A broke woman's blog.

This night here my dad waited until 6 o'clock to decide what he wanted to eat. Oh gosh my wheels were spinning lol. I hate it when somebody decides when it's almost time for bed to want me to cook. Well anyway, I went a head and played the polite hostess and fixed him spaghetti and garlic bread like he wanted. If you are ready I am ready!

Mise En Place

Hamburger meat
Spaghetti sauce
Onions
Bell peppers
Mushrooms
Spaghetti
Butter
Garlic powder
Bread
Shredded cheese
Seasoning


1. Put hamburger meat in skillet and let it brown.
2. Cut onion and bell pepper in half. Clean the seeds out of bell pepper. Wash off onion and bell pepper, dice them up and put them in the hamburger meat.
3. Add seasoning and mushrooms.
4. While the hamburger meat is cooking boil some water for the spaghetti. Once it starts to boil add the spaghetti and cook it for about 12 - 15 minutes. You don't want you spaghetti mushy.
5. Once the spaghetti and meat is done strain them both. Leave just a little bit of water at the bottom of the pot so the spaghetti won't get dry. Or put in a little bit of oil. Now preheat the oven to 350.
6. Open the spaghetti sauce and pour it over the meat and let it simmer.
7. Get some butter and sprinkle some garlic powder in it.
8. Get your bread and paint the butter sauce on it. Add some cheese!
9. Put it in the oven until the cheese melts.
10. Serve it up and eat!

So I've been away for some time. Okay not away from the computer but just away from my blog. Something has been going on for about a month or so. I signed up for this social networking website. I've connected with a lot of my school mates. Facebook is it's name. But here is my addiction. The is this game on Facebook called Farm Town.

The first time I played that game I didn't know what in the world I was doing. I've been playing it over a month now. The object of the game is to plow, plant and harvest your crops. The more you do the more coins and points you get. There are different levels in this game. The points are called experience points.

When you get to a certain level you can hire someone to come plow or harvest your crops. You keep more money and experience points that way. Crops can be harvested between 2 hours and 4 days. The graphics are nice.

Since I've been playing this game, I am on level 27 which makes me an extraordinary farmer with 36491 experience points. I love to plant my crops and make designs with them. Now we all know in real life I would NOT be a good farmer lol.

You can go to the market and sell your harvested crop. I like to wait until I have a bunch of crop to sell before I go to the market. There is also a realtors office where you can purchase more land. I purchased more today. You can even go to the Inn to get a drink. It's only water but they don't actually give it to you. And they have a bank. You can pay through credit card to get more coins. Yes an actual credit card lol. Me, I just hire folks and I make my money.

Well I shall be around some posting more recipes. I do apologize from not posting. My internet sister got on to me about it. Well sis this is for you. Now you know what I have been doing instead of posting. That is the story of my addiction!

My dad and sister came to town yesterday. I fixed them dinner today. I made oven bbq chicken, mostaccioli, and baked beans. Oh lawd it was so good. Well are you ready? On your mark. Get set. Go!!!!!!!!!

Mise en place!

Bbq chicken

Chicken (of your choice)
Medium diced onion
Seasoning
Bbq sauce of your choice

1. Wash off chicken and get fat off you don't need.
2. Season up your chicken, sprinkle onions on chicken and bake in the oven for about 45 minutes.
3. Take chicken out and drain off fat.
4. Pour bbq sauce over chicken and baked it for about 15 or 20 minutes to let bbq bake on chicken.


Mostaccioli

1 bag of mostaccioli pasta
Seasoning

1. Boil water for pasta and add seasoning.
2. Once water is boiling add pasta.
3. Let pasta come to a boil for about 13 - 17 minutes.
4. Once finished drain water off.
5. Put on a plate and top it with cheese or sauce.

Baked beans

Can baked beans
Diced onion
Brown sugar

1. Mix beans, onion and brown sugar in a baking pan.
2. Put in oven and bake for 30 - 40 minutes.
3. Once done you may eat!

Source: Bree

I found this recipe and I just had to try it. I got everything that I needed and fixed it. It was absolutely fantastic. Well here I am giving you the recipe! Here we go!

