This week we had afternoon classes, which I think upset my chi somehow, and I came down with a cold on Wednesday. We had wines class, combined with the PM class, so our class was held from 2-8:30. I worked a few mornings and then went to school, which seemed like longer days than going to school and then working until 8:30 which I usually do a few days a week.
My class was fun, a good refresher from the last few wines classes I had at Stout. We tasted wines and went to a few wineries to watch the crushing process. Watching the grapes being crushed and tasting the juice at all stages was really interesting. The class was mostly lecture for 6 hours a day so it was a little boring, but the information was good, and I was hearing it all for the third time.
Besides class my friends from cooking school and I went out for Chinese on Wednesday night. David was able to join us, which was fun. Yesterday I felt my cold lifting, so I made lasagna and my friend Victoria from school came over for dinner. It was fun to have her over, but I think I had a little too much excitement and Sunday (today) I’m feeling yucky again. I’m taking it easy and lounging in my Pj’s and drinking lots and lots of fluids. I’m planning a full recovery for tomorrow for class with Chef Tucker Bunch again!! I can't believe I'm 1/3 done with school.
I hope everyone had a great week, in Wisconsin/Minnesota, in Europe on a fabulous cruise, or celebrating your 28th Birthday with a Packer Win! (Wade!!!).
Lots of love to all,
Abby
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Saturday, September 29, 2007
Yay Beer! (Part 2)
Last Saturday (the 22nd) the weather was cruddy and rainy, so we needed an inside activity. Our best idea was to drive over the hill to Sonoma Valley and visit the brewpubs there. We invited our friend Victoria to come along with us. Our first stop was Dempsey's in Petaluma. We chose to start there because they had the best-looking lunch menu. We had a very nice lunch there and shared their beer sampler between the three of us. There were five beers on their sampler and they all were nice. Our favorite was their stout.
Next, we drove the 18 miles to Santa Rosa and visited the 3rd Street Aleworks. They had quite a selection in their sampler.
There were 13 beers (as you can see) ranging from a Kolsch to an Oatmeal Stout. Abby and Victoria's favorite was a cherry ale called "Bada Bing Cherry Ale" which was certainly not made with bing cherries. It tasted like it was made with sour cherries and in spite of my general dislike of fruit beer, it was actually quite good. My favorites were their English Bitter and the IPA on cask. All the beers were solid and several were terrific. Here are some photos of us with the beer.
After the 13 samples plus the five from Dempsey's, we needed a break. We went to Target and spent about an hour taking care of our general merchandise needs. After a little walking around time, we decided we were ready to visit Santa Rosa's second brewpub, the Russian River Brewing Company. Russian River had a great presentation for their sampler.
You can't really see it in the photo, but the glasses slip out the edge of the tray. Since the 12 beers here were numbers 19 through 30, we had a pizza to help us maintain some level of decorum. Russian River is well known for its Belgian-style beer. I thought the Belgians were fantastic. They had great names, too. The golden strong ale is called Damnation, the biere de garde style is called Perditition, and one of the brettanomyces-soured ales is called Sanctification. They also had four or five blisteringly hoppy IPAs including an imperial IPA called Pliny the Elder. The beers were all pretty tasty. Abby and Victoria didn't care much for the IPAs or the sour Belgian ales. My favorites were the Damnation and the Perdition, but I loved all of the Belgians because they were so unique.
We had originally planned to continue North to Healdsburg and hit the Bear Republic Brewing Company, but our safe return home would have been at risk, so we called it a day and headed back to Saint Helena. We had a great time and personally, I can't think of a better way to spend a rainy day.
P.S. I racked my beer from last Friday into a secondary fermenter and I'll probably get it bottled next weekend.
Next, we drove the 18 miles to Santa Rosa and visited the 3rd Street Aleworks. They had quite a selection in their sampler.
There were 13 beers (as you can see) ranging from a Kolsch to an Oatmeal Stout. Abby and Victoria's favorite was a cherry ale called "Bada Bing Cherry Ale" which was certainly not made with bing cherries. It tasted like it was made with sour cherries and in spite of my general dislike of fruit beer, it was actually quite good. My favorites were their English Bitter and the IPA on cask. All the beers were solid and several were terrific. Here are some photos of us with the beer.
