EPISODE 1

Thanks to everyone for the help on the test prep.

Now, fingers crossed, I will pass the pre-test preliminary evaluation, and actually be able to take the test!!!

Worse case scenario, and I am not accepted, I guess I will fall back to the Art Institute.......

But, with everyone's help, I think now I have enough sources and references, and expert question answering websites and message boards to be able to get all the material I need.

Now, if someone could just manufacture about a months worth of time to give me enough time to cram all this in my brain!!!!! LOL

Thanks again, everyone, what a great family here. I will keep you posted on the development of the acceptance process.

Big smile aimed at each of you 8-)

chocoholly

Thanks so much mb!

I only got one silly reply to that one, so haven’t checked it in several hours, I will certainly go look for his post now. How Great!!

I was chatting with rwucla while ago, I started freaking......I only have less than three weeks to get letters of recommendation, HS and college transcripts, and the $150 test fee, and finally schedule the test, take it, and pass it!! I got scared that it is happening too fast, and either won't come together properly, or that I wont pass the test, OR that my financial aid won't come thru........AAAAAAGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!

ok, onto that post....thanks again!!!

chocoholly

Whew, I am glad that is over. But I sure wish I was the giver of the butt kicking, instead of the recipient....LOL

Seriously, I am 50/50 on how I did on the test.

Here's the skinny......100 multiple choice questions, 2 hour time limit. No problem, that’s plenty of time.

I went thru the entire 100, answering ONLY the ones I knew FOR DAMN SURE. And I left the math questions, as they were pretty complicated ones needing algebra which isn’t my strong suit, and I didn’t have a calculator......left those till the end.

31 correct.

The next pass thru, I ONLY answered the ones I felt I could have a good chance of getting right
with an educated guess. If I knew I could eliminate at least two choices, and had a strong feeling about one of the two left, I did those.

35 of those.

I figure, statistically, those being educated guesses, and not wild swings, I should have gotten at least 70% of those right........making roughly 25 more right.

So, now we are at 56 right.

I then went on to the math problems. (very brutal) 5 math questions, I am sure 3 are right.

59 right.

41 left. Wild swinging. statistics would have me getting 25% of those right, approx. although, with a few, I could eliminate at least one choice, raising my percentage of luck, so lets say I got 14 of those right.

73 right, possibly.

The gal said she THOUGHT, (she is just a liaison test proctor) that on this particular test, that you are allowed to miss 35 of them. If so, I should have it. But since she said thought, and not that she knew for damn sure, I am guessing its more like a normal skill evaluation where you have to get 75% right to pass, in which case, I am very borderline.

Either way, I am glad it is over, and I have had many beers since!!!

She said she will overnight it to Charleston, and they should let me know something possibly as early as tomorrow afternoon, so if y'all don’t hear anything from me for a couple of days, it means I am pouting and whining, so you shouldn’t mention this anymore!! LOL If I did pass it tho, I still have the last hurdle to jump......financial aid.

At least I am rounding third base now, tho.

Thanks for all the help from everyone, and the good luck wishes! oh, ps, 4 of the ones I know I got right are because of the last minute cramming yesterday!!

chocoholly

Okay, something weird has been going on with my cell phone lately, that makes it only allow me to hear the last couple of rings when someone calls. (You need to know that to appreciate my actions described next.)

So, here I am, about 11:45 this AM, reading posts in here, checking my email, thinking I have a few more hours of anticipation, when, suddenly, the cell phone rings!! I am in mid-slurp on a huge glass of frosty cold milk.

I not so carefully flung the milk in the general direction of the desk, (clean up to come next) and dove across the bed to get to the other side of the room faster, thankfully aided by the satin comforter and sheets, grabbed my oh so cluttered purse, but by the time I scrambled thru the mess to retrieve the phone, my two rings were up, and the call was passed to voicemail.

I allowed a couple of minutes for the voicemail to be processed, (the longest two minutes of my life, knowing since so few people have my cell phone #, it must be THEM), and I called in to retrieve my voicemail........

"Hello Holly, this is Rosey from Johnson and Wales University in Charleston, I'm calling to congratulate you on how well you did on the exam for the Advanced Standing Program! We will be sending you all the information you need for registration. Registration will be held on June 14, and classes start June 17. We are looking forward to meeting you!"

AAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

Now, I have to secure enough financial aid to be able to cover a dorm room as well as tuition, and I'll be moving to the beach!!!! (OMG, I might be celebrating my 43rd birthday in a dorm filled with people half my age......lol)

Holly "starting to freak out now" Paris

A younger friend of mine (29) was late getting to college, and just graduated, suggested I forget about financial aid, and pay for my tuition by being the beer runner for the minors! LOL He said he did that and charged them a 20% fee, and made a giant screaming butt load of money. Of course, he is ballsy enuf to do it, and slick enuf to not get caught; Me, I'd get caught.

When I scolded him about doing that, he said if he didn't do it, someone else would, so why shouldn't he make the money instead of someone else teehee.

Thank goodness, because of the type of program, there are a lot of older people, so I wont stick out so bad, but I doubt many of the older people are going to be in the dorm with me.

I haven't heard anything about on campus apartments, but with the great cost of living index in Charleston, It would be a lot cheaper to go off campus with an apartment.

A private dorm room (if I can get one), is a little over $10,000 for the duration of the program--- 11 months.

round that off to $1000 a month, including a meal ticket for the campus cafeteria.

I could easily get an apartment for around $500 in Charleston, and with my proclivity for frugality, I could keep the utilities under $200.

Then factoring in the fact that the last 11 weeks are spent doing an internship, which CAN be done in your home state, so I would only need the apartment for about 9 months...

Dorm - $11,000
Apartment - $6,300

(Wow, this is making me want to get an apartment instead! lol)

But, if I can get financial aid to cover the dorm, it would mean me not having to work more hours to be able to pay rent and utilities, and eliminate the hassle of writing checks for the bills each month, making the dorm more attractive, even if more expensive.

I could work a lot less, not having to worry about paying bills, allowing me more time to concentrate on studying. Hopefully I will get a private room, It would be hard to live with some kid I don’t even know, and have to be mindful about noise, and my nakedness.....lol

Okay, before I post about the cookbook, (so far 15 people have responded with an "I'm in!") I want to share with you all the ear-bleeding-stressful crap I have been going thru, and where I am at this point, on the school thing. Thanks to all of you individually for all the emails. This is easier to post here than emailing everyone back.

As posted earlier, I got most of the physical done this morning, with a trip to the county health dept tomorrow to conclude it with a couple of immunizations.

The previously mentioned Mr. Gloom and Doom from J&W Financial Aid Office (here after FAO) told me that the certain form they needed to process me would take 2-3 weeks, and therefore, all was in vein, as registration is this Friday, and classes start next Monday. And besides, getting any information from him is like taking a lion cub from its mommy.

The gov't agency from whence this form comes said only a week.......still too long. that would make its arrival date to me here in GA, the day I should be in SC gettin' some fancy book learnin'.

Still, thinks I, there’s GOTTA be a way to get this processed, and get me all the allowable grants and loans, leaving a small enough balance for me to pay with the funds from selling my car.

So, not being a gal to take no for an answer, I persevere. I called the J&W FAO repeatedly, and hung up on Mr Gloom and Doom, till he had to take a potty break or something, and got hold of another person. BINGO!! Miss Sunshine!!

After a lengthy discussion with her about what we can do, with the paper work I hoarded, I asked her if I could ask for her next call, or was I stuck with Mr. Gloom and Doom. She said, no, she isn’t a FA planner, but an assistant. I said, well, not wanting to be mean, or get anyone in trouble, he really has been of no help for two solid days. In fact, over the course of the three weeks I have been calling you guys and asking can we talk yet, have I jumped thru the proper hoops yet, he has actually be counterproductive for me. She apologized to me, and guess what??

She hooked me up with the DIRECTOR of FA!!!! Now, he is personally on the case, and doing all he can with FAFSA (the gov't org ruling over FA) to get me expedited!!! He said I have a 50/50 on getting done in time for registration.

He said he would work diligently on it, probably needing to call me frequently for info and such. Then asked if I was planning on coming to the school Friday regardless, and I said, well, heck no, if I cant get the FA, to get into the program, there is no need for the trip. He laughed and said he would have a definitive answer for me by mid day on Thursday whether or not I could get enough FA to be able to attend.

WHEW!!!
So now its all down to that. But, like I told mbmusgrove, if it doesn’t happen this year, like we used to say about the BRAVES, pre-1991-----

THERE’S ALWAYS NEXT YEAR!!!!

LOL
By next year, I am already accepted to the program, and that will give me a year of working and saving money, and time to not only work the FA, but to dig around for scholarships as well. so I am no longer freaking, I have resolved myself to the fact that it might be next year.

Thanks again to all of you who have been so wonderfully inquiring, caringly about the status of things.

Holly "so glad I stumbled in here that cold January day" Paris

Alrighty, The Director of FA just called, obviously working overtime, as the office closes at 4:30, and he called after 6pm.

He said he was working it as if he had the form from the FAFSA people that we are waiting for, and he would just basically pretend the form was in front of him until it arrived, and basically pencil-whip me thru.

He worked all the figures, using the most basic grants and loans that everyone is eligible for, and got the figure down from $6715 for the summer quarter, to a mere $1950 that I would have to pay!

Alas, for this 9 month unemployed gal, STILL TOO MUCH. I am going to call the Sally Mae Foundation, the gov't org that loaned me the money when I was at the Art Institute and see if I can get a couple of thousand from them.

At least now I have a friend at FA. What a day this has been.....a great doc giving me a break, and now the FA guy holding my hand to keep me fom falling between the cracks of paperwork.....

If I cant get the 2 grand, at least this great day has restored my faith in the underlying goodness of PEOPLE.

8-)

First, Lemme say

OUCH!!!!

I just got my MMR and Tetanis(sp) shots.

The nurse warned me that the MMR was quite a sting, so I said, Ok, I’m just gonna sit here with my eyes closed, and go to my happy place, you just do what you gotta do.

The first one was quite a pinch, so I am thinking, oh good, she did the worst one first.

WRONG!!

YEEEEEEEEOOOOWWWWWW I said!!

Now I know why my sweet little babies cried so, when they got the MMR. Savannah actually screamed so loud, it was inaudible, when she had hers as an infant! The nurse thought she was holding her breath with her mouth wide open, but after about 30 seconds, she released that, and let go a rip roaring blood curdling one. I liked the silent one better.....lol.

So, any of you with infants, I am adult confirmation of what they are going thru.....give them a lot of extra loving on the MMR trip to the ped.

Anyway, Lets chat tonite!! This might me my last chance for a while!! The brochure says that we have phones in the dorm, but it didn’t say there was a hook up at any of the desks, so I don’t know how often I will be able to get online.

