Pasta

This weeks theme seemed to center around pasta.

Monday night I made Campanelle with Green Olives. Sadly I could not find campanelle, so I had to sub out for bow ties, close enough..sort of. This was a pretty straight forward dish. Saute the olives with some garlic and tomato paste, then add the pasta, top it off with homemade bread crumbs. The flavor was pretty solid. If you like green olives, then this is awesome. However, if you don’t, you’d probably hate it.

For dessert I made the same apple cake I made for my brother & his wife a few weeks ago.

Thursday night I made more pasta, but this one was way better than Monday nights. It was chicken marsala, pasta style. Basically, cut up & cooked chicken. Made a sauce out of mushrooms, garlic, tarragon, chicken broth and marsala. Combine the chicken with the sauce and add some parmesan. The fact that it has tarragon makes it awesome, I love tarragon, it smells fantastic and tastes even better.

For dessert I made  Rum Raisin Bread Pudding. I love me some bread pudding. Although it needed more rum for sure. More cinnamon would have helped too.

 

I think my next post will be mostly about snack foods.

Soup!

I just made some kick ass soup. It was a chicken and rice soup with mushrooms. I added a little more rice than normal to make the soup a little thicker, I probably added a little too much, but oh well. It was still really great. I also decided to use chicken thighs instead of breast meat. I find that dark meat it way better for these kinds of things. We also had some salad and wheat rolls, there might be some kind of Oreo cake floating around at my sisters place somewhere.

More Food and Things!

This past week went pretty much the same as the week before. I went to all of my siblings houses, hung out and cooked. Sounds like a great way to pass the time to me.

I went down to my brothers house on Monday to drop of some baby nonsense and cook them dinner. I spent several hours sifting through recipes until I could decide on anything. I finally decided to go with Chicken Parmesan followed by an apple cake for dessert. We started with a salad (nothing fancy), followed by those Star Puffs I made the day before had, then was the chicken followed up with the cake.

The chicken was pretty dang good. The recipe I used was nothing special, but it seemed fairly typical. Somewhat complicated, but I still found it fairly easy (minus my one mistake that follows). Since this was my first time making Chicken Parm. I decided that the more basic the recipe seemed to be, the better. However, I made one almost critical error. I accidentally filled the frying pan with Olive Oil, rather than a Vegetable Oil, and I was not about to pour that out, I didn’t want to waste anything so I went with it. In the end it turned out pretty good, the taste was certainly a little different, but it was still great. I still felt pretty dumb though, but lesson learned.

As for the Apple Cake, it was really easy, basically just flour, sugar, eggs and apples. It had a glaze of brown sugar and butter. It was really great though, great for dessert and even better for breakfast the next day!

On Thursday I went over to my sisters to cook for them. What I made was really easy and really good. We started with a salad, that she prepared, the main course was a pasta with sausage and tomatoes, then dessert was sautéed pineapples with a rum sauce (forgot pictures of that, oops). There is not a whole lot to say about this meal, it was pretty effortless but still tasty.

Oh, in other news, I found out what my schedule will be for the Spring Trimester! I will be taking the big 15 credit culinary lab that is Monday-Friday from 6am until Noon. They way that JWU works is that you take a couple of these massive labs and you focus on one given aspect for around 9 days and they move onto the next topic. For Instance, I would do Stocks & Soups for 9 days, then move on to Meat Cutting, or something like that. It seems kind of weird and confusing, but it actually makes some sense. This lab is going to be fantastic and terrible at the same time, mostly fantastic though. On one hand, I am going to learn so much and probably enjoy doing so. But, it’s at 6 in the morning, which is going to be terrible for a while I’m sure.

Recent Food

If you don’t know, I’m going to Johnson & Wales University, Denver, starting in March. They follow a trimester system and my last school was semester system, so I have an annoyingly long winter break, it’s awful. Anyways, in my abundance amount of free time I have done the following: sleep, play xbox, cook, and read recipes. I have spent a lot of time reading recipes.

