Cookin No. 30 - Cold Weather and Baking Practical

It has become treacherously cold outside. Already I have taken out my trusty winter hat, and am currently wearing it while I wait for my heat to kick in. Today I started my first day at Wegmans, by going though training called Produce University. It was actually very interesting. We learned about how Wegmans handles produce, how they handle marketing and customer service. Pretty cool how Wegmans expects all employees to be overly helpful to customers, and most of their employees are just that. One time, I saw that there was no cilantro, and I really needed a bunch for the dinner I was cooking that night, so I asked an employee if there was any coming in, and this person, went into the back room, came out with a box, opened it right in front of me and let me take the first pick of the new cilantro. I don’t find that at Giant. And they would also rather the produce department stocks a shelf 5 times out of the day with quality produce, than once a day and let the item sit all day long. I don’t know, I don’t usually get all excited about grocery shopping, but I have to tell you, that I love to shop at Wegmans. And now I get to see the inner workings. I can’t wait until Sunday when I start cooking in front of customers.

Tomorrow is my practical for baking. Basically I have to bake all by myself and present finished products to my teacher in three hours. I have decided to make baguettes and an apple pie. I decided to make the apple pie because it was that or a lemon meringue, and well, I don’t feel confident with my meringue skills, so it’s the apple pie or nothing. So today I went to my parents house for some practice time. I have to say, baking in the home, is so very different from baking in a commercial kitchen, especially after you have been baking in a kitchen with everything you could need at your fingertips for three weeks. And there is a huge difference between a home oven, and a convection oven. But I made due. I came out with two acceptable baguettes. The trick was that I had to knead the dough by hand, even though my parents have a wonderful kitchen aid, tomorrow I won’t have enough dough to put in a huge industrial stand mixer, so I have to know how to knead by hand. At first it was kind of tiresome, but after a while I developed a groove, and it was kind of comforting. Oh, and talking like Julia Child also is helpful and fun, as long as no one else is around ;).

This is what I love about cooking, I feel myself go into a sort of trance when I’m around food. All I see is the food, and know what I have to do. Everything else just falls away, even my personality falls behind, and all that exists is my hands and the ingredients, and I feel like I step back and just watch. Which is probably why I’m always surprised when something comes out good, because I can’t believe that I created something that I watched come into creation, and it came out just the way it was supposed to. Even though I am not completely cut out for baking, there is a calming repetition to baking; kneading the dough, rolling it out, and having patience. The key to good baking is confidence; actually, I think that is the key to all cooking. With out confidence and fearlessness you don’t allow yourself to make mistakes. Mistakes are the key to learning, and you never stop learning. If you think you know it all, you should just stop right there, because you will never be able to grow and adapt. You know, that’s the key to life too, but it’s too soon for philosophy my friends.

Would you like a good recipe for apple pie?

Dough:
½ lb cake flour (two cups)
½ lb all purpose flour (two cups)
10 oz cold butter diced (the package should have a map on it)
5-6 oz cold water

Sift the flour together, and then add the butter, and use a pastry cutter mix together until the butter is about the size of small peas. Mix in the water and form into a ball, then refrigerate. Try not to use your hands because they cause heat and will melt the butter, you want this crust to be flaky.

While the dough is refrigerating start on the apples:

2 lb of granny smith apples (about 4 apples)
Flour
Melted butter
Sugar
Cinnamon

Mix it all together until the apples are good and coated.

Take your dough out of the fridge and cut in half. Roll out both halves, I have found that because the dough is cold, if you keep picking it up and flipping it between rolls over it rolls out easily. Put one half in a pie tray, and dock it with a fork. Let the excess dough hang over the edges, and add the filling. Make sure the apples fill the whole pie, so no gaps. Then if you want to make a lattice top, cut ½ inch wide strips out of the second rolled out dough. Start the lattice by placing about 4 or 5 strips on the pie, and going in the same direction, vertical or horizontal. Then fold back alternating strips, and lay a strip down going across the strips you already have laid out. Pull the folded strips down, and fold the other strips and repeat until you have enough going across. Basically you want to weave the strips. Then pinch the strips and bottom dough together all around, and cut away the excess dough. This is called fluting. If you want to make a full covered pie top, just put the second rolled out dough on top of the pie and flute the edges, cut away the excess dough and cut slits in the top of the dough to let steam escape while baking.

