Spry on Food

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Spry on Food has moved!!!

Please click the following link
to visit the new
Spry on Food.
http://spryonfood.com/

Monday, March 7, 2011

It was six months ago that we started this adventure. I can hardly believe it's over, I'm sad and relieved all at the same time. Taking this journey with these people as been an amazing and very entertaining experience. There were times of stress, frustration, relief, anger, exhaustion, but mostly I remember how much we laughed and laughed. I want to thank you all for being who you are and bringing such a great mix to our class. Schellie, Gina, Rebecca, Amy, Matt and Sam you guys are Awesome! Chef, Carla, Laura and Brenda, thanks for EVERYTHING, you will forever be in my heart for all you've given me. OK moving on before I get all boo hoo.

Rumor had it that we were going to get cool new hats!

Graduation was on a clear crisp chilly Sunday. Lots of family converged on the area to get a peek at the rumored new hat. This is a photo of us waiting to start the ceremony.

There was a reason we were all looking a bit nervous and or anxious. We were all curious to know our final scores and if we would graduate with merit or distinction. Chef made it a surprise or you could say he likes torturing us. Making us wait until the very end to announce it in front of our families, I'm going with torture. So we wait tortured..... merit? or did we make it to the top..... distinction?!

So here we are, Best Class Ever!!!

Sam graduated with completion.

Schellie, Rebecca and Matt all graduated with Merit.

Gina, Amy and myself all graduated with Distinction.

How cool are the Hats?!?!?!

Here is a shot of the #1 student this session and second highest score EVER!

Me!!

Thanks to all my classmates, Chef Laurent especially, you will always be my Chef.

Big GIANT thanks to my James, for supporting me with your love and being the best friend and taster any cook could have. I love you madly.

So now what? Stay tuned!

Saturday, January 1, 2011

Happy New Year! Black Eyed Peas....mmmmm

Happy New Year! Finally getting around to posting, life/school has been busy and way too much fun. So New Years Day is the day to get going on the Black Eyed Peas, not the band, the actual pea. There are so many ways to make them, find your fav and get it done, then you'll have good luck all year. Today I did them a little different then I usually do, using fresh black eyed peas, no soaking for me. I also made a Sweet Corn Bread Pudding, drizzled with honey. YUM! This is super easy and you still have time to get it done sometime this weekend, if not today.

What you'll need-

2 - quarts stock (homemade is best) I used turkey stock from my thanksgiving bird today, it was delish.

2 - 16oz bags of fresh frozen Black Eyed Peas, thawed.

1 - onion chopped - about 1 cup

1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme

2 cloves garlic chopped fine, use more if you like garlic

6 slices of cooked bacon, chopped for garnish, reserve bacon grease

Salt/Pepper

In a 4/6 qt. soup pot, fry up the bacon, cool and chop for garnish and reserve the fat for the onions. In the same pan sweat the onions until translucent, add the thyme and garlic and continue to sweat for another 5 minutes on low, don't brown them.

Add the thawed peas to the pot and cover with stock, simmer until peas are tender, check as you go, mine took about 90 minutes. The stock will cook away, you can add more as you go or let it absorb. I like it with some broth, so I add more.

Cooked this way they are very light and clean. Don't get me wrong I love the BEP's cooked with a big ham hock, but after all the Holiday feasting we did, it was a nice change.

The Sweet Corn Bread Pudding however is not light, but oh so good. Check it

What you'll need-

1/2 onion, diced fine
1-ounce unsalted butter
1/2 teaspoon fresh thyme chopped fine
1/2 teaspoon fresh rosemary chopped fine
1 cup fresh or frozen sweet corn
1 1/4 cup heavy cream
2 eggs
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup yellow cornmeal, whole grain, stone ground
1/2 cup shredded cheese- use your favorite parmesan and or sharp cheddar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper
2 cups day old French bread, cubed (Thanks to Doreen for day old bread, told you I'd use it up right quick)

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Sweat onions with butter and herbs in an skillet until translucent.

Combine corn, cream, eggs, baking powder, cornmeal, cheese, salt, and pepper in a large mixing bowl. Add cubed bread, onions mixture and fold to combine. Pour batter into a buttered casserole dish. Bake 45 minutes, or until set. Cool slightly before serving. Drizzle with honey just before serving. Here's a shot of both plated and ready to eat, it was so good!