Mise en place

3 cups of milk
1 pkg. (8 serving size) chocolate pudding
2 cups thawed whip cream
16 oreo cookies (or your choice) crushed (about 2 cups)
8 marachino cherries (or topping of your choice)
8 paper cups

1. Pour milk into medium bowl and add pudding mix. Beat with wire whisk 2 minutes. Gently stir in whip cream.
2. Spoon 2 tbsp of chopped cookies into all eight of the 8 oz. paper cups. Cover the cookie crumbs with the pudding. Repeat until out of cookies and pudding mixture.
3. Freeze for 5 hours or until hard. Let sit for 15 minutes at room temp before serving. Peel away paper from the dessert and plate it. Add topping. Store leftovers in the freezer.

Source: Kraft foods! Thanks Kraft!

Here is a simple recipe for you to follow. It's easy as 1 2 3!

Mise en place

4 chicken breast (or according to your needs)
1 or 2 onions (whatever size you like)
1 or 2 bell peppers (whatever size you like)
shredded cheese
french bread loaf(or whatever you prefer)
Seasoning

1. Wash your chicken.
2. Cut chicken breast into half inch strips long ways and put them in a bowl.
3. Cut your onion in half on the ends. Lay the onion flat and cut it on the sides as thick as you want them and put in a bowl.
4. Cut the bell pepper the thickness you like put them in the bowl with the onions.
5. Rinse onions and bell pepper.
6. Pour enough oil to coat the bottom of your skillet and let it get hot.
7. Put your seasoning on your meat, onions and bell peppers.
8. Once your skillet is hot sautee the onions and bell peppers. Don't put them all in the skillet if you have a bunch.
9. After you get your onions and bell peppers sauteed put your bread in the oven and let it toast for about 5 or 7 minutes then take it out.
10. Once you have sauteed all of your onions and bell peppers put some chicken in the skillet and stir it around so it won't stick.
11. Add more oil if needed.
12. When you turn your chicken over add some onions and bell peppers. Continue until you are done.
13. Take your bread plate it and put some cheese on the bottom bun. Then add your chicken, onions, bell peppers, more cheese on top and close the bread top.
14. Now enjoy!

Source: Bree

Ha ha! It's my day to cook.....Let me see. Today I made some lasagna, cheesy garlic bread and a spinach and tomato basil salad. I haven't cooked lasagna in about a year. We had went to Detroit and my little cousin wanted me to cook her some. So I cooked her some but I had used rotini pasta. I try to do things different at times. But today I just used the regular lasagna noodles. My girls and I went to the store and got everything we needed the night before and I forgot the french bread. So I had to use what I had to make the garlic bread......hot dog buns lol. Well it worked! You learn to improvise. After everything was cooked and we dug in lol. My lasagna fell apart on me but it's okay. It was still good! Okay are you ready? Well here we go. Remember, cook according to your needs.

Spinach and tomato basil salad

4 large tomatoes
1/2 purple onion (to your liking)
1/2 bunch fresh basil (to your liking)
1/2 teaspoon of salt (to taste)
1/2 teaspoon of pepper (to taste)
2 oz. red wine vinegar
hand full of spinach

1. Rinse off tomatoes, spinach and basil.
2. Let basil and spinach dry while you slice the tomatoes.
3. Slice the ends of and cut the tomatoes a 1/4 inch thick from side to side.
4 Lay the slices flat and cut into 1/2 inch medium dice.
5. Put them in a mixing bowl.
6. Cut your onion in 1/4 inch small dice.
7. Put onion in the bowl also.
8. Chop up the basil to YOUR liking and sprinkle it over the mixture.
9. Sprinkle some salt and pepper to taste.
10. Add spinach.
11. Add about 2 oz. of the red wine vinegar.
12. Stir it and let it marinate.
13. Taste it and if you need to add something more, do so.


Lasagna Bree's way!!!!!

Hamburger
Sausage
Medium onion
Medium bell pepper
Minced garlic
Tomato sauce
Sour cream (optional)
Cottage cheese (optional)
Corn (optional)
Shredded cheese (any kind)
Lasagna
Seasoning (optional because of the sausage)


1. Cut the ends and hull off onion. Diced onion very small.
2. Cut ends and top off bell pepper. Rinse off and dice it very small.
3. Mince garlic.
4. Saute the onions, garlic and bell pepper for about 2 minutes then add hamburger and sausage.
5. While that is cooking, boil your water for the lasagna.
6. Once meat is done drain all the fat off.
7. Add lasagna to the water. Stir it around a little bit so it won't stick. Cook it for about 12-15 minutes. The reason is you want your noodles al dente (half done because when you bake the lasagna your noodles won't be mushy).
8. After the fat has drained off put the meat back in the pot and add your tomato sauce.
9. Add some sour cream to the mixture and let it cook down.
10. After your 12-15 minutes turn your pot off on your lasagna and quickly pull them out and layer them on the bottom of your pan.
11. Layer your meat mixture, cottage cheese, corn, cheese and lasagna until you run out.
12. Put in oven on 350 for about 15 minutes.


