Garde Manger & Buffet Ahoy

Mod 4 came and went lickety split. Here's a few pictures (the 2nd & 3rd pic are my trays):



ABOVE: An Assortment of Canapes made by a classmate



ABOVE: Espresso Crisps with Chocolate Hazelnut Ganache & Irish Liqueur Chantilly Cream and a garnish of Crushed Hazelnuts and Espresso Powder



ABOVE: Almond Sugar Blossom Cookie with Lemon Cream Cheese filling garnished with a mini-Almond Sugar Blossom and sugared lemon peel.

Everything was as yummy as it looks!

School Update Weeks 3 - 5

The ServSafe exam went well. There are only two questions that I feel iffy about out of 90. I will get the results on the 27th. I also received my Magmt certificate. Yea for me! And now we are into the basics of cooking. It is an intense amount of material to cover in a short period of time. We cover as many as three chapters in one session. Uggghhh...

The flu made it's presence known the last week of classes. I made it through Monday's class, no problem. Tuesday was a different matter. Bleh! So, I missed three days due to illness but maintained email contact with my instructor who assured me that even with the three missed days I was still in the 90% for my grade. Mom picked up my uniforms for me on Wednesday. We got them early so that we can press and hem them in preparation for going to Poverello House on the 15th of January. As a class, we will be preparing upwards of 800 meals in the Poverello kitchen to be served to the homeless that day. We will get to draw duties and go over the menu the day before.

Tht's all for now...

Ciao

Week 2 - Parasites, viruses, and bacteria, oh, my!

We finished our Management/Supervisory unit this week. The final for this section was written by the American Culinary Federation as a Certification Final. Once passed you would receive a certificate for a 30 hour Hospitality Supervisory course. We took our final on Wednesday and everyone in class did really well. I got the best grade in the class at 98%. Pretty cool!

We pounded some chests on Thursday (CPR) and earned a HeartSaver certificate. Now we are into our ServSafe unit. Parasites, microbes, and viruses, oh, my! :o) All sorts of wonderful information about bodily fluids, toxins, and bacterias! Whoo-hoo!

We will finish that unit on Wednesday or Thursday. Too sleepy to remember at this moment. I hope life is going well for all of you out there.

Ciao!

Culinary School - Week One

Day One - Overview of what to wear, what not to wear. No jewelery except a plain wedding band (only exception is a medic alert necklace that can be tucked under your shirt. I put my wedding ring on it also.) We will receive one uniform before we break for Christmas and the other our last week of Mod One. Our knife kit and towels will be handed out the first week of Mod Two.

The first Module is Concepts of the Culinary Industry. Supervising and Leadership, Kitchen Math, CPR, ServSafe, and Interviewing chefs from different aspects of the food industry are all things we will cover in the first mod. Each Mod is 5 weeks. The Culinary Arts Specialist is 7 months long. The Culinary Arts Professional, the program I am taking, is 15 months total. The last 8 months are covering specific types of cuisine with the last mod being an externship.

Fannie Farmer

Life was complicated by health problems for Fannie Farmer but with perseverance and encouragement from her family she overcame them.

Fannie was born in 1857 to a middle class family in Boston, Massachusetts. The eldest of four daughters, education was prized in Miss Farmer’s home. Fannie attended high school and graduated at the age of 16 years old. Shortly after her graduation she suffered a stroke that left her paralyzed. Unable to walk, her doctor’s discouraged her from finishing her formal education.

She remained in her parent’s home where her intelligence and creativity found an outlet in the kitchen. She became a mother’s helper and eventually regained her ability to walk.

At the age of 30, her parents encouraged her to attend cooking school. Fannie enrolled at Boston Cooking School. BCS taught more the theory of cooking rather than the actual practice of cooking.

Fannie excelled at her studies, including taking summer courses at Harvard Medical School, and graduated in 1889. She was then invited to stay on as assistant director at Boston Cooking School eventually taking over the head directorship in 1894. Fannie published the Boston Cooking School Cook Book in 1896, giving the cooking world a much needed update. Previous cookbooks had used measurement amounts such as “…a piece of butter the size of an egg” or “a teacup of milk”. Her update gave us more standardized measurements of level cups and level teaspoons so that recipes would turn out with more consistency.

The BCS Cook Book covered recipes from basic milk toast to more classical items including Zigaras a la Russe, an elegant puff-pastry dish. Also included were articles on housekeeping, nutritional information and drying and preserving foods. The book eventually became known simply as the Fannie Farmer Cookbook.

In 1902, Fannie left the Boston Cooking School and started Miss Farmer’s School of Cookery. The new schools focus was on the average American homemaker. Fannie began by teaching the basics of ‘plain and fancy’ cooking but eventually was led into developing better cooking styles for the ill. She eventually published her work in a second cookbook, entitled “Food and Cookery for the Sick and Convalescent.”

Miss Farmer advocated the necessity of attractive and well made food for the ill, understanding better than most that good tasting, attractive and nutritious food was an important part of the healing process.

Her influence was felt far and wide. She was published in newspapers and a national magazine, entitled Women’s Home Companion. She was also invited to lecture at Harvard Medical School and taught doctors and nurses about nutrition and diet for their patients.

Fannie Farmer was creative and innovative; truly a woman ahead of her time. Sadly, her life was cut short at the age of 57. Her impact on the world of cooking and nutrition for the sick and convalescing, however, is not forgotten.

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity, Jig...

Y'all, probably thought I had forgotten you, huh? Mmmm, not quite! I came back home from Sacburg and promptly went into T-day countdown. We turned the parlor into the dining room and the living room/dining room combo into one big great room/family room. In attendance were Mom, Jimi(DH), Andrew(DS) and myself. My father and stepmom came over and brought games and goodies, my sister and her infant grandboy, Austin came over. His mommy, Shemia, suprised us around 11 a.m. or so. We thought she had ship duty on Tday and weren't expecting her until late Thursday. She is in the Navy stationed in San Diego. My nephew, Jason, and my niece, Alicia, were there later in the day as well as Alicia's friend, Natasha. So, quite a family day was had by all.
Lots of eating and fun...

Our menu consisted of:
Appetizers -
Served from 11:30 am to 2:00 pm
Spinach-Artichoke Dip
Cheddar-Mushroom Spread
Apricot Glazed Meatballs
Sausage Stuffed Mushrooms
Lil' Smokies

Main Meal
Served at 6:30 pm
Turkey Roasted with Sage and Butter
Sausage and Sage Stuffing with Apples and Cranberries
Green Bean Casserole
Southwestern Scalloped Corn
All the usual victims
Rum Baked Cranberries and Apricots

Good Old Sacramento

I am in Sacramento visiting my niece, LusciousChica for the weekend. Sacramento may not seem like a big deal to y'all but it has some definite sentiment for me.

I grew up here in the good ole 60's and 70's. Lived in a nice little yellow house with white trim. My best friends lived two houses down and across the street from me. Brenda and Kim. Tomorrow I am going to drive to the old neighborhood, maybe take a couple pictures for my walk down memory lane.

Go visit a few touristy things, run some errands wih LusciousChica, play Scrabble, maybe a couple other games. Maybe meet some of her friends. Just hanging until my DH flies in Tuesday morning.

In the meantime, here are a couple of pictures to tide you over. The dog is Olive, a doggy friend of LC's. The ships, well just looked cool as I was driving over a bridge. The lantern looked cool, also.

Salut'