Ah, day off

Ah, a mid-week day off, what did I do to deserve this? Well, I didn't get to enjoy it as much as I should have, as I had to spend most of the day at the dept of motor vehicles getting a replacement drivers license since I lost mine quite some time ago and was driving without id.

I've had a lot of other stuff going on lately so the blog has been a little disjointed but it's time to get back to the food. I've worked grill several times now and am feeling more confidant all the time. I've got my first official night-time garde manger shift this Saturday and I'm very excited about that. This week some of the items I cooked included: braised pork shoulder sandwich with smoked paprika mayonnaise and fennell-red onion slaw on a kaiser bun; laughing bird shrimp and red mule polenta with tomato broth, piquillo peppers and wilted chard; hangar steak with roasted potatoes, radishes, arugula and avocado crema. As always we have our "power lunch," a healthy but filling option that currently includes: sauteed chickpeas and spinach; shaved beets with pumpkin seeds, herbs and pomegranate; spicy seared broccoli rabe; red quinoa salad with cucumbers, edamame, feta and a citrus-vin dressing.

Also this week I learned to "dress" or butcher a side of fish, specifically a striped bass. It is an interesting and satisfying process to bring something that is still, at least for the most part, a recognizable animal down to beautiful little 6 oz portions. As always I am intrigued by the steps that go unnoticed by the general public in the trail from the sea or field to the table or supermarket. Processes which were once common knowledge to nearly all people have become specialized to a very small section of the populace. This isn't inherently a good or bad thing, however I do think that if more people were involved in the growing, hunting, butchering, etc of their foods things would likely be done in a much more humane, environmentally friendly, healthy and tasteful way. It's also more time consuming to get our food this way and would thus perhaps cause us to consume less, especially meat. Butchering the fish involved cutting away the pin bones, which in this particular cut of fish were too secure to be removed with pliers as is often possible. Then the blood channel is removed and the skin is scored so that, when cooked, the skin does not tighten and, thus cause the fish to curl up in the pan. The most difficult part for me was gauging the weight of each cut by sight. Of course I weighed the whole piece and, with my pathetic math skills painstakingly made an approximation of how many fillets I could cut from the whole however visually guessing where to cut when the center is nearly an inch thicker than the ends was a daunting task and I won't lie, a few fillets were more like 4.2 or 7.9 than 6.0. I'm sure that, as with all things, practice will make perfect (or better at least!)

Other Things in my Life

Since I posted about the photo contest for my dog I figured I'd take a moment to tell you about a few other things in my life since I do occasionally do things other than cook food.

1) "Cosco"- my dog. He is not named after the store, which btw is spelled "Costco" as in "low-cost company," you'd be amazed how many peop

le don't realize that. Anyhow, I got him from a rescue and that's what the lady who was fostering him called him so I left it. He wears sweaters, gets his picture taken for the holidays and has his own facebook page, deal with it.

2) Robbie - he's my man, right now he's driving trucks southeast regional, its not perfect but it sure is better than it was without him. He likes tattoos, motorcycles, all things argyle, superhero movies, and me ;-) He is a walking contradiction, the tattoos andthe truck driving might make you think he's just a roughneck, but he dresses like a gay preppy hipster and listens to everything from country to electronica. I love that.

3) My Dad - my closest family member, inspired my love for food and restaurants,

a great drinking buddy and my biggest fan. He needs to move to Athens so we can hang out more!

4)Roller Derby - Its what I'm into right now. I just started so you'll have to stay tuned in for more later but so far its awesome. I've never been very athletic but I think I'm doing well so far and its a great workout and a way to let off some steam after a tough day in the kitchen. If I ever get to bout my derby name is gonna be "Shirley Trample." (...cause of my curly, reddish hair)

5) Video Games - I play them. I'm not that good. I like RPG's for the most part. Right now I am very close to beating Assassin's Creed and am stoked about it. I injured my arm playing too much Mortal Kombat vs DC and Guitar Hero Metallica the other day. This either makes me lame or awesome, I'm not sure which. Also, does ANYONE know where the damn power switch is in Black Ops zombies?!

6)Horror Movies - I love them, I have fallen behind on watching them but for awhile it was a serious passion/obsession. I particularly enjoy anything with zombies, the films of Dario Argento and anything supernatural as opposed to just a regular psycho killer.

7) Tattoos- I have one, its a pineapple, I want more.