Hope to see you all tonite!!

chocoholly

Tym,
Yeah, there are a lot of scholarships and grants out there, I have found a few websites devoted to them. Most are very specific as to the requirements, such as a high school senior who excelled in sports, or my favorite, a WOMAN returning to college, after at least 10 years beyond high school graduation, ( wink wink!) and my favorite, writing an essay. I have entered two of those.

But......the problem there is again TIME. Most of these things have at least a six month deadline, and I need the money now.

Again, TIME. I found out about this special program so close to the registration time, there hasn’t been enough time to deal with all that. That is why I said earlier, I have resigned myself to accepting the fact it might not work out this time.

I just cant turn away from an impossible challenge!! LOL (I think it is the Super Mom syndrome!)

My last effort, tomorrow I call the Sally Mae Foundation to see if I can qualify for a signature loan, like I did when I was at the Art Institute.

Okay, I am going to bed now, to hopefully dream about Keith Hamilton Cobb, Johnny Depp, and Gina Gershon all fighting over me, instead of dreaming about reams of paper chasing me into a foggy alleyway.........

Okay,

I called Sallie Mae to see about the loan I had secured for attending AIA, and yeah, turns out when I withdrew, the loan voided.

So, my only recourse was to apply for a new loan. Alas, it was as I feared, my unfortunate unemployment of late has caused me enough 30 day late on a few credit cards, and I couldn’t secure a loan without a co-signer.

So, I took a really deep breath, several, actually, and called mom.

At age 42, and being the oldest, I have the honor of standing out as moms only kid who has NEVER had to ask her to do something like this. Even tho both the others have been a lot more successful than me in their careers, (actually one is successful, one MARRIED successfully, lol) I have always been proud of not needing help, and living within my means.

But, I did it. I asked her to co-sign for the loan .And, only for the funds necessary for summer quarter. I will deal with the rest of the year on my own.

so, what that means is......

I AM GOING TO JOHNSON AND WALES! ! ! ! ! !

I am "fixin" to leave to go get the immunizations necessary to complete the physical form, and then I will come back home and pack!!

Whew, its over......

Holly

Hey Mike!
I am from Atlanta, and I am not going to the Mother Campus in RI, I will be attending the Charleston Campus in order to ...

1. be close to home, for every other weekend trips home to see the kids, dogs, and make sure the roomies are watering my plants, and 2. To be near the BEACH!!!!!!!

YEEEEEEEHHAAAWWWWWW!!!!!!!

Okay guys, I am ready to walk out the door, headed to Charleston for the registration/orientation melee. (and a quick trip to the beach!!!)

I will be back home in the wee hours of Saturday morning, to spend the day packing, bathing the dogs, lunch with the kids, and finally, cocktails with the mates.

I will post then about the details of the secret birthday present!

As I said before, I have enough cash, being the Queen of Frugality, to keep me from having to work for at least 2 - 3 weeks, so I should be able to handle this. If not, I will certainly pass the torch.

As of this writing we have 33 people who have responded. I assume that by the time we get going on it, we should have at least 50, and with that small a number (equated to pages in a book) everyone will be able to submit at least two recipes.

Okay, see you all on Saturday!!!!

Holly " by 6pm my toes will be in the ocean" Paris

Flowerchick,
Go for it!

It is amazing, the diverse group of people in a culinary school. People there for all kinds of reasons.

Pimply faced just-graduated boys who cooked during the summer at their uncles restaurant, and got the bug, who dream of becoming a famous chef.

People like my roommate (new one at the dorm), with zero personality, and speaking as a photographer, have less than zero screen appeal, who dream of "Knocking Emeril off his high horse, and taking over his spot on FTV". (sigh......)

When I was at AIA, there was a much older gal (60's), who obviously came from old money, (you can smell that on people, its a southern thing....lol), who dabbled in writing, and had been published a few times, and she was going thru the 2 year program, just to be able to know more about food, to write better about it. I thought that was pretty cool.

Then, people like me, who want to get the culinary degree, and possibly take a couple more courses somewhere to hone either my writing or my photography skills, and possibly work at a magazine, or on a TV show.

If you haven’t read my post above yet, chick, they have a course called "Garnish Your Degree", for people that have a degree in something, anything else, that you can get a second major in a year of study. You couldn’t do that part time, of course, it is an intense 11 month program like the one I am in, but you could certainly go, taking one class at a time, and eventually end up with a second degree! You should do it!! Even if you just went to the Garnish program for the first quarter, you would come out with an unbelievable amount of practical working knowledge that would serve you well.

Any estimate on how long it will take to build the school?

Okay, now back to my chores.

chocoholly

Hey Gang!

I am back from Charleston. I have 79 things to do today, this being among them, so I'd best get cracking.

Registration was simple and easy. I was amazed. Probably due to the fact that there were less than 100 students there, to be attending for the summer. Summer quarter is obviously only for the advanced programs. Besides the one I am in, there are two others, it seems, one for baking and pastry specialty majors, and one for F&B Management majors. Oh, oh yeah, and one more advanced program I forgot about.. One called "Garnish Your Degree", where people who already have a degree can get a second major in the same time as the program I am attending. (flowerchick, flowerchick, bueller?)

I LOVE THE SCHOOL!!

As many 3 day weekends as I have spent in Charleston, and passed by the school, I never knew it was there. It is an old cigar warehouse. Brick walls, hard wood floors, and it smells wonderful from all the wood. At the back corner of the building, it angles in, making a little square of land left open, where they have made an herb garden, where we will pick herbs to cook with, then in the spring, re-plant the herbs for the next class to use.

I was sitting outside at one of the picnic tables waiting for the hemming gal to finish hemming my pants, and a storm started brewing. It got really cloudy, (and thankfully cooled off), and the wind was blowing like crazy, and it blew the aroma of basil everywhere, as if someone had a spray can of basil scent, spraying it all over the outside.......oh it was lovely.

I then went to get my housing assignment. Boy, the place is a dump. And getting there so late, I had to take an upstairs apartment. Little OLD me, having to haul my heavy puter stuff up all those stairs....,not looking forward to that. But the pool is right behind the tennis courts, which is right behind my building, so at least there is something optimistic. I don't get it tho.....They should have housing for all 1500 students that the school will hold, coz who knows if every single student enrolled at a given quarter might be from out of town, And yet, with only 100 students attending, all they had left for me was an apartment that hadn't even been cleaned yet? anyway.....

It kept storming off and on for the rest of the afternoon, so that made my walking trip around historical downtown out of the question, I had wanted to get some really good pics to share with you all.

So, I went out toward Sullivans Island, and Isle of Palm, looking for a public beach to go walk on the beach, but the storming kept up. I finally ended up in a restaurant that Mbmusgrove recommended, The Boathouse. The had a great outdoor bar on the roof where you could see over the houses, for a view of the ocean, and on the other side, the, I guess it would be called a harbor. Boats, dolphins, sun setting, it was great. And they have the best crab cakes I have ever eatten. (eatten? eatten? is that how it is spelled eatten? it doesn't look right. It is even a word? eatten? eatten? the word, if it is one, has lost all meaning now.) LOL I will definitely be back there as often as my budget allows.

I snapped a few digital pics of some really cool beach houses, but they didn't come out as well as expected, so I will use my real camera next time.

okay, on to some chores, then reading the rest of the responses about the birthday surprise, to finalize the plans on that. Will post later about it.

Holly "cant wait to get back to Charleston" Paris 

Hey Gang!!

I finally got my puter set up late last night, but had problems with the dialing stuff that I wont go into, but finally, here I am!!

School is great!! But VERY intense. The summer quarter is a review of what most of us know, or should know, along with several academic classes, and we cover in 7 days what a standard program would spend an entire quarter on. Its like doing the freshman year in 11 weeks. In September, we become Sophomores.

I have Meat Cutting from 7am to 12:45 (in a lab where the temp averages 40º, (and I didn't bring a single article of clothing with me that has long sleeves), then Biology from 1:30 to 4:30.

After 7 days of that, it changes to two different classes, same hours, ad infinitum till the end of august.

And by the way, the thing about the Charlotte Campus, it is still in debate, for those concerned, like Flowerchick.... The entire staff of the school was at a meeting today, debating the two sides of their coin, whether to open another satellite campus in Charlotte, or to close the Charleston campus, and move the whole thing to Charlotte, to an old hospital they would turn into a school.

This wont affect me, as I will only be here a year, and whichever they decide, it certainly won't happen that quickly.

Our instructors are incredibly cool. The Chef who teaches meat cutting is adorable. And I didn't waste anytime starting my "teacher butt kissing" campaign. (teehee!) With only 7 days per class, there is no time to waste! Pearson, the Meat Cutting Chef mentioned he liked the new microwave pork rinds, so I bought him a pack yesterday!!

I got here Sunday evening, and have already been to the beach twice! lol. But I have a couple of papers due soon, so I will stay home tonight and work.

Anyway, on to the business at hand. I finally found the post office, and an Office Depot, and probably after I write this, I will go do the necessary running around to get the info needed for the cookbooks. I will post later this evening, hopefully.

Both my roomies are phone talkers, and neither very puter savvy, so they tie up the phone lines alot. One girl is very quiet, the other is a party girl. So are the dudes next door we share a porch with, and the porch has become the party spot! Its been fun so far!! Alcohol is "STRICTLY FORBIDDEN" in the dorm apartments, but it is fun feeling like a kid, sneaking beer in, and the empties back out!! lol.

I'll let you guys know when I get the pricing done.

Surfs UP!!
Holly

Monday afternoon, at the beach, I saw a baby shark! I was collecting some shells, about hip deep, and marveling at two crabs I could see a couple of feet from me, and something caught my eye about 15 feet away, I looked over, and saw bay jaws!! I tell ya, this old lady broke the sound barrier hurdling the water back to shore!!!

And when I say baby, I don't know what type of shark he was, he was about 4 feet in length, he might not have been a baby, he mighta been a teenager. But it scared the hell out of me either way!! Now, I won't go in over my shins.....lol. 

Dang, guys,
except for the couple of you who have done this, I think Jamie and Brian, (right?) You just cant imagine how intensive this is.

Today, I had a quiz on the primal and subprimal cuts of both Veal and Lamb. I seriously thought I flunked it, there was stuff on there we didn't go over in class, and I have a hard time reading the material and comprehending it myself, without lectures from Chef, but with the grace of luck, multiple choice, and good logical deductive reasoning, I only missed 2 of 30 questions.

After the quiz, we went to lab (the 40º room, and me without a single long sleeved shirt.....) and fabricated (cut up) a huge hunk of pork (whose name I missed on the test......lol). It was the whole middle section. We took out the tenderloin, cut off the ribs, the riblets, cut out a funky bone, till we were left with the big ol' loin part. We then proceeded to cut that up into certain size pieces, and cry-o-vac packed all of them.

