Thursday, May 20, 2010

Menus, Menus, Menus

My brain is too full.

This quarter has been a little crazy, but it sure has gone by fast! I was hoping I could update this thing more so I could actually remember what I did throughout the year. Guess that was a big fat flop!

It seems like I never have anything to do, until now when I have 754,578 things going on. But I wouldn't change a thing. I have a couple big things coming up:

Pinup Bizarre 2010 - I'm in a Pinup competition this year, and it's on Saturday! So much fun because I get to dress up and get my hair and makeup done. I'm still selling tickets if anyone needs some (and you know you do)..

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Mobile blogging?

Thursday, January 7, 2010

Curse my writing abilities...

It takes me hours to read a chapter because I take such thorough notes! For my International Cuisine class we get to choose what countries we want to learn about - and I'm thinking Ireland is gonna be my pick. All that seafood!!!!! I hope I get it.

Today was craaaaazy. Some first quarter cut his hand so bad he had to go to the hospital to get stitches. What a bummer. I had about 33298575 things going at once, and messed up Chef Plemmons' smoked salmon! EFFFFFUUHHHH. I hope it will be okay, I was so darn pissed off. I NEVER screw stuff up, and it had to be his smoked salmon! Ugh, okay enough thinking about it. I told Alysha (one of the first quarters in my group) she was going to be responsible for getting the chicken in the oven today, and I was going to make the stuffing and the pan gravy. But of course I ended up doing all of it, and she just took off for lunch - so I didn't get to eat for the 4th time this week. I think that's why I keep getting headaches. I've been standing for 8 hours straight and then going home and finally getting to eat something - not so good I know. Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to eat lunch - prooobably not though.

Today I made Stuffed Chicken with Sauce Smitaine. I made up the stuffing - a cranberry, blue cheese and brandy stuffing, YUM - and stuffed the chicken, and baked the chicken, and made the sauce! Ha =]. I did make the first quarters butcher the chickens for me though. So they did one thing.



Chicken Stuffed with Cranberry-Blue Cheese Dressing and Sauce Smitaine
Serves 8

Skin-on chicken parts (two whole chickens cut into 2 breasts and 2 legs and thighs, 8 pieces total)
Panko Bread crumbs
Dried cranberries
Celery, small dice
Dried sage, to taste
Blue cheese
Brandy
Good chicken stock, or broth
Salt and Pepper, to taste
Clarified butter

Mix the Panko bread crumbs with cranberries, celery, sage, blue cheese, salt and pepper, and brandy. Basically just want an even mixture of all the ingredients - what you use may vary depending on your taste buds. Season to taste with salt and pepper, brandy, and sage. Don't use too much brandy though! Add cold chicken stock until the stuffing is moist enough to be shaped and HOLD it's shape. Stuff under the skin of the chicken pieces, pulling the skin down to cover the stuffing.

Place pieces on a baking sheet,and pour some clarified butter over the top to brown the skin and keep it moist. Bake at 350 degrees until the breasts reach 165 degrees or above (20-25 min), and the legs and thighs reach 170-175 degrees (30-35 mins). The legs and thighs will take longer because they are dark meat and bone-in.

While those are cooking, work on your sauce.

Sauce Smitaine

Clarified butter
Chicken scraps
Mirepoix
Chicken stock (however much sauce you need)
Roux, enough to thicken to desired consistency
Sour cream, to taste
Cayenne pepper, just a pinch
Salt and pepper, to taste

In a large saucepan, heat clarified butter until it moves around the pan fast (med-high heat). Add chicken scraps and brown. Then add the mirepoix and brown them as well. Deglaze the pan to get all the flavors off the bottom with the chicken stock, use enough to make the amount of sauce you need. Make a roux with equal parts by weight of flour and clarified butter - cooked in a small saute pan until the flour taste is gone. Should look crumbly and almost dry. Add the roux to the sauce, while stirring, to thicken to desired consistency. Adjust seasonings with a pinch of cayenne and salt and pepper to taste. Finish with sour cream, to taste. Strain through a fine mesh sieve.

Serve chicken with your sauce and enjoy!


I had my "kitchen math" class today, and I just realized how long it has been since I've taken an actual math class. My brain doesn't remember all those years of division apparently? Once I figure it out it'll all come back to me I hope.

We're also doing a Valentine's Day Brunch on V-day! AHHH! I'm so excited. I LOOOOOVE Valentine's Day - especially since my birthday is the day before! I think I get to be on the committee to plan the menu and decorations and stuff, which I absolutely love party planning. Pretty awesome.

