Cooking Through Life

For probably the last 5-6 years, I’ve woken up on my days off thinking, what am I going to make today. When I had cable, I’d turn on the Food Network Channel for the first few hours while I sat with some tea and cereal. Now (as I’m doing on this crisp summer morning) I pull out 3 magazines, a cookbook and my laptop and start reading, making notes and grocery lists. I want to try recipes and bake and make dinner for everyone I know. Even through all my doubts about whether I’m cut out for the competitive, sometimes overwhelmingly stressful atmosphere of culinary school, I still have mornings like this and know I’m doing the right thing for me. I love this.... I really, really do. I started a new job 2 weeks ago. Thanks to one of my amazing school friends (one I know will make her name in the world of food sometime in the next few years!) I landed a position as a personal chef/cook for a fabulous, young family of four. Mom and Dad work demanding corporate jobs and they have two of t...

What's happened to me that I love spending Friday night reading or writing about food. I am ok (most of the time!) that it consumes my brain. I'm happy hanging out at a local coffee shop or, if I'm trying to avoid another $4 latte, at my own home. I enjoy the solidarity of it so much, that I want more evenings like these. I crave them in fact. Ahh the beauty of silence...well, Pandora playing Matt Wertz and the like is breaking in. I just finished Julie and Julia the movie and loved it! Both of their lives revolve around cooking and they made a life of it, neither of which included insanely intense restaurant cooking, which terrifies me! I'm so pleased to see other great, amusing and friendly women who are making a career of food in different ways. Last night I made Ajo Blanco, an experiment for an assignment in my Culinary Theory class. We were to create a Tapas surrounding an assigned ingredient, mine was Marcona Almonds. I made the cold soup, but can't say I ...

If you know anything about me, you're familiar with my love for grains...everything from Amaranth & Buckwheat to Millet and Oats. I just discovered via the creepy, all to knowing recommendations from Amazon.com that there is an entire book on Quinoa that came out last month: "Quinoa 365: The Everyday Superfood" How amazing and wonderful is that!?! I can't tell you how excited I am about this. Even as I type this posting, Quinoa isn't a recognized word by Blogspot...not sure how that is possible, but it isn't. So anyway, short and sweet, but I'm excited about it. It'll be in my next cookbook order ;) Oh and if you have any interest, check out www.graingirls.com Eat your grains. -l.v.

I've heard it numerous times, I don't like to cook for just me. Or, if I had roommates, or when I'm married, I'll cook more. It's hard to cook for only myself. I don't want to eat the same things over and over again for 5 days straight. Occasionally I get in that boring routine, where I only make myself pb &j because it's simple, cheap and easy. But today as I'm alone on my day off, I really treated myself to full, healthy meals. For breakfast I made a big omelet with prosciutto, green garlic and slightly browned sautéed onions. I took my plate and a big mug of black tea out to the porch and enjoyed it all in the sun. Then for lunch, I heated thinly sliced pieces of sausage in a small plan, letting the fat in the sausage release the oil for cooking. I took some of the extra onions from this morning (there's something you'll never get sick of... caramelized onions) and threw them in near the end along with some more of that green garlic ...

When eating, do you think about where you food comes from? Where it was produced, raised or grown? More importantly, do you think about who brought you the wonderful ingredients you're about to consume. I was eating an apple the other day and I thought, at some point someone hand picked this single piece of fruit off of a tree, in an orchard somewhere in Washington State (or at least I hope that's right?!). I like to think they are earning a good wage, one that supports their family and helps them enjoy a pleasant lifestyle. And, I hope the farm or orchard is doing well, sustaining themselves economically as well as environmentally. As a culture, we are so far from our food's original source and the original form of the product, that we no longer "connect" with our food. We forget to thank the farmer who planted the seed, tended to the crops and eventually harvested them. We don't appreciate the chicken who gave it's life so we could enjoy a del...

Yesterday I went to a High School to observe a cooking instructor teaching high school students how to prepare dough. Her name is Mrs. D. She has two different levels of classes one of students that work primarily in groups to make a new recipe each day. They need a little more "supervision" and guidance. The other is a class seems like they're almost being prepped for Culinary School in the future...they prepare food for a catering company arranged by Mrs. D and her assistant. When they're not prepping for catering jobs, they learn new techniques and prepare for class lunches and snacks to sell at the school store. While I was there, they made pizza and pasta dough in the first class, while the 2nd group was preparing for a big Italian Feast they were having on Thursday. There was prep going for pasta, pizza, Tiramisu, and more. It was so exciting to see these young individuals working with such excitement on food! Oh, and of course...Mrs. D was amazing! She ha...

I realize that I am only in my 2nd quarter of culinary school and I have plenty of things to plan for right now, but I can't stop thinking about my 5th quarter Chef of the Day (COD) project! It doesn't really affect me for at least 2 more quarters, so I need to work on staying in the moment. For instance, next week is my "Student Entree" week. I am required to cook two dishes of my choosing, one protein one vegetarian, 15 portions of each. On Tuesday I'll be serving up some whole grains to the other students, Acorn Squash filled with millet "stuffing". It will have onions, herbs and bell pepper mixed in and topped off with honey. Then, Thursday I will be roasting 5 lbs of pork butt to make delicious tacos with two sauces...tomato salsa and avocado butter (yes, butter!). I think this one is going to be really delicious! I'm hoping to go off of this recipe from Tyler Florence on Food Network that looks amazing! Hopefully I'll take a pictu...