THEN.....we "boned out" 150 rabbit hind quarters for a function the school is hosting for Chefs from around the country Saturday night.

THEN......(are you getting tired yet?) Back to the classroom for another lecture on Variety Meats, and our assignments for a short summary on an article about innovative ideas in the meat industry. I asked Chef if it had to be recent, that I would like to do mine on SPAM, and its impact on the Military and, yes, Sarah, on Hawaii and other islands. His response? "Oh Hell yeah!! You just cant talk enough about SPAM!!"

He is one helluva guy. I think he is going down in my book as my best instructor EVER. And, luckily, he is also my advisor! (I think I am getting one of those patient/doctor crushes on him.....lol)

Anyway, the intensity....They teach us the subject at hand, but throw in practical business stuff when the lecture or conversation gives way to it. This is a meat cutting class, but Chef also throws in stuff about food cost (a whole other class), about employees stealing, and the pitfalls of having to hire and fire people, and ALWAYS with a hilarious story to go with it!

Anyway, time to get to my SPAM research! Ill let you all know when Carl and I figure out who is doing what on the cookbook.

H.

The address is 
1671 North Woodmere Dr
Apartment 22
Charleston, SC 29407

Care Package?
Next quarters tuition
Something from Gilroy
some homemade cookies
a science tutor
an inventive way to hide Vodka from the monthly random inspections of the dorm apts.....
LOL!

Okay, back to the research. I need to find one more source to cite for my paper on SPAM! Then, study for the Meat quiz, and Science test.

hugs to all,
H.

Ok,
Believe it or not, we just had finals today in our Meat Cutting class!! I made an A on the "practical" (hands on) test, and think I did reasonably well on the written test, thanks to freaky Jules who lives next door. He sat on "The Rotting Seaweed" (our shared balcony) with me for three hours, while he'd rather play spades with his buddies, and drilled me on Beef, Veal, Lamb, and Pork carcasses, and USDA inspections, AND, primal and subprimal cuts of meats.

We had a test on Carbohydrates in Biology today, and again, thanks to Jules, I know I passed it. (I am not hoping for more than a C in that class........sigh.) Tho, it is finally starting to make sense, as he is finally applying the info toward food.

The Culinary class is over, and a new one starts tomorrow, altho, the academic class (biology) goes on for, I think 6 more days, we had less homework and studying, so we went, where??? TO THE BEACH!!!

I m collecting sea shells like a homeless person collecting quarters.

Okay, more on that later. Man, I miss so much on the board!!!

Okay, first, I will post this again, or email Carl and have him post, but he has some great ideas about the cookbook, and he has the time to deal with it, so I am turning it over to him.

Second, about AB being so appealing to women...... (sorry, I haven't the time to read all the follow up posts on the subject, so I put in my late $0.02 here) Here's a secret to you guys..... Most women don't really go for the hot looking dudes. (well the superficial ones do.....) Most gals find INTELLIGENCE and SENSE OF HUMOR two of the top three attractiveness features. The third being that raw, chemical attraction thing.

Guys are by nature a lot more visual in their "judgments" than women are. Instinctively, women look for the above mentioned qualities, because they are representative of the "leaders" of the tribe. Its very basic, very primal. The strongest, the smartest, the funniest--- all those people entertain, amuse, and command attention, and end up being the most popular, therefore, the most desirable for mating.

Your grandma taught you, "Beauty is only skin deep", and she was right. A hot looking guy is good to take out and show off, But an intelligent, funny guy is fun to be around, he entertains your friends, he can talk to anyone about just about anything, and that is what we find attractive in a guy, like AB!

And, I hadn't really thought about it, but, yeah, I could easily bump someone off my "list", and add AB!! (The funny intelligent guys are always so much "better" than the cute ones.......girls, you know what I am talking about!!)

Time for a little studying on Lipids, then to bed to dream of my next visit to the beach......

As I have mentioned before, I am a Grade Ho.

I brought Chef Pearson, from the Meat Cutting class microwavable Pork Rinds after he mentioned liking them, and Spam Spread after seeing him drool over it, when discussing Spam, then last night I cooked 40 Cloves and a Chicken....... He overheard me and the guys talking about it, so I brought him a sample of it today!

I waited till class was over, so the mates wouldn't tease me about butt kissing, but when I said, "Oh Chef, I forgot, I have something for you..." And he said 'Damn, three presents in a week?" I started to say "Oh, hell, never mind!", but I gave it to him anyway. Who knows, if he eats it, it might make the difference between an A and a B. All the mates were freaking about how good it was!!!

Okay, time for bed. 6 AM comes early.......argh.
good night all.

Hey gang.

I posted last night about ABs you know what that we are trying to do, but there have been so many posts since then, I don't know if everyone got the opportunity to read it.

CARL....I will email you to make sure you are aware of this.....

Carl has wonderfully volunteered to deal with the cookbook for us all. He as a business grade printer, and can do it for minimal costs saving everyone lots of money, and will help those less puter literate of us create a page.

Another update on school.....I posted a little bit in the post about 1/3 of the way down this page, last night, for any of those of you that I have become close to, and are interested, you can read that. Further than that, today we got back the results from the second test in biology, and I scored a 72, as on the first test. (typically, I would not be happy with grades like that, but I don't have clue what the hell the teacher is talking about, but with the help of Freaky Jules, and some lucky guessing, I am going to pass, and am just happy with that......lol)

We will have the results from our written final exam in meat cutting, along with the grade for the whole class on Monday. All my lab work was good, and is the major portion of the grade, so even tho I only had about a B average on the daily tests, I stand agood chance of making an A in the class, overall. It all depends on how Chef looks at butt kissing. I did a lot of it, and he could swing either way, as far as my lab work, depending on how he looks a butt kissing. (I have a serious crush on him......lol.)

We started Continental Cuisine today, and boy am I glad we only have 6 more days of that. 19 people crammed in a lab kitchen that should comfortably hold about 10, maybe 12 people. We were bumping into each other, it was very annoying.

Anyway, Freaky Jules and I are headed back to the beach for a couple of hours, where we are going to study Lipids, coz I sucked on the test today, and to go over what we do in Continental Cuisine tomorrow.

More later.

H.

OMG, Dude,

I HATE the class we have for these 7 days. If I still have 1/2 a brain, after this bitchin, I will elaborate, but suffice it to say that the class is short, so we don't have time to get our s**t* together. We go in at 7am, lecture for 45 minutes, a 10 minute break, then 5 hours of "production".

We cook for 3 1/2 hours, to cook food for the Dining Room Service Class to have real food to practice with. (only good side of it is we are the people who get to sit down and be served the food by the dining room class!!) We don't learn anything, unless we are assigned something we aren't familiar with, then Chef will assist us.

But, since we are only there for 7 days, we don't get time to get a system going. For example, we only have so many burners on the stoves available, right? So, three different groups need clarified butter in their recipes, so instead of combining together, and doing it in one pot, there are three different pots of butter melting on the stove, making less room for other items that have to go on the stove top, PLUS, more dishes to wash at the end of class. We are supposed to be done at 1pm, wit a 30 minute break till our 1:30 Biology class, which we use wisely to study for the daily quizzes in Bio, but the first two days of Continental Cuisine, we have been let out at 1:21, and 1:19. ARGH!!!!

I just found out that our current events reports are due tomorrow in Biology, I thought it was next Tuesday, for some reason, and whipped out all four in about two hours, from ground zero.

When we are finally "released" from the class, we all walk out, saying, "only 6 more days......" "only 5 more days..."

It is so intense, we are all snapping at each other, there was almost a fight today between two of the guys.....

I almost "lit into" one of the TA's (teacher assistants). She was telling the kitchen group not to "be pigs", and save some of the food for the dining room staff. After saying that the third time, I said, "Dude, (you gotta say dude), I don't even have a "meal", I have a small portion of cauliflower. So and so over there has nothing but a rabbit leg, the 10 of us combined barely have 4 meals between us, what are you talking about?!??!!"

She really gets on my nerves.

Anyway, I am slap crazy from the studying, and paper writing.

I will write tomorrow.
H.

Okay, I am 42 years old, a mom, and within 8 years or so, could become a grandmother, right? I am proud of my vocabulary and diction. Today I found myself in this conversation.......

Me - "Dude, when I was coming into our apartment complex after school, I peeped a couple of those resin patio chairs we (not we've) been talking 'bout gettin', out by a dumpster!! Guess they are cleaning out some crack heads place."

Amanda - (yeah, we call girls dudes as well....) "Dude, you shoulda got em!! Free Stuff! Go back and pick 'em up bitch!"

Me - "Yeah, Dude, free furniture is the best furniture!! I'm on the puter right now, but I am headed toward the waves soon, I'll grab em on the way!!"

Amanda - "Yeah Dude, we don't want to miss that, free chairs..."

Me - "Hell yeah dude, that'd be painful......."

Amanda - "What kind of crack head would leave good furniture, I just don't get it.....(sigh)"

Thank god I start English class on the 8th..... lol

holly tamale

Okay, all the mates call me the Soup Nazi, coz Soups, especially bean and pea soups are my strong suit.

Today, we got our assignments for Monday, and I am "soup de jour". (da, du, whatever) The Theme is SPAIN/PORTUGAL.

I want to knock Chefs socks off. (tho, not as badly as I want to charm the pants off my other chef.......Oh, did I say that out loud?!!)

Anyway, the two menu soups are Spanish Vegetable Soup, AND Roasted Garlic, Sun Dried Tomato, Cilantro Soup.

Anyone wanna save me some valuable time from doing research, and give me some recipes you might have for a Spanish, or Portuguese soup? I will need several different ideas to be ready with, as availability of product could be a problem if I go in armed with only one idea.

I especially like the idea of a meaty, beany soup..... I want to be the Soup Uber-Nazi.....lol.

Thanks for any and all help, I am now over and out, and gone to the beach. Talk to you all when I get back!!

H. 

OOPS..... Remembering that the teachers don't bother making an amended syllabus for the Advanced students in the summer, I thought to verify with the mates about the regional theme for Monday, and it is Italy.

Here is a list of the standard menu items that my soup du jour will be accompanying.....

Osso Buco
Roasted Chicken ith Basil/Garlic Sauce
Parmesan Omelet Souffle
Vegetarian Lasagna
Lemon Orzo
Roasted New Potatoes with Rosemary and Garlic
Roasted Beets
Calabrian Tomatoes
Eggplant Scarpece

Any soup suggestions??

Thanks to Harvey, Bri, and Carlabean for suggestions. Ive copy/pasted the recipes/suggestions to keep for later reference.

