January is over and done. Well, there are 20 minutes left in my part of the world.
It is time for a month wrap up. A lot has happened this month, and I know that a lot will continue to happen this year. It surely won't be a boring one at all.
Person of the month: Chef Michael. He has been such a great chef in class. He is balancing teaching our class and the culinary arts class. I have no idea how he does it, but he just keeps going. And going. His patience, knowledge, experience, and passion for food is inspirational. I am looking forward to the coming weeks of class.
Moment of the month: Finding out that I got a job! I was so excited to get a job where I can start cooking in a cafe, as well as learn how to manage a small food program and learn how to be a barista. Plus, its really close to where I live, next to culinary school, and lots of cool people work there.
Outing of the month: Does Puerto Rico count as an outing. If it does, then my week spent with my family in Puerto Rico wins.
Book of the month: Sundays at Tiffany by James Patterson. It was such a great read. I finished it on one airplane trip. I definitely have to add Medium Raw by Anthony Bourdain, because that has been such a good book so far. I love how crude and honest he is.
Accomplishment of the month: Starting culinary school officially and making it through my week as team chef, injuries and all.
Restaurant meal of the month: Besides the restaurants in Puerto Rico, I haven't eaten out much this much. At all. During my time in Boulder, I have gotten cupcakes, but that is about it. So I guess the winning restaurant of the month is Tee and Cakes, because I have gotten 3 cupcakes so far! And of course, Caffe Sole, because they were awesome enough to hire me!
Goal for February: explore some local restaurants. I at least have Valentine's Day weekend with Stephen to do this!
Cooked meal and dessert of the month: Brinner for the mea. It was amazing with pancakes and grapefruit! Dessert would be the Orange Almond Chocolate Cake. So simple, yet so delicious.
Culinary School Time! I will wrap up this post with a quick run through of the wonderful food in class.
We are officially done with chicken until midterms. Now we are on to meat.
We learned how to cut the meat into filets.
Then we cooked them to a nice medium rare.
We made spaetzle. Now, I know nothing about German food, so I had never tried this dish before. It is like a combination between pasta and gnocchi. It's pretty delicious. We made one version with cream and cheese and one with browned butter. Both were amazing. I don't know how I survived 26 years without ever knowing what spaetzle was!
Our mixed greens with ranch dressing. I made the ranch dressing all by myself today. And chef chose mine (the other team made a blue cheese) to serve with all of the salads. I was seriously giddy with pride. I have never made my own mayonnaise. I've tried, but I've never been successful. Then tonight I went and made my own mayo and turned it into an amazing ranch dressing.
We learned how to properly plate a dish.
Sauce, asparagus, spaetzle.
Time for the steak!
Ta-dah!
And from a different angle.
I usually like my meat cooked more, but this is quality, grass fed beef. It was so tender. Not chewy at all.
Happy tummy.
in my next life i will go to culinary school!
ReplyDeleteThat beef looks perfect!!
ReplyDeleteI am amazed at how fast January went!
That's a great month! Not too many people enjoy January. Hopefully February is just as good to you!
ReplyDelete