If my explanation of lattice was a little confusing, Betty Crocker gives a good demonstration.

Bake at 425o until the crust is golden brown and the juice inside is bubbling. Take out of oven, cool and then get out the ice cream!

Friday I have my written final for baking, I can’t believe that three weeks have gone by already. I feel as if I have been in school for 6 months, and only two months ago I was still working in the corporate world. Its amazing how far away that life is now, and how fast I have embraced this career decision. Next Monday I start meat cutting, oh yea, give me a slab of meat and let me at it ;). Well, as long as I don’t have to see the animal looking at me, I’ll be fine, but I don’t know how I will fare with lobster. I’m the person that will drop everything to save a bug and take it outside, rather than killing it. So we will see what happens, and see what my stomach does.

Until next time my friends, Bon Appetite.

(ps. I wrote this entry last night, today I took my practical and got a 93, she had to take some points because my pie came out a few minutes late)

Cookin No. 29 - Chocoalte and Kittens

You know, every time I put on my uniform, I feel such a sense of pride swell up in me. I can’t express how over-joyed I am to be doing this.

So today was chocolate greatness. We chopped a pound of chocolate per person, tempered it, and began to pipe it out into filtrates. Oh yes, by the end of the day I was covered in chocolate. Oh yes, it was wonderful.

On Sunday my parents came home from Italy, I picked them up from the airport and took the weary travelers home. Today after school I headed over to their house to hear all about the wonderful food they ate, and settle down to a new dish my father had in Tuscany. Chippolini onions, with capers and baby squid with pasta, Mmmmm it was tasty.

Oh, and as I was getting out of my car at my parents house, an adorable black kitten came running up to me mewing. We gave the poor starving beast some tuna, which he wolfed down. Oh it broke my heart, so if he comes around later, my parents will have a cute black kitten. Who I would like to name Griswold.

Anywho, I got to run off. Until later, Bon Appetite

Cookin No. 28 - Cream puffs

I am going to make today quick, because I am just exhausted. We have been making cream puffs…. Mmmmm and ganash, chocolate cake, apple pie, pecan pie, and lemon meringue.

School is good, but now that we are all trying to work together, it’s a little frustrating. Mainly because there are some people in my class who don’t seem to care about anything, who have bad attitudes, and are just nasty in general. It’s a little hard to work with some of my classmates, and a bit surprising. Heh, with all the gossiping, the only thing said about me is that I’m pretentious. Ha!

I am on the schedule for wegman’s but haven’t started yet, I can’t wait, and when I do start, I’ll be sure to tell all. Tonight, a play that my good friend chris was the stage manager for is opening, so I’ll be in the audience. I’m looking forward to getting out a little.

Ok, I know this is short, but I will be sure to write more later.




Bon Appetite

Cookin No. 27 Being a Cliche and a New Job

Tonight I am a cliché. Well, I should say this morning, its 1:45 and I am settling into my new routine of not sleeping. I am writing by the light of candles, drinking a glass of wine, and watching the embers of my cigarette burn. The cold is moving in quickly and effortlessly, it’s had to believe that two weeks ago, I was wearing a tee shirt and feeling the sun on my skin. Now the cold comes under the cloak of rain, and it has been a while since I have seen the sun smile.