8) NPR - I listen to it, so should you.

9) yoga, donating blood, bluegrass music, vintage store shopping, beer drinking,

Spay Day 2011 Online Pet Photo Contest

Spay Day 2011 Online Pet Photo Contest

So this is unrelated to food but I thought I would take a moment and ask you to vote for my precious pup "Cosco" in the Humane Society's Spay Day 2011 photo contest and fundraiser!

Behind already

It is only mid January and I'm already falling behind on writing in my blog! Lots to say, where to begin?

After New Years we had some snowy weather that kept me out of work for a few days. It was really nice to be snowed in with Robbie. We made a big pot of chili and had some snow cream for dessert. Maybe snow cream is a southern thing, or maybe just old-timey but for those of you that don't know, you take evaporated milk, vanilla and sugar and mix it with snow you have collected in a bowl. It’s awesome! It is generally understood that you should set a bowl out about an hour after is has started snowing and let the snow collect, rather than scooping up anything already on the ground. Some people think that getting the snow that first starts to fall is somehow dirtier than what comes later, thus waiting a bit, but I fail to see how that could really matter. Additionally my Daddy always said to never eat the snow from the first snow fall of the year, he swears they did some test in the 1950s that found that the first snow carried traces of radiation but who knows about that either. Should you find yourself in the snow with no handy dandy can of evaporated milk, regular milk is still tasty but the consistency is more slushy and less fluffy.

Though the snow days were fun, after that and the holidays I was in desperate need of hours so I crammed 48 hours of work into a 4 day work week! I picked up several shifts for a kid who was sick and stayed as late as possible to do some prep work after each shift. Thursday night I worked nighttime garde-manger for the first time. It was pretty much just like lunch but with all appetizers and no entrees. It was nice to do something different but I think I like lunch better. At dinner two people work gm and it seems so crowded after being used to having the station to myself.

The next two days at lunch I worked grill for the first time and was moderately terrified. I think I held it together pretty well but I really didn't feel prepared. I had really only sort of kind of not officially trained one day so considering I think I did pretty well. Friday was pretty slow and what business that did come in came mostly to gm. It was so weird seeing someone else working my line and putting things out differently than I would, I almost felt a little protective of my usual dishes, like I wanted to say, "hey buddy, the grapes have to sit next to the chicken salad like this, not that."When I had trained the week prior we had bavette steaks on the menu and this week the steak was a flatiron. The extremely different cook times of these two cuts caused me to overcook the first two steaks of the day and made me want to sit down and cry but I didn't and things got progressively better. Those days I cooked: pan seared mahi-mahi over couscous with melted leeks and a tomato pepper broth served with frisée and local radish; bacon and chorizo moules frites with garlic aïoli, chicken confit over parsnip purée with caramel vinegar jus and blood oranges ; flatiron steak with Yukon gold potato wedges seared in duck fat with horseradish cream and greens. Saturday was much busier but by then I had a hang of temping the steaks and things went much more smoothly for me. Jeremy had already come in to start prepping for dinner when a late rush hit at about 2:15 pm, he stepped up and helped run mid for us for awhile which was really nice. I don’t normally get too stressed when things get busy but its also nice to have a great expo and a good mid to help keep you calm. Listening to them allows you to keep your head down and really focus on moving at an even, fast pace rather than starting and stopping and trying to look at tickets or remember them on your own. If I do feel myself loosing focus during a rush, I can just ask the expo or mid, “what do you want from me next?” and focus on one order at a time to keep from getting overwhelmed.

I’ve also worked the past two Sunday brunches, something I enjoy and despise at the same time. Brunch only happens once a week and I don’t work it every week so its something I never really feel “in the groove” of so to speak, though I am drastically improving my omelet-making skills if I may say so myself ;-) The other thing about brunch is that, of course having a special menu and only occurring once a week, I can pretty much guarantee that you will have nothing already prepped, oh and did I mention that service starts an hour earlier? Ugh. At the same time, its always nice to be doing something different so in that way brunch can be nice. Sunday before last we were really slow early so our expo left an Carrie, who had been on grill moved to expo leaving me who had only been making eggs to run grill and eggs at once. Again my only major issue was the slight overcooking of one steak, so all in all not a bad day. Last Sundays brunch was crazy busy and even eggs alone was enough to make me want to crawl under the lowboy and hide. After a week of cold, icky snow and cold the sunny morning and nice weather made everyone in town want brunch, I scrambled 6 flats of eggs (1 flat is 30 eggs fyi.)