After the 13 samples plus the five from Dempsey's, we needed a break. We went to Target and spent about an hour taking care of our general merchandise needs. After a little walking around time, we decided we were ready to visit Santa Rosa's second brewpub, the Russian River Brewing Company. Russian River had a great presentation for their sampler.
You can't really see it in the photo, but the glasses slip out the edge of the tray. Since the 12 beers here were numbers 19 through 30, we had a pizza to help us maintain some level of decorum. Russian River is well known for its Belgian-style beer. I thought the Belgians were fantastic. They had great names, too. The golden strong ale is called Damnation, the biere de garde style is called Perditition, and one of the brettanomyces-soured ales is called Sanctification. They also had four or five blisteringly hoppy IPAs including an imperial IPA called Pliny the Elder. The beers were all pretty tasty. Abby and Victoria didn't care much for the IPAs or the sour Belgian ales. My favorites were the Damnation and the Perdition, but I loved all of the Belgians because they were so unique.We had originally planned to continue North to Healdsburg and hit the Bear Republic Brewing Company, but our safe return home would have been at risk, so we called it a day and headed back to Saint Helena. We had a great time and personally, I can't think of a better way to spend a rainy day.
P.S. I racked my beer from last Friday into a secondary fermenter and I'll probably get it bottled next weekend.
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Week 9 (already!)
This week started off with me dreading our cooking test on Friday. When I got to school on Monday morning the chef said he thought we should get the test over and should have it Monday instead. Pop Test Time!! The whole class freaked out and at the end I got a 9/10 on my beef stew.
Tuesday was business as usual, making food for lunch for the school. Then Wednesday another Pop Test on Steak with béarnaise sauce, mine was super good and chef gave me a 9.25. Yay Abby. Thursday was fun because it was the day we were supposed to have our final, so we drew which protein we would have as a group, to divide up the proteins, and we were allowed to make whatever we wanted. Lisa and I made lentil soup with ham hocks, our protein, and Sham and Andrew made like 9 Indian dishes. Sham is from India and is the kid who really tests my patience. He was in my group the first week, and again somewhere in the middle. I end up in his group a lot, I think because God likes to see how I’ll react, and then giggles at me when I lose my cool. Any way we have been with the same groups for this entire 3 week class and I’m glad it’s over. The soup I made was good, it got a little chilly here this week 50-60 and drizzly, so it was a soup day. The Indian food that the boys made was yummy too, all 9 different kinds of it.
Friday was vegetarian day, and our chef, chef mike, was gone so we had the afternoon class’s chef, Chef Amir, who was amazing. He talked to us a little about vegetarian cooking as a niche market, for example his friend who got really into vegetarian food and is now Sting’s personal chef. Too Cool! He was fascinating, so it was fun to have someone else who was a little clearer about what we were supposed to do. For my vegetarian food, which I have a wee bit of experience in, I made vegetarian chili and Grandma Jackie’s monkey bread, which I stuffed each ball of dough with caramelized onions and Parmesan before I baked them. It was pretty amazing.
Before he left, Chef Mike, my chef for the last few weeks, asked if I would help him figure out the curve for the written final exam. When I was helping him he said that in his 20 years at the CIA 1 in every 400 students or so catches his eye. He said that I had “it”, and that he expected nothing less than amazing things from me at school and in the future. That made me feel great! It’s nice to be noticed for trying hard and being a good person, and dare I say a good cook? How nice!
Another week done with school. My next class is wines, which starts at 2!! So I get to go in late, and sleep in!!!! David is working closing shifts as well so I will get to hang out with him in the morning. How fun. This week was a good week, it was nice to not have the tests looming all week long, we got them out of the way and then could really relax and be creative.
I hope everyone is doing well
Lots of love
Abby
Saturday, September 22, 2007
Yay Beer!
Hi Everyone,
First of all, here is a photo from last Saturday. Abby and I went to see the historic Bale Grist Mill just north of town. It's a restored flour mill from the late 1800's where they actually do milling demonstrations on the weekends. It was much cooler than it sounds. I think that the most interesting part was learning about how the face of the grindstone got re-surfaced periodically. (Don't worry, I won't bore you with it.) I was surprised at how fast the water wheel turned. Here's a photo of me standing by it.
As for the post title, it's finally getting cool enough here in Napa for me to brew. So on my day off yesterday, I got to brew a batch of beer. I made a red ale in the hopes that it will be ready early enough to show a prospective employer what I'd like to do with his current red ale. Here is a photo of my crushed malt in my mash tun.