Baking is going well; yesterday we made cinnamon buns, oatmeal and peanut butter cookies, and white bread. I gave half of the bread and cinnamon buns to my friend Chris, mainly because I don’t need a whole loaf of bread, and what am I going to do with 8 cinnamon buns? And today we made pizza, foccacia bread, and grissini. My pizza came out pretty well, it could have been cooked for a little longer, I prefer crunchy crust, but no worries. I topped it with red sauce, cheese, and lightly sautéed peppers and onions. Mmmm, that was my lunch and dinner for today. I also took home my foccacia bread, and I haven’t cut into it yet, but it is filling my apartment with a wonderful smell.

The best news came yesterday though, I got home from school early, and found a message on my phone from Maria at Wegmans, so I called her back, and she said that they would like to offer me the position of demo chef! Of course I accepted right away, and now all I have to do is wait to for my background check to go threw. Which I’m not worried about, because even though I have done some crazy things in my life, nothing got me in legal trouble; well, except for that one time… heh… just kidding. So hopefully I will be starting my new job next week, and I will be sure to include lots of recipes of what I’ll be making for my adoring fans. ;) To be honest, I have no desire to become one of those famous chefs; I really just want my own restaurant and a good reputation for creating wonderful food.

Tomorrow my friend Jared comes to visit me, so I’m thinking about what I will whip up for dinner. Although, we might just do dinner in true jersey fashion and head to a diner for some coffee and eggs.

Until next time my friends, Bon Appetite

Cookin No. 26 - Wedding and Bread

The wedding was gorgeous. Kim and Brian looked wonderful, and the rain held out for them to have the ceremony outside.

Saturday I headed into the city pretty early, because it was raining so hard here in Bethlehem and it looked like it might start to flood, I thought I would have a ton of traffic. I was wrong. I flew down 78, strait into the city. The only traffic I hit was by the Lincoln tunnel, but there is always traffic by the tunnels. Getting to the hotel and finding parking was a piece of cake, I thought there was something wrong, because I was right by park avenue, there is never parking around there. But all was clear. So I got to the hotel Roger Williams around 1, and I wasn’t meeting everyone until 3. So I took a stroll around the area, found a star bucks, got a pumpkin spice latte and settled down into my book. The guy who took my order must have been living in the city for too long, because he was genuinely confused as to why I was polite and smiling. He even asked me “why are you smiling” he thought I was strange. That’s kind of sad, that people wonder what’s wrong with a person who smiles. Anyway, I met up with Kim, Tara and Rene, we checked into the hotel and headed out for some manicure goodness. This was my first manicure, and wow, the woman massaged my hands. I was putty after that. After we met up with Brian, my brother, and Diana, and headed to a dinner party at Develin’s apartment; which happened to by my brother’s first apartment in the city, I had forgotten how small it was. The bathroom is raised, and really tiny, and there is a window that goes to nowhere. And the shower is in the kitchen! I guess that’s the city for you.

The girls and I got back to the room around 12:30, and got ready for bed. I couldn’t sleep, so I read and stared at the ceiling until 4 or 5. The morning of the big day came, and we got ready. The hair dresser and the makeup artist came, did everyone up, except me, I did my own hair and makeup. Mainly because my hair is so short, there is no style that can be done to it other than the style that already is. Around 2:00 we headed to the Bronx and pulled into the NY Botanical gardens. It was gorgeous! We got dressed, did Kim up, and got ready for the big event.

When it was time for me to walk down the isle I ran, it was so nerve wracking to have all these people staring at me, I was glad that I wasn’t the bride. Then the service happened, the vows were said, and because Kim is Jewish Brian broke the glass. Then I started to cry. I never cried at a wedding before, but I was almost bawling. First it was beautiful, and Brian and Kim are perfect for each other. They are the greatest couple, aside from my parents, that I have seen together. They are perfect for each other. And I am glad that Kim is my sister-in-law, she is a wonderful person. Her whole family is great, I am happy that they are part of my family now. Her sister, Tara, is fun and easy going, a good quality, her mother, Rene is a fun high spirited woman, Jeff her father is a great guy, who gives awesome hugs, and Izzy her step-father is such a kind person with a cool demeanor. How could you not like anyone in this family?