Cheesy garlic bread

Hot dog buns
Garlic powder
Butter
Shredded cheese

1. Spoon out how much butter out you think you will need in a bowl and put it in the microwave until it starts to melt.
2. Add some garlic powder to taste.
3. Drizzle over hot dog buns.
4. Sprinkle cheese over buns and bake for about 5 minutes so they won't get hard.

Source: Bree

I've been waiting patiently on my grades from my classes. Well I can't say patiently lol. I thought I passed my classes with a B. I got an e-mail from my lab partner asking me if I got my grade from our class. I hadn't check since Friday. Oooooooooooooooooh I checked today and I have A's in both my classes! Oh my word I'm so happy! I had to share that!

This semester I took two classes and finals this past Monday and Tuesday. I made a 86 on my Nutrition final and a 93 plus 20 bonus points on my Food Pro I final. Oh and I made a 92 on my knife skills test! I felt soooooooooooo great lol. I start back in three weeks taking ServSafe Sanitation and Intro to Hospitality. Excited? Yes I am!

But anyways!!!!!!!! I got a new job! I work for a restaurant now. My instructors friend owns it. He called him and told him he had an employee if he wanted one. He told me to come visit with him and he hired me right on the spot before I filled out the application. He told me that my instructor bragged on me and thought I had potential. I wanted to cry.

My first day was pretty crazy. I was doing fixing up veggies, salads, muffins and just whatever. It's so funny because I'm the only woman in the kitchen lol. The other women are managers or waitresses. It's really funny because I want to talk to my trainer as if he was a woman and I have to be quiet lol. He is so funny.

I'm the salad lady lol. I make the salads and I like it. I had to make a cheat sheet. They only thing I don't like is when we have 3 or 4 different salads come in. My pressure goes up then lol. We got compliments on how pretty the salads looked today. I'm so happy. Sorry, I didn't mean to bore you I just had to share that with you.

Yes I know I'm late but I've been tired lol. I just wanted to share a picture of what my youngest daughter did for my mom and I. She got up Sunday morning and fixed us some chocolate chip pancakes, eggs, sausage and some diced strawberries. She is getting like her mom with the cooking! It was so sweet. I got a card and purple flowers. She loves her grandma and momma and we love her too!

There was a group of students to help prepare for an event at Land's End Plantation. I didn't want to go reason's for (hence the name). Yea, I made a joke about it. Anyway, we all met up at the school and finished doing the last of the prep work. We left the school around 3. It was raining. Ugh I don't like rain lol. We all followed one another to the plantation. It was about a 30 minute ride.

So anyway, we made it to the plantation. I never seen such a pretty place. It had so many beautiful trees and everything. It would have been more fascinating if it wasn't raining! We all parked and went into the house. Once we got in we were by a mini pony! Not a real pony but the dog was big as a pony in my eyes. It was a Great Dane name Shadow. He was toooo big for me. I was scared at first lol.

We were introduced to the owner and his lady. They made us feel so welcomed. We all got our Mise En Place ready to start getting things in order. I had to finish setting up my cheese tray. I was trying to put my crackers on the tray and I heard some smacking. I looked up and it was Shadow licking his lips lol. I said to myself, "Man if this dog gets at me this whole house will be tore up lol."

Okay now it was time to get busy. We all started get the food together. Oh it was so fun. We had 23 or 24 plates to get ready. For hors d' oeurves (the French and their spelling ugh) we served tarragon shrimp bruschetta, boursin stuffed mushrooms and Importer cheese w/ assorted crackers & bread (my cheese tray)! While the guest at those we had to hustle getting the first course together. That was a grilled caprese salad (grilled tomatoes, fresh mozzarella and fresh basil w/ aged balsamic syrup and extra virgin olive oil. I've never heard of that until that day lol.