This week has been tiring but fun as I began roller derby bootcamp last night. I asked for derby days off from Harry’s but still had to work two days a week there so the next two weeks schedules look kinda like this: lunch/derby, lunch/dinner double, lunch/derby, lunch/dinner double, dinner, day off, day off. Despite the fact that it will be a long week, it’ll be nice to have the whole weekend off to spend with Robbie who should be getting home around that same time.

More on derby later, for now, sleep!

No News is Good News

Not much to report today. We were closed for the New Years holiday weekend yesterday and today but we all came in this afternoon to knock out some prep and do inventory. Peter was there with his foot in this special sock thing that pumps antibiotics into the skin but seemed to be doing well. He bought lunch at Five Guys Burgers and I had an awesome hot dog. Now I'm sitting here with the pooch watching Robbie fight with the internet (new service, modem problems, something or another, blah blah blah).

I got a call today about fostering another dog. Hopefully this one goes better than the last, who tried to systematically eat all my belongings and the entire apartment one by one. Looks like its going to be a doxie-mix, chi or pug. *fingers crossed for a low-maintenance one!*

Happy New Year!

Somehow or another I was magically scheduled off all day New Years Eve and New Years Day! That is UNHEARD OF! I have never, never, never, not even when I was a child not had to work somewhere New Years Eve or Day. I knew it was too good to be true.

After Peter's mishap with the stock pot our sou, Patrick, realized that normally on New Years they have 3 garde-manger, and this year only 2 were on the schedule. It was a super easy and short shift doing nothing but plating desserts though so it was really no problem. I came in at 6 had no prep because pastry had already made everything. I set up a little makeshift station out of the way in the corner with a butchers block atop two trashcans and a bus tub full of ice for my cold items. I plated pear and apricot tarts, baklava ice cream, cherry genoise cake with champagne sabayon and white chocolate the blood orange mousse. I felt sick after twenty minutes from snacking on all the candied nuts for garnish but otherwise all went well. All the desserts were cold and we were surprisingly not very busy. After plating a ton of creme brûlée and chocolate torts for a private dinner in the back room, Patrick gave me a bottle of champagne and told me I could take off. It was only 9:30, Nathan made a small order of our lamb sliders for me and I grabbed em to-go and hit that champagne to ring in the New Year!

I spent the night at a friends party rather than going downtown and dealing with the crowds and driving or walking all over hell and high water. In honor of two birthdays the week prior and New Years the theme was "three ring circus." When I walked in the door I was immediately slapped with a fake mustache and beard and told my costume was "bearded lady."

I spent today nursing a slight hangover, getting rid of my rather arid Christmas tree and doing major apartment organizing/cleaning. I cooked a traditional southern New Years dinner for myself since Robbie is still out of town. Black-eyed peas, collard greens cooked with ham hocks, cornbread and pork chops. I did the collards in the crock-pot and they were a bit overcooked but still tasty, especially after I drove all over most the county looking for Mrs. Campbell's Hot Chow-Chow (its like relish for you yankees out there), the only kind I eat. Peas tasted like peas but were good enough I suppose but my cornbread was stellar, simple and good out of cast-iron pan with lots of butter. Shhh, don't tell but the pork chops were Smithfield smoked fully cooked out of a pack but still tasted pretty awesome as their fatty goodness washed away my champagne headache. In case some of you don't know the tradition behind this meal, it is supposed to bring monetary luck in the coming year. Black-eyes are change and the greens are "foldin money." Pork, just like in politics or the saying "high on the hog" is also associated with wealth.

They might be corny but everyone makes em, so here are my 2011 New Year's Resolutions:

1) Be happy

2) Go to Yoga regularly, at least once a week

3) Go to Roller Derby bootcamp and practice skating (already signed up, Jan 17! wish me luck)

4) Spend quality time with the dog. Walks, park visits, maybe even some sort of class. Not just sitting on the couch time.

5) Pick up nights and a new station at work before 2012.

6) Make a 5 year plan (even if its kinda vague) before I turn 25 (in April)!

7) Have a real vacation this year

8) Save money, stop living paycheck to paycheck.

9) Get a different car before the year is out (Mazda 6 hatchback?)

10)Be better about keeping in touch with friends and family, write letters, make calls, etc.