I believe for a lot of you this is a much awaited post!
I was able to go home for Easter weekend two weeks ago and it was absolutely AWESOME. First of all, it was an unexpected trip. I didn't think that I would be able to go home until school ended in May, but my parents told me I could come back for Easter, so I was unbelievably excited. I was able to see my dad act again, which I have not been able to do in such a long time. I missed seeing him on stage, and missed even more being on stage myself. I LOVE food and everything about the food industry, but I have a great passion for acting and I want it to be a part of my life, even if it is just a hobby. Seeing him in Oliver! (yes, there's an exclamation point in the title), which is a show I've been in twice, gave me goosebumps. It's not the most amazing show, but the experiences I've had being in it were so fun and great and seeing the kids sing on stage made me miss doing it myself. Dad was also absolutely fantastic, and stole the show as usual. We'd hear people in the audience commenting on his performance and how great he was. Also, he played Fagin, which is a character that spends most of his time on stage with the kids in the show, and all the kids absolutely adored him. They made me jealous that I was not home more to experience how great of a father he is. They looked up to him so much.
I got to see my friends a few times, which was great! I got to go to my favorite breakfast place with my best friends (minus Natalie, who I miss oh so much!) and into Cambridge for the day with one of them, my friend Ariana. It was so fun. Easter itself was great! We went back to the delicious brunch place in Beacon Hill that we went to last year and met up with my aunt, uncle, my cousins, and my grandma. I loved seeing them all! Shoutout to my Aunt Diane by the way, she pressured me to write this post! Sorry I took so long! The food was amazing. I had french toast with a yummy orange marmalade and smoked bacon, AND lobster eggs benedict. Yes, that sounds excessive, but I couldn't decide!
Now, back at school, I've been super duper busy as always! I finished New World cuisine with a B+, which I'm actually proud of. The class was pretty difficult and dealt with a lot of techniques I had not used much before. My shining moment in that class was during our practical where my chef told me I grilled the best steak in the class! I don't have much experience grilling, let alone grilling steak, so I was pretty proud of myself. Now I'm in Essentials of Dining Room, where I wear a funny looking server uniform, learn about front of the house, and serve food to the dining room. It brings me back to my waitressing days at Friendly's, yet upper class. It's not that difficult, and kind of boring, but I'm learning all about swanky dining room information like the difference between a potage spoon and a bouillon spoon, how to fold napkins, and how to carry a large tray filled with dinnerware. We had to parade around the school carrying heavy trays to make us more "confident," as practice for service. It just made my arms hurt.
Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this post. April is gonna be a pretty crazy month. My friend is coming to visit next week so I'm really excited about that! Also, two of my friends birthdays are coming up, plus I'm working a lot as always. I got a positive write-up at work last week, saying that I always have a positive attitude and work quickly and efficiently. It was kind of cool, seeing that according to the managers, they hardly ever give those out.
More soon hopefully!
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Je n'trouve plus de sens a ce jeu excitant
So baking class has officially ended, and I got an A! Hurrah! I didn't think I would do that well actually, because like I said before, baking is so not my thing, but I'm happy I did well! I'm so glad to be out of that class. I got so sick of eating bread and cookies and cake all day and not even seeing one vegetable or piece of meat. The best day of that class was pizza day, where we actually got to eat SOME form of real food. It tasted absolutely amazing. I want so badly to be able to make my own dough at home yet it's so tricky. Yeast is a nasty organism to work with. Plus I don't have a proof box and I'm entirely too impatient.
I'm currently in new world cuisine now, which is a complete change from my baking class. My chef is way more energetic and hyper, so it was a little difficult to get used to. I feel back in my element though, seeing that I get to chop, saute, and COOK again! The purpose of the class is to learn about cuisines of the new world (meaning North and South America and Central America) and focus on the techniques of roasting, frying, and grilling. There are three teams and each team uses a different technique each day. I'm a pretty damn good fryer, and our roast chicken was impeccable. We also get to serve a dining room which is awesome. I love being on the line in a kitchen and plating food.
