School is cool !

Who knew school could be so fun, I guess when you're doing what you really love, it is! It's exhausting at the same time, there's a ton of info/notes everyday and lots of cooking too. Here are a few pics of what's gone down in the last 2 weeks.

We did stocks, soups, sauces, wine education and some knife skills

This was the Lobster I killed with a knife to the head, chopped him up and made the most delicious Bisque ever. 

Simmering Bisque

Vegetable Stock 

This was my Potato Leek soup and my feeble attempt at fancy presentation, swirling paprika sour cream w/ fried leeks.

This is the Hollandaise derivative collection, rarely seen all at once like this.

Each of us made one- Hollandaise, Bernaise, Foyot, Choron, Maltaise, Mousseline, Paloise. 

Wine Class, tasting for 2 days, rough life for sure.

Chef is fast with his board notes, I take pictures ALOT so I can compare my notes to his before he erases them and moves on. This one is about the French wine regions, they make it so complicated, but oh so old world cool.

The first 2 weeks have been amazing, Still geekin' that I'm actually doing this.

Now if I can pass the ServeSafe test next week all will be good.

Kale Chips

However you feel about Kale, put it to the side and try these crispy crunchy yummy Kale Chips. Super crispy super food !!

My cousin Amy was here this summer and she brought some from her neck of the woods, Los Altos, Ca. She gets them at her farmers market and they aren't cheap. Her kids LOVE them, which is amazing, because getting kids to eat veggies is always a struggle. I did some research and found several blogs and a recipe that was in Bon Appetit last year. After trying a couple this is what I came up with.

Get some Kale, make sure its firm, bright and fresh. No wilty Kale. There are various types of Kale in the markets these days. Most will carry the curly Kale as pictured below. I used the curly and organic red Kale, both were delish !

Preheat oven to 250 F - Remove the big center stems 

Tear into chip size pieces, wash ( submerge in water ) & dry ( use a salad spinner ) them really well. 

In a large bowl drizzle olive oil ( 1 Tablespoon ) over the Kale pieces, coating them well. Be careful not to use too much oil, this will make oily chips. I used spray olive oil, this worked really well. Salt lightly and arrange on a cookie sheet.

Bake for 30 minutes, but start checking them at 20 minutes. All ovens vary and they will burn very quickly. I take them out when the smaller stems on the leaves are crunchy, the thickest part of the chip.

When they're hot and crispy, you can sprinkle cayenne or salt & pepper or parmesan cheese or all of the above. I did the parmesan, it was so tasty. Kids love them, I swear ! try it !!

Makin' Friends

Today I made friends with my knives and Hal, the key player in our Fumet Fish Stock.

This is Hal - sweating it out in the Rondeau....sounds glamorous doesn't it ? 

First day of school at LCA

First day of culinary school was today and it was great ! Everyone was excited and I for one was ecstatic.
Here's a few photo's so y'all can share in my day.

Me in my uniform ( I wear this everyday with the hat ), with my wheelie cooler. Love the clown pants, too bad you can't see my Mickey Mouse shoes, they're awesome.

Here's the kitchen classroom where all the magic will happen.

These are my classmates.

Book & chef tool kit

TOOLS !!! 
I am totally geeking !