A broke woman's blog.

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!