The lightest grain on the right is pale 2-row, the medium colored grain on the left is caramel 40 , Munich, and biscuit malts, and the darkest is chocolate malt. The metal piece is part of the mash tun and helps to filter the liquid coming out.
Here is a photo of the boil. In professional brewing parlance, I had a rockin' boil. I started with 16 quarts of wort and boiled it down to 10. I was making a 3 gallon batch, so I had to add more water to keep my volume up.
Here is the boiled, chilled, oxygenated beer. I realized that the spot I chose to ferment it was right next to our hydroponic garden, so I had to cover it to keep uv light from damaging the beer. I had made a few covers back in WI, but I didn't bring them here, so I had to think quickly.
First of all, here is a photo from last Saturday. Abby and I went to see the historic Bale Grist Mill just north of town. It's a restored flour mill from the late 1800's where they actually do milling demonstrations on the weekends. It was much cooler than it sounds. I think that the most interesting part was learning about how the face of the grindstone got re-surfaced periodically. (Don't worry, I won't bore you with it.) I was surprised at how fast the water wheel turned. Here's a photo of me standing by it.
As for the post title, it's finally getting cool enough here in Napa for me to brew. So on my day off yesterday, I got to brew a batch of beer. I made a red ale in the hopes that it will be ready early enough to show a prospective employer what I'd like to do with his current red ale. Here is a photo of my crushed malt in my mash tun.
The lightest grain on the right is pale 2-row, the medium colored grain on the left is caramel 40 , Munich, and biscuit malts, and the darkest is chocolate malt. The metal piece is part of the mash tun and helps to filter the liquid coming out.
Here is a photo of the boil. In professional brewing parlance, I had a rockin' boil. I started with 16 quarts of wort and boiled it down to 10. I was making a 3 gallon batch, so I had to add more water to keep my volume up.
Here is the boiled, chilled, oxygenated beer. I realized that the spot I chose to ferment it was right next to our hydroponic garden, so I had to cover it to keep uv light from damaging the beer. I had made a few covers back in WI, but I didn't bring them here, so I had to think quickly.
Saturday, September 15, 2007
Week 8
Week 8 of cooking school
This week went by in a flash, partly because I only was at school for three days. Tuesday I had a migraine and was out for the count all day. I missed school, and thank goodness I didn’t have to work. Yikes. So that was no fun at all.
On Wednesday I was feeling much better, which was good because we had a field trip to San Francisco and Berkley. We all loaded onto a bus and drove to San Francisco and went to a farmer’s market downtown. Then we went to a meatpacking plant which was a lot more interesting than it sounds. It was first freakishly clean, which was good since this place supplies most of napa valley with meat. Next it was so interesting to see guys French a rack of lamb in 3 minutes, where it takes me 10 times that amount. They were amazing. We then went to Mel’s dinner, which is a SF classic. It’s all done in chrome and is the typical 50’s dinner. It was too fun. Next we went to the Ferry building, which has a bunch of food stores, (Scharffen-berger chocolates, Acme sourdough bread etc) and some restaurants like the slanted door which I still haven’t been to, but need to go to. Next we went to Berkley and went to Berkley bowl, which is a huge gourmet/hippie supermarket. We were all pretty tired by then so we all just clumped around and then got back on the bus to go home. It was a really fun day though and it was nice to spend time with people from school in normal clothes and do normal stuff.
The rest of the week (the other three days) went really fast and was kind of a blur, food was made and served and enjoyed. I'm 25% done with cooking school and I feel like I have learned a ton, and I'm really enjoying it. Lots of love to everyone and come and visit us in Napa!!! (Its 80 and beautiful right now!!) Abby
Some field trip photos
Sorry its side ways, this is me at the meat packing plant. How cute am I in a hair net. Too cute, right? The ex vegetarian and the hanging side of beef. yikes.
Ok, don't worry moms and grandmas and Leigh. This is Joel, one of my friends from school. We were at Mel's Dinner and couldn't resist the sock hop/ 50's dinner pose. You all know me far too well to think I would share my chocolate malt with any man, maybe not even David.
Always gray and cold in SF.
This week went by in a flash, partly because I only was at school for three days. Tuesday I had a migraine and was out for the count all day. I missed school, and thank goodness I didn’t have to work. Yikes. So that was no fun at all.
