Week 17 and 1est term practical Week 17 and 1st semester practical exam

This week was a doozey! Im glad its over!

First off we had out grand buffet in my garde manger class. All week we prepared for it, and on Thursday we had an insane amount of beautiful food. I took tons of photos and here they are.




As I said the entire week was devoted to getting ready for this one buffet, so there isn’t a lot to talk about. A lot of chopping and such but nothing too too exciting.
Thursday was amazing though. My team had 3 action stations where we were preparing food live in front of the guest. These stations included a bananas Foster station, and oyster station, and a spinach salad station with warm bacon dressing (I swear that one was not my idea, but how Wisconsin is that!!) In addition to the live action stations, we made a smoke duck breast salad, with tangerine vinagrette, a canapé with homemade marscapone cheese and lobster, and the most beautiful cheese display in all the land (which I made).

The semester test was today, and it was a little scary. We had 2.5 hours to make four portions of protein, sauce, starch, and 2 vegetables. This morning I drew menu 2, which for those of you who haven’t spent every waking minute of the last two weeks studying these menus, I’ll fill you in. Menu two is chicken breast, with sauce fine herbs, fresh pasta, tourned zucchini and carrots, and shrimp bisque. My food turned out great and I made it just under the wire. The test is pass fail, I passed with a score in the mid 80’s which is pretty respectable.

Now I'm looking forward to a nice bottle of wine and a pot roast dinner with David when he is done with work tonight. We really need to stop working opposite schedules..ick.

Random tidbits for the week are that I sliced proccuito for Francis Ford Coppola at Dean and DeLuca. He was a little needy, but it was pretty cool. The CIA is also decking out for the holidays. I'll include a photo of school next week.

Hope everyone is doing well and isn;t too cold in the mid west.

Lots of love
xoxoxoxox
Abby

8 random things about David

Sorry it's taken me so long to come up with my list. Also, I just don't know enough bloggers to link to, besides Ann, Mom, and Abby who are ahead of me in this meme of random things. Anyway, here are my 8 random things...

1. I love paper airplanes. They are the coolest homemade toys. In fact, I own several books on paper airplanes—my public reason is that I’m keeping them for when kids come over, but they’re really for me. (Don't tell Abby, but I moved them to California in case I feel like making some.) Oh, and in 6th grade I won 1st place in a multi-event paper airplane contest.

2. I also love (and am really good at) tying knots. I was always the knot expert in Boy Scouts and on Blackbeard’s I taught lots of new crew their knots.

3. In spite of the fact that I am now working as a fancy cheese monger, I think that Kraft Macaroni and Cheese is one of the world’s perfect foods.

4. I have very sensitive skin. Any exposure to cleaning supplies or beer sanitizing chemicals makes my skin get all rashy.

5. I don’t function well without breakfast. I need at least a bowl of cereal or a PB&J or I’m crabby until lunch.

6. I’m terrible at wine tasting. Last weekend at a sensory evaluation wine tasting, the only descriptor I could think of for one of the scents was Ann’s Strawberry Shortcake dolls from when she was little.

7. I love family time—the more cliché, the better. I love holiday meals, pumpkin carving, gingerbread house construction, card games, movie night, fireworks, you name it. (It doesn’t even have to be my own family.)

8. In spite of the fact that I have friends all over the world from the Army and Blackbeard's, I’m a terrible correspondent. I really owe an apology to just about everyone I know for not keeping in touch better.

And as a bonus, I have a 9th thing that I feel like is worth mentioning...

9. I can wiggle my ears with an unusual degree of skill. I can move them both together or each individually. I can also move them in any direction ranging from up toward the top of my head to straight back behind me.

Thanksgiving and A Celeb spotting

This last week was Thanksgiving, which meant that I had off the whole week of school. I had a great time lounging, practicing for my test this Friday, and hanging out with David. My parents came to CA on Thursday and we spent Thanksgiving with Claire (Mom's childhood best friend) and Richard Hatch who live in Pleasanton. Friday and Saturday we went wine tasting and had a great time together.

This week is the end of my Garde Manger class, which culminates with our Grand Buffet on Thursday, and then a semester practical on Friday. I hope everything goes well and I pass both :)

Today at school I saw Aisha Tyler, if you are one of the many saying "who?" I understand. She was the actress who played Ross' scientist girlfriend Charlie on Friends. Here is a photo to help you out. She is at school taking a week long wine class.