Time to do the biology paper.......argh.

chocoholly 

Class: Meat Cutting Skills
Student : Holly Paris
Final Exam Score : 92

Class Grade: A ! ! ! ! ! ! !

I got an A ! ! 

Holy S***!! I am so relieved! ! !

The second culinary class I am in the middle of right now, and the longer biology class both end the same time, next Monday. That really sux, coz we go the next to last day, July 3rd, then take off for 4 days, and come back Monday to do both final exams on one day. Ugh!

I am finally doing okay in biology. Freaky Jules (whose studying guiding got me that 92 on the meat cutting final) has been helping me on the biology, and I have at least a slight concept of it, and now, I think I might have posted this, not sure, but I have figured out, after 4 tests, that if I answer Fatty Acid, Glucose, monosaccharides to all multiple choice, and answer false to all T/F's, I will get a B on the test. He is really making it easy, he's a great old man, and wants us to not damage our GPAs with academics. But it took me three of the tests to figure that system out.....lol. But I made an 80 on the last quiz.

Well, onto answer emails before I study. But, first a well deserved beer!!

chocoholly

I went to some of the websites you guys recommended, and found 5 recipes that were different from our standard menu soups for this region. (one of you, sorry, I forgot who, posted a couple of recipes, but they were almost identical to the menu ones we had, the tomato bread, and bean soups, so I had to find something different).

One was a pasta, bean, sausage soup, another was a rice/sausage soup, and all sounded good, but I found a gazpacho that sounded great, and I ended up doing that for two reasons.....
1. I have never made gazpacho before.
2. It sounded like a quick make.
    a. I got sunburned yesterday, and a heatless' soup sounded great.
    b. If I got finished quick, I could attack the piles of pots and pans, and get us ahead on clean up.

It was initially "Pineapple and Red Pepper Gazacho", but we didn't have any pineapples, so Chef found me some mangos to sub.

simple recipe:
Mangos
Cucumbers
Red Peppers
Yellow Peppers
Onions
Italian Parsley
minced Jalapeno pepper
Pineapple juice (which we had).

run it all thru food processor and chill!!!

It was EXCELLENT!! The cucumbers and mangos puréed smoothly, but the peppers and onions wouldn't go past a fine mince, so it was pale yellow with the tiniest flecks of red, brighter yellow and green in it!! Beautiful!! To garnish it, I whipped some cream, piped a dollop of it in the center, and garnished with julienne red, green and red peppers.

Then did a giant screaming buttload of pots and pans!

I just cant describe to you the amount of pans we have to wash. If you read my post about how chaotic the class is, and how we don't have time to get a team system going, Three different groups will have butter on the stove to clarify in three different pots, then someone will use a sheet pan to crust some bread, and throw it in the dish room, then right behind them, someone needs a sheet pan for something else, they go get a new one, when that bread pan could be used.....you get the picture.

And those of us who DO wash them (Lots of people have never touched the dishwater since class began), have devised a system of scrubbing the nasty stuff in the thawing sinks, so when it gets to the three compartment dish sink, it doesn't grotty-up the water, helping us not to have to stop, drain and refill the sink so often, but those people who don't know our system, coz they never clean, come throw grotty stuff in the dish sink.......argh!!

Honestly, between sheet pans, stock pots, sauce pans, sauté pans, ladles, whisks, molds, spoons, lexans, etc, we probably have over 600 pieces of equipment, and at the end of production, there might be two or three stockpots, a couple of sheet pans, and a couple of bowls left unused. And the ones of us who have academic classes after culinary ones are the ones over there washing, coz we want our break between classes.

But enuf bitching.

More bitching later.....lol.

But, Hey, I got an A in meat cutting!! Nothing else matters at this moment......

chocoholly

Okay, a rant.

besides the fact that I am not a girlie girl, and wear no other makeup than mascara to keep from looking like a ghost, at school, we can wear no makeup, and must have our hair put up.

Knowing that, how f'ing long can a girl spend in the bathroom in the morning?????

We leave for school at 6:30am. I get up at 6:05. the night before, I shower, lay out my uniform, pack my backpack, and make a p'nut butter sandwich just incase. (we actually eat in this class.).

This morning, I got up at 6:05 as usual. Both the other girls were in both the bathrooms. I gotta PEEEEEEEEE bad. finally, 6:15 the one I share a bathroom with comes out. I run in there cussing, pee, grab my brush, back in the living room to put my hair up. Meanwhile, I have dressed. I go back to brush my teeth, slap on a little mascara and moisturizer, and out the door, but Amanda is BACK in the bathroom!!

She finally came out at 6:27!!!! I had THREE minutes to get ready!!!

Toward the end of the quarter, I will be looking for an apartment with a dude for a roomie, for the fall. That is just insane for them to be so inconsiderate of me. I let them use my puter, I have cooked three big meals for all 8 of us, and all they do is eat my plums and my cheese, and drink my beer.

Okay, enuf on that......

I also had an unfortunate incident with a cactus yesterday, trying to pick off a little bud part of it to root....... I carefully put my fingers between the stickers, but unknown to me, there were little microscopic, smaller than hair stickers in between the big stickers!!!! I got most of them out, and had to drive home with the sticker fingers, but a couple lodged in deep, and it is hard to type with the little sore things where they are.......but I learned a lesson!!!

okay, freaky Jules needs to use my puter....just coz he is in my apartment. HE has one of his own next door, but you know how that goes.....lol. He is my little puppy, so I'll let him.

Have a good Tuesday everyone, talk to ya tomorrow.

chocoholly

Hey gang.

That was cool to get a mention in the interview, but really, it wasn't ABOUT me, it was about all of you being so cool, and supportive.

And she is right. When something happens at school, my first thought is, damn, I cant wait to get home and post about that!!

There are so many things that happen, that is so hard to explain in words, that I don't get to tell you about.

Maybe it is time to try.

We have two young kids in the class who have a good bit of experience in the business. One is about 23, the other only 18. the 23 year old is Billy, or as we refer to him, Little Escoffier. (its late, excuse any typos, or spelling problems.) The 18 year old, Rob, we call Frosty, because his highlighted, heavily coiffed hair.

Little Escoffier is basically harmless, but irritates me to no end with his endless nodding of the head whenever Chef tells us something, like he knows everything, and has to confirm what Chef says with a vigorous nod, and finishing Chefs sentences. Until today. As I said, there are several people who haven't had their hands in dishwater since we started this program. Little E is one of them. Today, I shouted out, after having to change the dishwater for the 4th time in 20 minutes, "Hey Guys, if your pots, pans, dishes, whatever, have ANY food particles on them AT ALL, DO NOT put them in the sink. Clean out the food and grease in the thawing sink before bringing them to the dish sink!!"

Shortly thereafter, Little E brings a sheet pan with martini glasses of smoked salmon salad, and lays them on the "on deck circle" of the sink, JUST AS I was starting to lay a cleaned out pan there to be washed, and he started to walk away from it.

I said, not quietly, "Hey Dude, come back and get that! It doesn't belong there, and I cant put my pan there, which DOES belong there!"

He stood there, like he couldn't figure out what to do. Should he obey the old lady, or tell her to piss off?? While he was in the throes of indecision, I let him know that I didn't have time for his slacking, and threw the pan toward the on deck circle, knocking over the glasses that I had subliminally made him responsible for!! LOL

End result? He did what this old lady told him to do.

Now, Frosty is a whole different story. In a situation like this program, especially this class, where we are actually in production, preparing food for another class to serve, it is just like being on the line in a real restaurant. TEAMWORK!!!!! The second day of class, Frosty took the rabbit entrée my partner and I had made, out of the oven, and put it in one that didnt work, just to make room for his.... slacker!!! He thinks this is some kind of competition.....He is too young to realize that not only do we need to get along and work well together, but that word in the industry travels. He could be digging himself a grave.

Also, while we are cleaning, he and Little E are standing there with their arms folded, schmoozing with Chef. We have started yelling, "Hey Rob, wanna pick up a broom, and learn to work it??" and other such things.

We have thought about, last day of this class, the big boys in the class picking up Frosty, turning him upside down, and dunking his head in nasty dishwater......

Today, I was making green beans with apples and bacon, and I didn't think I had enough apples, so I saw some in front of Frosty. I went over there, and said "These yours?". He nodded. I picked two of the six of them up, and said, "I need some more."

I heard him say under his breath, "Nice of her to ask". (notice, he didn't DO anything when I took them). I turned around and said, "Wanna talk about being bad, ROB, lets go back to last week when you took my rabbit out of the oven just to make room for what you were cooking, that was just wrong."

Frostys response?
"Jeez, that was a week ago."
I looked at him and said,
"Dude, are you smoking crack? You think there is some kind of time limit for how long a bad thing is actually bad? You think after a certain time, you get absolution?"

Meanwhile, my 6'6", 275 lb neighbor has been riding Frostys ass.

Frosty has now missed three days of our biology class, because he doesn't have the structured security of Lab class....... And he actually complimented my tomato roses that I made for garnish. He is scared of us....lol. As well he should be.

Anyway, sorry I missed the chat tonite. I had the eternal problem of the downloading chat stuff, and every time I tried to download it, it would boot my ISP not only off line, but drop it back to a desk top icon, quicker than my puter has ever moved.

DanC, I may be shouting out for some help soon!!!

Well, I am on my way to bed, (or to sofa), and in the am, headed back to the Atlanta area for the long weekend. Hopefully, I will have a travel companion to share the driving time, but we are waiting on a call from his mechanic to see if his car is ready in Atlanta to pick up. If it is not, he wont be going. His name is Trevor. More on him later.

Have a safe weekend all, more to come. 8-)

H. 

Hey Gang!

Back home in Atlanta for the weekend. Unfortunately, between homework, laundry and studying for three tests on Monday, It wont be a fun vacation trip.

I have a paper to write for both classes, a take home quiz for Continental Cuisine, THEN.....studying for the final in Continental, and a test on the digestive system first thing in biology, then after a break, the final exam for biology.....WHEW!!

But, back to the subject, Tapas. I had to research 5 books, and 5 websites for the Cont. Cuisine paper, and got interested in Tapas. I have never been to a tapas bar, but am familiar with the concept, and want to learn more. 

Favorite Tapas recipes everyone? ? ? ? 

Back to the paper, will check in later.

chocoholly

Whoa, just hold up there a second, Faith...

There is a homesick GA girl here in Charleston who is hankering for some mater sammiches, made with home grown Jawja maters.....

Funny you should mention that today, I was sitting in English class, starting to get a little rumbling in my tummy, and strayed off, thinking about a lovely tomato sandwich, white bread, dripping with mayo and tomato juice, salted and peppered to perfection.....

Ah, my mind is wandering again!

If you need my address, just let me know!! lol

chocoholly

Hey Gang!