Apart from class, life is going well! I'm working a TON though, so I hardly have any free time. My schedule everyday consists of class from 7-1 then working either from 2-7, 3-8, or 5-close. It's a pretty exhausting day, but I like to keep busy, so it's okay. My job is quite boring (folding ugly, waytooexpensive clothes, placing them on the floor, and watching rude Europeans who assume that I speak their language stampede these ugly clothes and purchase them), but I don't really mind it because the people I work with are really awesome. Also, I helped a customer in French the other day, which made me SO excited. I never really thought I would use my French that much, at least in the United States, but surprisingly there are a lot of French people in Miami (at least there are at Abercrombie and Fitch in Miami).
I come home next week, hurrah! I cannot wait. It'll be nice to leave Miami, even though the weather is absolutely gorgeous right now. I'm trying as hard as I can to get as tan as possible before I go home, so all my friends and family will be jealous. :)
Keep reading and spreading! If you have any suggestions, questions, or comments, PLEASE leave a comment. Your opinion is important to me!
I'm currently in new world cuisine now, which is a complete change from my baking class. My chef is way more energetic and hyper, so it was a little difficult to get used to. I feel back in my element though, seeing that I get to chop, saute, and COOK again! The purpose of the class is to learn about cuisines of the new world (meaning North and South America and Central America) and focus on the techniques of roasting, frying, and grilling. There are three teams and each team uses a different technique each day. I'm a pretty damn good fryer, and our roast chicken was impeccable. We also get to serve a dining room which is awesome. I love being on the line in a kitchen and plating food.
Apart from class, life is going well! I'm working a TON though, so I hardly have any free time. My schedule everyday consists of class from 7-1 then working either from 2-7, 3-8, or 5-close. It's a pretty exhausting day, but I like to keep busy, so it's okay. My job is quite boring (folding ugly, waytooexpensive clothes, placing them on the floor, and watching rude Europeans who assume that I speak their language stampede these ugly clothes and purchase them), but I don't really mind it because the people I work with are really awesome. Also, I helped a customer in French the other day, which made me SO excited. I never really thought I would use my French that much, at least in the United States, but surprisingly there are a lot of French people in Miami (at least there are at Abercrombie and Fitch in Miami).
I come home next week, hurrah! I cannot wait. It'll be nice to leave Miami, even though the weather is absolutely gorgeous right now. I'm trying as hard as I can to get as tan as possible before I go home, so all my friends and family will be jealous. :)
Keep reading and spreading! If you have any suggestions, questions, or comments, PLEASE leave a comment. Your opinion is important to me!
Monday, March 15, 2010
I love that dirty water.
OH! I'm coming back to Massachusetts for Easter! SO excited! I'll be home from the 1st to the 4th, so get ready Walpole, I'm taking you by storm on this unexpected visit!
We live in a beautiful world.
Hello again world wide web! Once again, I've been on a hiatus, but I'm BACK and better than ever. I've heard a few requests to start this baby back up again, and I'm finally back in culinary labs, so the posts will be a lot more interesting! Before I explain what I'm up to presently, let's delve a little bit into the past few weeks, shall we?
First of all, my family came to visit a few weeks ago, minus dear Maggie of course. It was so amazing to see them, even though I bet they wish it was a little bit warmer. They unfortunately came down while Miami was going through a bit of a cold spell (If you can call 55 degrees "cold," fellow New Englanders!). I showed them around Miami, my tiny little school, introduced them to my favorite chefs, and enjoyed their company (and the dinners out, I get so tired of the cafeteria food!). They spent half the week in Miami, and the rest of the week we went to my grandparents' house in Naples to visit. That was equally awesome. I got to spend some quality time with both my grandparents, my fantastic great aunt Peggy, and the "fraunt" that's so dear to my heart, Bonnie, who have both been mentioned in my blog posts before and who are faithful followers! I beat my Grandma, Mom, and brother in Scrabble, ate some delicious home cooked food, dined at the swanky cluuuuub, and was able to go to my favorite fruit and vegetable store, where we picked up some amazing guacamole. It was almost like a week long vacation, even though from Monday to Wednesday I went to class. I absolutely loved seeing them all.