Hope all is well with everyone and I hope I survive my week :)
Love
Abby

8 Random things about me

Ann - I have no idea how to link this to your blog, nor do I know anyone other than you and Barbara who have a blog I could tag, so here are my 8 random things.
Have a great Thanksgiving :)
Love,
Abby

1) As much as I put out the “go getter” vibe, I am really one of the laziest people I know.
2) I’m double jointed in my thumbs.
3) My biggest vice is crappy TV shows. The more mind numbing the better, eg The Girls Next Door, Made on MTV, etc. The dumber the better.
4) I can’t consistently make good coffee or oatmeal. I’m going to culinary school and I cant make decent oatmeal! How embarrassing. Oatmeal and coffee are left up to David.
5) I have a refined wine palette, ie I can be given a glass of red wine and I can tell you what kind it is, what it tastes/smells like, etc. but I have absolutely no skill in tasting beer. I can’t tell one beer from another. I know if I like it or not, but don’t know why.
6) I want to live by water. I love the beach and coastal landscapes. I’m not particular, west coast, east coast, island, whatever.
7) I’m afraid of the dark. Terrified actually.
8) I was a vegetarian for five years, until my favorite aunt (My dear aunt Martha, who loves to spoil me with countless presents) sent me a summer sausage at college and David watched in amazement as I ate ¾ of a large summer sausage in one sitting.

David's Birthday

David being fancy and the view from Domaine Carneros. (PS this is the last photo of David being 28)

vineyard fall photos


The town-y bar where we found some really good hamburgers.

Week 15 and Week 16

Week 15-17 are Garde Manger class, which is the cold part of the kitchen. In this class we are making things like terrines of foie gras and pate encroute, and huge buffet platters of itty bitty canapés. It’s a fun class where we get to make tiny little knife cuts and turn food into art. My teacher is Chef Tom Wong from Hawaii and has cooked for some pretty cool people in a resort hotel in Hawaii where he was the exec chef. He cooked for Elvis Costello and Diana Krall and tons more. He is a great instructor who demands perfection, and pushes us to be creative. In this class we present food every three days so on day 3, 6 and 9 we put up food. The other days are prep for our presentation days. Day three we were to present very common foods in the style of a canapé (one bite) small plate (3-4 oz) and an appetizer (4-6 oz). Our group had to make chicken and biscuits, cod cakes, and shao mai (which is dim sum). It was fun trying to make chicken and biscuits in one bite.

On day 6 we made duck confit salad with potatoes, scallops and lobster tabbouleh. These its are pictures (mine was the duck confit) The canapé is a fried potato cup with greens, and a roasted shallot vinaigrette. The large platter, which is appetizers for four people, is potato gnocchi tossed in the vinaigrette with greens and duck confit. The point of this is to take the ingredients of the recipe, and make them into something totally different. I loved this challenge so I took some photos.



Day 7-9 we made sausages, which was interesting. It makes you look at sausage differently when you watch it be made…icky, slimy ground meat and fat. But, as Chef Wong said, it’s better to know what’s in it, and know its quality ingredients, than not to know. Day 10, Friday, we did cheese and caviar tasting and cooking. I got to pick out 8 of the 20 cheeses that we had. Chef wanted some different ones that the school couldn’t get so I got to pick cheese from Dean and Deluca. It was fun and both AM and PM ACAP classes got together on Friday, so people could make their flights home. It was nice having different people to talk to.

Other exciting things in the last two weeks, David turned 29, and is doing well coping with the fact that he is knocking on 30’s door. We went out for a nice diner and wine tasted on the 10th to celebrate. Yesterday we had the day off and went to the Petrified Forest, which is in Calistoga. We had a great time looking at the trees transformed to rock. Last night I practiced for my big test on the 30th. It’s a semester exam and I need to pass it to keep going with school. We will draw 4 possible menus and have 2 and a half hours to cook them. My goal for the week off is to cook all four menus for David as kind of a dress rehearsal. Last night we had French onion soup, roast chicken, fresh pasta and green beans and turnips. I made it all in 2.5 hours with time to spare. Yum Yum.

I hope that everyone has a great Thanksgiving week! I know David and I will be eating well. ☺ Love, Abby

Beer and a culinary (mis?)adventure

Today was my day off and I decided it would be a great time to brew some beer and make a recipe I've been wanting to try. I know that I said my next brew would be the wedding beer, but I forgot that I have the ingredients for a batch of witbier. For those of you keeping track, it's Wade's Wit, the beer I brewed to exchange for his couches. It's a fairly light Belgian wheat beer spiced with coriander, cumin, and orange peel.

