Whazzat???

It was a rainy day (Don't say" you live in Oregon, what did you expect?"... yesterday was beautiful: warm and sunny) As I was saying... it was a rainy day and I hadn't baked anything for a while.

SSOOooo, can you guess what I made?

Yep! I made Chocolate Chip Cookies. I HATE those things! I almost always eat about a dozen and make myself sugar-sick. Definitely a love-hate relationship... they are so good I can't stay away from them. I'm almost glad when Henry starts gobbling them up too!

They don't take very long and they make the whole house smell sooo good!

Here they are... well, part of them anyway. And yes, they are as good as they look! If you make them 2" size, and don't eat all the dough before they are baked, there are about seven dozen in a batch. I ate six or seven from the first sheet out of the oven-"my bad"?

Valentines Day

This is actually Monday, but I've been working on "Wonky Stars" quilt blocks for Tia Curtis' "Bushfire Project" (quilts for people in Australia who have been wiped out by a devastating bushfire - over 80 are dead and thousands now homeless) so I haven't been cooking at all. I'll send them off to Australia this morning.

Henry took me out for "Pizza and a Beer" Saturday night for Valentines. We threw some Darts and played Shuffleboard; our Pizza was heart-shaped in honor of Valentine's Day. Fun... it was a good date.

Sunday Supper

Since it was a rainy Sunday, and I was busy quilting, I decided a simple supper was in order. I put a nice Steelhead fillet on the BBQ (I had to split it with H, but half was enough) and re-heated some Basmati Rice (to which I added a couple of tablespoons of Tikka Paste for some snap) adding some sauted Cremini mushrooms at the last.

Sherm's had some really nice baby asparagus, and I do love asparagus, so I jumped on those! They were quite nice steamed. I have enough for another meal as well, or maybe I'll grill them to put in a salad.

February Comfort Food

Last night I was in the mood for "Down Home" food. Ham Steak with pan gravy, Garlic Mashed Potato and Green Salad seemed to fill the bill. I pulled some frozen "Fisher Family Hornschen" dough out of the freezer and we had those with Umpqua's Vanilla Bean ice cream for dessert. Quick and easy Winter food.

To keep the Ham from being 'boring', I mixed a tablespoon of Honey with two tablespoons of BBQ sauce and spooned it on while the ham was in the pan sauteing. Be careful not to burn the sauce, though, the honey (sugar) is quick to blacken!

After the Ham was nicely browned, I removed it from the pan and added a little butter and flour to make the gravy and releae the browned bits. This step is why you don't want the honey/BBQ sauce mix to burn - the flavor of burned sauce is not pleasant and will taint your gravy. (Yeech!) Add about 1 1/2 to 2 Cups of milk (it is OK to use non-fat, even though there is butter in the gravy - whatever you have got is fine) and slowly reduce the gravy to the desired consistency. When the gravy is 'almost there', put the Ham back in the pan to warm up again. Enjoy.

Shrimp Tikka... is that a dish?

Last night, when Henry asked what was for dinner I gave him the choice of Shrimp with Fetuccini or Ham Steak. Much to my surprise, the man who doesn't like pasta chose the Fetuccini!

I put the water on to boil and made a quick Roux. When the water boiled, I put in the Fetuccini (remembering that the commercial noodles take a bit longer than my hom-madeones). I added some Parmagiano and Vermouth after the roux had cooked for about three or four minutes, then I tossed in the cooked Bay Shrimp and some Tikka Massala for a bit of snap. After everything was heated through I dropped in some julienned red and green Bell peppers for color.

I plated the Pasta and Shrimp alongside a small green salad and a crusty sourdough roll, then topped the pinky colored Shrimp dish with a sprinkle of chopped Cillantro and a scratch or two of Asiago. Yummy.

Here is the receipe for the SHRIMP TIKKA WITH FETUCCINI

Put the water on to boil.
Make a Roux with Butter, Flour and Non-Fat Milk.
Cook the roux for about 3-5 minutes to lose the grainy "raw" flavor.
add Salt and Pepper to taste.
Next add:
1/4 Cup commercial Tikka Massala (or your own if you have it)
1/4 Cup Lite Sour Cream
1/4 Cup Parmagian Cheese
2-3 Tablespoons Vermouth (or dry White Wine if you have no Vermouth)
Check your seasonings.
Add 1 Lb. cooked Bay Shrimp, or small Prawns, or other shellfish.
warm through, and cook the pasta.
Add 1/2 julienned Green and 1/2 Red Bell Pepper.
Plate end sprinkle with cilantro and a few grates of Asiago if you'd like.