Happy New Year to all my family and friends, I love you all madly!

Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let each new year find you a better person.
Benjamin Franklin

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Salad/Sandwiches/Cheese and BBQ

Salads, dressings, sandwiches, visit from a Cheese Monger aka Chef Starr and to finish the week BBQ. We had a day of totally creative freedom and one day of copying others EXACTLY. Chef Starr Cornwall came to chat with us about CHEESE, she was awesome! Here's the photo story for this week.

- Classic Salads -

We had to use all the proper ingredients,

but we could present them in our own way.

Waldorf Salad

Greek Salad

Spinach Salad w/ Bacon Dressing

Next up for Salads, we had to copy a picture out of a book and make it exactly like the picture.

My version and the picture from the book

Lobster Artichoke Salad

rounds of artichoke hearts, filled with mustard whip cream, chopped lobster and artichoke hearts, floating in saute verte with lobster medallions and claw meat

My version and the picture from the book

Asparagus Salad

center is filled with roasted eggplant puree,

floating in vichyssoise w/ caviar

Classic Club

Classic Ruben

Classic Croque Monsieur

CHEESE! Chef Starr was a blast, she taught me A LOT.

KR this is your night cheese !

This feisty little guy was trying to step to me.

My chef knife and me won the battle.

Grilled delight.

this is our protein assortment for BBQ day, it was a feast for many

tri tips, chicken breast, quail, lobster, shrimp, filet mignon, salmon, mahi mahi, pork medallions, cornish game hens, top sirloin, lamb chops

grill feast is ready

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Mystery Basket #1

Last week was our first mystery basket week. We'd get 1 hour and 45 minutes to complete 2 plates with 2 different proteins as well as a starch and a veggie for each plate. The protein was revealed right when the clock started. It was an amazing learning experience, little scary, super fun and kind of freeing. We could cook anything we wanted with what we could find in the walk in fridge and we had use of the entire pantry. I thought for sure this week would kick my ass, but as the week went on I felt like I was doing the ass kicking. Learned a lot and had a blast. Check out my creations.

Herb Crusted Salmon w/couscous & asparagus

and lemon butter caper sauce.

Poached Seabass in a lite lemon thyme broth.

this one needs some work. LOL

Pork Skewers w/ Fennel Orange salad

and chili dipping sauce.

Lamb Loin crusted with Fennel and Caraway seeds

and red wine mustard sauce.

Spicy Shrimp Skewers w/ purple cabbage slaw, soba noodles.

and sweet chili dipping sauce.

Prosciutto wrapped Scallops w/ sun dried tomato basil sauce

over a bed of micro mustard greens.

Grilled Veal Chop w/ Orzo corn asparagus salad

and Porcini Gorgonzola sauce.

Isn't she the cutest thing EVER ?!?!? My cousin Amy sent me this outfit she had specially made for Barbie. I squealed like a 6 year old when I opened this. Thanks AMY ! you rock.

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Foods of Asia

Hey All - Sorry for the late posting, I'm trying very hard to post weekly on Saturday's, but our Asia week got split up and I wanted to wait until we'd done all 5 days. Asia is HUGE and this week we lightly touched on the core, in regards to regions, spices and local foods. Enjoy the photo tour, it won't be nearly as good as smelling and eating it all, but lovely to view for sure.

Khayanthee Thoke (Burma)

this was like Baba Ghanoush, but spicy. super yummy.

Keema Kofta (India)

Spicy Lamb Meatballs

Rendang Daging (Malaysia)

Coconut Beef OMG delish !

Tom Kha Gai (Thailand)

My most favorite Thai soup ever and it was so easy to make.

Lumpiang Shanghai (Philippines)

classic Lumpia

Spring Rolls (China)

Ooolong Sea Bass

To ready us for mystery basket week, Chef gave us Sea Bass, Soba noodles and zucchini and cook however you want, but do an Asian spin on it. I LOVE the Oolong Sea Bass at PF Chang's, so I did my best to replicate it. I topped it with mustard micro greens. It turned out AWESOME.