Remember how I was having trouble trying to deal with all that abstract crap in biology?

Well, things started to sink in, and the last two tests from Monday, plus my paperwork (current events, and research paper) that I turned in on the last day of class all came out good, and just barely pushed me over the edge, from a 77 (C+) to an astounding 80.77 (B-) ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

I am so F'ing excited!!!

We should get our grades from Continental Cuisine by Friday. All my paperwork was A's, but our class work counts for 60% of the grade, and there were a couple of times that I know Chef was irked at me, so I am worried about not getting an A in there........argh.

One of the many loans I have for school is one directly from the school, and if I graduate with a 3.5 GPA, I only have to pay back 1/2 of that. a 4.0, and I owe them nothing! (just for that one particular loan.) So, even if I make a high B in Con. Cus., I will still be just a tad over 3.5. woohoo I know I will make an A in English - - English has always been my strong suit, plus, the teacher likes me, and as I have said, I am a butt kisser in the grandest way....lol. And I am doing pretty well in both the butt kissing and class work in Dining Room too.

Anyway, enuf rambling. I have permission from the boys to watch JEOPARDY! tonite on their TV, so I gotta get busy, and be able to watch it!

chocoholly

Wow, it feels like I have been here going to school for three or four months!

Our English class is a lot of fun. We had to do the first draft of a paper a couple of days ago, about the most significant thing to happen to us in the past ten years. He corrected them and gave them back to us at the end of class, and he wrote on mine, "What an interesting experience! Great paper, very few errors to correct."

We got our grades back from Continental today, and I had been worried, thinking Chef didn't think too much of me, but I got a 93!!

So far, I have
Meat Cutting - 91
Biology - 81
Continental - 93.

That's what, about a 3.8 average? Gotta get a few more 90 plus grades to pull up to a 4.0, so I don't have to pay back that one loan from the school. Yeah, Baby!!

Carl, I promise to get my recipe to ya this weekend.

No homework for the weekend, so tomorrow, I am going trolling!! (wink wink, nudge, nudge!) I have been having unwholesome thoughts about this young 20something in class, so I need to cure myself.....LOL

I have to do a restaurant review for Dining Room class, and we have to go someplace nice, where they would actually use the rules of service etiquette that we are learning, and that would be the perfect kinda place to go fishing.

wish me luck!

Chocoholly

Well, its official. I am now a bona fide college student. I got my initiation today. More on that in a sec, first, let me say this...

We finished Dining Room class today. I had a 93 average on my class quizzes. Made a 91 on the final exam. Got a perfect on my "practical" final yesterday. Teacher likes me. And finally, on the research paper we turned in yesterday, she wrote on mine, "this is so good, it is publishable material! Excellent! 100 A++"

Yeah me!!! That really made me feel good, after only getting a 90 on what I thought was a perfect paper in English.

Teacher gal said she would try to have our class grades by tomorrow. I'll let ya know how it went. I am working for a 93 or 94 in the class to bring me back up to over 90 average for collective grade.

Well, its almost 11pm, and I can finally get around to my emails.

Okay, got the Dining Room class grade today...

95 ! ! !

That brings my collective grade of all classes to a 90!! woooohoooo!

4.0 ! ! ! !

Got some research papers to get done, so not much right now to chat about.

All of you interested in my college experience, if you haven't, read my post about half way down from here, titled "Oh Boy..." It's a giant screaming buttload of laughs!!

till next time,

H.

Okay,

Lab class, American Regional went fine. Good. All is well, we even got out early. So, there we were, our motley crew, and the other group of Advanced Standing people we refer to as "group 2", as if we were the supreme class (lol) waiting for our English class to start.

(oh, by the way, the next to oldest person in our class, Mike, took Frosty, (little escoffier) aside and told him he'd better start hustling, coz the rest of the class is about to kick his ass, so frosty skipped English....his second absence>>class failed).

So, anyway, everyone is singing, having a good time. Jules and I noticed that there was some strange energy vibrating thru the place. Just strange energy.

About 30 minutes after we got out of class, 30 minutes before English, Big Jason came out and said that he had been in the snack room on the third floor, and the payphone rang. He answered it, and it was a bomb threat!

So, we evacuated the campus, and went across the street to the shade of the presidents house. We just hung out, and actually had a pretty good time. Still strange energy.

So, finally we go back in, and to English class. We are writing a paper on the puter, relating the movie, The Silence of the Lambs to Joseph Campbells theory of The Hero's Journey. We take a quick break, and the other girl in class asked me to look at her paper, and see if anything was wrong. 20 minutes later we are back in class, her paper with much red ink on it, and I have a hard trouble focusing on my line of thought on my paper after editing hers.

So, I finish and print my paper under duress from the professor, coz he is ready to go, and I hadn't saved mine on disk for the upcoming final draft, and the puter froze! Now I will have to retype the whole thing, coz I couldn't save it to disk!

Then, fretting about that on the way home, I got a nose bleed! (that's what nerds (not geeks) do when they stress.)

So, I stop by THE STORE to get supplies for the weekend, and my debit card was declined!! By my account, I should have somewhere in the neighborhood of $300 to make my car payment with.......Oh Crap!!!

I was planning on going to the Riverdogs (minor league baseball) game tonite with Andy, but I guess that is out.

Oh well, tomorrow is another day.

Oh, but one good thing....... Jeremy the young thing that is the object of my lust, was bouncing a basketball around with his friend during the bomb threat / waiting time, and he took his shirt off...

OH Man.......

I found my happy place......

So,I guess the day was salvaged by that one act.

LOL

I am very sleep deprived, and going to crash.

Love to all,
chocoholly

Hey Gang!

After having to do "A PAPER" in each class, and grueling thru three of them already in English class, I decided to do my final research paper in English on Social Security Privatization; an issue I feel strongly about as a Libertarian. I didn't have a clue what I was getting myself into.....argh.

I had most of the facts about Social Security, and Private Security, about the expected returns of each, why certain classes, races, and sexes would benefit from it, but there was a hole in what I have----how to handle the transition between the two systems. I finally got on line and found a website that gives the answer. 14 pages of answer......lol. printing it now, will read it during class break tomorrow, but my brain is dead. I wrote the following while waiting to get my fair share (yeah, right) of the phone line to get here........

I had a great idea today in English class. we have to type a journal each day for thirty minutes at the beginning of class. I started thinking about the person who posted about another board where a girl is starting cooking school (I have so many thoughts on that, if any of you read her posts.....lol), and she is posting a type of journal for the people of that board to learn what culinary school is about. And it came to me.

My posts here will probably be of unestimable value to me in years to come, I should be saving them and documenting them to disk!

So, God help me, as you know, I have SOOO much free time on my hands, lol..... I am going to go back over the past 5 weeks of school, on the board, and copy and paste my posts about what is happening, and a few select replys to them, and make myself a journal of it!!

I am actually typing this on my WP, and will copy and paste when I eventually get online, Lisa is on the phone right now, and Amandas Posse starts calling around 10pm, so hopefully, I will have a short window to get online and post this, and check out another website for my research paper to be done in class tomorrow.

(I gotta get a job and get an apartment......argh)

Till next time,

chocoholly

(ps- it was shortly after 9 when I wrote this, hoping to get online soon, she just got off the phone at 10:30) 

To Kristina,

Thanks for the offer! But, actually, English is my strong suit in academics. (hard to tell from my posts, tho! lol)

My stress is coming from going back and forth with a floppy disk of work, from home with one WP program, to school, with another. It has caused major screwiness. Also, from my slight OCD.

Example of the OCD problem......

Today's final exam assignment:

1. read this article, write a summary exactly like this, (blah blah blah), then write a personal assessment of said article, with your views. Title page and Works Cited page included, in MLA format.

2. write a 2 page essay on your dream home, or dream kitchen. (Carla, gotta tell ya some Jeremy stuff later, don't let me forget)

So, someone asked if we had to do a cover page for the dream essay.
Prof. said no.

I looked at him, and said "WHAT?!?!?!"

(when you read this, do Professor in a thick lilting Irish Brogue) Prof.- "You don't need a cover page for the dream essay! Just staple it to the back of the first assignment."

Me, in disbelief - "But, but, but, but.....then the cover page title won't fit the second assignment, it will be all wonkerty, and I will have to think of a title that will cover both assignments, and that will be hard...one about caffeine, the other about my dream kitchen!!!!"

Prof. - "It's okay Holly, you don't NEED a second cover page!"

Me - (hyperventilating) "Ah, Ah, Uh Ah Uh. yeah, yeah, yeah I do!! It has to match!!!"

Prof. (Who found my OCD one day, walking up the stairs behind me, and caught me counting them) - "Okay, Holly, to appease your OCD, YOU can do a separate cover for the second assignment."

Me - "whew. okay. good. alright. okay. ummm okay. but you wont count off for having an extra cover page?"

Prof. - "No Dude, I won't count off."

Me - "You sure??? Promise?"

Prof. - "Darlin, just do your damn cover sheet, and quit buggin' the piss out o' me!"

LOL

And that is how it goes.

Later, doing the final draft of our last research paper, I was having some of aforementioned puter crossover problems, and Jeremy and I were the last ones in class, and he was hurrying us, as he was headed out of town, and was ready to go. I told him what I had left to do, to make it perfect MLA format, he said forget it, its okay, my work is good enough, I don't have to worry.

Me- "Yeah I do have to worry! I need a very high grade in this class to help me when I make a lower grade in another class!"

Prof - "Don't worry, I know that you know that that is supposed to be alphabetized, and that the bllahblahblah."

Me - "Should I staple a note on my paper reminding you of that?"

Prof - "No, I will remember."

Me - "Dude, you don't remember S***!"

Prof - Laughing hysterically - "Darlin' don't worry. Not only will I not forget about how you agonize over your grades, I will never forget having you in my class!"

He took my paper, and said he would see me fall quarter. I said, "no dude, you will see me mid next week when I come begging to see my grades!"

But, anyway, that is my problem in English class!!

Time for a last minute cram session before bed.

Will have lots of time this weekend, as both our Lab and academics end tomorrow, so I have NO HOMEWORK over the weekend, and can finally catch up here!!

peace, (or as the young uns say, "word" lol)

H.

We started a new segment today. We have Intro to Baking and Pastry. Our group (of the two groups of Advanced Standing) just seems to be the golden children---We get all the good teachers according to the TAs. (Teacher Assistants) Group B (our designation for them.....teehee) had a little short angry "Mad French Chef" for Baking and Pastry, who wouldn't even let them eat the fruit of their labor until they pronounced "Croissant" properly!!

They had a Chef for Stocks and Sauces that pretty much had them marching around the kitchen in precision military timing.

Anyway, this class is where we really enter the professional world, and start measuring in pounds and ounces instead of cups and spoons.