The entree was a beef tenderloin gratinee (pan seared beef tenderloin topped w/ caramelized red onions & gruyere, cream cheese & chive mashed potatoes, sauteed green beans and rosemary & cabernet infused au jus reduction). I know, a lot of words lol. For dessert there was cranberry pecan bread pudding (bread pudding custard w/ traditional bourbon sauce w/ sliced green apples on top). I will not bore you with the serving details lol. But know this......we had a blast! I made everybody laugh.

After everybody at we had to clean up. I got smart and started washing dishes after the servers brought the plates back lol. My momma didn't raise no fool! We were so tired. I swear I washed dishes for 2 or 3 hours straight. I handed those dishes off to my classmate like the runners do when they hand the baton to the other relay race runner lol. That was a tiresome night for all of us. That was on Saturday that we did that and I'm still tired. The owner, his lady and their guest were very pleased with our services.

This link is here. There were tooo many pictures to upload on this page.

http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewPicture&friendID=3157363&albumId=3163534

For the love of sleep I can't get the link to embed. Just copy and paste. Geesh!

Tuesday we had our knife skills test. I was nervous as I don't know what. Before we went to the lab we sat in class for lecture. I love the class but I hate lectures. I feel like a kid in class. I can't be still! But anyway, Chef D. split us up into three groups. He gave us one hour to complete our 10 cuts. Everybody was trying to get their things together in my group. In class, I had decided what order I was going to do my cuts in. Carrots I don't like to cut them ugh. They were first on my list.

For some reason my back started to hurt like I was having spasms. I got really nervous and I started to mess up. I forgot some things that I needed to cut. All I kept saying to myself was to be calm. That didn't work at all. I guess I felt out of place because my lab partner was not in my group. J and I always work side by side. We've been partners since the beginning of the semester.

We all tried to finish our test in the hour. I finished mine with about 10 minutes to spare and I tried to weed out the messed up cuts and fix them. I did good I guess. I made a 92 so yes that was good. I just need to focus more. After we finished, Chef D showed us how to cut up a chicken. He told everybody to get a chicken and go to work. Boy was I happy because J and I worked by each other. We have so much fun together.

My poor chicken......they made fun of it because it's legs were crossed. I told them that's what ladies do while they are sitting down! I had to put her down and cut her. I loved that chicken! After we cut them up we got the breast and cooked. Everybody cooked what they wanted. There was some good looking food up in there we did. The presentations were marvelous of the ones I saw. I cooked for J and I.

So here is what I did. I fried chicken breast and potatoes. Yes I will share with you.

Potatoes small dice 1/4 inch cubed
Onions (small dice)
Parsley
Seasoning

1. Put onions and potatoes in hot oil. Season them and put in parsley.
2. Cook them to your liking.
3. Once done plate them!

Chicken breast
Onions (Julienne)
Chopped parsley
Flour
Seasoning


1. Wash chicken and season it up the way you want it.
2. Sprinkle flour over the chicken lightly.
3. Once oil is heated in pan, put chicken in and let it fry.
4. It should take no more than 5 minutes to fry a thin piece of chicken breast.
5. While your chicken is frying, put some onions in there and let them sautee.
6. Once chicken is done, plate it, place the sauteed onions on top going the same direction and sprinkle some parsley on top. Just enough to give it some color.

Source: Bree

I love my dad yes I do, but that man kills me with the things he does. Remember in my opening statement I said "I may make you laugh, cry, smile, sleepy or even hungry?" Well this is the part where I may make you laugh and cry. My dad will do anything. Today he decided he was going to shoot some fireworks. Yes I said fireworks. In the middle of April.

You gotta love him. He will do anything for my girls and I. He decided to light a roman candle lol. Needless to say the stem went out. He was standing in the front door and snapped it in half. The candle started shooting and he threw it in the trash lol. All of a sudden I hear somebody loling. My girls were standing by him screaming, "Papa you set the grass on fire." I got my camera and ran to the front door. He set the trash on fire instead of the grass lol. You think I should get my girls some glasses?

I was filming and telling them to get the water hose. He tells my youngest to go move the table out of the way and let the trash burn because we have to clean the yard up lol. My youngest wanted to shoot some missiles on a brick. When they where shooting up in the air, the were not going high enough. They were popping a few seconds before they hit the ground. We were running like crazy to get out of the way lol.

It's funny. My dad's about 6'12" (6'4") and about 320. He's a country boy and will walk around outside without shoes. He's a barrel of laughs!