In unrelated food news: I was given then honor of an Eagle Scout Mentor last night. One of my buddies just got his Eagle Award and last night was his ceremony, so when it was time for him to name his mentor, he called me up and I was extremely happy. If you are unaware, the mentor pin goes to the person that has really helped with them stay focused and motivated, and I guess was just an overall influence. And I was really honored that he picked me, he has probably taught me more than I taught him, so for that I am really honored.

Here is what I’ve cooked:

Last week:

Monday: Tortellini with peas & prosciutto, followed by peanut butter pie. I cooked this for my brother and his wife. I went to to help get the future babies room together, so I figured cooking for them was a must.

Tuesday: Pork chops with a soy glaze, green beans, and garlic mashed potatoes. This was made for my sister and her boyfriend, it was pretty dang good. The pork was a little on the dry side but it still tasted pretty good.

Thursday: I made a new minestrone recipe. It is one of Tyler Florence’s (a grad of JWU, I believe). This recipe was really awesome, I’d say it was pretty traditional is style.

As for this Sunday (today) I decided that a multi-course meal was a must. My sister and her boyfriend came over to do some stuff, so she helped out and made some kick ass dessert.

So here’s the menu (pictures will follow):

• Star Puffs: these are stars cut out of puff pastry, brushed with olive oil, and topped with parmesan cheese and pepper; then baked for about 15 minutes. Super easy, but a great starter.
• Potato chowder: Just your basic potato & leek soup. Again, fairly simple but oh so good.
• Chicken breasts with a Dijon & Tarragon sauce, garlic mashed potatoes, and green beans. Apparently I really like green beans and mashed potatoes recently. They are pretty flexible sides.
• Eclairs: Made by my sister. They were really tasty, although she forgot to shift/slowly at the cocoa power to the glaze (oops), so it was a little lumpy, but they were still fantastic. And besides, it gave me a reason to laugh at her!

This entire meal turned out great. The chicken was just a little dry, but not too bad. It was a solid main course and it was something with tarragon. I really really love tarragon, it smells fantastic and tastes better than that.

There will be a post in the near future, I am cooking and my brothers and then again at my sisters this week, so I’m sure I’ll have something to say about that.

Song of the day: Blue Skies – Jamiroquai

Dinner Party

I should have posted this a couple of months ago, but I didn’t.

During Thanksgiving break I hosted a dinner party, and let me tell you, it was pretty kick ass.

The menu:

• Rosemary Bread
• Cream of Crab soup
• Roasted Chicken & Vegetables
• Pumpkin Cheese Cake or Apple Gallete

The bread was made in the bread machine, so it was stupid easy but still good. I mean it’s bread.

The soup was only slightly more complicated than the bread. Cream of Crab is way easier than I would have thought. It turned out pretty great, could have been better though. I forgot to take a picture of it served, so heres on of the pot:

The chicken was fantastic, as were the vegetables. If you read my older post about the chicken I made at the end of the Summer, it was the same recipe. I just added some balsamic and olive oil to the pan. It turned out so damn well. I wish I could remember more about it. I cooked two chickens and they turned out pretty much the same. I consider that a win.

They look pretty dang good don’t they?

Last but not least is dessert. I could’t decide between two different desserts, so I just made both.

The first was a Pumpkin Cheesecake that I have made once before. It’s fantastic. However I had to make the crust twice because I royally messed up the first time, but oh well. It still turned out great. I like this cheesecake mainly for the fact that it’s not overly dense like a lot of cheesecakes can be. It’s fair simple and tastes similar to Pumpkin Pie.

The other dessert was a Apple-Walnut Galette. I like to think of it as a cross between a tart and a pie. This is something that I have never made and it turned out pretty good. It tasted way better than it looked. The crust looks awful, clearly I’m not very good with a rolling pin yet.

Overall the dinner party was a great success. The food was on point and everyone had a good time. This was my first attempt at cooking something other than barbeque for more than 6 people, and well…I’m a champ.

