In Case You Were STILL Wondering...

Oh yeah, one more bit of good news. A week or so ago, there was an event here (it's an annual thing) in Eugene called Chef's Night Out. It's a fund raiser for Food for Lane County. People pay $65 to enter the event, at which they stroll around and sample various offerings from some of the best restaurants and wineries in the area. Then they vote on the ones they liked best. Our LCC Culinary team won the Best Sweet Bite award for our chocolates, tartlets, and cream puff swans.

In Case You Were Wondering...

Yes, I'm still around, and yes, I'm still doing AND thinking about more than musical geography. But school this term is crazy -- between lecture and lab, I'm in class 27 hours a week, though that's for only 14 credits. Add on top of that the time I spend caring for The Lad, and life's pretty darn hectic. But I thought I'd take the time to give you an update on all things culinary:

24 of those hours and 10 of the credits are spent in two classes: Cooking Theories 3 and Restaurant Lab.

Cooking Theories 3 is the third term of our class on basic cooking techniques -- sort of Chef 101. This term the focus is the bake shop and professional baking, and I've learned quite a few things, the most important of which is that I'm not going to be a baker.

Restaurant Lab, well, is pretty self-explanatory. We run the Renaissance Room, a student restaurant that is open for lunch Monday through Thursday (two days a week per group -- I'm in Group B). We're split into teams, and we're rotated by team through the different stations, including (*shudder*) the front of the house (I don't understand why they don't include Hospitality Management students in the Ren Room and put them up front, but eh... at least I have some knowledge of the front). The first week of term we weren't open. The second week, I was in the bake shop. Then the front. It wasn't until last week that I was finally rotated to the front line, and actually got to do some savory cooking. I didn't realize how much I'd missed it.

This week I'm on the back line. Today I had the priviledge of making the Amuse Bouche, which got rave reviews. Usually we take whatever tasty odds and ends we have available and throw them together for the amuse. One of my classmates recently made some pancetta and bacon, and had taken the pancetta trimmings and smoked them. For today's amuse, I took crostini and topped it with sundried tomato pesto, sliced smoked pancetta, and Manchego cheese, then baked it off. Tomorrow I'm the Potager, and I'm making the Northwest version of slumgullion (or at least the definition of it that my father taught to me) -- a soup based on New England clam chowder but with shrimp (and in this case, bay scallops) added. The clam chowder recipe I'm using calls for salt pork, but given the Western variation of it, I'm going to use bacon (or maybe some more of that smoked pancetta. Mmmm.... smoke....).

One last thing, a request for your prayers and well-wishes. Since I was laid off in July, I've been on Training Unemployment -- due to my status as a displaced worker, they've been paying me a stipend to go to school. That ran out several weeks ago, and things are tight. This past two weeks we've been getting by on about $50 worth of groceries, and last month's rent check bounced. This month's rent and daycare pretty much finishes off TFR's check, so we're back in the hotseat. But due to one of TFR's guests at work, I have an interview with the GM and the Executive chef of one of the best restauranteurs in twon, who is opening a new restaurant in two weeks. Please pray I can get the job, and please pray we manage to keep the wolves at bay.

Musical Geography Trivia Question of the Day

If they're a band of men brave, stout and bold, and they have a leader to the fold:

1. Who are they?
2. From where did they come?
3. What was their leader's name?

Study To Show Thyself

A tip of the toque to Maximum Leader that Naked Villainy.

I'm not exactly a bible scholar, but considering the following, it should be not surprise that I know who Nimrod was:

You know the Bible 100%!

Wow! You are awesome! You are a true Biblical scholar, not just a hearer but a personal reader! The books, the characters, the events, the verses - you know it all! You are fantastic!

Ultimate Bible Quiz
Create MySpace Quizzes

Musical Geography Trivia Question of the Day

Though it may be harder for you to see me, what place am I?

Musical Geography Trivia Question of the Day

Where did stars and steel guitars and luscious lips as red as wine break somebody's heart?

Quote of the Week

"Laws that forbid the carrying of arms ... disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes. Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed one."

-Thomas Jefferson, Quoting Cesare Beccari's "On Crimes and Punishment"

Read more here. Despite my issues with him, I think Lars nails it in this essay.

Paging Anthony Bourdain...

... your Pimp Hand is needed at the Food Network.

OK, I'll admit that I ceased being a Rachel Ray fan a long time ago. It's not bad enough that I've never spent $40/day on food while on vacation in m entire freaking LIFE, but the fact that every damned thing she eats gets a reaction that would make a pr0n star proud gets on my nerves.

But tonight's 30-Minute Meals was the last straw. The woman took a porterhouse steak and smothered it in a pizza-style tomato sauce with pepperoni.

You heard me, a porterhouse. Cut from the loin. Bigass king of steaks. Treated like a freaking CUBE steak.

Someone needs to B**** slap her. She should be grateful that Anthony's on another network.

Where Have You Gone Ghirardelli Flicks?

A Nation Turns its Hungry Teeth to You, Woo Woo Woo...

This evening, TFR and I I were watching the Food Network, and the show was on candy. It got me thinking about two candies I miss from my childhood:

Ghirardelli Flicks. These were chocolate chips on steroids; stealth kisses. They were round chocolates, with a curved tip like a chip or a kiss but flatter and bigger round. They came in cardboard rolls similart to TP tubes but smaller, wrapped in colored foild paper. According to one of the websites I visited, Ghirardelli's packaging equipment was damaged when they moved to San Leandro, and that's their excuse for not selling them anymore. Considering that another company now makes and sells them, it seems like a lameass excuse. I do miss them so.