We had to learn a couple of conversion formulas today, and he demoed (demo - ed) the basic steps of bread making. We got a lot of breaks while the dough was resting and such, and we really like the Chef.

I think, learning the conversion formulas, and the 10 basic steps, this class will be a breeze. The academic class this segment is math, and I am exempt since I had some basic math in college, way back in the dinosaur ages. So, instead of 50 hours a week, I will only be in school 36 hours a week! wooohooo

Lisa just got home from math, it is 2:15, class should go till 4:45......."Home early" I asked? "No, the teacher didn't show up!!" Well, that normally is a good thing, but we are all about how much this school costs, and if we don't get the full class time, we all complain, and start doing the math to see how much we are getting gypped out of! lol (Big difference in private school, and state schools.) (especially when we are all grown ups and paying for it ourselves, not our parents paying for it.)

Well, since Trevor is home early, I will go check with him to re-set our rendezvous watches.....

Have a great evening all!!

chocoholly

Sus,

No nutritional conversions, or "substitutions", yet. That will come next segment in Nutrition and Sensory Analysis.

The conversions are to multiply or divide a given recipe. Say, your recipe makes 24 pounds of dough, and you need 200. Or, 13. simple formula to find exact amounts.

Also formula for making dough exact temperature for certain doughs, while working with it. Room temp + flour temp + friction factor, blahblahblah.

Will certainly report to you after Nutrition class about anything I learn beneficial to you, for your dad. Hope he is doing well, by the way.....

love to all,
H.

Hey girlie, 
wasn't that you that offered proofreading services to me?

If it is, would you proof my paper for Baking this weekend? 

We have to write a journal, which is very cool, but he said he was going to send them to the writing lab to be graded, and those people make the papers bleed, so I could use a little help. I use spell check, but some things it isn't programmed to deal with properly.

The journal idea is a great one. It reinforces what we learned and did in class, when we come home and write about it. Plus, I am sure it helps Chef critique his teaching style.

Today, Chef made me Chef-of-the-Day, so I was finishing the HACCP checklist, and was left in there with just me, Chef, and Scott, (the other "grade ho") in the class, and the subject of the metric system, and him teaching a class abroad, and having to change his assignments to metric. I said, "yeah, but metric is so much easier! I have a rant in day one of my journal about that!"

Chef said "Really? that is awesome! I can't wait to read yours!"

So, its gotta be a great paper.

Hawk, our Dining Room teacher said my Etiquette paper was so good it was "publishable", but she wasn't a stickler for MLA format.......lol

Are you familiar with the MLA format? I still am not strong on all the rules of it, and make mistakes.

Anyway, let me know. I appreciate it.
thanks,
chocoholly

Bri,

I can't think of a better job!! so cool!

That reminds me of something that happened the first day of our current class, Intro to Baking and Pasty......

Chef was taking us on a tour around the lab, and when we got to the store room, he was showing us the order of what was where, and he got to the chocolate shelves......

"And here is where we keep all the different chocolates. If you guys are tempted to have a bite....."

I thought here he would scold us, and tell us not to, but he surprised me, and said....

"By all means, help yourselves. No one should be deprived of chocolate when they want it!"

How cool is that? Guess whose hand was the first to go for the dark chocolate disks????

Right! Chocoholly.

LOL.
He is a great instructor. We aren't supposed to take home any of the product we produce, because it is for other classes to use, like Dining Room, etc, but he lets us take home stuff every day. He is a vegetarian hippy type, very cool.

oh, BTW, note to Ls10, I will hook you up soon, haven't forgotten.

chocoholly

Ally,

Everyone has given some good suggestions for comfort while you suffer from the cold, but if you have had the cold for more than 10 days, you need to re-evaluate your daily routine...

You are obviously re-infecting yourself.

There is no cure for a cold, as we know, and the cold is going to run its course. But you can keep re-infecting yourself if you are not conscientious (sp) about hygiene around the home.

We all are very careful abut germs away from home, but we tend to be a little slack around the house, including germ freaks like me.

What you need to do is wash your hands every time you are going to touch anything, after you touch anything, and anytime you don't have anything else to do. Spray all the door knobs, sink faucets, and appliance handles with Lysol several times a day.

Every night after you brush your teeth before you go to bed, soak your toothbrush in a cup of water with a teaspoon of bleach in it.

You get the picture.

There was a cold running around both classes of Advanced Standing, and one of the first guys to have it couldn't get rid of it. people got it from him, and recovered in due time but he couldn't shake it. I got him to tell me his daily routine, and asked about his hand washing etc, and as it turns out, he has a special cup he keeps in the bathroom for rinsing after brushing, so that cup, and his toothbrush were the culprits of his re-infection. He got rid of he cup till he was well, and bleached his brush each night, and within a couple of days, he was well.

Just be mindful of germs and meanwhile, enjoy some of the GE suggestions from the gang!

chocoholly

Yeah, it sounds like a lot, but really, it is hard to measure less than a teaspoon.....you say dash instead, and typically, with a liquid, a lot more than a teaspoon will go in.

From what I understand about science, someone correct me if I am wrong, (remember, I only scraped into a B in Science a couple of weeks ago......) is that a chemical like chlorine is just a potent in 5 gallons of water as it is in a 1/2 cup. The strength is there, you can't really dilute it, you can only distribute it farther by adding more water. 

Keep in mind that the F&B business is full of druggies, and I have known many people who have drank a bleach solution to cleanse their systems before a probation "test", and passed, with no adverse affects. Of course, doing the toothbrush thing, you would rinse well. But, any residue wouldn't do you any harm.

Think of diving in the pool the wrong way and swallowing pool water......nothing happens. probably the same amount of chlorine. Or, I would guess, not sure, but you probably absorb more chlorine thru your skin while swimming, than you would get from residue of toothbrush soaking.

So, don’t worry. Clean, disinfect, de-germ to your hearts content. Keep those germ/bacteria/virus at arms length!!

Holly "ever vigilant of the bugs" Paris

Hey Gang!

Its been a while since I posted. I've replied to a a stray post here and there, but I have been so distracted. Money has become a big issue. My car payment is coming due for this month, and a small amount of tuition will be due by the first of September, I need money to get an apartment, coz I will slit my wrists if I have to stay in the dorm apartment one more quarter, etc etc etc, blah blah blah.

And I cant find a job. Everyone wants you to either be available for ALL shifts, or they only need day help. There are so many students here, between Johnson and Wales, College of Charleston, Trident College, the employers can be specic in their needs, cause there is someone somewhere who can fill their needs. they don't have to be accommodating to students.

So, I have kinda been in freak out mode.

Anyway, I think the last time I really posted about school, We were finishing American Regional, and starting Intro to Baking and Pastry. Am Reg was a good class, we produced some excellent food, and while the teacher was pretty cool, (Not a cool as Pearson from Meat Cutting, or Stybe from Continental, or Hawk from Dining Room, but he would be 4th in line of coolness........), his quizzes were really retarded.

He gave us an unbelievable amount of handouts, and ask questions from them. For example, (forgive me if I repeat myself here), he gave us a hand out that was photocopies of about 15 pages of a cookbook he bought at a garage sale. It was pertaining to the Southwest Region. On about page 13 of the handout was a lot of info about Chiles (Chilis? I get confused.). Anyway, I memorized the names of the chili(e)s and the order of hotness. With any other teacher that would be enough.

Not for Chef Huff. Question on the quiz........"what chili(e) is also known as a California Green?"

Answer? An Anaheim. Did he expect us to memorize every single fact about every single freaking pepper?!?!?! ARGH!

I made a 93 in the class, but still, it was a frustrating 7 days, with the silly quizzes.

So, onto Baking and Pastry.
What a great Chef!! He is (as Pearson states it), a tree-hugging, Birkenstock wearing, granola chewing, dancing in the moonlight, vegetarian Hippy. lol

I am still waiting for my grade from the class, but I know I did great. probably my highest score yet. (Thanks again to Kristina for proof reading my paper for that class! especially under the severe time restraints I gave you!!)

Now, I understand Susan's love of Baking. I guess most of us culinarians are afraid of Baking, because it is so precise, and we are used to being creative, and starting with a recipe, and dashing this in it, and tweaking it this way and that, and the idea that something MUST be exactly like this, it frightened us. But we all had a great time, and produced some great stuff. But there is really nothing to be afraid of. It is really easy, once you learn the basics. We made croissants, Danish, baguettes, soft rolls, hard rolls, five different kinds of pies, pastry cream, (or creme, rather.....lol), and we also made puff pastry, which I got to do. I was so excited, hoping that would be my assignment, but we made it, and never got the time to produce anything with it. 8-(

Dorm life is still biting the big one, even worse now. Two weekends ago, while Steve was in town, and I got a much needed respite from Apartment He*l, Jason went off his Zolaf, or something, and wreaked havoc (sp) around the apartment complex, had his parents called on him, and was taken to a mental hospital, where he escaped, and came back home to cause more chaos.

But he is doing much better now.....lol. He is a good kid, he just has some imbalances. I talked to him about it a couple of days ago, and he really is fine. That is just a testament to how stressful this program, and all the radiating problems associated with it (financial stuff) is.

Now, we are in Nutrition and Sensory Analysis. Again, very cool Chef. We have a gal chef for this one. Group B of Advanced Standing is starting to hate us, we keep getting all the cool teachers, and they get the Uber-Nazis.

They have American Regional, while we are in Nutrition. In our American Regional, just as the other classes, we were given basic recipes, and told to have fun. We could tweak, or totally change things according to the supplies we had on hand.

Their instructor is ex-military, and has NEVER had any industry experience, only schooling, and he is treating them as if this was the first cooking they have ever done. Our first day, we did New England regional, and produced three or four complete menus, with enough to feed us, and half the faculty and administration. Their first day, they took a tour of the kitchen (one we have both been in for two different classes already), learned HACCP, (the rules of sanitation in the kitchen, that we all have known for years), and learned to make grill marks on a burger!! ROFL!!!! They came out grumbling, and cursing us for the cool chefs we keep getting.

Anyway, to wrap things up, not sure if I posted this, or if it was an email to mbmusgrove or carla, but one of the guys and I got into a scrap during Baking, and he called me bossy. the next day, I asked him if we could talk, and I asked him about specifics, told him I was all about some self improvement, and we talked for about 15 minutes, and when it came time to choose partners for a group in Nutrition, he came and asked me to be in a group with him and Jeremy! I thought that was pretty cool.

He and Jeremy are both around 24, and were working in the industry when they came here, and still are, so they are both so fresh with ideas, it is fun being in a group with them.

