Pumpkin up! Thanksgiving is Days Away...

Thanksgiving is every food lover's dream come true- a day that is completely and entirely centered around food. I am personally thrilled about this upcoming holiday not only because I will be cooking delicious food at my ranch with my family, but because for the past TWO years on Thanksgiving Day, I have been too sick to even taste my cherished meal. This year, the holiday is going to be a slam dunk.

In preparation of the holiday, I signed up for a pumpkin recreational class. We had a wonderful time making very festive things. We cooked the classics like pumpkin bread and roasted sliced pumpkin, but we also made very unique dishes such as pumpkin gnocchi pasta with gorgonzola cream sauce. We also made pumpkin chili, roasted mini pumpkins filled with apple stuffing, and pumpkin creme brulee. All of it was so unique and quite easy if you are willing to put in the time and effort. Here are some pictures of the things we made:

*Pumpkin bread (with fennel... interesting touch)

*Roasted Pumpkins with Apple Stuffing

*The finished set up with all of our Pumpkin-y goodness!!!

Overall, I think my favorite part of Thanksgiving day is the moment when all of dishes are finally finished laid out in a beautiful display symbolizing hardwork, gratefulness, and time being spent with those you love. I feel so blessed for my wonderfully big family and how much they have supported me in my pursuit of a career in the culinary industry. I cannot wait to be back in Texas to spend this significant holiday with the people I care most about. I also can't wait to bust out these dishes plus countless others I have been researching over the past few weeks (I'm not obsessed I promise...)

Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Eating!!!

The Reign of Chef Chris

So the reign of Chef Chris has come and gone as the completion of Module 2 occurred today with our practical. Our test was a sauteed strip steak with a red wine pan sauce along with pommes persillade and haricots verts. Chef Chris was very specific about how he wanted the coloring of the food, the temperature of the plate, and the direction and organization of the overall presentation. I was nervous for today, but as I sat my plated hard work in front of this highly esteemed chef, his one-word feedback to my plate was "perfect." I was thrilled! On to Mod 3 tomorrow...


Over the past week and a half, we have finished learning basic cooking techniques. We made breakfast items, sandwiches, salads, and dishes that reviewed the techniques we have learned all throughout Mod 2. My favorite section was breakfast. The item we made that I know I will be making again for the people in my family (my dad) is a traditional eggs benedict. It's the classically brillant combination of flavors and textures that makes this dish so renown. I am so excited to know how to make the traditional dish so I can add unique twists and surprises to the basic recipe. My new favorite item made this week, one that I have always enjoyed eating, is crepes. Last year when I so ignorantly attempted to make crepes, they were a ripped up messed of half-cooked batter that almost made me sick. Now I know how to mix perfect batter, how much batter to ladle into the correct-sized pan, and when to flip. It is so much fun to make because there is an endless amount of combinations to fill it with! In class, we made an apple flambe filling and an herbed goat cheese filling- both were equally divine. The weirdest dish I made this week was a saddle of rabbit stuffed with mushroom duxelle and wrapped in caul fat. We seared the outside, finished it in the oven, and made a veal reduction sauce to pair with it. After spending four hours creating this uniquely complex dish, I shamefully admit that couldn't bring myself to even taste it (rabbits are too cute... it's an attachment I need to overcome). 

*Stuffed Saddle of Rabbit with a Veal Reduction

*Classic Eggs Benedict

*Parson's Garden Salad


As for what it was like with Chef Chris... Let's just say it was night and day in comparison to Chef Sobrina. He walked into our class the first day with the purposeful intention to scare us. He spouted out his accomplishments and list of restaurants he has worked at (just restaurants like Per Se and French Laundry- no big deal) and loudly demanded a very specific equipment and station set up before we could even touch food. However, once I learned he had four daughters, I was set to find his soft spot. He ended up loving my table of all girls... He snuck us cookies and extra desserts from the catering kitchens, he allowed us to tweak all of our recipes however we desired, and he taught us his specialties like onion rings and chocolate bread pudding (best I have ever had!). However, even though he gave us freedom in our recipes, Chef Chris still demanded absolute perfection. His two sayings that were permanently drilled into my mind were "It MUST be perfect!" and "ALWAYS be clean!". Overall, Chef Chris was a wonderful instructor who challenged us and pushed us to be better. His passion for the kitchen really shines through in his teaching and is very contagious to his students. Oh, and I think Chef successfully scared every male in our class- the girls were quite happy with it :)


Well tomorrow is the first day of Mod 3. All I know about it is that the recipes double in ingredients and complication and the new chef instructor remains unknown. It will be an interesting ride!!!


Only 8 more days till Thanksgiving!!!!!!!!

How do you slow down time??

So I skipped a week blogging- aka I have a lot of food to talk about. I can't believe it, but we are almost HALF WAY done with our culinary program! In this second module, everyday we're up and moving the entire class time making the weeks go by way too quickly. The past two weeks were strictly focused on moist-heat cooking and advanced vegetable preparations. 

The moist-heat styles we learned included braising, stewing, steaming, poaching, and simmering. It is so interesting how minimal variations in a stock amount or in the pot used can be the determining factor between two techniques. My personal favorite from the list is braising, exactly like stewing, but the liquid only covers the protein half way up. Everything we braised from lamb shanks to beef cheeks came out flavorful and tender, and we were able to use the extra liquid to make perfectly matched sauces for each braised item. The dish I enjoyed eating the most was the braised chicken thighs with mushrooms and balsamic vinegar. It called for everything delicious: 5 different kinds of mushrooms, butter, vegetables, and cream. It came out beautifully, as did most of the dishes.

The other techniques we learned were advanced vegetable preparations. In this section we made simplistic dishes such as mashed potatoes and rice pilaf, to absurd things that only a show-off French chef would create, such as carrot flan and broccoli souffle. I naturally volunteered to make the carrot flan (they call it a "timbale") because I was so intrigued at its preparation method. Once out of the oven, it literally tasted like flan with carrots. The strange combination of the eggy texture with the punch of carrot was so weird that I probably won't ever make it again with carrots (or any type of vegetable probably). One of my favorite things that we made was risotto. My dad and I love making this together and experiment with all different flavors. The one we made it class was a simple recipe using onion, white wine, arborio rice, and parmesan cheese. It was creamy, delicate, and a wonderful staple that can be paired with anything!

 *Whole Fish braised with Olives and Capers

 *Osso Buco

*Steamed Chinese Strip Bass with Vegetables and Sticky Rice

For other interesting news:

1) An episode of Celebrity Apprentice was filmed in my school yesterday. Yes, that means was Donald Trump was 6 floors above me....

2) I passed my Serv Safe exam so I basically know everything about food safetly and sanitation (at least for the next week or so before I forget)

3) I get a new chef instructor on Monday named Chef Chris. He is a large, intimating man who loves to make his own salami. The rumor is that he is like a drill sargent in comparison to Chef Sobrina. This should be interesting.

4) I met the deputy editor from Everyday Cooking with Martha Stewart magazine this past Monday! She was awesome and I made sure I personally introduced myself to her. 

That's all I have for the week! I am definitely going to be preparing myself for this coming week. Stay tuned to see if my class and I survive the salami lover...

Happy Eating!!!