After my family left, I had about a week left of classes, then spring break started! I was asked by my family if I wanted to come home for spring break this year, yet I declined. Think about it: why would I leave MIAMI, the spring break capital of the United States, for cold rainy Boston?! So yes, I stayed. Except my spring break wasn't exactly what the average person expects a Miami spring break to be. Yes, it was incredibly enjoyable, but dancing on the beach and clubbing till 4AM isn't really my style, plus I was going broke, so I knew I had to work. (Did I mention I switched jobs from PINK to Abercrombie and Fitch? PINK never scheduled me, and all my friends work at A&F, so I'm a lot happier there.) I was able to healthily mix work and fun. Most of my friends left for spring break, but I still had a few good friends to relax and be poor with me. We had some adventures, yes, but mostly, it was all about a mixture of kicking back and relaxing, and working my butt off.
So now onto the present! Last week I finally started my third trimester. I finished academics with flying colors! Not to brag, but I officially have a 3.87 GPA! Yahoo! I do have to admit that my academic classes were ridiculously easy though, so I did not have to try all that much to receive the grades I did. Yet I'm still pretty proud of myself for not slacking off! Now I'm back where I belong, in my culinary labs, which will make for some interesting blog posts. This trimester I take basic baking and pastry (which I'm in now), new world cuisine, fundamentals of dining room service, traditional European cuisine, and stocks, soups, and sauces.
From taking five days of baking class, I've reinforced the knowledge I already had that I am NOT a baker, and I never want to BE a baker. Yes, I enjoy the class, the teacher is great, and I'm doing well in it. Yet, baking is WAY too scientific for me. I don't know if I've talked about this in earlier blog posts, but I've always told people that there are two categories of people, whether you enjoy cooking or not: pastry chefs (bakers) and culinary chefs. Pastry chefs are exact, scientific, calculative, precise. They are extremely detail oriented and mathematically inclined. Culinary chefs are more dramatic, brash, passionate (not to say bakers don't have any passion!), messy, impatient, and bigger risk takers. I hate being exact with measurements to the point that if I'm off by half an ounce, my recipe will fail. I hate waiting for something to proof or bake. I'm not that precise, I like to throw a dash of something here and a sprinkle of something there. I have the utmost respect for bakers and pastry chefs. I wish I could do what they can do and be passionate about it, but it's just not me. Plus, I'm getting a little tired of eating bread and pie all day in class. Yes, it's delicious, but where are the vegetables and meat?! The class is pretty fun though, check out a few pictures from it I posted below!
To finish, if you are a faithful reader, even if you're a stranger, please let me know. I really want to spread this blog far and wide, so forward it to as many people as you think may be interested in reading what I have to say. If you can do that for me, I can continue to provide you with posts about my crazy food-filled life here in Miami. Comment as much as you can, give me as much feedback as possible! I appreciate it more than I can say. Thanks to my sister Maggie too, for pushing me to keep working at this. I never realized how much I like writing and how I might be kind of good at it until I started this blog, and I hope to continue it in my future! Maybe I'll have a future in food writing, who knows?!
Bon appetit everyone! Like the new layout by the way? Here are the pictures!
Challah bread!
My unbaked challah.
My beautiful blueberry pie!
Unbaked pie, oh so proud.
First of all, my family came to visit a few weeks ago, minus dear Maggie of course. It was so amazing to see them, even though I bet they wish it was a little bit warmer. They unfortunately came down while Miami was going through a bit of a cold spell (If you can call 55 degrees "cold," fellow New Englanders!). I showed them around Miami, my tiny little school, introduced them to my favorite chefs, and enjoyed their company (and the dinners out, I get so tired of the cafeteria food!). They spent half the week in Miami, and the rest of the week we went to my grandparents' house in Naples to visit. That was equally awesome. I got to spend some quality time with both my grandparents, my fantastic great aunt Peggy, and the "fraunt" that's so dear to my heart, Bonnie, who have both been mentioned in my blog posts before and who are faithful followers! I beat my Grandma, Mom, and brother in Scrabble, ate some delicious home cooked food, dined at the swanky cluuuuub, and was able to go to my favorite fruit and vegetable store, where we picked up some amazing guacamole. It was almost like a week long vacation, even though from Monday to Wednesday I went to class. I absolutely loved seeing them all.
