Lovely example of a mirror presentation - we did these in class but this is not mine!

I have been extremely busy and apologize for my unexplained hiatus. I have a job now! Yay! I’ve been working at Freebird World Burritos since about the middle of January and I’m still in school at Texas Culinary Academy.

We finished up Proteins class then we had Bake Shop for 3 weeks in February with Valentines day falling right in the middle of it. So Brian got a chocolate box with chocolate truffles inside as a Valentines day gift. Unfortunately, I had food poisoning the week before that, so I didn’t really get to enjoy Valentines day or much of Bake Shop for that matter. We are now finishing up Garde Manger which is a class about cold foods such as salads, dressings, and sandwiches as well as the old techniques of  charcuterie or food preservation of the pre-refrigeration era.

Yesterday in Garde Manger, we did a skills assessment exam or speed drill. This exam was identical to the ACF’s Certified Culiarian exam. The exam consists of:

• fabricating a chicken and presenting one bone in, skin on, airline chicken breast, one skinless, boneless chicken breast, one wing, two thighs, two drumsticks (I presented the two tender loins but I don’t think it’s necessary)
• presenting batonnet of carrot and julienne of carrot
• presenting one pound mirepoix
• using the mirepoix and carcass to make chicken stock,
• presenting a composed plate of sauteed airline chicken breast, rice pilaf, and carrots au beurre.
• The exam must be completed in 2.5 hours.

poultry cuts

I really enjoyed this challenge and using Chef Banks’ method of fabricating a chicken, which he refers to as the “Quart of Blood” method, made this exam very easy. I’m incredibly happy to have learned this method I think it will help me tremendously in my future. It was nice to take an assessment that matches the ACF exam and see that I can do all of that and not feel flustered at all. The only problem that I ran into was the physical space we had to work in was very limited, but that’s pretty representative of industry kitchens from what I hear.

Unfortunately, we have recently learned that because our class is a certificate program and not an associates program we will not be eligible to take the ACF exam. We will be lacking a nutrition class and a management class as well as a specified number of hours of college credit as well as the exam which is not included in our curriculum as it is for the associates degree students. So in order to become Certified Culinarians we will need to take the two classes and the exam on our own (and pay for them ourselves), hopefully my bachelor’s degree will count for the hours of college credit even though they aren’t related to food. The news was pretty discouraging to several of my class mates, but I see it as just one more hurdle that I will get over.

In other news I now have a new job which I haven’t started yet. I will be doing prep cooking at AMF bowling. It sounds a little silly, but it’s a very large bowling alley that hosts large corporate parties as well as public play. Their patrons are taken care of by servers just like at a restaurant, but they get to bowl as well. I will hopefully begin work there this week, and I’m planning to keep my job at Freebird because I enjoy working there tremendously. Hopefully working two jobs and going to night school won’t be too crushingly demanding. I only have two and a half more months of labs at school then we start our externships in May. It’s almost over! I think I can make it!

Sauteed Chicken Breast with Rice Pilaff and
Carrots au Beurre

For Chicken:

• 1 skin on, air line chicken breast (wing up to first joint still attached and frenched)
• 3 oz canola oil
• as needed – kosher salt
• as needed – fresh cracked black pepper

For Rice Pilaf:

• 4 oz long grain white rice
• 2 oz onion small dice
• 1 clove garlic minced
• 2 oz butter
• 8 oz. Chicken Stock (or pipe stock…err…water)
• as needed – kosher salt
• as needed – fresh cracked black pepper
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 sprig thyme

For Carrots au Beurre:

• 4 oz carrot batonnet (1/4″ X 1/4″ X 2.5-3″)
• as needed – flat leaf parsley finely minced
• as needed – kosher salt
• as needed – fresh cracked black pepper
• 2 oz butter