You know a Sunday would not be a Sunday if I didn't get in the kitchen and cook. So here is how my day started. I went to the store at 9:30. I really didn't want to go but with hungry family members to feed I reckon I had to. Let's see, I grabbed some green and red cabbage, augratin potatoes, carrots, bacon, and sweet potatoes. The agenda for today's dinner was a roast, baked pork chops, cabbage, augratin potatoes with carrots and sweet potatoes. For dessert, I made an apple shortcake. Did I say that I made a tip for cooking? A friend of the family gave me a $10 tip for fixing him and his family a plate! Uh huh...a tip for me. Let the cooking begin!!!!!!!!!

Roast or pork chops

Roast or pork chops
Chopped basil
Chopped chives
Baby carrots
Seasonings

1. Wash your meat off and carrots.
2. Season them with your seasoning, basil and chives.
3. Pop in the oven and cook to your liking.

Cabbage

Green or red cabbage
Bacon
Seasonings

1. Fry your bacon in a skillet or pan.
2. Cut up cabbage and rinse it off while bacon is cooking.
3. When bacon is done cooking pour off some off the grease.
4. Add cabbage, seasonings, and a 1/4 cup of water to bacon.
5. Cook to your liking.

Sweet potatoes

Sweet potatoes
Butter
Brown sugar
White sugar
Cinnamon


1. Rinse sweet potatoes off and peel off the skin.
2. Cut them up a ¼ inch thick cross ways the sweet potato. They cook quicker when sliced thin.
3. Rinse them off.
4. In a medium sauce pan put enough water to coat the bottom of it.
5. Add sweet potatoes, butter, brown sugar, white sugar, and cinnamon.
6. Let the sweet potatoes cook and simmer in the juice.
7. Taste the juice to see if it’s sweet enough and taste the potato to see if it’s done enough for you.
8. Once they are the way you like them serve them.

Augratin potatoes

Buy a box of augratin potatoes and read the directions!

Source: Bree

In Tuesdays Food Pro I class we learned how to mince shallots and make concassee. It was so fun. Our class is not your typical class if you know what I mean. Half of our class is of younger students and the other half is of older students. It's a funny mixture. Most of us have nicknames we've given each other in the class. Like my good friend Wolverine I mean Glen! Glen is really funny and a hard worker from what I've seen. I have no idea where Derrick came up with the name of Big Red for me lol. I had to ask him if I looked like a red soda pop. He just laughed. We all have different personalities in our class. Some are quiet and some are extremely loud. When it comes to getting a job done we all pull together as one.

But anyways on to mincing shallots and making concassee! Mise en place!

You will need:

Shallot
Cutting board
Knife

1. Cut the end of the shallot and rinse it off.
2. Lay it on it's flat side and cut it a 1/8 to a 1/4 inch thick horizontally half way through the shallot.
3. Then turn the cut it towards you and cut it a 1/8 to a 1/4 inch vertically to the half way point.
4. Turn it side ways to where the cut end is facing you knife.
5. Finish cutting the shallot a 1/8 to a 1/4 inch.
6. Cut up the finished shallot until it's really fine.
7. Take your knife and turn the blade on it's side away from you.
8. Put your hand about half inch to an inch away from the spine on the blade.
9. Rub you blade over the shallot towards you until the shallot is completely minced up.
10. Now you can do whatever you want with it!


Concassee

Roma tomato
Boiling water
Ice water bath
Knife
Tongs
Cutting board

1. Turn tomato upside down and score it on the tip like a small x.
2. Put it into the boiling water for about 15 - 20 seconds.
3. Use the tongs to pull the tomato out after time is up.
4. Put it in the ice water bath for a few seconds to stop the cooking process.
5. Once out of the ice water bath pull the skin off from where you scored the tomato.
6. One the opposite end cut the plug out.
7. Turn tomato horizontally and cut it in half vertically.
8. Take out all of the seeds.
9. Turn back on side and cut it to the thickness you want it.
10. Turn the opposite way that it it's been cut and cut it that way.
11. Put it on anything you want!

That concludes our lesson today.

These are videos of my instructor Chef Douglas.

I don't think I need any introduction from the title. You already know Sunday is my day to cook dinner at my house. This is the meal that I wanted to cook the previous Sunday but my dad beat me to it! Well I finally got a chance to cook what I wanted. My dad is a bird lover and I love bird too! He loves it fried but I love it baked. So are you thinking we had bird for dinner? You guessed it right. Baked bird it was. I made baked chicken with cream of mushroom, wild rice, corn and sweet peas mixed, biscuits and a Reeses pieces cake. Yea, my daughter wanted that cake lol. I'm the type of cook who will cook from scratch and out of the box. You don't have to be a professional chef to make wonderful tasting food. It's all in your mind and hands. All you have to do is find it! So let's get it started!