On Wednesday I was feeling much better, which was good because we had a field trip to San Francisco and Berkley. We all loaded onto a bus and drove to San Francisco and went to a farmer’s market downtown. Then we went to a meatpacking plant which was a lot more interesting than it sounds. It was first freakishly clean, which was good since this place supplies most of napa valley with meat. Next it was so interesting to see guys French a rack of lamb in 3 minutes, where it takes me 10 times that amount. They were amazing. We then went to Mel’s dinner, which is a SF classic. It’s all done in chrome and is the typical 50’s dinner. It was too fun. Next we went to the Ferry building, which has a bunch of food stores, (Scharffen-berger chocolates, Acme sourdough bread etc) and some restaurants like the slanted door which I still haven’t been to, but need to go to. Next we went to Berkley and went to Berkley bowl, which is a huge gourmet/hippie supermarket. We were all pretty tired by then so we all just clumped around and then got back on the bus to go home. It was a really fun day though and it was nice to spend time with people from school in normal clothes and do normal stuff.
The rest of the week (the other three days) went really fast and was kind of a blur, food was made and served and enjoyed. I'm 25% done with cooking school and I feel like I have learned a ton, and I'm really enjoying it. Lots of love to everyone and come and visit us in Napa!!! (Its 80 and beautiful right now!!) Abby
Some field trip photos
Sorry its side ways, this is me at the meat packing plant. How cute am I in a hair net. Too cute, right? The ex vegetarian and the hanging side of beef. yikes.
Ok, don't worry moms and grandmas and Leigh. This is Joel, one of my friends from school. We were at Mel's Dinner and couldn't resist the sock hop/ 50's dinner pose. You all know me far too well to think I would share my chocolate malt with any man, maybe not even David.
Always gray and cold in SF.
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Some Photos
Here are a few pics from our day off last Saturday.
This is a bin of grapes waiting to be de-stemmed and crushed at the Dutch Henry Winery.
This is a view of the backyard of the Summers Winery. They had great wine and a bocce court. (Yes, of course we played a game of bocce.)
The reason we went to Summers is that we read that you could see Calistoga's Old Faithful geyser erupting from the tasting room. Also, it costs less to taste at Summers than the admission to the little park by the geyser. The guy pouring for us said the geyser kind of looks like a broken sprinkler or a guy spraying his hose up in the air.
He was right. Yellowstone's is much better. But we went home with a few bottles of wine, so it was worth the trip. One of the wines we got was an Italian varietal called Charbono. Neither of us had ever heard of it, but it was quite nice.
We had a great time at the movie that night. We packed a picnic and smuggled in a bottle of wine. We sat out under the stars in between the vineyards and watched Rear Window. It was a terrific day.
This is a bin of grapes waiting to be de-stemmed and crushed at the Dutch Henry Winery.
This is a view of the backyard of the Summers Winery. They had great wine and a bocce court. (Yes, of course we played a game of bocce.)
The reason we went to Summers is that we read that you could see Calistoga's Old Faithful geyser erupting from the tasting room. Also, it costs less to taste at Summers than the admission to the little park by the geyser. The guy pouring for us said the geyser kind of looks like a broken sprinkler or a guy spraying his hose up in the air.
He was right. Yellowstone's is much better. But we went home with a few bottles of wine, so it was worth the trip. One of the wines we got was an Italian varietal called Charbono. Neither of us had ever heard of it, but it was quite nice.
We had a great time at the movie that night. We packed a picnic and smuggled in a bottle of wine. We sat out under the stars in between the vineyards and watched Rear Window. It was a terrific day.
Cooking school week 7
This week was the first week of my third class at cooking school, entitled skills 3 – production. In this class we pretty much make the rest of the school lunch. At 12 they line up, put in an order and then we make what they order after they order it. Like a real restaurant, no? yes!
So anyways, in this new class we get a lot more freedom to be creative in the kitchen. One of the first days we made roast chicken, and the next day I made curry chicken salad for the lunch menu. It was quite a hit, so I felt good about that. My group is more than a little crazy, some intense personalities, and we will be together for the whole class, which will be a test of patience on my part. On Friday I made chicken Kiev, and tonight I am making it for David, because he has never had it before. I’m excited to make him something I learned how to make in school.
