eating lemon peels

....was delicious!!!

I never thought I would like eating raw (not candied or sugared) lemon peels but in lemon sorbet, raw chunks of lemon rind are sooooOOooooOOoOOoO deliciously refreshing. It's starting to get cold and summer is slowly slipping away, but today for 6 bites of lemon sorbet I thought it was hot outside and school was about to get out for summer break.

Lemons were juiced, mixed with water and sugar until a clean egg would float with only about a nickel size amount of shell poking out of the sweet/sour mixture. This fancy little trick works to measure the amount of sugar needed in a sorbet mixture because of the density of the sugar in the water against the measured density of a raw egg. For those chemistry folks, the egg acted as a make-shift hydrometer. How cool!!

The lemons that had been juiced, were chopped into 1/2 inch chunks and added to the sorbet mixture after it had been frozen in our ice cream machine.

Chef reminded us that we have 4 basic tastes--sweet, salty, sour, and bitter. The sorbet was already sweet and sour, so why not add another taste element---bitter? He was so spot on. The peel was a perfect addition to an already splendid food.

modified food starch

You may recognize those three words from some of the food labels in your kitchen. As we talked about the history of baking in class today, I learned that MFS (modified food starch) was invented to thicken fruit juice in frozen pies. Also, cake decorating was originally intended to cover up mistakes. Finally, desserts laden with fat+sugar (both natural preservatives) were used to preserve ingredients through the autumn and winter.

being understood

I had a job interview with a Chef today and as we shook hands and parted ways, we also casually swiped tears from our eyes. Not sad or angry tears, but just straight emotion. The topic of how special the Culinary Institute of America brought us both to tears. This may sound goofy or corny, and maybe it is. But it was so honest and wonderful to know that someone else feels the same way I do about this place. This is a place full of tradition, passion, and excellence. That's how I feel anyway and he understands that.

knife tray

About a year ago, I was working on my knife tray in my Skills I,II, and III classes which consisted of a particular set of skills demonstrated on a variety of vegetables (onions, potatoes, etc.) Above is an example of knife tray that I recently submitted for an application.

On the far left of the tray, the potatoes shaped into tournes (7 sided, 3/4" diameter by 2" long) are not up to standard. So I have been practicing after class, as I did today, to make them better.

my cool friends:)

How beautiful, huh? My friend MADE this!! Yup, with his own two hands. I asked if his was like the best in his class, he said no, most were actually better. I could only imagine the talent present in that classroom!

These flowers have a delicate shimmer on them (not conveyed in the photo) and they are meant to decorate a cake. Aside from the wire used as a stem, they are entirely edible and made of sugar. My friend didn't want them anymore, so now these striking flowers adorn my dresser.

racquetball=fun.

My only regret about playing racquetball today was that I didn't discover it sooner! I was laughing out loud like a fool as I whacked the ball all over the court today.

Ceiling, wall, floor, ceiling, wall, other wall, run, jump, laugh, wall, floor, bounce, hit, wall, wall, smile, swing (hit nothing), laugh, run, slide, wall, ceiling, door(!!), wall, ceiling, SMACK!

So fun. If racquetball wasn't available at the Rec Center (which I pay for in my tuition) I wouldn't pay for a gym membership to discover I love this game. However, three cheers for utilizing my campus' resources! HOORAH! HOORAH! HOORAH!

my classes' food memories

As I mentioned, we didn't have class yesterday and instead we had an alternate learning assignment (beside my self assigned apple picking). The assignment was to make or buy a candy, cookie, or confection that had a significant impact on your life and tell the story while sharing the food with the class. Above is the box of food memory samples including a family recipe brought from Greece over 100 years ago, a variation of a childhood summertime favorite, and a weekly family breakfast tradition (with the accompanying coffee!!).

Food has an incredible capability to tell a story in a language that everyone speaks. How cool it is that this is my life.