Out of the kitchen for two weeks

I'm away from home on a deployment to Mescalero Apache Reservation in New Mexico. It's been a break from cooking and unfortunately, a break from good eating. I'm staying in the Inn of the Mountain Gods, a beautiful lodge with two restaurants--a huge buffet affair and a fancy steak house. One meal at the buffet was enough--not bad food but too much of everything and nothing is great. Food is not the focus of this trip anyway--this is all about my real job, mental health services, so I was not expecting to have great food experience anyway.
I did find one great place to eat, El Comal, a very small place on Sudderth in Ruidoso, a few miles from the inn. Only a few tables in this tiny place where the chips are cooked after the customers come in and order. Homemade salsa, homemade tortillas, and everything fresh, fresh, fresh.
The mole was the best I've ever tasted but it was ordered by Maurice, one of the deployment team members. I ordered chicken fajitas but they were kind of boring compared to the mole.
Also, the chicken tortilla soup was very tasty and well seasoned. I have to go back again.
Other meals at chain sandwich shops are fine and a soup/salad at Cattle Baron Steak/Seafood was fine, but after 4 days away from food I'm starting to wish I could make some spicy Thai food or have simple Japanese meal. I am enjoying a break away from the kitchen though and my hands are so soft and smooth, a nice side effect.

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Chef at last! No more Culinary School Chronicle

Kyndal, my 6 year old granddaughter jumped in at the last minute.

My children call me Chef Mom and could care less if I have a culinary school diploma, but they were all there at my graduation, including my daughter, Helen, who drove all the way from Houston. I had such a great time with all four of the children and my two granddaughters here at the same time. We don't all get together that often now that they are out on their own. The simplicity of waking up every day to your own children in the house is not to be taken for granted. The time passes very quickly and suddenly they are gone (or should be gone--always the boomerang child, Glenn at home.) Having the culinary diploma may not be a big deal to some but I believe it's an accomplishment to have stuck with it despite working full time, having a part time private psychotherapy practice, deployment training, on-call duties, and a home to run. I will start taking on cooking jobs now and actually have a few paying prospects. For one, I have sold a few pounds of my pecan brittle to some of my husband's friends. This vanilla, butter pecan brittle is really unique and I learned to make it from my 80 something neighbor, Dorothy Short.
I have two people who want sushi classes for 6 or 7. At $50.00 a person I will actually earn some money for being a chef! I think that's pretty exciting and I'm looking forward to it.

Before I do anything else, though, I am going to make a LOT of goodies for the Chef's Holiday Pantry fundraiser coming up in a few days. I'll miss the actual event because I'll be flying out to a deployment for two weeks.

I'm going to make pecan brittle, ginger molasses cookies, pumpkins bread and my famous blondies. I'll give some as gifts and send some over the the fundraiser.

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Culinary School Graduation: December 12, 2009

Julie, Bill Byrd, Chef Kurima, Chef Waier, and Chef Loy

September 6, 2008 was my first blog entry and I managed to write an entry for every single class this past 16 months. Graduation was attended by my family--all four children and both granddaughters there, as well as a few friends. Tom and Linda Collins, Jane and Brent Lyon, and Kevin and Kaki were there. The ceremony was short and we were each given our diploma, a medallion and a chef hat. I was also recognized for becoming a member of the NTHS, National Technical Honor Society. Six of us received purple and white cords to wear and a certificate. After the ceremony we had a lovely reception at the Culinary School of Fort Worth. Students had worked hard to make tasty appetizers such as stuffed won tons, polenta, chocolate treats, and many other tasty finger foods. My family and friends had a wonderful time touring the school and tasting the variety of food. We met back at our house and continued the celebration with more food and some desserts I had made earlier in the day.

Our class. I'm in there somewhere.

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Chef Pro III: Final Exam!!!

It's finally over! The written exam was not too bad--lots of writing and describing the techniques for several types of dishes. I knew that would go well, but the cooking part is always the wild card. There were 4 parts:
Block 1: Knife skills--small dice an onion, julienne a potato, brunoise a carrot in 5 minutes.

Block 2: Make an omelet, French onion soup, and whipped cream in 40 minutes.
The omelet was fine, French onion soup not so great (onions did ot caramelize enough), and good whipped cream (by hand, of course)

Block 3: Eggs Benedict and blond roux in 30 minutes. Making the Hollandaise sauce was a little stressful but it was actually a good sauce. My egg was poached nicely and the presentation was good. The blond roux was OK, a little thin.

Block 4: Risotto Milanese and Chicken Tarragon in 40 minutes. Risotto is not a quick dish so I made that first and it was pretty tasty. The Chicken Tarragon was cooked properly but my sauce was just a little too thick. Overall everything was passable I think. Chef Waier said "good job" on most everything.

Just getting it all done on time felt like success and knowing this was the last time I would be under pressure to create something that was getting a grade was a good feeling.

It was way too hectic to take photos so none for this class. Next entry will be graduation.

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