I don't cook at home anymore. I try to eat nothing but fruit and vegetables before school everyday, because we eat a hell of a lot of rich, calorie and fat intense food at school.

After lectures and demos we cook, and then we eat each night around 6:45. I get home around 8:00 or 9:00, and I have absolutely no interest in food when I get home. J, who has been so supportive of this whole cooking school thing has barely had a decent home cooked meal since the semester started.

But it's Saturday today, and I didn't have to go anywhere or do anything today, so I decided to take it easy, enjoy the nice weather, and cook a real meal.

Tonight's Menu:

Oysters on the half shell (okay, no cooking there)
Steamed mussels in a white wine sauce with leeks and carrots
Baguette with Lemon Mayonnaise

and for dessert, raspberry frangipane tart.

I'll post the recipes sooner or later. For now it's enough to just be cooking in my own kitchen.

Stupid Turned Potatoes.

I take back anything I may have ever said about turned vegetables.

They are not cool at all. They are pointless, stupid, and entirely impossible.

Bah.

When I was sixteen and learning to drive I could not parallel park. At all. I just couldn't do it. It was like there was some sort of parallel parking switch in my brain that had only two options - on or off. Mine was permanently set on off. I couldn't even sort of parallel park. No dice. Off.

I think my turning switch is set on off. I am choosing to believe that it is some sort of gene hidden deep down in that double helix that is turned off, or malfunctioning, or absent.

I did, however, eventually learn to parallel park. It's possible that I may also learn to turn vegetables, but I am not feeling particularily optimistic at the moment.

Tonight's menu:

- an absolutley beautiful Beef Bourguignonne
- fresh baguette
- and some fucked up half turned roast potatoes

It's Thursday. That's what day it is! Almost at the end of week three.

This week we've made:

Consomme: I don't know. Consomme is kind of a pain in the ass for really nothing very spectacular. It's supposed to be a demonstration of the cook's skill - perfectly clear, delicious broth. I have never been a big fan myself. I'd rather have a demonstration of the cook's skill that resulted in something fantastic. But, it's a classic. The chef instructor tasted mine and said, "Nice. That's a nice soup." Given that we're talking about consomme, I'm happy with that.

Quiche: Whatever. It's quiche. Real men don't eat it. You know why it's important to know how to make decent quiche? Because it's how you maximize your food costs. Quiche = leftovers with eggs and pastry. Remember that the next time you want to order quiche.

Baguettes: My baguette was decent, but not great. I've made better ones at home a hundred times before. Mine was a little undercooked, but over browned on the bottom.

Kale and Chorizo Soup: Portuguese Style. This was really nice. Great recipe. Simple method. My group's was a little thin, but tasted wonderful.

Chicken Stock and Veal Stock: This is a french cooking school, so it's all about the stocks. Our stock was decent. Not bad, not great. We will be making a lot of stock - it's the basis for everything.

Chicken Soup: Whatever. It's chicken soup. An extension of the chicken stock. The recipe we used was pretty dull, and meant to highlight knifework, more than anything. Julienned leeks and carrots.

Tomorrow we do quickbreads. Muffins, Scones, and Cornbread.

I'm a little tired today, and a little bit cranky. I get frustrated with my classmates occaisionally. Everyone needs to learn their own way, and everyone needs to make their own mistakes. When we're doing something that I know how to do well already, it makes sense for others in the group to do it. But, if you're going to do it - do it right! So I get anxious and frustrated in my little corner and fight the urge to butt in and dictate how it should be done.

There are a couple of people who are so amazingly spaced out and obnoxious in their idiocy that I am amazed they manage to find their way to school each day. And there are a couple of people who are pretty damn rude to the students who are immigrants. That kind of low level cloying racism, you know? I don't know how to deal with it.

As I said, I am a little tired and cranky today.

I made two silly mistakes on an exam this morning. Which sucks. It also means that I got an A+ on the exam, which doesn't exactly suck - but is not perfect. I am fixated on perfect.

We made bruschetta, greek salad, and steak tartar. I don't really understand why this is, but I am slower at school than I am at home. I could make tartar, bruschetta, and greek salad at home within two hours in my sleep. But at school it's a hectic rush. Part of it is working as a team I think - co-ordinating the efforts of two people takes longer than just doing it yourself. Learning to work as a team is important, conceptually, but is almost counter productive when you are trying to produce only two plates of food.

(and at home I don't concasse tomatoes for greek salad. Who concasses tomatoes for greek salad? The Greeks sure as hell don't.)

I am a "get the hell out of my kitchen" person at home. That obviously doesn't work at school, and it obviously won't work in a professional kitchen.

It's also a struggle for me to not just bowl my partner over and dictate how things are going to be done. I'm bossy. I admit it. Sometimes it's called "leadership ability" sometimes it's just plain bossiness.

I am afraid to say this in case I jinx myself, but my knife cuts are improving.

Our food tasted pretty good today. Our plating was mediocre. Things got a little hectic at the end, and I'm not sure why - we had a decent checklist and were relatively organized. I need to review the startegy and find what went wrong.

It's Friday, and I'm tired. Hence the non-sequitars and near monotone.

Week 2 is over.

1 can coconut milk
2 strips lemon rind, no pithe
4 or so fresh basil leaves

Bring the coconut milk up to a simmer in a medium sized saucepan. Add the lemon rind and basil leaves. Remove from heat and let steep for 5 minutes while you...

Seperate 6 eggs, putting the yolks into a mixing bowl.

Add 1 and 1/4 cups of cream
and
1/2 to 3/4 cup of sugar (more or less depending on how sweet you like things)

Beat the eggs yolks, cream, and sugar together until smooth and most of the sugar has dissolved.

Remove the lemon rind and basil leaves from the coconut milk.

Slowly add the egg yolk mixture to the coconut milk stirring constantly.

Pour in ramekins (4 large, or 8 small)

Place ramekins in a roasting pan and fill the pan to halfway up the ramekins with recently boiled water.

Bake in a 350 over for 35 - 55 minutes, until custard sets. (depends on size of ramekins)

Allow to cool, refridgerate for a couple of hours.

Sprinkle custards with an even layer of white sugar. Brown sugar with a small blow torch or under the broiler. (the blow torch is more fun!)

Allow to rest briefly, until the sugar hardens.

...is the shortest distance between two points. And also essential for completing the classical knife cuts. And also completely and totally beyond my reach.

If what you want is a tiny perfect little parelellogram cut, I'm your girl. You want a cube or a rectangle? Go talk to someone else.

Practice. Practice. Practice, I know. But goddamn it's frustrating.

I cut potatoes for an hour and a half tonight, and nary a straight vertical cut. Even, consistent, straight across, but all skewed on the vertical axis.

So yeah. Bah. I'm frustrated, and tired of cutting potatoes.

In other news, I aced my food safety exam, so while I may always serve you slightly skewed vegetables, at least I won't poison you.