Mise en place [MEEZ ahn plahs]! Don't worry. You do this all the time I hope. All that's saying is for you to have everything in place that you need to prepare your meal. You will tire yourself out running back and forth throughout the kitchen looking for stuff.


Baked chicken

Chicken (whatever parts you like)
Chopped chives
Chopped basil
Seasonings (whatever you like)

1. Pull off fat on chicken and wash it.
2. Season it and sprinkle chives and basil over it.
3. Let it cook to YOUR liking. Done, I hope!

Wild rice

1. Just buy a box of Rice-A-Roni and follow the directions.

Mixed sweet peas and corn

1. Open a can of sweet peas and corn and bring them to a boil.

Biscuits

1. Grands biscuits. Follow the directions on the can.

Cream of mushroom

1. Open can and scrape the cream of mushroom in a saucepan.
2. Heat up and serve it on top of chicken!

Reeses pieces cake

1. Buy cake mix and follow directions on the box.
2. When cake is half way done, drop some reeses pieces in the mix.
3. When the cake is done, you can put your icing on so it can melt into the cake.
4. An hour after cake has cooled off sprinkle more reeses on the icing.
5. Put cake in the freezer for about 30 minutes to let icing get cold, then take it out.
6. You may eat!

Source: Bree

Yesterday some of the Culinary students volunteered to help at the Chefs Ball at the Governor's Mansion. I was sooooooo nervous going to the mansion. I've lived in Little Rock up until I was 16 and the only thing I've ever done was pass by the mansion. There I was at the security gate and I forgot to turn my radio down. It wasn't loud but I'm pretty sure the guard could hear. I introduced myself and told him what I was doing there and he told me where to go. No he didn't tell me to go to H E double hockey sticks!!!!! So I get to the side entrance and once again I had to introduce myself and the gentleman told me where to park.

I had to think about what I was doing. I grabbed my cap and jump out of my truck and walked up to the door. I know people was looking at me like I was crazy but I was nervous as a bull rider! When I walked in the house my mouth hit the floor (not literally but you know what I'm saying!) It was so pretty in there. The first person who I say was Mrs. Beebe. In a low faint voice I asked where the culinary students were. She told me and I proceeded on. As I walked towards the steps I saw the dining area and I was in complete awe! There were so many tables and what caught my eyes were the globes on the table. They had red flowers in them. But I thought to myself, "How in the world are we going to serve all of these people?"

I found the kitchen! There were about 10 students and chefs in the kitchen. I didn't know where to turn. There was Chef Will and I asked him what he wanted me to do. I had the great pleasure of trimming toothpicks down to about 2 inches. Oh what fun. If you believe that I can sell you water from a water fountain! Once I finished that I watched Chef Will roll some sushi. It was interesting. At that moment I probably would have been amused watching water boil lol.

There was a familiar face that I saw. It was my lab partner Jason! I was so happy to see him. Jason and I have so much fun. He's funny. We talked and laughed. Chef Douglas brought us trays and told us how we needed to carry them. Jason, Lee and I handled the hors d'oeuvres. PAUSE...Wait a second....who in the world came up with that spelling? That word is not spelled the way it is pronounced. Is the v silent? Doesn't it seem like it should be pronounced ordurves? Okay that's just me. Never mind. It's a French word. No wonder! PLAY...Jason had Teriyaki beef. I had shrimp shooter's and poor Lee had sushi lol.

We were standing in the walkway and I kept advertising for my shrimp shooters. Jason and I had almost emptied our trays. Lee my poor friend he still had almost a full tray of sushi lol. Jason and I finally moved to our second tray and Lee was still on his first. I'm was good at advertising there was a gentleman that came up and Jason asked him if he wanted to try the Teriyaki beef. He took one and I said how about a shrimp shooter. He said I don't like shrimp much. I said all you have to do is chew it up really fast, swallow it and get more Teriyaki beef. So he said I heard they were good. I said go ahead and get one. He ate it and chased it with some Teriyaki beef. He said it wasn't that bad. So I said how about some sushi? He just looked at me. I said come on now you gotta try it lol. I said chase it down with more Teriyaki beef. He said okay. If I was a sales woman I would have made five sales!!!!!! I've never had sushi and I had to choke it down. After the fifth one I think I was okay with the taste.

