Caught up in the moment…

Don’t you just love food that is so good it literally makes your knees buckle and your eyes water.   You don’t have to be a chef or a foodie to enjoy great food, so if you haven’t found that dish that makes you want to “slap yo momma” (figuratively speaking of course) I’m sorry because I get to eat like that every day.  I guess it kind of comes with the territory.

I know it’s been a while but I’ve just had a lot going on over these past couple of months.  I’ve been in Fundamentals of Food Production which focuses on three cooking techniques with a concentration on producing food for higher volumes;  sauté, baking, and shallow frying.

We cooked foods like: home fries, eggs Benedict, crepes and omelets.  You wouldn’t believe how many different ways you can cook an egg!  We also made quiche, frittata, chicken wellington, meatloaf (and I’m not talking about Americanized “ball of meat”) I mean a combination of ground beef, pork, and turkey, chicken, or lamb combined with fresh herbs and spices with NO sauce to give you the juiciest, most flavorful piece of loaf you have ever had.  We’ve made Chicken Marsala (which also equals tears of joy), Asian pork, shrimp scampi pasta, mussels, and all of the side dishes you can think of.  We have shallow fried just about every kind protein that has legs and lives on a farm.

I have also taken a Principles of Beverage Service, so if you can drink it, I learned how to make, mix, and flare it up.

Now I am in Nutrition.  I know, I know, but learning how to create well balanced dishes will be very important in the years to come, at least people will start to pay more attention to it.  If it’s green or grows from the earth, we are cooking it.  Its cool though because you would be surprised how you can turn something like broccoli or spinach etc and cook it in such a way to where that’s all you want to eat.  Also I am learning how to substitute certain items in food so that you can decrease fat and calorie intake without losing all those great flavors everyone loves.  For example, we took a very common Alfredo recipe, one that most people consume, which yielded 60 grams of fat per serving and took it down to 7 grams of fat per serving and it tasted amazing.  60 GRAMS of fat is crazy, which is a whole days worth of fat intake in just ONE 8-12 oz portion of pasta.  A lot of people don’t pay attention to that kind of stuff, but it’s crazy right?!

Below are just a few pictures of some stuff that we have made in class and a few things that I have tinkered with at home.  I need to remember to take more pictures but you know how it is, you just get caught up in the moment and your mouth starts watering and all you want to do is eat! LOL!

Sushi from scratch with grilled salmon, cucumber, avocado, and spicy mayo.

Spring Rolls with Salmon and various veggies, herbs and spices.

Mini Gyros with Tzatziki sauce.

Fire roasted Chili Pepper and Cumin Humus Pizza.. So good!

Grilled Shrimp bites with Mango and Pineapple Salsa and Jalapeno Cream Sauce.

Fried Calamari with a Pineapple Chili Sauce.

Homemade Chicken Lo Mein, same great take-out taste, less fat!

Chicken Pesto Pasta.

My Dad’s Chili Recipe, mm mm mm!

Katie got my very first cast-iron skillet, just getting that real good first layer of flavor, so good!

My Beverage class, everyone had their own bar, it was really cool!

I had to add this one, we have a Master Patissier at our school, his name is Chef Harry Peemoeller.  He is a bread master, this sculpture he made for a competition was completely made out of bread, which he dominated of course. Awesome isn’t it?!

Well til next time…

Don’t deprive yourself of the foods you love, just enjoy them sparingly!