Anyway, that is certainly enough for one post. Now that I have put everyone to sleep, I am going to go do some laundry, and nap by the pool while my clothes dance around in the machines.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend. Again, thanks to Kristina for the proofreading, and to Mbmusgrove for the help on job hunting, and living arrangements. You guys are great. Hey, rwucla, where's the choco-garlic???

Love to all,
H.

Hey all!

School is going fabulously. I love being in a group with Scott and Jeremy. They are young, but have recent experience with upscale restaurants, and they are very professional, while at the same time, so much fun.

The "Team" thing really happens with us, more so than in any other team I have been on, since school started. One of us will have an idea about something, but we don't suggest it with power. Its like this:

"I was thinking, this pasta recipe doesn't call for garlic, and I just don't understand that. What kinda crackhead would have asparagus, tomatoes, peas, etc and not want garlic in it? That's just wrong. What do you guys say?"

(guess who said that.......lol)

"I'm down with that."

"I'm down. roasted, or raw?"

"Roasted."

"Roasted."

"Eh, lets roast some GARLIC!!!"

And so it goes with them.

Today, our assignment was - Pan Seared Bay Scallops with Basil Butter and Yellow Pepper Coulis.

We looked at each other, and said, "well, that will take all of 15 minutes. What else can we do?"

(Now, most teams are trying to eliminate stuff so they know they have enough time to finish their production without stress.......not us.)

Scott decided the butter was a bad idea, coz it would interfere with the coulis (a pureed veg or fruit sauce, btw, for those not familiar). So, we 86'd the butter. Then, I mentioned the fact that our plates would have nothing but scallops and a sauce......don't we need some kind of starch, perhaps to mound the scallops on? Jeremy got right on it, and made a couscous with shallots and shrooms in it. Then we decided that several colors of coulis would be better, so we each got to work on one. I did tomato, Jeremy, an orange one, and Scott did the yellow pepper.

I went to get ice to blanche my tomatoes in, and saw some pretty black desert plates. I came back and told the boys about them, and said our white cous-cous and white scallops and brilliant colored sauces would look incredible on black instead of the dull white plates we usually use from the lab.

They were both "down" with it. (lol)

I asked Scott what kind of garnish he saw for the plate. He said fried basil leaves. So, I went to the herb garden and picked out a basket full of pretty leaves, and he would fry them. (you need about 20 times the amount of finished product, coz you lose so much volume when they hit the oil.)

So, our plate presentation?
Get your imaginations ready.
Black plate.
Yellow pepper coulis lightly covering the bottom of he plate.
Couscous centered, in a timbale. (round mold, flat on top).
Seared scallops leaning on the couscous.
The orange and tomato coulis drizzled in abstract
pattern in the yellow, and over the scallops and couscous.
Fried Basil leaves sprinkled on top of the couscous.

It was brilliant.

After plate up where Chef goes over everything, good and bad about our presentations, she said she needed to take one plate to the Executive Chef, and which did we all vote for?

Too many egos there, everyone of course chose their teams work, so she had to pick. Guess whose she chose? Why of course, my teams plate!! Wooohooo!!

Okay, now, time to type notes from class today, to study for quiz tomorrow. Then when Trevor gets home from math, we head to the beach to study. (If I can keep Trevor near our camp. He wanders off for hours at a time. I call him my little puppy. If I let him off the leash, he runs away for an adventure!)

Have a good evening all.

Chocoholly

Hey Gang,

It's been a few days since I checked in, just wanted to say hello! (Mb, and Carla, I will be emailing you soon, I hope.)

I have been getting opps to get away from Apartment H*LL, so I haven't been around the computer much. Thursday night, I took Jason, who doesn't have a car right now, to his Dads beach house on Edisto Island, and we got to go fishing and spend the night, but I left my car ignition on, after rolling up my windows at the last minute, and the next morning, the battery was dead..........argh. So, I missed my first day of class this quarter.

But, I had a blast, and was back out fishing at 6:30am when I finally resigned myself that it was going to be hours before we could get some help.

Jason just came into a little money, and got a hotel room for the weekend, (that's how bad we hate it at the apartment), so when I roll back into Charleston I get one more night away from apartment you-know-what, coz Jason invited me to stay over, so he would have a way to school Monday morning.

Boy, its great to have made some good friends.

I am actually home this weekend. Trevor has a van here in Atlanta that is supposed to be fixed, so he can drive it back to Charleston and have transportation, so, I brought him here last night, but he called and said the mechanic still had the engine on the garage floor.......argh. But, if the van isn't ready, that means I have someone to share the drive with back to Charie Town. wooohooo!!

Its been great to see my girlie dogs this weekend. I go to the beach, and see people walking their dogs and it makes me so homesick. Steve gave them both a bath before I got here, it was so sweet, they lined up for inspection....lol. well, time to tend to the laundry. Leaving early to head back.

This summer quarter is over 26 August, and we have a week and a half off, so hopefully I can catch up with everyone, and all the posts during the break.

Hope you all have a great weekend,

chocoholly.

Ok guys,
I used to work at an airport hotel bar, a Sheraton property, that had an unrelated convention center attached to the back of it. A HUGE one.

We got a lot of great groups in there,
The Horse People,
The Video People,
the Music People, etc
(as we called them all.......)

But, twice a year, we got the dreaded---

HAIR PEOPLE.
It was a cosmetology show.
I can't begin to describe the folks involved in the show. But, suffice it to say, we did NOT look forward to their arrival.

The last Hair Show I worked there for, I will describe to you in brief, to illustrate something about today at school....... The Hair People were there for 3 days. No one is granted a day off, even if it is their child's birthday, or their grandparent is on their death bed requesting them.

The Hair People are very demanding. They want frozen drinks, (wherever I work, the blender is ALWAYS broken....lol) and when you don't have frozen drinks, they want the most complicated, labor intensive drink possible, but MUST ask the price of it. (you all know THAT rule.....if you have to ask how much it costs......) Then, they complain about the prices. Then, they complain that there is not enough alcohol, or NO alcohol in it, when they just watched you pour it. They want free drinks, they want specials. They do NOT understand what LAST CALL means.

And,

THEY DON'T TIP.

They are tipped people, and they don't know how to tip.

There is an unwritten law among tipped people, that we over compensate each other for the non-tippers, but The Hair People don't know this rule.

So, anyway, to make this long story longer, the third night, all the Bartrons (bartenders and waitrons in the bar) were exhausted. The Hair People hit us en masse, I was behind the bar, had them lined up 5 and 6 deep at the bar, running out of everything, no manager around to re-supply me, 3 waitrons I had to service, and all these non-tipping freaks driving me toward the edge of insanity.

Time for last call mercifully finally came, and I blinked the lights, which caused silence, I whistled as loud as humanly possible, and screamed as loud as I could, "LAST CALL! 15 minutes, and we are done! NO EXCEPTIONS! If you have a friend on the way, order them a drink now, coz THIS is IT!" An hour later, I am still fighting them off. "Aw, c'mon, just one more round!" Me - "Well, if you ever gave me more than a nickel tip, it might be a possibility....etc"

Finally, I locked up the money and alcohol, Grabbed my three waitrons by the hand, and said "follow me".

We went to the little lobby bar which had a small backroom, (the main bar had no place to hide), and we all huddled in the back room in the corner, and just cried. I had a male waitron as well, and he was crying too. That's how bad it was. Have you ever been so stressed, that there was nothing to do but cry, to release it? That's where we were. Me and my waitrons, the lobby bartender and her waitron, the six of us in the back room, hiding from these tight- pocketed, last-call-not-understanding, price-asking, complaining, freaks who were hunting us down like animals, trying to get more drinks, and we were slumped on the floor crying like babies from the stress of it.

Then, we laughed, and had a few cocktails (against the rules in a hotel bar, big time), and waited for THREE hours for the Hair People to finally clear out.

THEN, we had to re-surface, and clean up the mess.

Okay, now, that being said-------

THAT'S how I felt at school today.

The stress of the whole summer just suddenly crashed down on me since I don't like this class, this Chef, or the group I am in. The production expected of us each day is unbelievable. It is like I described in Meat Cutting class (the chef I have the crush on), where we basically just produced, to make product for other classes to use. We are being used for slave labor to provide the freshmen in upcoming fall classes with stocks and sauces to work with.

PLUS, I am stressing about our practical exam. We have to individually produce FOUR different mother sauces, and use two different compounds to expand each sauce, making three of each, 12 total sauces, in the 6 hour class. He is splitting the class, 1/2 do the practical on friday, and 1/2 do it Monday. Still, that's 10 people with at least four pots each, (more like about 7 or 8, with tarragon reductions, and such also needing to be on the burners.......) in a kitchen with 12 burners and a small flat top grill. Need I say more?

It is just all too much, with the amount of production, and the non-team group I have, and I just couldn't take it, and I fought off the tears for about 4 hours today. I finally just got my stuff, and without permission, went to a kitchen down the hall, and produced my sauce there in solitude. I think Chef must have understood, even tho he doesn't seem to like me very much, because he didn't say anything to me about it.

Anyway, gang, THREE MORE DAYS.

We have Career Development after Stocks and Sauces for five days, (ending tomorrow) and have a Giant Screaming Buttload of paper work due in there, (tomorrow), and I haven't even started it yet, so I must say goodbye for now.

Everyone send good thoughts and vibes toward Charleston for me, to help me thru these last three days. (Full moon tomorrow night.......oh lordy.)

Love ya all,

Chocoholly

Okay, as those of you who read the Giant Screaming Buttload of Bad post from yesterday, you know I am stressed to the hilt.

Well, last night my daughter called from back home, and her SAT scores came in. Not good enough for the college of her choice. (Emory University) She is upset, and resigning herself to going to a different school. I spent an hour talking her up to keep trying. She has slight dyslexia, and testing is hard for her, even tho she makes really good grades.

So, that added to my stress level.

I get in class this morning, Chef hands back our last two quizzes, and I made a SIXTYfreakingFIVE on one of them!!!!! One question was explain an emulsion. I answered, "holding together in suspended animation two ingredients that don't naturally blend, by use of an emulsifying agent. For example, Hollandaise sauce holds water and oils together by using the lecithin from egg yolks."

He took off 15 points from that one. I asked him why, and he said, "in this class, emulsions are ALL ABOUT the oil. It didn't seem to me that you had a firm enough grasp on that."

Uh, hmmmm, well, uh, okay chef.

So, more stress.

Then, he asked if we had any questions regarding the practical exams Friday and Monday, and I addressed the issue of four sauces for each person, and not having enough room, and he sassed something back at me, and that was it.

I walked out of the room, down the hall, out the loading dock door, around the fence, threw down my apron and side towel, and started crying!

I know, you guys think I must be a real cry baby, but really, I'm not. That's what I meant by the post yesterday, it really takes me going over the edge before I get upset enough to cry.