1. In a medium sauce pan sweat onion in butter with salt. Do not saute, you don’t want any color on the onions. Sweat until translucent, add garlic and rice. Coat rice in fat and stir until rice becomes translucent. add bay leaf, thyme sprig, and chicken stock and bring to a simmer. Reduce heat to low, cover with lid or aluminum foil. cook on low heat or in 350 degree oven for 13-15 minutes. I cooked mine on the stove top because I would forget about it in the oven, but the French guys insist you do it in the over because it’s gentler, surrounding heat. after about 13 minutes check for doneness and seasoning, adjust if needed.
2. While your rice cooks on low on the back burner, heat the canola oil on medium in a medium size saute pan with sloped sides. Season skin side of breast with salt and pepper. When fat is hot saute the airline chicken breast skin side down, season skinless side with a pinch of salt, baste the skinless side using a large spoon. The technique works well if you put your chicken on the side of the pan opposite from the handle; this way you can tilt the handle side toward you to make the oil pool, scoop it up with the spoon and pour evenly over the breast. Remember though that as you poor the fat over you have to set the pan back down so the skin side cooks as well. It becomes a constant fluid motion. Also, with a bone in chicken breast try to focus your pouring around the bone side because it’s thicker and will cook slower. you don’t want enough oil to completely cover the small side of the breast; if it is covered in fat when the pan is flat the small side will over cook. continue this technique until breast is fully cooked but not over done. If you have doubts use a meat thermometer to measure; after carry over cooking the breast should read at 165 degrees, so take it out of the pan and allow to rest on a rack around 160 or so.
3. When breast is about half way cooked, cook carrots in a small saute pan just covered with water and about 1 tsp salt on medium heat. Cook the carrots until aldente (tender with a slight crunch) when they’ve reach the proper doneness, if the water hasn’t evaporated completely strain and return to the pan. Check for seasoning. Add butter, a pinch of pepper and salt if needed. this part can be done on low heat, the butter should just melt and coat the carrots, you don’t want the carrots to fry, they will become rubbery. once melted and coated remove from heat and toss in a pinch of parsley, if there is an excess of butter dry slightly on paper towel. you don’t want butter to run out on the plate.
4. For plating build a little mound of rice pilaff (minus bay leaf and thyme stem), I used a ramekin as a mold. pile carrots to the side of the rice all going in the same direction, not criss-crossing. Slice chicken breast on a bias starting with small side and working toward the wing bone, position in the same order as sliced in front of rice and carrots on plate, skin side up bone in the back (away from the diner). They should see the chicken first, the rice behind it then the carrots to one side.

Sorry I don’t have any pictures; I hope you can visualize my description.

During the first day of class three weeks ago, Brian’s mom became very sick and had to be rushed to the emergency room! It was very scary, and Brian drove down to Houston to be with his family while I was in class. I never want to imply that I think he should stay with me instead of seeing his sick mother, but that first week of school was a roller coaster of emotion and exhaustion. I didn’t realize how much emotional support I would need to do this until it wasn’t there. I felt sad and alone and anxious because I didn’t know anyone at school and fretful about Brian’s mom. I just needed someone there to give me a hug. Thankfully his mother is doing much better, she’s still in the hospital but will be transferred to a rehab facility this week, but the situation was very scary at the beginning of it all.

I went down to Houston with Brian the weekend after my second week of school, and by that time his mom had woken up and was conscious and we were able to give her the good news that we will be moving to Houston after I’m finished with Culinary School, next summer. I’m so happy to be moving. I love Austin, but I really want to be closer to our families. We will be in the same city as his and only two hours driving time from mine, as opposed to the five hour distance we’re at now. His mom was very happy to hear that we would be closer, I hope that little bit of good news helped with her recovery.

For Thanksgiving I didn’t do any cooking really, other than Boudain dip (one of Brian’s favorites). I left this year’s cooking up to my mom and step dad, and it was quite delicious. They had a deep fried turkey and since Brian is, unfortunately, allergic to poultry, also had a smoked ham. Of course all of the side accoutrement like green been casserole, cornbread dressing, cranberry chutney and pumpkin pie, which is my favorite. My dad gave me my Christmas gift a bit early because it was cash and he wanted me to buy my own gift so I’d have it for Christmas. So I was able to go buy a bran new and very appreciated camera to take better pictures of food!

