Thanksgiving 2008

We had a little break from Culinary School this week and last week and won't have class until Monday night. I have been very busy making things for people and Thanksgiving. Jesse McElreath, pastor and friend, hinted that "it was pumpkin season, wasn't it?" at church a couple weeks ago. I have been giving him pumpkin spice cakes with cream cheese and orange glaze for a few years now ever since I gave him some for Pastor Appreciation Month one year and he confessed he ate them all without sharing any with his wife, Darlene. He puts butter in the well in the center of the mini-bundt cake, heats it and then eats the whole thing. I made a batch of...

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Week 11: Soups

Photos: Ray and Robert: Partners in crime and 4 of the 5 soupsI was looking foward to soup class. After all, one of the best parts of fine dining for me has been eating the soups. There is a restaurant in Fredericksburg, Texas, The Nest, where I always look forward to the soup as a first course. Even ingredients I don't normally like, such as mussels, taste wonderful in soup prepared by Chef/Owner John Wilkenson, a graduate of the CIA. Over the years I've had all types of creamy vegetable and other soups there that I have yet to find as good anywhere else in the country. Maybe I was hoping I could learn to make really, really good soup. I was...

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Food and Wine Pairing for the Holidays: Internship Hours

We are required to complete 22-24 hours a semester working at the Culinary School as our "internship". I signed up to work at "Food and Wine Pairing for the Holidays", an adult continuing education course offered at TCU (Texas Christian University) in conjunction with the Culinary School of Fort Worth on November 14, 2008. People enrolled in this class paid $75.00 for the four courses pictured above and five wines. I sure hoped we didn't disappoint them. When we show up at the school we don't know what to expect in terms of assignments for the day. My first assignment was to slice baguettes for crostini with a student I've never met, Becky. Becky...

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Week 10: Egg Cookery

It hasn't been a big week for culinary school practice. On Sunday I made some chili for a chili cook-off at work and grilled flank steak for the family. On Tuesday I started getting ready for a big lunch event I was in charge of on Thursday. I made the dessert, a white chocolate covered nut, pretzel, candy chex mixture. The chili cook-off was on Wednesday. My Santa Fe chili, a beef and pork chili with Hatch green chili, won 3rd place. Thursday was very hectic. I didn't realize that making wraps and sandwiches for 50-60 people would be so much work. Of course, I had to make chicken salad, tuna salad, egg salad, ham & swiss, beef and cheddar...

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Week 9: Sauces

It's been a busy week for cooking but not just for culinary school. I started out last Sunday by making homemade pasta for the first time (not under supervision). Jennifer, my son Glenn's girlfriend, and my daughter Alexandra helped and were fast learners. We had fettucine with a homemade meat sauce. I intended to practice sauce making this week in anticipation of Week 9 but didn't have an opportunity until Wednesday morning. On Monday morning I made a pumpkin spice cake to take to Marie at Hairworks for being a great stylist and friend. On Tuesday morning I made a huge bowl of Asian Chicken Salad to take to work for a staff event. I also made...

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Cooking for my family

I spoke to my oldest daughter, Helen, today. She lives in Houston, is married to Andy, and has an almost 8 year old daughter, Grace. Helen said she had been reading this blog and was interested in getting some of my recipes. I hadn't thought of doing that but if she found it helpful I'll write some entries from time to time about things I cook and give the recipes. Last week I made Katsudon on Sunday (see photos). Katsudon is a Japanese dish of pork cutlet, breaded with Panko and fried, then simmered in a broth of dashi and soy sauce with onion and egg. It's served over rice. I made some really good tortilla soup on Monday, Cambodian Pork on...

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Week 8: Poultry Fabrication

The photos are not from Culinary School. They are from Stephan Pyles in Dallas! More on that later. I didn't know that I had been cutting up chicken wrong all my cooking life until today. When Chef Waier demonstrated the proper way I was amazed to see how much easier it would have been had I learned this many years ago (and a lot less dangerous than my haphazard method), so it's worth the price of school know the proper technique for fabricating chicken (pause....not).Today we were educated about all things chicken (and other poultry) and given the packet of assigned dishes. I scanned the pages of recipes and didn't think it looked too bad. Should...

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Week 7: Meat Fabrication

This photo is not from the culinary school. I didn't take any photos during the meat class, just got busy and didn't take the time, however since we studied meat I wanted to display a the tenderloin steak I got at Lonesome Dove last night. It is a great example of a perfect steak.Not that we made steaks at school. It was a weird day. First of all, five people were absent and we had a person join us from another class.Then, although we were told last week that we would be studying poultry, the class handout indicated "meat fabrication". I couldn't believe it.I thought maybe I heard wrong last week but a few others had thought the same thing. To...

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Week 6: Vegetables

You would think cooking a few vegetables wouldn't be too hard, wouldn't you? Well, you're wrong. I'm finding out more and more that all the cooking I've done since age 10 (that's 44 years) didn't prepare me for vegetable class. I couldn't recognize jicima, kohlrabi, or celery root when Chef Heather held them up in class. I was praying that those particular vegetables wouldn't be in my "mystery basket", an assignment in which we would get 3-4 vegetables to prepare, sight unseen. Guess what our mystery basket contained? Yes, kohlrabi and jicima, red Swiss chard, fennel (which I hate), and cauliflower. Our instructions for the day were to...