The Dads


















My cousin Carolyn and her daughter Cassidy
















The reception: Awesome food! Abigail Kirsch was the caterer, and my god, I hope I could be that talented and successful. The menu:

Lobster and Corn Soufflé

Salad of Baby Greens

Tournedo of Beef Champignon
Or
Truffled Black Cod

Chocolate Banana Beggars Purse

Wedding Cake

The lobster soufflé was so delicate, and perfect. I chose the Tournedo Beef, it came on a bed of risotto that had fava beans in it. The fava beans were cooked to perfection, and there was a hint of licorice in the risotto, maybe she used star anis, or a touch of pernod. The beggars purse, was fabulous! Chocolate oozed out when you crunched into it, and… it was… just perfect.

I danced to almost every song with my little cousin Cassidy, who was the flower girl. She’s such a fun kid, and wanted me to spin her around all the time. She had some good moves too. To entertain her at the table, I showed her how to blow flower peddles into the air, she really enjoyed that. I sat with my whole family, my Aunt Kay and her husband, my cousin’s Carolyn and Debbie with Ritchie, Debbie’s husband, my grandfather, and Mr. Kugamyer with his wife, he was the husband of Brian’s art teacher in high school. After she died, Brian kept in touch with Mr. Kugamyer because he and his wife were really instrumental in helping Brian develop his talents. They even took him to Italy. We had a great time.

I left the party around 1 and didn’t get home until 3, took a shower and went to bed at 3:30, then had to wake up for school at 6:30. Boy was I crabby. I usually do fine on no sleep, but I my body was exhausted. Mentally I was functioning, but my mussels were pissed off. So for the first day of baking class, I was a wreck. I kept dropping things, and making stupid mistakes like spilling egg wash everywhere while I was trying to whip it. We made Baguettes, garlic bread and knot rolls. I took some baguette to my parents, and they were impressed. Then I took them to the airport, and now they are in Italy, with out me. *sniff sniff*

I also got my grades back for Product ID. I got a 98 on the written final, and 100 on my costing final. I was impressed. And my final grade for the class is a 99! I am an A student. Heh, no one has seen me do this good in school since grade school.

Today, the second day of baking went well. My group worked really well together. We made, Challah bread, whole wheat knot rolls, honey whole wheat rolls, and pita bread. They all came out great. I am really happy with this class. The only thing that was throwing me off is the balance scales. We have to weigh out everything, and the first day we had a tough scale, it wouldn’t balance at 0, but at 8 ½, so we had to do more math than usual to balance everything. Oui. Tomorrow we are making cookies and cinnamon rolls. Mmmm. I did something stupid today though, Chef Susan took my group’s Challah bread out of the oven, and I wanted to show one of my group members our bread, so I went to pull the baking sheet out of the cooling rack, completely forgetting that it just came out of the oven. So I got a nice burn on three fingers. I’m good at forgetting things are hot, this isn’t the first time that I have done something like this. Thank god I have silvadine cream from the last time I made the same mistake.

Jeremy and Mercedes with Honey whole wheat buns

Challah bread

Ann and more buns

Pita bread

Baguette














Until next time my friends, Bon Appetite

Cookin No. 25 - It has been a while

Well, my internet is still down, however I have found that the college has a hotspot, so here I am, pirating again.

It has been a while, I’m sorry about that. So what has been happening in these past few weeks:

Product ID week one:









Our second day of class we go to a food show put on by Pocono Produce, a major food supplier in our area. It was a lot of fun, we grazed our way threw the whole show, and got to see some interesting things. Most of the stuff was precooked food, and I kept thinking, in my restaurant, I will cook everything from scratch. But who knows, I might cheat every once and a while.




There was a pie eating contest, and two of my classmates competed. They didn’t win, but I think Doug should have, because the kid who won had most of his food all over the table instead of his stomach. This was my first time witnessing a pie eating contest, very interesting.
















