A year of Gastronomy

What I did on my (enforced) school vacation

The blizzard of 2005 came and shocked even our school director to cancel classes for the entire week.  Both Brian and I got the impression during orientation that they rarely cancel classes due to inclement weather.  After all folks, this IS New England.
However, I'm guessing that the fact that the faculty come in from places far and wide including Western Mass as well as the Cape coupled with no way to plow out the employee parking out back may have led to this decision.
Since Brian was home with his child not in daycare and I was home solo with husband away on business, not a lot of homework cooking took place.

The tale of two

Sorry that I've been a bit sluggish in posting this week. I've been packing and laundering and suitcase stuffing to get my husband off at 5:00 this morning for a business trip to England (his home country) and Holland. I've made a list of things I want from England because he will be at both Harrods and Fortnum and Mason, but Holland is a bit tougher. I mean what can I ask for, Dutch process Cocoa powder and Gouda? Any and all suggestions before next week would be appreciated as I made sure he had room in that suitcase of his for goodies.

Now, I owe you two classes worth of thrills and chills and eggy fun.

Look what we made!

Drat, Brian beat me to the knife entry because I was just too pooped to party last night. Or perhaps it was a case of gnocchi with gorgonzola sauce induced napping.
I just wanted to show you the fun things that we made in knife skills class.

Look!

Day 2 and the tale of how are those knees holding up?

Ah, day two and with the rosy glow still in place we ambled back in and down to the kitchen (dungeon) we thought was scheduled for that days class.  The arriving map of Italy should have been a clue.  Someone finally sent us upstairs to the 'E' kitchen or 'the fishbowl of Mass Ave'.  We settled ourselves in and met Chef Stephan (pronounced Stef fan).

She said

Oh yah babe!

*Sorry for the Emeril reference, but it popped into me head first*

Brian and I started Culinary School today.  Sure, we had met some of the people during our uniform fitting and then maybe again at orientation, but this was our first chance to all  'show each other' who we were.

The Countdown

Here we are finally. Three days away from Orientation. I thought I might drop on in and give you an update on the status here at casa Jo.

After several months of fighting the good fight with the government bureaucrats and filling in reams of forms, dotting my i's crossing my t's, writing essays and conducting interviews, attending seminars and taking tests, I found out the day before Christmas that I was able to get the full grant to pay for part of my school tuition. Unlike Brian who took the larger leap of faith by quitting his job outright and taking a loan out for school I have been very, very lucky. I will have a severance package and I will have this grant money to help me pay for my tuition. It's a nice bit of mental sanity to have that cushion.