School

So I haven’t talked about it on here, yet, but I went back to school. I enrolled in culinary school and it’s haaaarrrrd. Don’t get me wrong, it’s fun and I enjoy it, but it’s a lot harder than I thought it was going to be. All my life I’ve skated by on doing the minimum to get by. This didn’t work out that well in college, but it did to an extent. I can’t help it really, it’s genetic. It’s really not my fault. I remember a day in calculus my junior year of high school, my teacher came up and put her hand on my book during a lecture. After class she told me I would probably get an ‘A’ in the class if I would just take my book out of the trunk of the car at night. My book was cold, and I had Calc first thing in the morning so it didn’t have time to come to room temperature. Anyway, I told her I was ok with the ‘C’ I was making. At the time I thought I was awful funny. In fact I still kinda do, and that’s my problem. Then, it was ok to skate by without putting in effort, if putting in no effort will suffice, especially when it comes to academics. Now, the reading, the homework, and the actual lecture part is a small part of class, I have to DO it. They don’t care if I’m smart enough to regurgitate info in a book. I have to sear a pork chop and make sure the temp of the pan is right. I have to cook foods that I’m allergic to and I can’t taste them to check if they are done, I just have to know. I know it doesn’t sound that hard, I mean, everyone can cook right? It’s not hard to boil water and throw a book of Mac n cheese in, or ground some beef to make tacos, but there is a science to it, which I love. There is no doubt that there is a difference between what you cook at home, and what you get at a restaurant. That difference is science mixed with training. That being said: I love it. I’m learning so much, things I have been doing wrong, things that I was doing right by sheer dumb luck, and things my imaginary boyfriend Michael Symon hasn’t had a chance to teach me yet. The only thing I do not love is some of the people. I don’t like lazy people. If you know what needs to be done, then do it. I hate when people hijack my time, and if you are sitting around on your thumbs, that means its going to take longer to get out of there. Don’t pretend to be confused to get out of moping the floor. I INVENTED that. Along with the doing a bad job, just to get out of having to do it again thing. Other than that, I am loving school.
I’ve been to three classes and a lab now. I’ve learned knife skills and I didn’t even cut myself! We learned stocks the second class and I may or may not have stabbed myself,(I did) and today we learned major cooking techniques and I stabbed myself again. Not really stabbed, more like poked, whatever…. Anyway, then I had a lab. I have to do three of them this semester, I it is a lot of work. You get there at 7:00 am to do the prep, and this last time I waited tables which I had not done in a loooong time. It was really fun, and I ran my tail off. I came home beat down, wore out, and on a high from a job that thought I did pretty well at, only to have my mother point out that my fly had been undone. All day mind you.i didn’t even know these pants HAD a zipper. I don’t know why they would, they have an elastic waist, they confuse me.

So here is some chicken and rice soup I made the other day.

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It was delicious if I do say so myself..

I practiced cutting up the mirepoix

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Poached the chicken

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After sweating the veggies, I added some chicken stock, cut up the chicken, added it along with some of the strained water I poached the chicken in and then added some rice in after that had come together for a while. It was pretty darn good.
I made a beef stew in a similar fashion a few nights before that

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I used beef instead of chicken, beef stock instead of chicken, and diced potatoes instead of rice

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This one was my favorite.
I wonder what I will make tomorrow?
Good night!

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