Father's Day

Yesterday was Father's Day. I talked to my Dad, which was nice, but I wish I could have been there. I am going to try to go back home before I go back to school after break.

I spent a wonderful day with Ramzi and his girls, his sister Gina and her husband Jamie and their boys Tristin and Cole. It was such a good day. We had great food on the grill. I made a birthday cake for Cole's 9th birthday. We spent the afternoon in their back property shooting all kinds of guns. I think Ramzi's daughter and I have found something in common! It was so much fun being around Ramzi's nephews - they remind me so much of my boys at that age!

I'm starting my 3 weeks off school today. I have a million things I want to do - think I'll just start by spending the afternoon on the couch watching movies - yep, that sounds like a plan!

Got an A in all three classes this semester, so I'm feeling pretty good! I will miss my American Regional class, though, but hope my Garde Manger class is just as much fun.

Here are some photos!

My classmates at the Top Chef Roadshow (I'm taking photo)

The food we had to put prepare  for the audience

 Some of the dishes we made during the semester - learning how to plate correctly as well...

 Calamari and Pasta

 I made this - a dish from the Hawaii - can't remember the name, but it was yummy!

 OMG! This meat was marinated then grilled - it was so good!

 This table is having their dishes evaluated by the our Chef and TA

 This table after they had their dishes evaluated - all smiles!!!

 Dave, Me, Allie, and Jennifer at our Awards Ceremony!

What is Going Right...

Today is Friday, June 15 - I have one more final to take tomorrow in Sociology and then I'm done with school for a full three weeks! I'm so looking forward to it. Two weeks from now I have off both school and work, and I'm needing that. It's going to be a good week. Ramzi is off as well. His oldest daughter will be at a retreat, but his youngest daughter will be with Ramzi for the week. Ramzi's Mom is returning from Florida for the summer. She's flying into Detroit on Tuesday of that week and staying with me as well! So it will be the four of us. We're going to just have fun - the zoo, Greenfield Village, Henry Ford Museum, Greektown, just hanging out watching movies, cooking, baking...I'm so looking forward to it.

Since my last post, I'm still on an emotional roller coaster, but it is getting better. I'm sure it was just the timing from the events of last year that triggered it. As time passes, I'm just hoping the pain eases.

My job is going really well. I'm captaining events (where I run the event and supervise the servers, keep in constant contact with the chef on timing, and make sure everything is just perfect!) a couple of times a week. I'm also serving and training to bar tend. OMG a couple of weekends ago we ran the Grand Prix pre-race event at the Ren Cen in the GM building in downtown Detroit. All the high rollers of Detroit were there, race car drivers, wow, what an experience! Some companies paid $40,000 per table! I was a bar tender for the mingler, then moved over to server. I had two new servers on my crew and I was training them as we went. I remember being new and I wanted to work with them and treat them as I was treated when I started. I'm still new and still have not the confidence to pick up a tray full of plated dinners. I'm going to do it tonight. It's just the confidence of picking it up, and then setting it down. Once you do it, then you know you can. I have a rehearsal party tonight to captain. Anyway, I'm now at Coach Insignia, which is on the 72nd floor of the GM building. It's a very fine dining restaurant and I'm so fortunate!

Chris got a new job! It's located in Indianapolis where he lives now, so he won't be moving. I'm excited for him because he's been under a lot of stress. This will be a new start for him. Additionally, he and his girlfriend are breaking up after about 3 years. It's a good thing for both of them, but I just hate to see him having to go through it.

Jason lost his job but he seems to have landed on his feet. He's working with a friend on an Internet business. He's also writing an article for an Internet site. He thinks he's found his niche. Brittany recently graduated from MSU with her Master's degree in Public Health. They are a great couple.

A few weeks ago I got a call from my advisor at school asking me if I was available on Saturday. Luckily, I was scheduled to work Friday and Sunday of that weekend. She said she had a great opportunity for me...The Top Chef Roadshow was going to be in Troy on Saturday and they were looking for 3 or 4 culinary students to assist the chefs that day! It was so cool. What an awesome opportunity for me. She said I was her #1 choice to go, which I still don't believe.