After my family left, I had about a week left of classes, then spring break started! I was asked by my family if I wanted to come home for spring break this year, yet I declined. Think about it: why would I leave MIAMI, the spring break capital of the United States, for cold rainy Boston?! So yes, I stayed. Except my spring break wasn't exactly what the average person expects a Miami spring break to be. Yes, it was incredibly enjoyable, but dancing on the beach and clubbing till 4AM isn't really my style, plus I was going broke, so I knew I had to work. (Did I mention I switched jobs from PINK to Abercrombie and Fitch? PINK never scheduled me, and all my friends work at A&F, so I'm a lot happier there.) I was able to healthily mix work and fun. Most of my friends left for spring break, but I still had a few good friends to relax and be poor with me. We had some adventures, yes, but mostly, it was all about a mixture of kicking back and relaxing, and working my butt off.
So now onto the present! Last week I finally started my third trimester. I finished academics with flying colors! Not to brag, but I officially have a 3.87 GPA! Yahoo! I do have to admit that my academic classes were ridiculously easy though, so I did not have to try all that much to receive the grades I did. Yet I'm still pretty proud of myself for not slacking off! Now I'm back where I belong, in my culinary labs, which will make for some interesting blog posts. This trimester I take basic baking and pastry (which I'm in now), new world cuisine, fundamentals of dining room service, traditional European cuisine, and stocks, soups, and sauces.
From taking five days of baking class, I've reinforced the knowledge I already had that I am NOT a baker, and I never want to BE a baker. Yes, I enjoy the class, the teacher is great, and I'm doing well in it. Yet, baking is WAY too scientific for me. I don't know if I've talked about this in earlier blog posts, but I've always told people that there are two categories of people, whether you enjoy cooking or not: pastry chefs (bakers) and culinary chefs. Pastry chefs are exact, scientific, calculative, precise. They are extremely detail oriented and mathematically inclined. Culinary chefs are more dramatic, brash, passionate (not to say bakers don't have any passion!), messy, impatient, and bigger risk takers. I hate being exact with measurements to the point that if I'm off by half an ounce, my recipe will fail. I hate waiting for something to proof or bake. I'm not that precise, I like to throw a dash of something here and a sprinkle of something there. I have the utmost respect for bakers and pastry chefs. I wish I could do what they can do and be passionate about it, but it's just not me. Plus, I'm getting a little tired of eating bread and pie all day in class. Yes, it's delicious, but where are the vegetables and meat?! The class is pretty fun though, check out a few pictures from it I posted below!
To finish, if you are a faithful reader, even if you're a stranger, please let me know. I really want to spread this blog far and wide, so forward it to as many people as you think may be interested in reading what I have to say. If you can do that for me, I can continue to provide you with posts about my crazy food-filled life here in Miami. Comment as much as you can, give me as much feedback as possible! I appreciate it more than I can say. Thanks to my sister Maggie too, for pushing me to keep working at this. I never realized how much I like writing and how I might be kind of good at it until I started this blog, and I hope to continue it in my future! Maybe I'll have a future in food writing, who knows?!
Bon appetit everyone! Like the new layout by the way? Here are the pictures!
Challah bread!
My unbaked challah.
My beautiful blueberry pie!
Unbaked pie, oh so proud.
Making baguettes!
Thursday, February 11, 2010
All my friends, they break and they bend, take shape and they tend, and get better with time.
So I've just had two weeks of ups and downs and lots of changes. Without getting really into it, two or so weeks ago, I lost who I thought were my three best friends at school. It's a long story, and not really worth explaining, but it was a really hard weekend full of confusion, miscommunication, and realization. Although they removed me from their lives, probably for forever, and it was really hard at first, I decided that I'm better off. I don't think that they were 100 percent a good influence on my life, and the whole situation really allowed me to look at myself, how I need to change, and what I value in a friendship.
