Catch-up!

It's been a bit, last we talked about soups. This past week we worked on vegetable cookery, sauteing, braising, pan frying, deep frying and piping veggies. Potates (aka potatoes) were also a whole day to themselves and I found, that potates in fact are not my thing. This was also the first time since I've started that the majority of what I made this week was less than passing. Mistakes are once again ok. I was such in a rush that I just wanted everything to get signed off rather than put something of quality on the plate. Well that won't fly in the real world.

It was a busy week, with work for WS and I had the opportunity to work with a local catering company, Catering at Its Best, for an event that Nike threw. Needless to say, my first real experience in their makeshift kitchen for catering was excellent. I had tons of fun, ate copious amounts of sushi, steak, mashed taters, homemade desserts and more. For four hours we plated, salads, dinners, garnished desserts and dished up late night appetizers. I got to dance, network and was introduced to the sweet sweet world of catering. Well worth the 2am trek home.

This past week, I also learned, there is such a thing as too much butter unfortunately. When sauteing you never want to have the plate look greasy or the sauteed green beans to be sloshing in the fat across the plate. I wish it weren't true. But potates with lots of butter are still great. We also braised red cabbage and had to taste it on its own. Mine was a bit under cooked but cooked or not, probably one of the more unappetizing things I have eaten on its own. Now with beef medallions would make it derishous (and it does, see a recipe in Marcella Hazan's Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking).

The Whiner has been laying pretty low, his constant whining has become part of our every day drawl. But we have a new contender for the names list! The Peanut Gallery. And it is not a group of people, but one person, who has successfully managed to peanut gallery lecture all on her own, asked every question that has been answered already and pushed us over our cooking time into our clean up time. She is thus named the Peanut Gallery. She's also the lazy person of our kitchen, instead of getting everything herself she'll yell to everyone to see if anyone has any extras. And when I say yell, it's her high pitched whiny voice carrying across the room. Like there isn't enough obnoxious noises in the kitchen already.

This week we are starting pastas and egg cookery with final plates on a full breakfast plate. My egg flipping will be put to the test. Ravioli, fettuccine, pesto and breakfast will make this week probably fly by...or so I think.

Last night was the Starry Light Parade to kick off the start of the Rose Festival. And with the Rose Festival, there are tons of coupons and sweet find all over town. I missed the Starry Light Run due to WS but had planned on wearing the Ewok costume to run the 3.1 miles, next year. On the sweet finds list is a new Dutch Taco, aka savory Waffles, cart. Going to check it out tomorrow. Looking forward to the weeks festivities and I promise I'll be more on top of things!

Tip for the (Last) Week: Before the famine in Ireland, the average Irishman/woman, consumed 10 pounds of potates per day. So the tip...VARIETY, DIVERSITY or you will starve if the time comes to that...

Unfortunately, the pictures from last week refuse to load.