Last Friday we had an awards ceremony at school. Ramzi took the day off to come. It was nice. Honor Roll and Perfect Attendance awards were presented for the winter quarter. I'm still on a roll of 4.0 and perfect attendance, plus the president recognized the students who attended the Top Chef Roadshow, as well as a group of students from Visual Arts who went to the police precinct in Detroit in which a shooting took place not too long ago. They created a positive mural and it was so inspiring.

So, for my American Regional culinary class I just finished yesterday with the practical final. We had to cook and present - in 2 1/2 hours - a salad dressed with a vinaigrette dressing; black bean soup with an onion marinade; rice; chicken-fried steak with a pepper gravy; mashed potatoes; glazed turnips; and strawberry shortcake. It doesn't sound very complicated, but there were many components to each dish and certain criteria our chefs were looking for in each dish. Everything needed to be presented at the same time - hot or cold - depending on the dish, so everything had to be executed at the last minute. For example, the salad, they were looking for a consistently prepared lettuce, the proper size to fit on a fork, COLD (we learned to put the empty salad bowls in the freezer ahead of time) and the vinaigrette had to be balanced. EVERYONE under dressed the salad because we always tend to over dress the salad! That was funny! But, now we know, if you cut your greens too small and too far ahead of time, they wilt. If you over dress the salad, it will be a soggy mess when it is served to the customer. Next the black bean soup. Mine was so good!!! I rendered bacon, then cooked the onion and garlic, not fried - cooked. Then incorporated the beans, bacon, onion, garlic, chicken stock, ham hock, and tons of spices. I also added chili powder on my own. I simmered it, then removed the ham hock, pureed half of the soup and left the remainder for texture, removed the meat from the ham hock and small diced it and returned it to the pot, then kept it hot, and watched so it did not become too thin or too thick.  For the glazed turnips, they were looking for a nice glaze and turnips that were not overcooked. My glaze could have been further reduced, but then the turnips would have been mush. They told me there's a fine balance. If I would have had more time to mess with them, I would have removed the turnips, reduced the glaze more, then put the turnips back into the glaze. Just ran out of time. Next the rice. I added butter and chicken stock and it was yummy! The mashed potatoes - learned a secret - sour cream! Then the chicken-fried steak. The day before my good friend Dave (he and I worked together at the same table - we work so well together - he's an amazing cook!) and I butchered a shoulder. That was fun. We removed all the fat, then examined the best way to butcher to get the most usable product with minimal waste. I learned in my Purchase and Product ID class how to figure out EPC - edible portion cost. You don't get 100% product out of things like carrots that will be peeled or beef where there is fat or grizzle. You don't want waste, because waste is lost revenue. So, the fat was thrown away in this case, but there were pieces of meat that could be used in other ways, like in broths or stocks or rendered and added to dishes. That was so cool learning how to cut the meat so it was an even slice and weighed the same as the previous piece. Anyway, I took my 2 pieces of meat, tenderized and pounded them, seasoned them, then refrigerated them for later. When I was ready to make it, I removed the steak, egg washed then dredged it in a seasoned flour(salt, cracked black pepper, and I added cayenne pepper. The steaks were already seasoned. We learned in class that every element of a dish needs to be seasoned independently so all the flavors marry. If you season the flour, but not the steak, it will be bland. Or if you have a wonderfully delicious, perfectly seasoned pasta sauce, but you don't season the pasta, when you bite into the pasta, it will be bland. I never really thought about things that way! Anyway, I heated the pan first and got it very hot, then added the vegetable oil, got that hot, then dropped in the two steaks. Magic! Cooked just right on both sides, then I immediately popped them into a warm oven until I was ready to plate. The strawberry shortcake was so good!! We had to use a recipe that called for biscuits with cornmeal. I love to bake. I sifted the flour and baking powder, then added the cornmeal and chunks of COLD butter. I worked it as little as possible to keep the integrity of the butter. Then - another secret - added buttermilk! I worked it as little as possible, flipped it out of the pan, hand patted it, but not too flat, used a biscuit cutter and cut out four rounds, then molded the remaining