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Working at an event: Sunday Brunch, October 5, 2008

One of the requirements of culinary school is to work between 22-28 hours during the 14 week course. I signed up for 3 different events, the first one being the brunch, Oct 5, at the school. People can call in for reservations or just come to the school. I showed up at 7 AM, not really knowing what to expect, although I knew from looking at the sign up sheet for the event that a dozen students signed up, all but 2 from Chef Pro 1, a the other 2 from Pastro Pro 1/2.I figured we might be in trouble, but what did I know? When I arrived I saw a full kitchen of people, and was relieved to see Chef Heather, Chef Nona, and a couple chefs who were graduates...

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Starch Cooking

Week 5October 4, 2008Who knew that after sampling 22 different starch preparations that the preparation of various starches makes a big difference in taste.I learned that mashed potatoes made with steamed yukon gold potatoes taste much, much better than mashed potatoes made with boiled Russet potatoes. Steamed corn is more flavorful than boiled corn and roasted corn tastes better if the silk is removed (to me, anyway).After all these years of cooking I never knew that "mealy" potatoes, such as Russets shouldn't be used for everything. No wonder they fell apart when I tried to use them occasionally to make my mother's famous potato salad. My version...

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Plate Presentation

I wish I had taken a photo of my face when I heard our assignment today. We were given a stack of papers with recipes for the following:Pan-fried trout with toasted garlicBrennan's red-wine and mushroom sauceBasic simmered riceRoast Cornish game hen with wild rice stuffingCountry Braised chickenTomato concasseTeriyaki salmon with pineapple-papaya salsaWe were told to get with 2 other people who would make up our team for the day. We had a short lecture on plate presentation and garnishes, mostly warning us not to arrange our food to appear as a smiley face or a "phallic symbol" which the chef described as sunny side up eggs and bacon (sounded more like "breast symbol" to me--but then I'm a psychotherapist and studied Freud.) Then we were warned that any garnish which was not a food used in...

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Week 3: Major cooking techniques

Although this food in this photo may not look that appetizing to you, trust me, it was delicious.For major cooking techniques we learned to sear, saute, pan-fry, grill, roast, deep fry, braise, poach, simmer and steam. We had to grill pork, roast chicken legs, braise chicken thighs, sear a pork chop, pan fry a breaded chicken tender, deep fry batonnet potatoes and onions, saute shrimp, peppers, onions, and mushrooms, poach an egg, poach flounder, steam shrimp and simmer rice and pasta. Wow! Although I've used all these techniques many times I have never had to bring my finished piece of chicken to an instructor to be evaluated. Talk about stress!She...

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Week 2: Mise en place and stock

Week 2: Mise en place and Stock:(and knife skills practice)In cooking everything has a place and must be in the right place before you start cooking. I guess that's why Rachel Ray always gathers up her giant armful of stuff and brings it to the counter before she starts cooking. I always just started cooking and then would run around the kitchen grabbing stuff as I cooked, hoping I had the ingredients somewhere. I think back on all the times I rummaged through the spices in the cabinet looking for allspice or cloves or something I don't use that often, or even worse started frying the onions before noticing I was out of garlic and green peppers....

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Week 1: Knife Skills

Wearing the chef uniform for the first time was quite an experience, but following all the instructions in the first 5 hour class was even more challenging. They don't fool around at the school. I hadn't heard so many rules since Air Force basic training, and that was in 1973 when I was 19. Within a short time after receiving the knives we were in the kitchen cutting up carrots into 1/4 x 1/4 x 2 inch planks which were then cut into pieces that were supposed to resemble cubes. While the instructors watched I felt clumsy and uncoordinated cutting up celery and carrots and didn't do a great job. We were told how to hold the new, and very sharp...

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Preparing for Culinary School

I attended orientation last week and received my chef coat, text book, and policy manual that sounds a lot like military boot camp--no jewelry, no nail polish, no earrings, and no cell phone AND always be 100% in uniform while at the school. I will be going every Saturday for the next 14 weeks and will receive a certificate of completion for "Chef Pro 1" at the end.The uniform consists of the chef coat, black checkered pants with an elastic waist, a neckerchief, and a funny looking hat. (Photo will be taken on Saturday.) If I thought I looked middle-age frumpy under ordinary circumstances, wearing this get-up will be a real joy.We were supposed to get our knife set last week, however we were told that they now wait to issue the knives on the first day of class. Seems the students practiced...

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Preparing for culinary school

I have decided to enroll in the Culinary School of Fort Worth. The school offers a professional culinary arts program consisting of five 15 week courses. At the end of the year and a half I will recieve a culinary certificate if I complete all the requirements. If I decide to take the pastry arts program I would recieve a pastry chef certificate instead. I'm not sure yet which direction I'll be taking. Why culinary school? I have been a social worker and private practice psycho therapist since I graduated with my MSW in 1982 and will have 30 years of active duty in the uniformed services and military in 2015 when I plan to retire. I love cooking, reading about it, watching people cook, sampling all types of cuisines, and always look forward to preparing all types of food, from meals...

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