Anyway, Cortez, the other older gal like me, from Group B came around the corner and saw me, and grabbed me and hugged me really hard, and gave some good encouraging words, and we both laughed, and I was fine. I just had to open that release valve and let the pressure out.

After class, I talked to Chef, and told him that I am a good student, all A's (except for Biology, but we won't go there.) and I am smart, have had no problems at all in my other classes, but I feel lost in his class. I need the lectures that he doesn't give.

He asked if I knew how to make this and this and this, yes, I said. Do you know how to make the tomato mother sauce? NO. Okay he said. We don't have to do tomato for the practical, so Monday when I am not doing practical, he is going to walk me thru Tomato and Espanole.

He said he is not all about the grades, he just wants us to be able to recognize, and make the sauces, both in our upcoming classes, and future jobs. And if I needed him to stay with me till midnight even over the weekend, he would do it to assure that I know what's going on. He said that I would do fine on the practical.

Whew.
Two more days.
I got all that nasty paperwork done for Career Development turned in, and that class is done. So tomorrow, after stocks and sauces, I see BEACH in my future! Then, one more day of stocks on Monday, and This summer is OVER!!! When we return on Sept 9th for fall quarter, we are in regular classes with the regular people, and things will be a little more normal.
Two more days.
Two more days.
Two more days.

H.

I am waiting on Trevor, my little puppy of a friend to be ready to go to the beach, or else this post would be coming later!

We are going to go to the beach; Trevor will do what he does best, wander around in his A.D.D. way and bother people, and I plan a well deserved nap, and the perusal of some magazines.

After talking to Chef last night, and finding out that his bark is not all that, I relaxed. After our quiz this morning, he assigned me my sauces. (He let us pick our own, but said he would assign if we were undecided, so I told him to assign me.).

Well, I must have really gained his respect, by coming to him and admitting that I was struggling, and asking for help. Either that, or he was afraid to have his only pre-menopausal student snap and have a breakdown on his watch! lol Because he assigned me the most unbelievably easiest practical final. We used some of the mother sauces we produced the first five days for making the compound sauces, but there wasn't enough to go around, and some of the kids had to make their own mother sauces. We had to make two compound sauces from each four mother sauces. For example, a Béarnaise. you have to have the tarragon reduction going so when the Hollandaise is finished, you can do the sauce. So, figure four sauces, you have two kinds of reductions for each, or preparation for the sauce, that's a lot of stuff going on at once.

Anyway, back to the issue, basically, the other kids had to make 8 sauces, and some of them were pretty complicated.

Guess what he assigned me?
---Red Pepper cream sauce (that he had someone roast the peppers for yesterday! lol)
---Béarnaise and
---Maltaise --both from a hollandaise. (Maltaise is just a hollandaise with orange concentrate in it.)
---Sobise (msp).

And that's it.

He knew I had made them all before.
What a Teddy Bear!
And guess what?
I made a 100 on all four sauces.

After class he got with me and reminded me that we were going to do special work on Monday, instead of slaving like the other kids are, making stocks for the fall classes. I told him, after looking at all the recipes, I most wanted to practice espanole an demi-glace, both are very labor intensive, and I need to learn them, and he said, "well, then, that is what we will do."

Anyway, time to go hunt Trevor. I hear the ocean breeze whispering my name, beckoning me to the shore........

rwucla, I'll get with you this weekend. btw, where's my garlic? lol

Happy Holly

Yeah, I am quite wordy, but just remember, I am a southerner, and come from a long line of most excellent story tellers. In years gone by, before TV, videogames, etc, as with the Indians, storytelling was the number one pastime. I cant seem to get into a concise mode, and shorten my words.....they just flow.... Its hereditary.

In Baking and Pastry, we had to keep a journal of class, what we did, what we learned, mistakes we made, and how we learned from them. I thought it was a good learning tool, as well as a good tool for Chef to see what he was doing right and wrong in his teaching.

Well, most of the kids were proud that they had made a whole page per day. (6 days). I embarrassingly plopped down my 21 page tome (not including cover page and works cited page). Oh well, you cant change the spots on a leopard, huh?

Anyway, when my Career Development instructor asked me what my short and long term goals were after graduation, I told her first, I wanted to work with my old chef, coz I knew he would be willing to let me in the kitchen, and rotate stations, to learn even more, for about a year, while I finished my degree in English, while taking some photography classes to further my professionalism in photography, and finally end up working with a magazine, newspaper or cooking show. Either as a reviewer, tester, critic, or food stylist.

I then told her about this board, and how I had decided to go back in the archives and collect all my posts, and the best of the responses to them, as a memoir of my time here at J&W. she read a few of them, smiled, and said when I am thru, she thinks I should publish it, and call it "The Dark Side of Cooking School". or something to that effect.

She further went to say, that she has a publishing company that usually only takes B.A. grads, but she feels certain that with my good style, and the promise of a further degree in English, that she could get me a paying internship with the company called Southern Progress after my A.A.S. degree. They publish Southern Living, Coastal Living, (my favorite), Cooking Light, Oxford House Publishing, and many others.

wooooohoooooooo! So, basically, I have 6 more months of classes, then a co-op, hopefully in the Virgin Islands, if not, there are a couple of sites in England I would like to try for, then home for graduation, then off for the summer with Southern Progress! Okay, enough time here at Apartment H*LL. I am going to scope out some prospective apartments, and head back to the beach.

Love to all,

H.

Okay, this is it.
I have all my stuff packed, (except, the puter of course, it is always the last to go in the car.......lol)

Amanda is over at Jason and Timmons new place, feeling like an outcast, (and with reason.) But the rest of us are here, and it is like a holiday eve.....seems all of us that have had conflicts and confrontations over the past couple of hard stressful weeks, are letting our differences fall by the wayside.

Jules offered me a beer this afternoon, so when Trevor and I got back from the beach, I offered Jules my very favorite, most prized, dog-eared, many times read favorite book, and told him to read it over the break. So, that started a chain reaction, and we all started swapping stuff to share, as if having something of each others would ensure our bonds.

When we get back for fall, we are no longer grouped together as Group A and Group B, we are blended in with sophomores from regular classes, and we need to feel that connection to each other.

It will be a long two weeks off.

I have the same Chef for my first class, French Classical, as I have now for Stocks and Sauces, Chef Nogle. Since I have discovered that he is a teddy bear, I am not sweating the fall.

Well, I am going to try to get some of this stuff down to my car, so perhaps Trevor and I can make a quick stop at the beach before heading back to Hotlanta.

Goodnight all, I'll talk to you when I get home.

Holly "forever grateful for your support" Paris

In Biology class, Professor Dorn was explaining the science behind the whole butter/margarine, and sugar/artificial sweeteners thing.

Butter used to be the bad guy, so much fat, etc, but it is all about the hydrogen. (what isn't, really) I never paid attention to the news when all that trans- fatty acid crap was going on, coz it just seemed to bore me. Most of you might already know this, but for those who don't..... Butter is made of molecular links of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. It its natural state, there are links of hydrogen missing from the compound. But that's okay, coz it is natural, it is the way it is supposed to be. When they make the artificial butter, margarine, they re-create the molecular structure, (minus the animal fat), but pump hydrogen into the empty links. It is a very unnatural molecular compound. Now, with new research they are discovering that this unnatural compound is being linked to all kinds of health problems. (Or something like that, remember, I barely squeaked into a B in that class......lol) The solution? Stick to natural. real BUTTER.

Same with the artificial sweeteners. Yeah, sure, Equal is made of natural ingredients, but that is where the good ends. They do evil things to these ingredients, that make volatile substances, and the FDA will let them market them without long term research. Again, the solution? Stick to natural. Sugar, honey, molasses.

You say butter is too fattening, and sugar makes all the carbohydrates that are harder to burn off, making you overweight.

Its all about the moderation. Have your butter, have your sugar, in MODERATION. And get exercise, and don't worry. As the hippys have been saying for so long, Natural is always better.

Whew, back in the land of modern conveniences.

Cable TV.
Real glass to drink from.
Porcelain to eat from.
Cable Tv.
My own room.
Dogs to love me.
Did I mention Cable TV? LOL.

In the apartment, we had Ezmiens TV (the young girl who was not in advanced standing) and she left last Thursday, so we didn't even have the luxury of the one and a half channels we got, on her small 13 inch tv....lol.

When we get back for fall class, we are integrated with the GP (general population, the "regular" people), and the TAs told us that the other people call us the "10 Week Wonders". lol. That was the hardest, most intense, extreme 10 weeks of my life, but I would do it all over again.

We start back on 9 Sept, and I start off with French Classical, with Chef Nogle whom I just had for Stocks and sauces, as the Chef. I don't have my schedule right in front of me, but we have, I think 6 Culinary Classes, besides French, International, Advanced Patisserie, oh, I cant think of the others now.

Then, Winter quarter, I have all my academics, but they are culinary related academics, not English and such, we knocked all that out during summer. We take classes like Storeroom procedures, Cost Effectiveness, and such as that.

Then, Spring, I will do my co-op. I will go somewhere and work, instead of taking classes. I kinda second guessed my decision on that, thinking I would rather do it in the winter, while I take classes, and be done with the whole thing at the end of March, instead of May, but I want to do my co-op out of the country. The international sites pay you, PLUS house you. It won't be much pay, and the housing is sure to be worse than what I just went thru, but to be able to go to the Virgin Islands, or England, or Belgium for nothing more than the price of a ticket, I can't pass thatup. Three months in a fun new place, and Steve might even be able to get me one of his dads buddy passes.........wooohooo.

Then, the best part. Ms Leslie, Career Development teacher asked me what my plans were after graduation. I told her that I wanted to work in a hotel kitchen with a good reputation, possibly the Chef I used to work for, and rotate stations in the kitchen every few weeks, and kinda further my education.........learn things we didn't learn in this whirlwind program. After that, since I have good English skills, and everyone tells me that I have good story telling abilities, AND, I am good at photography, I want to perhaps finish regular college during the year in the kitchen, and get an AA in English, while taking some photo classes- and end up at a newspaper, magazine, or cooking show.

Ms Lelsie said that a culinary degree and experience, an English major, and a good photo portfolio, I should be able to open a lot of doors.

She is going to try to get me on with a company called Southern Progress for a paid internship for next summer or fall. They usually only accept B.A grads, but she has some strings there she can pull.

The company publishes Southern Living, Cooking Light, Coastal Living (my favorite magazine) among many others.

That would be great.

Anyway, I am going to eat something, and go back to bed. I want to sleep for two days, then I will think about unpacking the car........lol.

Thanks to all of you for your undying support, and for listening when I had to rant, SOOO many times! LOL I have never even met any of you, and yet feel so close to you all. I seriously wonder how I would have made it without your support, and you to vent to.

Thanks again!

chocoholly tamale