dough, split it in half and made rustic biscuits - just dropped onto the sheet pan. They rose so nicely and were not too dry. I ended up using the rustic biscuits. Making the strawberries was fun as well. I sliced all of them, then took half and added some sugar and simple syrup and strawberry extract. I pureed it, then added the remaining sliced strawberries and let them marinate almost the entire class. I also made whipped cream, to which I added powdered sugar and a very good vanilla. I'm getting really good at hand whisking whipped cream! I mise en placed (everything in it's place) or prepped all my ingredients first thing, then got the strawberries, the vinaigrette, the marinade, the steaks, and most of the chopping out of the way first. We had to prepare a timeline on what order we would prepare things, which really helps keep you on task. I peeled the potatoes and put them in a pot of water and on the stove. I then peeled the turnips, diced them and put them in water so they didn't turn brown and on the stove as well. The same with the rice - it was all ready, just needed to turn on the burner. When I was ready to start the potatoes, just needed to turn on the burner. For the turnips, just drained them and cooked them in that skillet. Dave and I had all of our pots, pans, and skillets near the stove. Our team mates who tested the day before went around and asked us if we needed anything washed, so we didn't have to do it ourselves. What a time saver. We did the same for them on Wednesday. I think in the 2 1/2 hours I left the table maybe three times to rinse my knife or cutting board and that was it. No wasted steps, everything was prepped and ready. Just went to the frig. to either put something in that was finished or take something out when I was ready to use it. ANYWAY I then made the pepper gravy. It was good but maybe had too much vegetable oil because it was separating. I continued to add milk after I added the dry flour and browned it and it got nice and creamy. Learned to not use heavy cream in this gravy instead of milk - it gets too thick. In prepping, I put milk and butter in a pot to warm, which I used for both the mashed potatoes and the gravy - time saver! Then, at the last few minutes I got my cleaned and ready lettuce out of the frig, cut it into edible pieces, strained the vinaigrette and put it into a COLD salad bowl. Then I sliced my shortcake biscuit, put it on a COLD dessert plate, topped it with the strawberries, then the whipped cream, and then topped that with the other half of the biscuit. Next I took a HOT bowl (put the bowl and plate in the oven when I put the steak in there to keep warm), ladled the soup, swirled sour cream into the soup, topped it with a scoop of rice, topped that with the onion marinade (half the marinade went into the soup), then chopped green onion. Finally I took the steak out of the oven, laid it on the plate, scooped the mashed potatoes, topped both with the pepper gravy, and ladled some of the glazed turnips. Then I carried them on a tray to the chefs - 5 minutes late - even though there were two people ahead of me, I guess the food was still at a pretty good temperature by the time they started tasting it. I then started cleaning off my area, then went to the back to help with the dishes. My name was called - I was first to be critiqued. They asked how I thought I had done. I said I thought the strawberries could have been a bit sweeter, I though my steak was a little tough, but other than that I was happy with my dishes AND, most importantly, I was calm. They said they could see that. I usually freak out when I'm cooking on a deadline (which is every week!) but I'm getting better at that. Anyway, they said I had the best score of the class from both days! I could not believe it. I said I'm no way near the best. They said they weren't saying that, but I brought it all together for the final. They said every week I was bringing it, consistently, getting more confident and improving every week. I had 103% in the class before the final, so I was an excellent student. I'm not bragging here - I just couldn't believe it! I'm so hard on myself and so lack confidence. I'm trying so hard to have more confidence in myself. I will taste my food for balance of seasoning, but I won't eat it. When am I going to gain confidence? I hate that about myself. Anyway, it was such a good day! Three of us students and one of the chefs (he is a TA in our class) went out to Ruby Tuesdays for a drink after class. It might not have even been noon yet! LOL! We are all going to miss this class. We all got along so well!!! Chef told us - and he says he doesn't just say this - this was one of the best, if not THE best American Regional classes he'd ever taught.

So, after looking at the things in my life that are going well - I've got so much to be thankful for. So much.