A broke woman's blog.

Howdy, howdy, howdy! I’m back! Well, I haven’t been gone really. I’ve been swamped with reading in my Food Production I (Douglas) and Healthy Foods/Nutrition (Blackmon) class. I love my classes. Chef Blackmon and Chef Douglas are pretty cool. We have a lot of fun in class. It’s kind of hard to be me in class because I’m trying to take my classes serious. We’ve been in school for six weeks and I really haven’t opened up. Ugh! I know, I know. There is a time and place for everything including laughter and cutting up. My ears and eyes are open in class. Wait! Sometimes they flutter when we watch the videos. Okay, okay, okay! They are pretty interesting but sometimes sitting so long makes me restless. BUT………..I have learned a lot of stuff in my Nutrition class. If you are not big on Nutrition, I suggest you go do some research on the web or go buy a Nutrition book. You will be surprised at what you learn!
So far in my Food Pro. I class we have learned how to do Juliene, Batonett, Brunoise, Small dice, dice onions, and do diagonal cuts on carrots. For the love of Marty Moose! It is hard trying to cut the way we were should how to cut. It drives me insane! I have to pretend I’m a virgin cutter. That is hard to do! It’s so funny. I’m in the kitchen and Chef Douglas will tell me to straighten my knife when I cut. The first lab we had to do Juliene, Batonett, Brunoise, and Small dice cuts on potatoes. That was terrible. He said I did good but……..Okay I did do good for my first time. I think I cut up about 40 potatoes that day! Just kidding. I did about four. Now the carrots…….that’s another subject. 1/8 inch diagonal cuts. I think I maybe have had one that was perfect. Not one carrot but one diagonal cut perfect lol. Oh well! I’m working on it. Oh well enough of my rambling. See you next blog!

There is nothing like having a party. All the people and all the treats. We threw my stepdad a birthday party this past weekend. He was so nosey trying to figure out why was I cooking lol. Me being me, I just told him that my co-workers gave me some money to go buy food for a bridal shower to fix. Ha ha! When he saw all that food he told me that it was not leaving the house before he got a bite of it. Little did he know that it really was for him. The poor man kept trying to stick his finger in the food lol. It smelt really delicious! The menu consisted of: Sausage balls with and without sauce, 5 layer dip, baked beans, semi spicy bbq chicken wings, cream cheese ball, spaghetti, deviled eggs, and Mexican cornbread. So are you ready to get started cooking? Well let’s go!

This is the recipe that I used. You can always modify it. Make sure that you always cook according to the number of people you are serving. Remember, I did this for a party.

Cream cheese ball

4 packages of cream cheese (use the fat free or 1/3 less fat)
12 pieces of bacon (whatever kind of meat you want to use)
1 bunch of scallions (green onions with the white bulb at the end for those who didn’t know)
Salt or accent to taste
Crackers

1. Fry your bacon until it’s really crispy (that doesn’t mean burnt) rinse the grease off.
2. Put your cream cheese in a bowl and mash it up so it can be soft.
3. Cut up your scallions in small pieces and rinse them off.
4. Sprinkle your scallions, bacon and salt over the cream cheese and mix together.
5. Form the cheese into a ball and use Reynolds or plastic wrap to wrap it up.
6. Refrigerate until its firm. When it get firm you can shape it better.
7. Put it on a platter and surround with crackers.
8. Now you may eat!


Source: MA, modified by Bree

2 cans of refried beans
2 cans of rotel
1 lb of hamburger meat (or whatever meat you like)
1 cup of shredded lettuce
1 cup of shredded cheese (any kind or a mixture)
Seasoning

1. Brown your meat, add seasoning for taste, rinse off the fat, and let it drain.
2. Smooth refried beans over plate.
3. Lay hamburger meat on top of beans.
4. Next is the rotel. Don’t put all the juice on there. Just the juice from your dipping on there.
5. Next is the lettuce.
6. Last is the cheese.
7. Now you can eat!