We kept advertising to everybody who walked by. I heard some music playing. I turned around it was a band playing some Jazz. The drummer turned out to be the guy who I sold the Teriyaki beef, shrimp, and sushi to lol. I told Jason and Lee and they said they hope he wouldn't get sick!

We made our way back to the kitchen and that is where the rest of the magic took place! All of us students and chefs got in the kitchen and hustled our behinds off. Every chef had their own dish to put out but WE ALL worked on the dishes together. It was tight in that kitchen but we worked our way. We were all together as one heart beat. I have never seen so many people come together and be productive as we were. One chef handed out trays of food and I pulled the trays in from the servers. It was beautiful. On the main course we had 15 people in an assembly line fixing plates. Everything went so quickly we finally finished. We all were tired.

Governor Beebe came in and told us that we had done a fantastic job! We all pitched in to clean up and all the Chefs commended us for doing an excellent job. All I can say is, I'm so glad that I have chosen this profession to go in. Team work is so important and that is what we had in the kitchen!

You already know what today is. It's Sunday and it's my turn to cook. Well see here is the problem.......I went to the store last night to get what I wanted to cook for dinner. I wanted baked chicken covered with cream of mushroom, mashed potatoes, corn and cornbread. My stepdad had other plans. He baked some ribs. All I can say is mmmmmm delicious. Well I woke up to him yelling, "Are you going to finish dinner." How could I say no! We had baked ribs, mashed potatoes, corn, fruit salad, and a cake. I had my tummy ready for that baked chicken! What's so funny about it is that he LOVES chicken but he wanted ribs. Oh well. I shall have it one day. But all I want to know is are you ready to cook? Well let's hit the kitchen!

Ribs

Ribs (beef or pork)
Bay leaves
Seasoning

1. Cut your ribs up and wash them off.
2. Season them really good to where you can smell your seasoning.
3. Get a roasting pan and put the bay leaves at the bottom.
4. Put ribs in the pan and let them cook to your desired finish.
5. You can pour off the fat or leave it in the pan so your ribs aren’t dry.

Mashed potatoes

I do not measure butter or milk. So use it at your discretion.

Box of potato buds
Butter
Milk
Water

1. Boil water and add a dash of salt in it.
2. Put buds in a plastic bowl or mixing bowl.
3. Add water, butter and milk.
4. If you like a lot of butter add more.
5. Use a mixer to mix all the contents together.
6. Whatever more you need add it.
7. Potatoes should come out fluffy like a cloud!

Corn

Can of corn

1. Clean off top of can.
2. Open can.
3. Put corn in a pot and heat them up.
4. Once heated you may eat!

Chocolate cake
Any chocolate cake mix will do

1. Read the directions!
2. Once cooled cut cake in half horizontally.
3. Put icing and whatever topping you want in between the layers.
4. Do the same on top layer.
5. Put in fridge and let chill for about an hour and serve!



Fruit salad

5 large strawberries
1 Granny Smith apple
1 Red apple
½ peach
10 medium sized seedless grapes

1. Cut up strawberries in small dices ¼ in x ¼ in x ¼ inor close to it.
2. Slice apples in half down the middle.
3. Turn apple on flat side and cut in ¼ in halves.
4. Turn them on flat side again, cut down the middle and turn them horizontally.
5. Cut them in ¼ in squares.
6. Do the peach the same way but only half of it.
7. Put fruit in a bowl and put in grapes.
8. Mix the fruit and refrigerate.
9. When ready to eat put a teaspoon of cream cheese topping and eat up!

Source: TJ (my stepdad) and Bree

Friday was here and I couldn't wait to get off work to go home, take a shower and just relax. It was my last day to work. Boy was I happier than a puppy with a new chew toy! I knew that next day I was going to help out for an event at the school. I think I had excitement written on my forehead. Sleep was not my friend at all until about 1:30 or 2 A.M. Well, finally when the alarm went off for me to get up, I kept hitting the snooze button. It's so funny. I know I hit that snooze for about an hour lol. But anyways, I got up and got ready to leave for school!