My professor is ok, he is really knowledgeable but sometimes gives us too many things to think about. It is information over load, and hard to sift thought and figure out what exactly he wants us to do. Like the other day we were making mashed potatoes, and he said “Mashed potatoes are nice, maybe you could put some cheddar cheese in them , and some chives and some bacon..that would be nice right? You could also add some flour and some eggs and make gnocchi that would be real nice to right? What about berny potatoes we should find some truffles and you could totally make berny potatoes…” After saying things like that we walks away, and I’m left to figure out which of the three different potatoes he would like in an hour… It’s a little tricky, but I’m figuring out how to read him.
Other than that everything is going well. David and I spent Saturday together, which is pretty rare for us. We went wine tasting, and out for lunch, and then we went to a movie that was outside in a winery. It was really really fun, and Victoria, my pal from school came along to the movie. Next week we have a field trip to San Francisco to look forward to.
Lots of love,
Abby
So anyways, in this new class we get a lot more freedom to be creative in the kitchen. One of the first days we made roast chicken, and the next day I made curry chicken salad for the lunch menu. It was quite a hit, so I felt good about that. My group is more than a little crazy, some intense personalities, and we will be together for the whole class, which will be a test of patience on my part. On Friday I made chicken Kiev, and tonight I am making it for David, because he has never had it before. I’m excited to make him something I learned how to make in school.
My professor is ok, he is really knowledgeable but sometimes gives us too many things to think about. It is information over load, and hard to sift thought and figure out what exactly he wants us to do. Like the other day we were making mashed potatoes, and he said “Mashed potatoes are nice, maybe you could put some cheddar cheese in them , and some chives and some bacon..that would be nice right? You could also add some flour and some eggs and make gnocchi that would be real nice to right? What about berny potatoes we should find some truffles and you could totally make berny potatoes…” After saying things like that we walks away, and I’m left to figure out which of the three different potatoes he would like in an hour… It’s a little tricky, but I’m figuring out how to read him.
Other than that everything is going well. David and I spent Saturday together, which is pretty rare for us. We went wine tasting, and out for lunch, and then we went to a movie that was outside in a winery. It was really really fun, and Victoria, my pal from school came along to the movie. Next week we have a field trip to San Francisco to look forward to.
Lots of love,
Abby
Monday, September 3, 2007
Wine Tasting
St. Francis Winery - Dont we look cute.
Chateau St. Jean Winery
These are the wineries that we went to in Sonoma with Wade and Ali.
Sunday, September 2, 2007
Cooking school week 6
This picture is the view from th highway between Napa and Sonoma.
Week 6 of Cooking School This week was a short week, only four days, because our blocks are 14 days long. This makes for a nice long Labor Day weekend. Wade and Ali are in town so we have been having fun with them and their friends Jason and Caitlin. So school.
This week was again testing week. Wednesday and Thursday I had tests, Wednesday was a written test, and a knife test, and Thursday was my cooking test. For the knife test I had to produce 2 cups of small dice (1/4” cubed) onion, 2 cup or julienne (2” x 1/8” x 1/8”) onion, ½ cup fine dice shallot, ½ cup minced garlic, and 1 cup tomato concasse (which is tomatoes that are boiled for 45 seconds and shocked in ice water and then peeled, seeded, and cut into little pieces). All of this in 30 minutes. Lets just say that there was onion flying everywhere. The funniest part was my friend from school Victoria who was right next to me for the knife test, kept singing dankeshane everytime anyone said concasse (which is pronounced Con-ca-say). It was too funny and we were all giggles during the test, but we both did well even with the giggling.
Thursday went really well, as well. The test was sautéed chicken breast with sauce of fine herbs, berny potatoes, which are mashed potatoes with black truffle pieces in them, shaped into pear shaped and rolled in breadcrumbs and deep fried. Another reason to be made at the French, they take forever to make. Lastly green beans were the veg. All of my food came out pretty well, and I again was freakishly clean. If I could only make myself be freakishly clean all the time in the kitchen, not just on test days. Oh well. Chef Tucker Bunch said I looked like a rock star, referring to how nice my food and my station looked, so that made me happy. I am currently 1/5th of the way through my program and I am really starting to like it. I feel less scared and more in control, which is nice.
Everything in sunny CA is going well outside of school. The grape harvest has begun and should last until the end of September. We have been having a major heat wave which has been pretty unpleasant in our not air conditioned apartment. Right now 10:30 AM on Sunday, the shades are all drawn and windows all shut to keep in the nights coolness. How funny. I hope everyone has a fun and safe holiday weekend!
Lots of love,
Abby
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