MidTerms

I'm halfway through my midterm. I wrote the theory test today, tomorrow is the practical.

The theory test was fine. A few mistakes here and there. A couple of paragraphs of pure bullshit. Describe in detail the steps to make Ficelle. Ficelle? Huh? That's a bread right? Italian bread?

I know how to make bread. So I described the process and threw in handy dandy phrases like "make up and form to the desired shape" and "bake until golden brown" (Every one likes golden brown, right? Safe guess I think.)

I blanked on a couple of things. And really, I think some of the questions were pretty vague and well open to interpretation. "Describe the two similarities of bechamel and veloute..." What does that mean exactly? Both use flour and fat? Both are sauces? Both are white? Both are mother sauces? Both are smooth? I don't know - that seems like a hell of a lot more than two similarities.

I'm not sure what they were looking for, but I was so thrown by the vagueness of the question that I listed the two ingredients common to both, and am sure now that's not what they were looking for.

I forgot to mention that you should season your lamb shanks before browning them. An easy mark lost.

Overall I think I did well. I usually do on written tests.

Tomorrow? Tomorrow is the scary day. 6 as yet unknown tasks. Make a sauce. Do some knife cuts. Cook something. Who knows. I know the knife cuts will be a big part of it, and I still suck big time in that department. I did a little more practice today, but I get easily frustrated by my lack of improvement. I'm not seeing changes fast enough, and so practice seems like more and more time just spent doing things wrong. (Anyone with extra patience and discipline is encouraged to send it my way).

I'll do some more cutting tonight - but let's face it - at this stage either I can do it or I can't. No sense fussing over it all night.

I've done some cooking in the last couple of weeks, but I'm not going to document any of the recipes until I make it through midterms.

Good recipes, coming soon.

Wish me luck.