As for my culinary adventure, I made a recipe called Koolickles. On the latest season of Feasting on Asphalt, Alton Brown learned about Koolickles when he was traveling in the south. Apparently they are a traditional southern food. He gave a recipe on a recent episode of Good Eats. For those of you who don't know, here are the ingredients:



That's right, dill pickles, Kool-aid, and sugar. To be exact, the recipe calls for a 1 gallon jug of dill pickles, one pound of sugar, and two envelopes of cherry Kool-Aid. I reduced it down to a 1.5 quart jar of pickles, because frankly I'm not sure I want a whole gallon of these things. All you do is drain the pickles, reserving the brine, slice them in half lengthwise, put them back in the jar, dissolve the sugar and Kool-Aid in the brine, and pour it back into the jar. After two weeks you've got Koolickles. Here's what they look like today:



This could easily be the weirdest thing I've ever made. I can't wait to try them. I'll let you know if they're any good.

David

Some photos

I've been meaning to post some photos for a few weeks, so I have a bit of a mixed grill for you. Enjoy!


This is Abby on our hike up coyote peak a few weeks ago.



The view of Saint Helena from the trail.



These are some cattle we saw while we were driving. They don't look nearly as happy as the ones on the happy cows commercial. I think it's false advertising.



This is a loaf of oatmeal bread I made a few weeks ago. It made great toast.



Here is a shot of my beer on the day I bottled it. By the way, it turned out quite well. My next brew will be my first attempt at the wedding beer.

I hope everyone is doing well and that you enjoyed our photos.
David

Week 14, Home and the World of Flavor Conference

Week 14 of Euro went pretty well. We made food from Eastern Europe, so lots of goulash, and stews and quick pickles. The food was good, although Chef was in quite a bad mood. On Friday we had decided that we wanted to make breakfast foods, so what better time to do it than breakfast time (which is pretty early, in case you didn’t get the memo). I arrived at school on Friday at 3:45am for class at 4am. I was all prepared to pop in my overnight cinnamon rolls, which I had made the night before and let raise in the fridge. Chef then announced that we was embarrassed that no one wanted to make eggs Benedict, so I decided to make it to pacify him, although that meant that I got to make hollandaise at 5:30 in the morning. The hollandaise came out perfectly, as did my poached eggs. The chef instructors all wanted the eggs benedict, and Chef Stephen who was the pastry chef at the French Laundry said that the eggs benedict was done perfectly. What a compliment! So we had fun making breakfast, although we were all soo sleepy. I have a new appreciation for guys and girls who are working at Denny’s and Perkins making 20 omelets at a time at 5am.

At the end of breakfast, 9am, we all went to the classroom and chef announced that he would be leaving to go back to New York at the end of the World of flavor conference. He said that he couldn’t sell his house, and his teenage daughter didn’t want to leave her high school so he is going back. I have to admit no one was very sad. So no more Chef Mike, who thinks I’m swell, but I’m convinced others think I’m swell too.

After Euro I went home to Shawano for a few days (Sunday-Tuesday). It was nice to be home and hang out with mom and dad. Mom and I shopped Shawano, we all had dinner with Chris and Stacey at Luigi’s…yummy ravioli. The next night we went to the Launching Pad, and had yummy burgers. On the way to the airport, Mom and I had lunch with Dave’s mom Barbara. It was so nice to see her and catch up a little bit.

Wednesday was the start of the World of Flavors conference at school. Which was pretty cool to be a part of. I saw a ton of celebrity chefs, the owner of the Slanted Door in SF Charles Phan, Morimoto from the Food Channel, and Martin Yan from PBS “Yan can Cook”, among a ton of others who non food geeks would not be excited about, but I was super excited. The school looked beautiful, the theme was Asia, and there were huge paper birds and dragons hung from the three story stair well. The barrel room, which where all the wine was produced when the building was the Christian Brothers winery, became an Asian Market, with huge silk multi color awnings, and bamboo food stands. It was too cool. I helped Wednesday-Friday, and then spend Saturday cooking and cleaning for a little dinner party we were having. When I was in Shawano mom and I got a bunch of food together that I cant get in CA, and we shipped it out. Dave and I thought it would be fun to have Joel and Victoria over for a little Wisconsin feast. We had cheese spread, and summer sausage for an appetizer (with old fashioneds), which they both loved and had never had before. Then we had been cheese soup with kielbasa, again something they had never had before. Then we made brats on the grill with our homemade sour kraut, and German potato salad, again things they had never had. For dessert, a family favorite, Grandma Yeager rolls, which are kind of like butter horn cookies, but they have meringue and cinnamon in the middle. Victoria wanted to help, so she came and we made the rolls, as David made the soup. Here we are making the rolls.


Both Joel and Victoria loved the meal. David premiered his latest beer, “Napa Red” which was a hit as well. We played games after dinner and had tons of fun. It was nice to have people over for a grown-up dinner.

Lots of love to everyone
Abby