A year ago today I posted on this blog. I was beginning a new venture; becoming a chef. I though that if I wrote what was going on, I'd be able to follow my own trail - not so. My habit of leaving things unfinished continues. Not only did I not make note of the journey to becoming a chef, the process was aborted as well.

I have retired from my "day job" in the Library at school and moved to Oregon. There is a remote possibility that I will return to Santa Rosa and take the two remaining courses I need to get my "Baking and Pastry Certificate", but I doubt that it will happen. The classes are eight weeks long (well, one is eight weeks and the other is two) and five hundred miles away. Not gonna happen in all reality.

This will become my Food Blog... I'll just write about food: making, eating, thinking about, buying, growing, and whatever. Just food.

Cheers, me - another endeavor.

Professional Cooking Basics

OK, so now my SRJC Classes are in session... actually this is the third week. I was very pleased to get the evening PCB class; this time there were 28 students for a 24 place class. Some will drop, I know, but the "Brickyard" kitchen is really crowded! The kitchen is really a working restaurant, and 24-27 students really don't fit well into the space. Eighteen, maximum, would be better as far as learning space is concerned, but some restaurant kitchen lines are REALLY crowded, so I guess learning in a small space is actually better training for the real world.

Chef Christine is AWESOME! She just knows so much and is really patient with us. There is a lot of reading, and the assignments might be organized differently (I'd rather read the text before the lesson to have a CLUE of what we are meant to be doing), but I'm learning a whole lot. There are so many things in food preparation that I either 'just did' without knowing why they were necessary, or didn't know I was supposed to do at all. Lots of tips, like in Art classes, all given with loads of patience and good humor.

One of the people I baked with in the summer class had a hard time in Chef Christine's class, and wasn't complimentary about her at all... so I saw the instructor's name and was a little distressed. But it goes to show you that one shouldn't take another person's recommendation or dislike to heart - she wasn't a very happy person, and it colored her views of both the class and of Chef Christine, I'm afraid. I REALLY LIKE CHEF CHRISTINE PICCIN! What a good teacher!

The first week we "did" eggs. We fried eggs. We poached eggs. We scrambled eggs. We basted eggs. We baked eggs. We soft boiled eggs. We hard boiled eggs.We made omlettes. And at the weekend, I went home and practiced more with eggs! I'm happy to report that I can now fry a 'perfect' over-easy egg... well actually two together is easier, so I usually do that. Our homework was to look at our own "Global Culinary Heritage" describe it, and present a dish from that place. I chose a breakfast of Kidneys on Toast... Erin was pretty grossed out.

Last week we were on to vegetables: blanching, steaming in the big mechanical steamer, pan steaming, grilling, roasting, sweating, sauteing, and multi-cooking (two or more methods for one dish). Lots of veggies came into our hands, and all the different methods. We didn't have to LIKE them all... just learn how to make them nice for the customers.We learned new techniques and 'different' ways to do familiar veggies. This was pretty cool, too. For example, I had thought that blanching was just to make the tomato skins slip off easier when you wanted to have peeled tomatoes... but I found that you can VERY quickly blanch spinach (like 10 seconds! You ice shock it to set the bright green color if you aren't serving it immediately), then toss it with carmelized onion and minced cooked bacon, slivered toasted almonds, chopped egg, and a little clarified butter to make a lovely vegetable dish. It is a little more cooked than a "Wilted Spinach salad" and served hot, so it is a nice side dish for a meal. I can blanch carrots before I saute them for Ginger Carrots as well, and that will shorten the cooking time as well as make them all the same done-ness. Of course, the pieces all have to be the same size to allow for even cooking, so that is where my Knife Skills training from last Spring comes in. Yummy! The homework was reading an article about "Rochat" a Michelin 3-Star Restaurant in Paris, and writing about a memorable dining experience.

This third week we are on to studying about "Spices and Herbs" (last night)and cooking Beans, Rices, and Legumes (tonight)... see you later.