The other candy was:

7-Up Bars. Made by Pearson Candy of Minnesota, this was a filled cany bar, and each section of the bar was filled with a different flavored filling. Unlike Flicks, none of the specialty nostalgia candy makers is selling them.

Musical Geography Trivia Question(s) of the Day

1. Who met Texas Red at 11:20?
2. What did he wear?
3. In what town did this occur?

Musical Geography Trivia Question of the Day

How many of you who sit and judge me have done this?

Has Anyone Seen My Breath?

I'm trying to catch it.

Spring Term started Monday, but our first day was spent at the Food Show (a trade convention) in Portland. Tuesday, I had Cooking Theory 3. This term the focus is baking, my weak point. Class is from 11:00 until 5:30 with one half hour break. That's my Mondays and Tuesdays. Wednesdays and Thursdays, class is only from 8:30 to 2:20, but there's no break -- we're in the Ren Room, running an actual working restaurant. Tomorrow I have writing from 9:00 until 11:30. And Tuesdays through Saturdays, I care for the Lad while TFR is at work. Once I start looking for a job next week, things will get hectic. Did I mention homework?

The other night we weren't that hungry, so we had a snacky-type meal of roasted garlic spread on toasted sourdough, then lightly salted and dipped in olive oil and aged balsamic vinegar. Guess who was craziest about it? Yup, The Lad.

He's getting so big. He turned 2 in January. He's talking up a storm, his vocabulary getting bigger every day, and he can count to 7. We've started approaching the topic of potty training, but it hasn't really started in earnest yet.

Mighty Mouse

TaJuan Porter:
True Fresman
5'6"
8-12 From behind the arc.
33 Points
And thanks to him, Oregon is in the Elite 8 with their best record since the 1939 team won the very first NCAA Championship.

Monday Reading Assignment

Christopher Hitchens at Slate.

R.I.P., Van Winkle

Counterfeit philosophies have polluted all
of your thoughts.

Karl Marx has got ya by the throat, Henry
Kissinger's got you tied up in knots.

When you gonna wake up,

when you gonna wake up

When you gonna wake up and strengthen the
things that remain?

- "When You Gonna Wake Up?", Bob Dylan, Slow Train Coming

That's the song that came to mind when I read this editorial by Salena Zito. It echoes the sentiments put forth in this editorial from the German newspaper Die Welt, which was just recently emailed to me.

The German editorial was in 2004. Salena's was this week. Same message, still being ignore.

9/11

Theo Van Gogh

Darfur

When ARE we gonna wake up? And will it be too late?

Short

A few thoughts at hour 23 of a 24-hour fast:

There are too damned many food commercials on TV.

Coffee tastes great when you aren't eating, but leaves you edgy.

There are too damned many food commercials on TV.

It's interesting how much we take not only food but eating for granted. The only time I almost slipped up and ate was when I was feeding The Lad and caught myself pooping one of his cashews in my mouth -- I spit it out, but the thing was, I didn't even think before doing it.

There are too damned many food commercials on TV.

TFR asked me if I've been thinking about the troops or my stomach, and I told her both. All day I've used each pang of hunger as a prompt to reflect on what our troops go through for us, like some sort of digestive rosary.

There are too damned many food commercials on TV.

The closer it gets to 24 hours, the more aware I am of my hunger -- exponentially. I can't help but compare this to the feeling soldiers get when they're "short" (close to going home).

There are too damned many food commercials on TV.

In Under Three Hours...

I'll be starting a 24-hour fast. The idea was given to me by Lemon Stand, who participated earlier this year in the Tanker Brothers' Rolling Victory Fast.

The idea is to have everyday Americans spell each other and each fast for one day so that the fast "rolls" indefinitely. It's a symbolic gesture to let the troops know we believe in them and what they're doing for us, that we support them, and that not all Americans side with Cindy Sheehan and her crowd who claim to "support the troops but oppose the war".

So from midnight tonight until midnight tomorrow night, it's nothing for me but tea, black coffee, and water. During that time I'll be reflecting on the sacrifices our troops make for our peace, freedom, and safety. When my tummy rumbles or my mouth waters, I'll compare that minor inconvenience to the danger, the deprivation, and suffering they endure for me and mine.

On the advice of the gang at Tanker Brothers, I went to the Any Soldier website to pick a soldier from an Oregon unit to dedicate my fast to. I chose Staff Sgt. Don Hoxsey. He's an Idahoan serving in an Oregon NG unit. Since I'm from Oregon but spent my childhood in Idaho, that's appropriate.

But I'm also dedicating it to my father, my grandfather, my uncles and cousins who all served in the Army, the Navy, the Marine Corps, and the Air Force. Thank you for doing what I wanted to but couldn't -- representing our family in our country's uniform.

Black Boxing It

OK, so next week is finals week, and that means you should be hearing from me more often, ONCE that hell is over.

This week we have practical assessment finals. In Cooking Theory, that means performing specific taskes and cooking a preset meal. In Concepts of Tastes & Flavours, it's a bit more fun -- and challenging -- a Black Box, which means a bunch of product is put in front of us and we have to decide how to cook it. Today was prep day in both classes, tomorrow we cook & plate.

Here's my and my partner's menu for Tastes & Flavours:

Appetizer:
Mushroom caps stuffed with Kalamata & Anchovy Tapenade

Main Course:
Aerleon Chicken Breast marinated in olive oil & Mediterranean spices
New Potatoes sauteed with bell peppers & onions
Blanched asparagus in white wine vinaigrette

Wine:
Chardonnay

"O" Yeah!

Pac-10 Champs, Baybee! Take me to the Dance!

Musical Geography Question of the Day

In what city would you find a few red lights and a few old beds?