We met a Certified Master Chef, who is also an instructor at the CIA, and who was the instructor of our teacher, Chef Susan. He was a great man, and gave some good advice; the three things you need to become a good chef:
1 Know the basics
2 Have a passion for cooking
3 Common sense

















My class with CMC

It was very inspiring to hear him talking, and when he spoke about common sense, it really made me think differently. For example, if you are given a cow tongue, and told to cook it, what do you do if you have never experienced cow tongue? Well you think, hmm, a cow tongue is a tough mussel, so you will want to make it tender. How do you make it tender? You braise it. See common sense. But it really made me think in a different way, more like thinking like a cook.

Product ID week two:

It felt like we were in a Food network special every day. Chef Susan would go over what products we were to learn about, mainly vegetables, and then take us to the kitchen and show us the veggies, and then cook them up. MMMM

On Friday we went over grains, and she made the best couscous I have ever had:

Chef Susan’s Indian Couscous:

1 cup of couscous
1 cup of chicken stock
1 navel orange
A handful of sliced almonds
A handful of raisins
Salt to taste
Chopped chives for garnish
Drizzle of olive oil
Curry powder to taste

Boil the chicken broth. With the couscous in a bowl on your counter, add the raisins, zest of the whole orange, and boiling chicken broth. Cover and let sit until the couscous has absorbed all the liquid and the raisins have become plump. Squeeze the orange into the couscous; add the almonds, salt, curry powder and olive oil.

Stir up and enjoy

You know, I was never a big fan of couscous, but this was wonderful.

Product ID week three:

We learned about spices and herbs, nuts, chocolate and dairy. Chef Susan made fresh mozzarella, and butter. Butter as it turns out is quite easy to make, just keep whipping heavy cream past the whipped cream stage, and the liquid will separate from the fat and poof! You have butter. Tasty butter too.

Right now I am studying for our final exam in product id. OH! That reminds me, I am now serve safe certified. I passed the government test for safety and sanitation! It was an incredibly hard test, so I’m really glad that I made the cut, and this will also look pretty good to future employers. Back to my product id final, I am pretty confident about this test, but we will see what happens. No better way to study than to sit back with a beer and Bonnie Raitt.















Monday we didn’t have school so I went for a hike around this wonderful place out by Bangor, PA. I had been there once while I was at a retreat, and it’s wonderful. It’s called Columcille, and apparently this guy with too much money and time, arranged rocks so they looked like Stonehenge. I had a good hour hike, and then had a nice lunch of apple and goat cheese while I watched the squirrels chase each other around like crazed beasts.



This weekend my brother is getting married. Wow, married. I will have a sister-in-law now. It just seemed to have crept up on me so fast, suddenly I have a dress and shoes and poof, I’m a bride’s maid. It should be a beautiful wedding, its at the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens, I mean, how much more picturesque can you get? After the wedding, Brian and his new bride, Kim, will honeymoon in Italy, and my parents will be in Rome. I guess I’ll be the only shmuck not in Italy. L I suppose that I’ll survive, I’ll be in baking class making cookies to comfort me.

Also, some more interesting news. The people at Wegman’s decided not to call me to tell me that I didn’t get the job they told me that I got, and just as I was about to start putting my resume out again, Mike from produce at Wegman’s calls, and wants to know if I would like to interview for the position of Demo Chef. Wegman’s has a meal of the week, and if I get the job, I will be cooking the meal in front of people and answering questions. I don’t think that I am qualified for this job, but apparently I impressed the cheese supervisor and she passed my application on with a good recommendation. I think that if I do get the job, it would be an awesome experience. The best way to learn something is to teach it. And I spoke with Chef Susan today, and she said that she would help me with any questions I had so I could prepare myself. The more I think about it, the more I want this job, it would be perfect for now, and help me build up a good repertoire of recipes.

So that’s it for now.

Until next time, which shouldn’t be too far away, Bon Appetite