Soup etc…

Alright, so instead of working on my American Lit. midterm, I’m just going to do a quick post. I don’t know, maybe it will motivate me to be more productive?

Over the past few months I have noticed a change in my cooking, mostly prep, style. Everything makes sense. I’m not chopping shit up ass backwards like I used to, everything is uniform. Even better, my sense of what tastes good has improved, especially when it comes to soups, stews, and chili.I guess something just clicked with me. I can do a lot more with out really thinking by now.

My chili doesn’t fuck around. I made it a few weeks ago when I was camping with my brother and his girlfriend. Of course, it was cooked over the fire (hands down, the best way to cook), and I might just have to say it was perfect. It was on that fine like of too spicy, and spicy with flavor. Needless to say, I was pleased.

Today I made my first minestrone of the season. It’s pretty much my own recipe by now, I formed it around some cookbook recipe years ago. I usually make it a couple of times a year, which fairly consistent results. Todays was really great, it tasted good, but it looked even better.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that I’ve finally started to really figure things out. Which is pretty awesome, since it’s taken me so long to figure out what I should be doing with myself.

 

Song of the Day, and maybe week: Don’t Let me Fall – B.o.B

 

Now for that midterm!

Labor Day Food

So, since I’m going to a culinary school, I may as well talk about food.

This weekend was quite impressive by my standards.

On Friday we had a family dinner so that everyone could check out the new kitchen and all of that jazz. I was, of course, in charge of the meal. I had to idea what to do until my sister suggested some kind of roasted chicken. Since this would be my first time trying this, I decided on the classic roast chicken and vegetables.

For this, I got two whole chickens along with red skin potatoes, carrot, onion(yellow), and brussels. A pretty solid combination if you ask me.  I seasoned the chicken with salt, pepper, lemons and rosemary. Given that it was my first try, I ran into a few problems. The chickens ended up taking a little longer than expected to cook. After awhile I bumped up the temperature to get it done. After two more temperature checks it was done, about 30 minutes later than I had wanted. Oh well.

Here are the results: It was nearly perfect, like seriously restaurant quality. There was only two things I could have done better: Added thyme and more oil for the vegetables. It was fucking awesome.

Next was Monday’s dinner. My father asked if I would grill something for Labor Day, so I gave it a few minutes thought and decided that a pork tender loin was a must. I served a smoked pork tender loin along with red skin mashed potatoes, green beans, and a form of apple chutney.

The pork was rubbed with brown sugar, salt, pepper, and rosemary. Inside the grill I used apple juice and a couple of sticks of cinnamon to keep everything moist. The pork smoked for a couple of hours with apple, alder, and hickory wood chips. Everything else was pretty standard, the potatoes were nothing fancy, just delicious, as were the green beans. The apples were sautéed with onions, pepper, and some nutmeg. If you don’t already know, pork with apples is one of the best combinations possible.

This dish was probably one of the best things I’ve ever done with pork, if not ever. It was more restaurant quality than Friday’s dinner. The pork was so tender you probably could have cut with a chopstick. To sum it up, “that shit was on point”.

These pictures don’t do any justice. I’m incredibly pleased with my performance this weekend. This pretty much set in stone why I’m going to a culinary school. It definitely was very reassuring for me.

At any rate, I think I’m going to talk more about food than some of the mindless bullshit I need to blog about. I figure it’s more productive this way.

Feel free to leave me some feedback on anything you would have done differently. Or any suggestions on what to cook next.

Summer ’10

It’s been a minute since I’ve posted anything and considering my current level of boredom, I might as well. I got to school at 9am for an 11am to find parking, of course parking was not a problem this semester.

This past summer was pretty great. I did not go anywhere or do anything incredible, I just hung out with people and went to school. Considering this past summer is my second to last summer spent in hoco, I figured I should make the most of it. Over all it was good, however I feel like my relationships with certain people may have changed slightly, but I don’t think its in a bad way. I became closer with some people, and more distanced with others.