Watching Gilmore Girls, relaxing before I have to get ready for bed, and another long day tomorrow. But it's FRIDAY! Yay for that.

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

I need more sleep

Sleeping in is my favorite. I sleep better in the morning than at night! How lame, because I get up every morning at 6am.

It's definitely a lot easier at school with more people in our groups doing stuff - but the kitchen is SO crowded. There's no room whatsoever. But anyway! Everything went out on time and was good today, YAY! I made Seafood Stuffed Won-tons with Apricot Sauce today, oh man they were soooo good. Very awesome hors d'eouvres (did I spell that right?
). I stole this picture from somebody (ha =]) because I didn't have time to take one at school, but that's what they looked like!


Seafood Stuffed Won-tons with Apricot Sauce
Makes 24 Pieces

8 oz. cream cheese
4 oz. crab meat (I only had surimi), chopped
4 oz. shrimp, peeled, deveined, and diced
1 tsp. garlic, chopped
1 oz. green onions
2-3 oz. red peppers, very small dice
Salt and Pepper (to taste)
Worcestershire (to taste)
Sesame Oil (to taste)
24 won-ton skins
Apricot Sauce (as needed)

Mix cream cheese in a mixer until soft and creamy. Mix in crab, shrimp, garlic, green onions, red peppers, and season to taste with remaining seasonings.

Lay out a couple of won-ton wrappers at a time, and brush water around all four edges. Put a tablespoon (more or less depending on size of wrappers) in the middle of the wrappers, and pull one corner down to the opposite corner to make it into a triangle. Press out any air bubbles and seal the won-ton firmly.

Deep fry at 350 degrees until brown and temps at 145 degrees. Flip them with tongs so that one side doesn't get cooked more than the other. They cook really fast! Should only take a minute or two per side.

Apricot Sauce
Makes 8 oz.

8 oz. apricot Preserves
1 tbsp. fresh ginger, grated (may not need to use all of it, start with a small amount)
1 tsp. dry mustard
1/2 fl oz. red wine vinegar

Mix all in a saucepan on low-med heat until flavors blend. Serve warm or cold.


They sold pretty well today, and everyone liked them (I loooove them). Definitely going to make them again. Hopefully the first quarters will take initiative and do some stuff tomorrow....... We'll see!

Off to do some homework.... =]




Tuesday, January 5, 2010

America's Funniest Home Videos?

People are such idiots, especially on camera.

School was interesting today. Since I was serving on the line yesterday, I didn't get any of my mise en place (prep) done, and was assured by the other members in my group that I had fish ready. They didn't pull out the right kind of fish, which I didn't find out until 9am. SUPER fun. Had to quick thaw them, and rush around at the last minute which I hate. But I made Pan-Fried Cod, which was breaded with a spicy panko mixture. Then I made a citrus vanilla sauce to go with it. Had problems with the sauce as well, which was very frustrating, but a 4th quarter (Izzy) helped me save it! Turned out pretty good, but I had to add some sugar to the sauce because it was real sour!



Fried Cod with Citrus Vanilla Sauce
Serves 4

4 (5oz) Cod Fillets
Panko Bread Crumbs
Red Pepper Flakes (to taste)
Southwest Seasoning (to taste)
Seasoned flour (with salt and pepper)
Egg wash (4 eggs whisked with 4 tbsp. milk)
Citrus Vanilla Sauce (as needed)

Portion out the cod so that you have four 5 oz. portions. Mix the panko bread crumbs with red pepper flakes and southwest seasoning to taste. Put the seasoned flour, panko, and egg wash in separate dishes. Using the standard breading procedure, pat the portions dry with a paper towel, coat with flour, dip in egg wash, then into bread crumbs (make sure they're completely coated). Place onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and put into the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.

Pan fry in a saute pan, with just enough oil to cover the bottom of the pan. Cook at med-high heat until it reaches 145 degrees. Serve with Citrus Vanilla Sauce.

Citrus Vanilla Sauce
Serves 4

2 oranges
1 lemon
1 lime
1 vanilla bean, split
Sugar (to taste)
2 fl. oz. heavy cream
8 oz. unsalted butter
Salt (to taste)

Juice the fruit, and strain to get out any seeds. Put the juice in a small saucepan with the vanilla bean seeds and sugar (to taste), and bring to a simmer - reduce by 2/3. Add the cream and reduce by 2/3. Slowly whisk in the butter. It helps to soften the butter a little bit. Sauce will break if you don't keep it warm!


