with 2x70 air. Ho hum...but at least it was a nice ride and WOW what a gas guzzler! I just watched the red needle move toward the half point. UGH...that darn thing must get 15 miles to the gallon! Oh well better safe than sorry...just think if I didnt rent one it would have been over 100F today.

Now that im sitting here in my room in front of the computer i think it might be time to take an air conditioning break. After three showers today i'm still not cooled down.

Ok enough of the novel for this entry....

HPM

UGH...What doesn't this thing work?

UGH... I've got this annoying problem for the last year or so...it's called a Macintosh. Since i've moved from the IBM to the Mac i've just never been able to convert any of my audacity files to mp3. I have the LAME Lib file off the audacity site and everytime I go to convert it, when the program asks where is the file, I go there but IT IS NOT AVAILABLE TO SELECT! I SEE IT BUT ITS NOT BOLDED TO SELECT!

ARGGGGGGGGGGGGG...I hate this thing and my poor IBM is so old and unwireless I could just cry! I've asked many people for assistance but no one can offer any. Waaaaaa! Just want to cry! I have a podcast all ready to go and I can't convert it to an mp3 to upload!

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaa......I know i'm a snivler but come on! I just want to get my podcast out there....

Ta taaaaa....

Hopeless,

HPM

My first adventure in the Culinary Arts - Chicken

Well I had a blast! My first culinary class doing chicken. First we learned a little bit about safety, knife skills, types of proteins, moist vs. dry cooking methods, degress of doneness and carry-over cooking, fundamentals of flavour, a bit about flavour and aroma. Next to demonstrations of how to break down a whole chicken and how to slice various veggies. Then it seemed like all of us were assigned different dishes we were all to partake of for our lunch.

After I got over the bone crackling noises of the knife slicing through bone from the demo I went to grab my whole chicken. I successfully tressed my bird a few times then moved on to breaking it down into four main parts of legs, thighs, wings and breast. Didn't know how to properly break one down and there are many things we need to look for (ie. loose bones, joints etc). As I found out it really isn't that difficult to get nice cuts from a whole chicken if you know what your doing. Though my breaks weren't the prettiest I pretty much got the idea. Just need to work on better identifying where the joints meet so it's not such a hard time trying to get those main pieces. I was the first casualty with a blister on my right index finger. I asked for a band-aid (yes i'm a wuss) was applauded by the chef for my blister in the correct place! So on went the band-aid and a light blue finger rubber LOL.

Well I was the last one to break down my chicken. Just had a hard time woman handling that little critter so I missed out on all the veggie cutting practical. No matter I was tasked with making a marinate for the chicken breast dish. I got to chose the marinate and decided on a nice mustard-herb Viniagrette. In the recipe it calls for chopped herbs but didn't make any suggestions as to which ones. I asked the assistant what she recommended and so I was off to get the fresh herb of Majoram and oregeno (and yes I can't spell). After combining the main ingredients I incorporated the oil and whisked away. Didn't really measure exactly but did an eyeball check. I thought it tasted a bit acidic to me I asked one of the chefs to comeover and sample it. He said it was 'perfect'. So I guess I did satifactory...gave me a boost after being so slow on the chicken breakdown.

Off I went to collect our chicken breasts and poured half the marinate on them. I let them sit a while so since I had a little time I dashed off to clean my work area and containers I had used. Next, off to the grill. To get that wonderful cross pattern on the presentation side of the breasts, they are placed at an angle toward 10 o'clock then at 2 o'clock. Over then went to get the underside cooked. Once they had the nice char on it into the oven they went to finish cooking.

Everyone was working on thier dish and it all came together a couple hours later. The proteins were done, the starches consisting of two types of potato dishes and grilled zuccini and eggplant. Two different type of salad were prepared and to the dining room we went. A nice layout of our work was ready for the final test - our hungry tummies.

Concurent with our cuisine was a baking and pastry class who prepared a nice assortment of scones, muffins, cakes and cookies. We had our choice of beverages from wine to soda to enjoy with our meals. It was lovely to sit and chat with the chefs and other students who are participating in this four-week beginning comprehensive cuisine course at OCI.

I hung around a while after looking at all the goodies that were available to buy at a great student price. Then meandered over to see if there were any leftovers. Such a shame that what ever was left would find thier way to the compost bin. So I took liberty to help minimize the amount that would go in. Lots of veggies and pastry came home with me and I made sure I got a couple pieces of the chicken I had a hand in.

With my leftovers packed and knife kit, student chef uniform and hat in hand I went home. Just had a big smile on my face. And though I didn't do so hot I figured it was my first time actually handling a chicken and making a marinate/viniagrette for the first time - I was kinda proud and have a blister to prove it (not looking forward to that first cut though)!

So the big test - what would mom and dad think. Presented the classes culinary products and they were very impressed. They didn't think that what we produced would be of resturant quality. They actually would expect what I brought home from our 4-hour stent in then kitchen from a quality resturant. This is the result that I seek from my work. Seeing the faces and hearing the ummmmmms and ahhhhhhhhs that motivates me to explore this type of work as a potential career. It just this self-satisfaction that I enjoy and don't find that in my current career as a desk jockey. Now don't get me wrong, a desk job is just as valuable but i've found in this career a satisfaction that is different and more enjoyable than at my desk job.

Ok...now that I've written a novel....

On the menu next week: PORK.

Hope you come back next week to get the next installment of my culinary adventure!

Ta taaaaaa for now....

HPM

New New New - New site to see

Hey all,

Gots me a new site to visit. See my new home by clicking here.

Gots to consolidate...so if you upon this site please visit me and my new site.

See you there!

HPM

Well what a week and its still going....

Hey all,

Well missed a couple days. Let me tell you its been a long week so far. Just have 5 more days of work then i'm FREE! Well, to go to another job LOL. It will be good for me cause the atmosphere at my current job is really tense. I tell you the days are draggin'!

Talk about a long week...a Monday thru Friday then a break to go to my culinary class then I work Sunday then Monday...and wow, a day off...then Wednesday thru Friday and that ends my stent with my current employer as well as this long ass sentence.

Oh yesterday I went to my moonlighting job and found it to be closed again. No one called me to let me know (that's irritating). So I called the boss and left a message. Got a call back and found out that the Cafe is closed infinately. BUMMER! No more working as a cook and lost the chance to work as a barista too. I was really bummed. No one is going to hire someone with no experience and I always wonder how those who have the cook jobs got thier first job if no one is hiring people with no experience. SIGH.


Oh I got my new Podcasting set up. A USB preamp audio interface, a studio mic with stand, headsets and audio software (which I probably wont use). I love Audacity and its free too. But gotta experiement with this new set up. Hooked everything and loaded the preamp and did some test audio clips. Sounds ok. Just need a Pop screen and i think my upgrade from a $19.99 mic headset is complete. So i'll be working on a show here soon and working on show notes. I also prepped my video equipment for some future vidcasts too. I have my first vidcast online right now too. Click here to see it now.

Ok...I really need to keep up a daily entry just for my own sake if nothing else. Got lots of projects to work on and lots of things to keep me busy. Maybe I should invest some time in time management LOL.

Tootles for now,

HPM