Source: Bree

6 cans of baked beans (all different kind is how I do it)
1 onion
1 bell pepper
Half cup of brown sugar
1 lb of hamburger meat
Seasoning

1. Cut up onions and bell peppers. Rinse them off.
2. Brown hamburger meat, onions and bell peppers together. Add seasoning to taste.
3. Rinse off hamburger meat and let it drain.
4. Pour beans in a roasting pan with hamburger meat.
5. Add brown sugar and pop in the oven.
6. Let cook until the top is brown.
7. Now you can eat!

Source: Bree

2 bags of chicken drumlets
Seasoning
Crushed red pepper
Bbq sauce
Dried chopped onions

1. Wash your chicken off. Season it with you season of choice, crushed red pepper, and dried onions.
2. Pop in the oven for an hour.
3. Drain of the grease and top it with bbq sauce.
4. Let cook until the bbq sauce bakes on the chicken.
5. Now you may eat!

Source: Bree

2 lbs of sausage (turkey even)
1 onion
1 can of cranberry sauce
1 bottle of chili sauce
1 ½ cup of Jiffy baking mix

1. Chop onion and rinse them off.
2. Put meat in a big bowl. Mix in onions and baking mix.
3. Once mixed together, make balls about the size of a golden dollar.
4. Put them in a baking pan.
5. About every 15 minute, shake the pan to make sure they don’t stick to the bottom.
6. Let them cook until they get dark brown. Not burnt. Drain grease when they are done.
7. In a small sauce pan, mix the chili sauce and cranberry sauce together.
8. Stir and let it come to a boil. Keep stir so it doesn’t stick to the bottom of pan.
9. Take a pick and dip them in the sauce and plate them. Or you can use a spoon with holes in the bottom to drain the sauce off and plate them.
10. You can even eat them without the sauce.
11. Now you can eat!

Source: Some Magazine…I forgot!

Today was a day of many events for me. I started my day at 10:15 in the morning. What a bomber! It was the first day of school for me. Yes that's right. I'm back in college again. This time, I'm going to Culinary school to get a better grasp on cooking techniques. I was driving along to class and I was just as happy a puppy with a big bone in it's mouth.

I called a friend and talked to her and low and behold she told me that I missed the inauguration!!!!! Gee whiz. This was a day that I never wanted to miss. Oh I was mad. Out of all days we had to start school on Inauguration Day. I knew I should have bought my ticket the day he won the election. Oh well!

Anywho, I talked on the phone with my friend until I made it to the campus. I was telling her how nervous I was. There were several thoughts running through my mind. How many people would be in there. How would my instructor be? Well the closer I got to school I started to get nervous. Oh jitterbug I thought. I hadn't eaten anything either. That was not good. I think I must have fumbled like a football player trying to catch a football.

I was so nervous that I almost threw up. I started to think.....girl if you don't suck it up and calm down you are going to really be sick. I straightened up quick. I walked into the building and I saw a gentlemen with a chef uniform on. I followed him and said, "Excuse me. Were we supposed to wear our uniforms today?" "No. You can get away without it today but next week you need them," he said. He asked me if I had a schedule and I showed it to him. He said, "Hey I'm going to that class here it is." He took some papers off the door and said don't worry about that. I said to myself dang he fine! He turned around and I said, "Are you the instructor?" He turns around, shakes my hand and said yes.

Anyway, all the other students showed up. The instructor introduced himself again and made us get up and introduce ourselves. I was like ugh noooooooooooo. My turn came and I was as nervous as the little puppy on the Dalmatians that Pete on the floor. I was so nervous I almost fell over the table lol. After we introduced ourselves, We went over the syllabus and had to read the rules out loud. Ugh I don't like to read out loud lol. He took us on a tour of the cafe and the kitchen that we will be cooking in. It's not really big but it will do. It was a good day.

I left school and was on my way home. Why in the heck did I give my kids and my mother my cell phone number? They blow me up all the time. Can you go to the store and get this and get that ugh! Gotta love them though. But she did remind me that it was my stepdads birthday. I forgot. How could I do that? So basically that is the day that I had today.

That wasn't too boring was it? Oh well! There will be more to come. I'll will talk to you later. I have homework to do!