All in all it turned out pretty good. Good flavor. We had the newbies in the kitchen today doing their knife competencies. Pretty interesting. Our class didn't have anybody cut themselves until like 2 weeks in, today we had 3 people cut themselves. Niiiice start right? One of them was a girl in my group.... haha. Oh well I guess everyone has to learn. It was kind of hard getting them started. Everyone in our class had to cook on their own from the start, the newbies kind of expect us to do all the work. That's not how you learn! =] They'll find out soon enough I guess. Tomorrow I'm making Stuffed Wontons with Apricot Sauce. It sounds pretty good, don't you think?

Got some Quizno's for Jon, Katie and I for dinner. Wow I know, I'm lame, I should be cooking amazing dinners every night. Watching some America's Funniest Home Videos with Jonboy - I love that he thinks little kids falling is so darn funny. =]

Class with Plemmons tomorrow, I'm excited for International Cuisine!

Goodnight!

Monday, January 4, 2010

School Again.

January 4th came way too soon.

School started for me this morning - bright and early at 7:30am. Definitely did not want to wake up this morning. Today was just an orientation day for the first quarters, so all of us second quarters had to make the food. I was a little slow today, def not back into the swing of things - but A LOT better than some. =] I made Chicken Yakitori today, which is traditionally any part of the chicken grilled on a stick. I believe Andrew Zimmern did a show on Japan or China where they put the feet and brains on a stick with the sauce - NO thanks. Mine was just chicken breasts though, don't worry! Very good, and very easy!

Chicken Yakitori
Yield: 8 Servings

Soy Sauce 8 oz.
Sake 8 oz.
Granulated sugar 2 oz.
Chicken Breasts 2 lbs. (I served 1 breast per person, so for this recipe you would need 8)
Cornstarch 1 tbsp.
Sesame Seeds 1 tbsp. (toast them for more flavor)

Combine the soy sauce, sake, and granulated sugar in a bowl. Reserve 8 oz of the mixture in a separate container.

Brush the chicken breasts with the reserved 8 oz. of soy sauce mixture, and grill until done - 165 degrees or above. (I also marinated them before hand in half of the liquid for more flavor.) Should have good grill marks without being burned on the outside. You can also spray some foil with vegetable pan coating and set it on the grill to cook the chicken on, so they won't burn the outside after they've been marked.

To make the sauce, mix 2 oz. of the remaining soy sauce mixture in the cornstarch to make a cornstarch slurry. Heat the remainder of the soy sauce mixture in a small saucepan over medium heat - bring it to a boil. Add the cornstarch slurry, and bring back to a boil, stirring constantly. It will thicken up pretty quickly. Serve warm with the chicken, and cooked white rice.


I sold out within the first hour of opening, so I guess it was good? Tomorrow I'm doing some sort of breaded and fried cod. Have to do some brainstorming tonight - but I was thinking of serving it with a Citrus Vanilla sauce. We shall see what the chef's think. =]

Just got home from work, listened to Jonathan talk about his day, and about to make some dinner. Spaghetti because I feel like some comfort food - but JONATHAN doesn't like spaghetti. How un-American! Maybe he'll just eat a sandwich. =]

More tomorrow!
Elise

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Winter Cleaning.

Today was good, busy at work! Been auditing the files so a lot of paperwork and computer time, but it makes the day go by so much faster. =]

After work I came home to clean the house and move stuff around. Adam is gonna move in so I had to "clean 1 of my 3 rooms" as Jonathan put it. So I'm not like disgustingly sloppy and messy. I just have too much stuff and not enough organizational tools to help me. So when I ask Jon for help cleaning stuff and he says no - my "rooms" get a little full of crap. Haha! I try to organize as I go, but I'm just terrible at cleaning my room for some reason =]. So Adam and Jon helped me (Adam without any complaint, and Jon with a lot of complaining) move out stuff and get piles ready for Goodwill! I really hate just throwing stuff away, such a waste. Jon has to go to Goodwill now. Hahaha I'm not very nice am I? BUT I bought the boys some nice dinner for their trouble, (BK Lounge anyone?).

Family Guy is on, and we're watching it of course. I don't think there's been a day yet that it hasn't been on TV at SOME time. Chris is this your doing? If so, thanks for reminding us to laugh buddy.

I want one of those crazy Blackberry charging pads! Those are awesome!

Anyway, Christmas is coming. Not as excited about it this year, probably because I didn't get to go shopping for people. My favorite part about Christmas is buying people fun presents. =[ oh well, you can't win 'em all.