I thought it was going to be pretty lonely, but surprisingly, I had a whole other group of friends behind me supporting me immediately. They listened to me vent, took me out, introduced me to people, and got me out of my comfort zone. I'm incredibly lucky that I've found a whole new group that seems to really care about me and treat me with respect and dignity. I have a ton of fun with them and they bring absolutely no drama into my life. They are people I can see myself being friends with for a while, and I'm so glad to have them around.
Anyways, Mom, Dad, and James are coming Sunday and I am beyond excited to see them and show them my new home away from home. I'm going to give them a tour of campus, show them fun places to go, introduce them to all my favorite chefs and friends, and spend as much time with them as I can. I'll be going with them to Naples for half the week to see Gram&Pa and Peggy&Bonnie, so I'm really excited about that as well! It's going to be an awesome week. They're coming Valentine's Day. At first I was a little depressed that I had no one to go out with on Valentine's Day, but then I realized that I will be spending the day with the people that love me the most in the world, and isn't that what Valentine's Day is about?
Aside from the ups and downs, life has been pretty steady. I've been working, going to class, relaxing, etc. I'm starting to plan out what I want to do this summer, where I want to work, what my future's going to look like. I've been reading a lot, which is good. There's an awesome library here filled with amazing culinary books, so right now I'm reading The Apprentice by Jacques Pepin, one of my heroes. It's a biography of his life, filled with recipes and stories. I saw him at a celebrity chef event, so it's really cool now to be reading his book, and I'm enjoying it a lot. I would recommend it, so you all should go out and read it!
More later, thanks to all who keep up with my crazy life.
I thought it was going to be pretty lonely, but surprisingly, I had a whole other group of friends behind me supporting me immediately. They listened to me vent, took me out, introduced me to people, and got me out of my comfort zone. I'm incredibly lucky that I've found a whole new group that seems to really care about me and treat me with respect and dignity. I have a ton of fun with them and they bring absolutely no drama into my life. They are people I can see myself being friends with for a while, and I'm so glad to have them around.
Anyways, Mom, Dad, and James are coming Sunday and I am beyond excited to see them and show them my new home away from home. I'm going to give them a tour of campus, show them fun places to go, introduce them to all my favorite chefs and friends, and spend as much time with them as I can. I'll be going with them to Naples for half the week to see Gram&Pa and Peggy&Bonnie, so I'm really excited about that as well! It's going to be an awesome week. They're coming Valentine's Day. At first I was a little depressed that I had no one to go out with on Valentine's Day, but then I realized that I will be spending the day with the people that love me the most in the world, and isn't that what Valentine's Day is about?
Aside from the ups and downs, life has been pretty steady. I've been working, going to class, relaxing, etc. I'm starting to plan out what I want to do this summer, where I want to work, what my future's going to look like. I've been reading a lot, which is good. There's an awesome library here filled with amazing culinary books, so right now I'm reading The Apprentice by Jacques Pepin, one of my heroes. It's a biography of his life, filled with recipes and stories. I saw him at a celebrity chef event, so it's really cool now to be reading his book, and I'm enjoying it a lot. I would recommend it, so you all should go out and read it!
More later, thanks to all who keep up with my crazy life.
Thursday, January 28, 2010
I will try to fix you.
If you want to check out the blog I created for the sleep out for the Haiti event tonight at my school, go to jwusuddenlyhomeless.blogspot.com. I will be the main blogger, providing updates periodically every hour or so. It should be pretty interesting. I got the idea to make it after you all loved my own blog oh so much. :)
So read it, spread the word, and enjoy!
So read it, spread the word, and enjoy!
Monday, January 25, 2010
It can only start with you.
After some pushing by Mama Kelly, I've finally come back to blogland. Sorry for the hiatus, I just haven't really had anything exciting about and I've been pretty busy with school. I also was pretty sick for a little while so I was dealing with that. BUT, I've returned with some updates for everyone! We'll go with the numbering system on this one.