Today I requested my work hours at Star Nine be reduced even further, so now I will have Tuesday and Thursdays off to look for a new job. I think that Michael, my replacement at Star Nine, has things pretty well under control and I’m so eager to get to work in a kitchen it’s unbelievable. So I sent out about ten resumes to places that wanted them sent via email and tomorrow I have about six other places to apply to in person. I don’t have much real professional kitchen experience, but I just hope my energy and passion will wow somebody and they’ll give me a chance. I just want to work; I want to do what I love doing, but for other people to enjoy.

This coming weekend, we’re having our pot-luck “Thanksgiving” with our friends at our house. We usually have it the weekend before Thanksgiving, but because of the craziness that was going on we had to postpone it. So I will be making gumbo and boudain dip! I think we’re going to sort of transform it into a Christmas gathering, because Brian’s going to set up our tree tonight. I’ll definitely be taking pictures and posting the recipes, and hopefully things will calm down some and I’ll be able to post more often than just every three weeks!

I’ve never won anything before, so when Lucy from Splenda called me this morning to make sure I’m enrolled in culinary school (my title still says Web Developer) I started thinking something might be going on. I thought, “maybe I’m in the running, it’s probably nothing though.”

When she called back this afternoon and said that my Fallen Carrot Souffle won first place in the Splenda Dessert Fame Recipe Contest, I nearly lost it. I was in complete disbelief. I think I said something to the effect of, “Holy crap, are you kidding me?” She wasn’t kidding! I won $3,000! Holy Crap!

Every little bit helps, so $3,000 is just awesome, but the real prize here is the sense of accomplishment, and recognition. I finally feel like I am actually good at this, and someone else thinks so too, and they’re going to give me money for it!

My confidence is through the roof because I can now say I’m a national scholarship and recipe contest winner. For those of you who don’t know me, I don’t usually toot my own horn, I’m not a horn tooter (yeah, I said it), so don’t worry I’m not going to start going on about how amazing I am. But I am definitely going to enter more contests, so I hope you enjoy reading about them.

I already have a degree in journalism. Lately I’ve really had trouble justifying taking out more loans to go back to school for a completely different career. Winning this contest has made me feel like culinary school was the right decision. Cooking makes me happy, I like to do it. I will never have to be forced to cook for someone. In fact, cooking for someone is what I like the most about it.  It’s like another creative outlet, and It comes easily to me. For example, I threw this recipe together in an afternoon; I think it might have even been a weeknight! It was such an easy recipe I didn’t even have to go to the grocery store! So I hope you try it and enjoy it!

Haley’s Original First Place Fallen Carrot Souffle

• 1lb baby carrots
• 1/2 Cup melted butter
• 1 tablespoon butter for greasing
• 3 large eggs
• 1/3 Cup Flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 Cup Splenda Brown sugar
• 3/4 Cup Splenda No Calorie Sweetener Granulated
• 4 teaspoons Splenda No Calorie Sweetenter Granulated (divided)
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350 and place rack in center of oven.

Boil carrots until tender. Drain and mash with a potato masher in a medium mixing bowl. Some small chunks remaining is okay.

Grease four 7oz. ramekins with butter and coat with Splenda No Calorie Sweetener Granulated. Dust off excess Splenda and position ramekins on a foil lined baking sheet.

Mix eggs, flour, baking powder, Splenda Brown Sugar, Splenda No Calorie Sweetener Granulated, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and salt with carrots using a whisk until combined. While whisking, slowly pour melted butter into mixing bowl until incorporated.

Fill ramekins to 1/4-inch from rim and sprinkle the top of each with teaspoon of Splenda No Calorie Sweetener Granulated. Bake for 30 minutes.

What You’ll Get

These are my stories about life, food and the pursuit of happiness. You’ll frequently see recipes in addition to a story, all of which are original unless otherwise noted and usually quite delicious. Please feel free to try out any recipe and let me know what you think.

Culinary School

I graduated from Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts – Austin in July of 2010. Culinary school not only taught me the tips and tricks to creating gastronomic delights but also made me realize my life goals and what I am personally capable of achieving through hard work and will power.