Today, we had a slightly different menu. It was chicken of course, but breast only this time. We broke chickens down ourselves (two chickens each) and made airline breasts. That would be when you don't fully detach the wing from the breast, you only take the lower portion of it off. Then we sauteed the skin side to get a nice crispy side on them, popped them in the oven and let them cook. Oh, they were good too. Skin was awesome. Mine was a little oversalted, but I love salt so no one better could've gotten that particular piece. We also made mashed potatoes again, a little zucchini (which was much better seasoned today), veloute (it's a sauce, there's a picture up), salad with vinaigrette, baguette that I got to help make, and carrot soup. I made the soup on my side and Dad made the soup on his side. No, we didn't plan that. It just happened, okay. They came out almost exactly the same shade. We didn't talk about it, we didn't look over at each other's soup, we just managed to do it very similarly. I used all chicken stock to make mine, and Dad used half stock, half water. He also had ginger in his. I think mine needed salt. Dad's is in the white bowl, mine is in the pan. Oh, and don't mock my lack of presentation, I ran out of time. Plus we only had one bowl.

Oh, and pictures are now working. Somewhat

Check facebook for the full set of pictures, but here's a taster. Click to enlarge.

Background information

Most people who are going to be reading this already know me, but for those of you who do not: This should get you caught up. During high school, I went to Bollman Technical Education Center. I took several classes, but one in particular is worth mentioning. The class was for computer networking, and as part of Bollman's curriculum required me to do job training. This job training and my grades landed me a job as an IT intern for the school district. At that point, I was planning for a career in videogame design. I'm absolutely obsessed with games and they were my sole hobby for about 10 years straight (Although, I haven't been able to play for quite a while now). During the IT internship, I decided I could work IT in order to earn money for classes and try to start my own game company. I went to school at Frontrange Community College to get some basics down for a business degree. I was told I could finish in two years with an associate's and two years later I was half a degree away from finishing at all. I was planning on continuing with the boring pattern, but a seemingly random event changed my mind. A friend of my dad's, Rama (see links to the right) invited us to an open house at his culinary school. Take a wild guess as to which school. Dad was going because he was interested. My mom, brother, and I were going because it was free food. Shush, you can't honestly say you wouldn't do the same. While my dad listened to the culinary arts program presentation, I attended the pastry arts one. I've always had an eye for art, so I was actually interested. Thought it'd be a natural fit with my perfectionism and artistic nature. So I considered the career path change. I won't bore you with the details, but it took about a month or so of agonizing over the decision. I applied for the pastry program, but after turning in all the paperwork I changed my mind. I was seriously bored with desserts and sweet things, I wanted to be less specific (and narrow) in my approach, and I didn't want to have to go back to school if I changed my mind. So I changed over to culinary arts instead of pastry. It's quite a bit more expensive, but clearly worth the expense. No buyer's remorse yet, and I don't anticipate any. There was a little hesitation with letting family members be in the same class, and even more considering the father/daughter relationship, but we were both accepted to the class.

I owe a very big thank you to both my father and to Rama. So thank you, this is far better than sitting at a desk all day.

First REAL day

Yesterday was paperwork, doesn't count. Today the menu was roasted chicken, potato puree, sauteed zucchini, and a stratified cream sauce (building the components, or adding the next liquid, upon the last after reducing liquid off each time). I got chicken today so you get a rundown of that one. I cleaned the inside and stuff some herbs and seasoning inside the chest cavity. I seasoned the outside and we seared them real quickly in a pan (makes the skin a little golden brown and helps it crisp up). After that, it went into the oven and cooked a while longer. Came out very nice, I was very happy with mine. I could tell which was mine, since it was missing the lower part of one of the wings. ^_^ It'll be the same menu for the next two days. We're trying to get the basics down pat, so it's a lot of cutting vegetables, and breaking down whole chickens, and how to not cut your fingers off. Dad has apparently failed the last lesson today, so please mock him. However, he was not the first one to get cut, so bonus points for that.

No info whatsoever

Wow, I just realized how bad it looks that nobody reading this would have any idea what the school is about. CSR is a six month program that deals primarily with traditional French cuisine and the basics of fine dining. We will spend five months working on that here in Colorado, and one month on a stage (internship) in France. We get to go to Avignon for a whole month to learn from French chefs in the area. Of course, this means I need to learn French...

First day!

Soooo. First day of school. Yes, I know plenty of those titles floating around. I started going to a community college right out of high school for business. I took two years because I was told I could earn my degree in two years and here I am, three years later half a degree away. I was going into IT/videogame design and realized that I couldn't actually sit still at a desk for a minute longer. So I decided that wasn't the career for me. About this time, my dad started thinking his career (electronics/IT/computery stuff) wasn't what he wanted to do with his life and with his children now 18 and 20, that it was time to do something for him. We are both now attending a culinary school for classic French cuisine (And yes, they teach more than just French food, but that's the basis for most high end food these days). Today was all about paperwork and introducing ourselves, so no pictures and nothing really interesting. We did get our recipe list, and some homework to start us off. We have to read a culinary magazine (mine dates four years before I was born) and give a two minute verbal report on something in the magazine. Easiest report I've ever been assigned. I'll give you pictures as soon as I have them (and we start cooking tomorrow).