I had my uncle with me and my word. He just would not shut up for nothing. All I heard on the road was, "Did you see those blue lights? Man if you can't drive that truck better than that you need to pull over (that was to another driver not me)." I just turned the radio up while he kept talking. I even started singing real loud to get him to see that I was really trying to tune him out. Only if I had an eject button in my truck for the passenger seat like Inspector Gadget! I would have pressed that button as soon as he asked me if I saw the blue lights. Yes I know, I know. I shouldn't do my uncle like that. BUT IT'S FUN!!!!!!!

On to the school I shall go! Well, I finally make it to the school. I was walking to the front door and I caught a beat down by the wind. Yes it was windy outside. I walked into the kitchen and I was put to work! Chef Will had me to cut up the strawberries. By the time I finished cutting up those strawberries I felt like a strawberry queen. Here comes Chef Douglas wanting me to watch some sauces he made. I was so funny. He says, "Bree, put these sauces in some sauce pans and don't let them scorch. Watch them!" He points with his index and middle fingers from his eyes to the pots lol. So me being me, I stood there at the stove and made sure they didn't scorch lol. Then I stripped the bark off some asparagus. Not bark literally but the hard part on the stem. It was so cute. I would stir the sauces between stripping the bark.

On to Chef Will....he's so funny. Him, Toast and I were making dumpling balls and singing to some songs on his phone. I must say I wouldn't pay to see us singing. We sang Queensryche's Bohemian Rhapsody, Nickelback and somebody else. I made up my own words because I didn't know all the words. Now that's how I do it! We had to go introduce ourselves to our dinner guests. I was the first to walk through the door. But I was the last to introduce myself. I was nervous lol. We went back to the kitchen and cleaned up the dishes we had used. A little while later we went back to the dinning area and ate.

Some how Chef Douglas, Toast, Lee, and Wolverine (Glen is his real name he has hair like Wolverine lol) got me to try some hummus. I must say the first bit was not so good but the more I chewed it tasted pretty decent. Everything we ate was good. We sat around and talk and back to cleaning up the kitchen we went! Lee and I mopped the floor. Poor Lee. His mop bucket fell over twice I believe lol. Good thing it wasn't filled all the way up to the top lol. We helped him clean it up. All in all we had fun. Those guys are crazy lol.

Sunday dinner again! Let’s see what do we have here! Hamburger casserole. Hmmm hmmm hmmm. This was my first time making it and it was delicious! It started off with my dad wanting some lasagna. Well, he always gets what he wants so I cooked what I wanted lol. For dessert I made a cake. That was good too! Let’s get this party started shall we?

Hamburger casserole

Hamburger meat
Noodles
Sour cream
Cottage cheese
Chopped basil
Chopped chives
Chopped onions
Cheese
Can of sweet peas
Can of corn
Seasoning

1. Brown hamburger meat and add in onions, chives, basil and seasoning.
2. Boil water for noodles while hamburger meat is cooking.
3. Add noodles when water starts to boil.
4. Once hamburger and noodles are done drain them.
5. Dump hamburger meat in a pan and top it with cheese.
6. Pour peas, corn, sour cream, and cottage cheese on top of hamburger meat.
7. Pour noodles on top and add more cheese.
8. Mix all together and then add the chives.
9. Put in oven and bake it for about 20 minutes and let stand for 10 minutes.
10. Now you may eat!

Source: Bree

Quesadilla? Nope! Breadsadilla? Yes! So I ran out of tortilla shells! Even the store was out of them. So what was I to do? I did the next best thing. I had to use bread! I had to use what I had to make what I wanted. There is nothing wrong with that! They turned out good too. Oh wait! Yea, I made some breadsadillas lol. They were better with bread than with the tortilla shell. My family loved them. Are you ready to get started on the breadsadillas? Remember cook accordingly to your household! I used a griddle to cook everything on instead of the stove. You can cook everything at the same time on it! Here we go!

Breadsadilla

Eggs
Hash browns
Bacon
Cheese (I used shredded)
Chopped chives
Chopped onions
Seasoning
Bread

1. Cook bacon until crispy and drain the grease off.
2. Use some bacon grease to cook the hash browns and onions in. Add some seasoning.
3. Once they are done take them out put them in a bowl.
4. Take your bread and lightly toast it on both sides.
5. Add cheese on the tops of both pieces.
6. Cook your eggs while the cheese is melting on bread.
7. Put some hash browns on a piece of bread and top it with the egg, bacon and chive.
8. Put the other piece of bread on top and gently mash it down.
9. Flip it over and let the cheese continue to melt through everything.
10. Now you may eat!

Source: Bree