Week 13

My euro class is going well. We are all getting a little fed up with the teacher, but for the most part everyone is going fine. We cooked our way through Spain, and Italy this week and for the most part everything was good. Spain food is not really my thing, so it was a lot of empanadas and random fish bits. We got in suckling pig and were going to roast them whole, which is really really yummy, but the pigs were rotten. It was sad that the little baby pigs died for no good reason and ended up in the trash. What a shame.

Besides the pigs going to waste we have been bombarded with the history of each of the countries that we have been talking about over the last two weeks. Long lectures, with lots of misinformation. Our chef lived in Europe in the 1980’s and he still thinks Europe is in the 80’s. He announced in class that everyone in the basque region of Spain wears a beret. Victoria and I just giggled in the back row, and could count on one hand the number of berets we saw in the basque region. We think they were big in the 80’s, and he didn’t get the fashion memo.

Everyone at school is getting a little stir crazy, like the weeks leading up to Christmas break. Everyone is getting on everyone elses nerves, and we are all ready for the week break after this class. The school holds a conference every year called “The world of Flavors”. It’s a big deal in the industry, and we get the week off of school for it, and can volunteer if we want to. This year’s the theme is asia, so it should be really fun. Morimoto of Iron Chef, on the food channel is coming, as is Martin Yan from PBS, as well as every other famous Asian chef that I should know, but don’t. It should be fun to meet them all. The best part about the conference is that it starts on Wednesday, so I get to go home Sun-Tuesday ☺ I’m too excited to see mom and dad, and have lunch with Barbara!

Since there has not been a photo in a while, here is a photo of David, Victoria, Joel, and myself in San Francisco Saturday Night. Victoria, Joel and I spent the day in the city and David met us for dinner. The restaurant had this sign on the front window, and we were al a little confused by it, although it was an Asian restaurant and there was no cheese. Enjoy the photos. ☺

Week 12

Week 12

Week 12 -14 will be European/Mediterranean food. The first three days was dedicated to Northern Africa, Turkey, Greece, Iran, and the middle east. I was the Sous Chef on Wednesday, which is a rotating position of authority. I made sure everyone had everything they needed, made sure we had all the food. I helped Chef Mike set up the demo and then I set up the buffet of all the food that we made. It was fun to be in charge and I think I did pretty well.

Friday we switched to Spain, and had a three hour lecture on Spain and is food. Three hours was a lot of lecture, and the information was a little dated, but most of it was still true. Next week Monday and Tuesday will be Spain as well and then the rest of the week will be Italian.

Saturday David and I were feeling adventurous and decided and go on a hike (stop laughing Leigh-Anna. I’m out-doorsy!) We got some salads from a gourmet market in town, and some fried chicken and drove to Napa Valley State Park to eat it. It is a 5 minute drive from our house, so it was a nice afternoon activity. We parked the car and hiked up a small hill (1000 feet or so) and had our lovely little picnic from the top. It was nice to get little exercise and the hike was beautiful, although it was a little more strenuous than I thought it would be. When we got home we made a delicious four cheese mac and cheese, a warm spinach salad with bacon dressing, and broccoli. Victoria came over, as she usually does for dinner on Saturday night. We had a yummy dinner and then watched a little Family guy (one of our favorite TV shows).

Now David is at work and I’m about to do some homework, and fold the laundry. It sunny and beautiful outside, although I wish it was a little cooler, and more fall-like. 70 and sunny does not say October to me. Oh well, I should enjoy it while it lasts.
I hope everyone had a great week,

Lots of love
Abby

Week 11

Week 11

My class for week 11 was Flavor Dynamics with Chef Tucker Bunch. We talked about how different flavor combinations occur is different types of food, ie Basil, tomatoes, olive oil = Italian food. My group had Asian foods, which meant that I got to play with a bunch of weird (to me ) ingredients. I made chicken in clay pot, which was chicken cut up and marinated in fish sauce (which was new to me and smelled like swamp) and chilies, ginger and soy. It was really really good, even though the fish sauce smelled like swamp. The lectures for this class were by far my favorite, thus far. We tasted salts, olive oils, and vinegars and talked about why we liked certain ones and disliked other.

My favorite lecture was about smells relation to taste. We shut our eyes and picked out a jelly belly, held our nose and popped it into our mouths. We chewed and it was so weird, I couldn’t taste anything, because my nose was held. I couldn’t tell what flavor it was. Then we were told to let go of our noses and I could tell it was coffee flavored. It was kind of fun.

On Friday we did a market basket assignment. We went to the farmers market, and had $10 per group to buy something to make 30 portions of a one-bite appetizer within our flavor profile, (ours was Asian). We found some fun mussels, and these mini tomatoes. We steamed the mussels in a curry, coconut, lemon verbena, and lemon grass mixture; we then took the muscles out, and skewered them with the mini tomatoes. It was supper yummy and everyone really liked it.

The Saturday after week 11 we went to Monterey with my friend Victoria and her friend who was visiting from Miami. We got sandwiches at Campango’s again, and then went to the aquarium. It was fun hanging out with Victoria for the day. We drove back on Saturday night, and David worked on Sunday while I did homework. I had off on Monday for Columbus Day, which was nice, and David switched shifts with a girl we work with so he was off on Monday too. We went out for tacos and went wine tasting and had a really fun day together.

Lots of love
Abby