1) I got a job! Hurrah! My money has been seeeriously depleting since I came back from Thanksgiving break. I had to buy lots of Christmas gifts, so that lowered my account significantly. I'm currently working at Victoria's Secret PINK. Not food related I know, but it's simple and easy, something I can do a lot during the week and still be awake enough to focus on school. I basically greet people and fold clothes. Everyone I work with is really nice and I'm enjoying it, so I'm happy. :D
2) I was sick for a weekend. Reeeeally sick. Right after I got my job I came down with something. I never made it to the nurse so I'm not exactly sure what I had, but I have a feeling it may have been strepth since my friend had it. It was not fun. I had to leave my first day of work early which was embarassing. I just slept a lot. I wish I was home so Mom would've made me my nest! She always takes good care of me. :) I'm all better now though! It passed.
3) I worked at the open house for my school this weekend. My favorite chef asked me and my friend to help him out. It was SO nice being back in the kitchen for a day. I missed it so much. We cooked up crab cakes to give to the guests to sample and talked to them about school and answered questions. It was a lot of fun and pretty weird because I was in their position exactly a year ago. It was so strange to be on the other side. Things have really changed since then.
4) I spent a lot of time in South Beach this weekend with my friends Siobhan and Jess. We sat on the beach, walked around, and made some new friends who go to school in Orlando. It's always cool meeting new people. They seem like they'll be good friends for a while. We got along with them really well.
5) This disaster in Haiti is a reeeally big deal down here. My little sister in the Big Brother Big Sister program is from Haiti and there are a lot of people down here connected to the island so the school is doing a lot to raise money. My leadership class has actually designed an event that will happen on Thursday where we will sleep out for Haiti on cardboard boxes with only blankets, water, and little food. We're trying to display the homelessness and people are going to sponsor us. If any of you are interested in sponsoring me let me know! You can't donate online, but there are ways. It should be a really cool event.
Anyways, sorry for disappearing for a while. I'll really try to be more regular about posting, it just isn't as exciting right now because I'm not in labs. If you want to know anything more, feel free to ask me anything via comments. I LOVE comments, so please, if you're reading, leave a comment and let me know.
Thanks to my faithful followers.
1) I got a job! Hurrah! My money has been seeeriously depleting since I came back from Thanksgiving break. I had to buy lots of Christmas gifts, so that lowered my account significantly. I'm currently working at Victoria's Secret PINK. Not food related I know, but it's simple and easy, something I can do a lot during the week and still be awake enough to focus on school. I basically greet people and fold clothes. Everyone I work with is really nice and I'm enjoying it, so I'm happy. :D
2) I was sick for a weekend. Reeeeally sick. Right after I got my job I came down with something. I never made it to the nurse so I'm not exactly sure what I had, but I have a feeling it may have been strepth since my friend had it. It was not fun. I had to leave my first day of work early which was embarassing. I just slept a lot. I wish I was home so Mom would've made me my nest! She always takes good care of me. :) I'm all better now though! It passed.
3) I worked at the open house for my school this weekend. My favorite chef asked me and my friend to help him out. It was SO nice being back in the kitchen for a day. I missed it so much. We cooked up crab cakes to give to the guests to sample and talked to them about school and answered questions. It was a lot of fun and pretty weird because I was in their position exactly a year ago. It was so strange to be on the other side. Things have really changed since then.
4) I spent a lot of time in South Beach this weekend with my friends Siobhan and Jess. We sat on the beach, walked around, and made some new friends who go to school in Orlando. It's always cool meeting new people. They seem like they'll be good friends for a while. We got along with them really well.
5) This disaster in Haiti is a reeeally big deal down here. My little sister in the Big Brother Big Sister program is from Haiti and there are a lot of people down here connected to the island so the school is doing a lot to raise money. My leadership class has actually designed an event that will happen on Thursday where we will sleep out for Haiti on cardboard boxes with only blankets, water, and little food. We're trying to display the homelessness and people are going to sponsor us. If any of you are interested in sponsoring me let me know! You can't donate online, but there are ways. It should be a really cool event.
Anyways, sorry for disappearing for a while. I'll really try to be more regular about posting, it just isn't as exciting right now because I'm not in labs. If you want to know anything more, feel free to ask me anything via comments. I LOVE comments, so please, if you're reading, leave a comment and let me know.
Thanks to my faithful followers.
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