Getting accepted into Johnson & Wales (Denver Campus) was definitely the high point of the summer. Not only is it an awesome school, it’s in a badass city. I cannot wait to go, Spring semester could not come soon enough. I’m pretty much ready to pack up the Mazda and drive out west. I’m ready for a new start away from this place, and to get away from a few people around home. My plan is to come home next summer, then not come home the following summer. By my second year there, I want to have a job and a place to live. I figure the sooner I can get into a kitchen, the better.

I guess that’s where things stand at the moment.

Focus

So it has been a long time since I’ve posted a blog. But in preparation of starting practica musica, I decided to post. So here is whats been going on since I last posted.

About 3 or 4 weeks ago, my Focus (car) died, so I was pretty upset since I had put a lot of myself into it. I now drive a 2008 Mazda 3 hatchback. I love it, it feels a lot like the Focus, just better. It’s is super rad. It is just lacking the car stereo, but I will get it back sometime in the next few months.

More importantly, I have almost completely lost my ability to focus on anything for more than about five minutes at a time. This is actually really bothering me, I don’t know what is so different about this semester compared to the last two. I guess it has to do with the fact that I’ve been in classes since Feb. 1 of this year. If you don’t count the 3 or 4 weeks of breaks in between semesters, that is over 30 weeks of school. I’m sure some of you are thinking, “yeah okay, get over it” However I am not used to, nor am I adjusting well to taking classes for that long of a time. So, long story short, I’m starting to really burn out. I finally decided to take actions against this. Today, I decided to drop my 8 am English class. I’m not sure if I made the right decision at the moment, but I feel that if I did not drop this one class I would probably end up with a 2.0 GPA this semester, which is just not acceptable. I decided that dropping this class would allow more time for me to study, and try to catch up on much missed sleep.

Frankly, I don’t feel great about this decision, I feel that in a way I am giving up, which I try not to do. But at the same time, maybe giving up on this class now will prevent me from giving up as a whole. I don’t know, that’s just a thought. What do you all think about this? Also, does anyone have any ideas that could help keep me focused and motivated?

Song of the day: A Song For You – Herbie Hancock feat. Christian Aguilera

So I should be writing a paper…..

I’m supposed to have a rough draft of my first English paper done by tomorrow morning, but seeing as I can focus on anything for more than about a minute at a time, I don’t think I’ll finish tonight. I mean, it’s just a rough draft on a bullshit paper, so she’ll get over it. I should be able to get about half done, but we’ll see.

That has been my problem for the past week or so. I haven’t been able to focus on anything for any length of time. It is actually starting to get really annoying. I sit down and try to get work done, but I always end up getting side-tracked by other thoughts. But oh well, I will just have to deal with it and I’ll just have to really start focusing. It also does not help that I have not totally gotten into the swing of things this semester, something just hasn’t felt right, but I will just have to work that out on my on.

In better news, this week is actually shaping out to be pretty good. On Monday, I would have told you that I’d be having another shitty week, but I am thinking the opposite right now. I mean it’s had a few ups and downs, but mostly ups. For instance, my friend Lauren came up with a nickname for my buddy Jeff and I, “Jam”. I’m not exactly sure where it came from, but I like it and it fits pretty well. Also, I did some serious work at my lesson today, I did not think I was going to sound as good as I did. My solo is coming along a lot faster than I thought it would. I guess I should give myself more credit than I do.

Oh, here is Sam’s embarrassing moment of the day. This morning, I parked my car, got out, put my coffee mug on the roof, and then opened my tailgate. Yeah, apparently I put the mug too close to the tailgate, and well it fell and spilled all over the ground. Luckily it missed me, but either way I was pretty embarrassing. Luckily no one saw….I hope. But yeah, if I don’t have coffee in the morning, my entire day becomes a giant struggle. Which, well it was.

I don’t have much else to say right now, so I’ll just end it here. Next time I’ll try to write about something more productive.

Song of the day: “Raining in Baltimore” by The Counting Crows