Counting Sheep

What a voice

Okay...local girl does really, really good.

Go here and listen.  I'll wait.

Taps toes......whistles....hums.

You back?  I saw her in the local paper, the TAB this morning.

She's 15!  I've ordered the CD.  You should too.

She will be around a long time.

The Report Card

I feel like I'm back in Junior High School.

Last night in seminar before I spent three hours with my hands up the ass of a chicken removing all the bones, but leaving the chicken and skin completely intact in what is called the glove method (How's that visual for ya, huh?) a few of us were talking. 

I asked if they thought we would get our grade that night in seminar. I was referring to our grade on the project we handed in last week.  Brian and Heather said 'Oh we got our grades in the mail last night'. 

Grades?

Mail?

They explained that the school had actually mailed us a report card. 

A REPORT CARD! 

The tortured adolescent side of me had flashbacks to the days in school when I didn't care, I was too cool for school, and study was a room in a wealthy house, not something you did.  I remembered the days when we received our report card, in hand, with instructions to take it home and have your parents sign and return it to the school, thus proving that you had indeed showed it to them.
I thought, you see, that I could pull the wool over my parents eyes.  I broke out that old gum eraser, after folding and refolding the paper over the offensive grade to wear it thinner, and had at my 'D' grade in whatever it was and then carefully (with instructions form Allison and Karen) using a typewriter, replacing the 'D' with a 'B'.  Then I had to explain those 'Unexcused' absences from classes that was listed along the bottom.  My parents knew they had seen me walk to the bus stop, why was I listed as absent that day?  I still remember the sick feeling, the screaming matches, the tears, the slammed doors, the groundings, the comments about not being able to trust me, they knew I was capable of more, why was I doing this, etc, I remember it - LIKE - IT - WAS - YESTERDAY. 

Do we ever grow out of that?

This behaviour carried on through High School and into college.   

So after cleaning 18 skanky, chicken schmeg covered, cutting boards in scorching hot water, I raced out to the car, drove home and rushed to find the pile of mail.

There it was.  On school letterhead, with an official embossed seal. 

My first quarter grades. I poured the bourbon, took a sip and ripped that sucker open. There in black and white (well really black on ecru) was the first grade in my life that I would be proud to show my parents.  In fact, that is what I did  first thing this morning.  They both laughed and appreciated the irony.  I know it is only cooking school and not Harvard, but I think it just goes to show if you love what you are studying, passionately, you will do it well.

Too bad it took me 40 years to be an A student.

Ladies and Gentlemen

The mercury is above 50 degrees - IN - THE - SHADE.

Rejoice!

I'm going to go have an iced coffee baby, with the windows down!

R.I.P. Paul

So sad

Don't Dream it's over.

Happy Easter

Blackbird's new Meme

What's in your bag?  Last week Blackbird wanted to see our sinks, this week she wants to see the contents of our bag.  I definitely lack the girlie girl gene that requires a nice purse and matching shoes, but since I go to school these days I carry not one, but two bags.  Here are the contents.

Bag #1:
The courier bag.

It contains the following: (click here if you wish a larger view, lord knows why you would, but we try to accomodate)
1 manilla folder with this weeks recipes for basics and baking class as well as a clear sleeve to keep the recipe of choice clean while working, another sleeve with the commuter rail schedule and the school calender for the current month.
1 notebook - for taking those notes dontcha know.
Current book - Tender at the bone by Ruch Reichl - editor of Gourmet magazine
My moleskine
My coffee mug
My beloved ipod -Shaun the sheep in his protective case.  He fits snugly in the case that velcros onto the strap of my bag.  I suppose it was intended for a cellphone, but I haven't one.
My headphones
My keys
My apron, hat and a sweater to wear during lecture.  I have my chef coat but the sleeves are *miles* too long and I need to have them shortened.  Even rolling them up looks ridiculous.
My wallet - contains wallet type stuff
Handcream to use after washing 50 MILLION dishes every day in excrutiatingly hot water.
Sunglasses
Watch (with stop watch) that hooks on to my apron for timing things.
Sunglasses
The plaid zip case contains band-aids (plasters to you Brits), my asthma inhaler, my stop the migraine now pills, some Naproxen, pens, a sewing kit (cause you just never know), Altoids, Rennie's, extra hair bands, a sharpie.

Now, again, since this is cooking school - I have to carry my kit with me.  Said kit weighs umpteen gazillion pounds and I have already removed several things that can usually be found in the kitchens anyway or are generally not used.

Here is the kit nicely folded

Click here to see it open

It contains the following:
1 steel for sharpening knives
1 10" wide Wusthof chef's knife
1 10" serrated Wusthof
1 6" Wusthof filet knife
1 Wusthof paring knife
digital thermometer
1 trussing needle
1 squeeze bottle
1 set of measuring cups
1 microplane zester
2 pastry brushes
1 bench scraper
small offset spatula
1 needlenose pliers (removing pin bones in fish - or if you are my mom tightening and loosening the grips on the spit)
1 pair Joyce Chen scissors - Best ever!
1 melon baller (also great for coring apples and pears)
1 ribbon zester
1 set of rings (used for plating things or for cutting pastry or dough)
1 set of aspic cutters in various shapes
1 set of pastry tips and couplers (also a small brush to clean tips)
2 reuseable pastry bags
1 cake comb
1 plastic scraper

My karma ran over my dogma

Let me just tell you about my little day yesterday.

I awoke to find that my computer had rebooted during the night and was sitting at a black screen asking me to accept changes to two hard drives and a CD-ROM drive.
I selected F1 and it continued along and then complained that it could not start windows, had I recently installed hardware?  If so, please install new drivers.  Well, I had put in memory the night before, but no new hardware. 
If not it said, go right ahead and select this option and we'll try Windows again.
Pling, windows launches, everything is fine and dandy.  I begin working on my project which is due at seminar at 6:00 that night.
I mention to my Dad that the compression in my truck sucks lately and I barely made it up the hill on Rte 2 coming home from school the other night.  I suggest that maybe he could pop the air filter off for me and see if any mice left me any presents.
Husbands car recently went in for a service and they found a mouse nest in his.
In the meantime, I'm working on my project, reading a website, modifying a few photos off my camera and downloading a mother of an MP3 file from Troubled Diva's disco party.

I notice the download is not going above 28% and my hard drive is going tic, tic, tic, tic.

I try to shut down a few applications I have running.

Black screen.

Machine tries to reboot.

At the Compaq screen it tries to find a DHCP server and after it fails it says disc error.

I start to mildly panic.

I try rebooting again; same thing.

One more time; same thing.

F*CK

It is now 5 hours from when I need to leave with my completed project.
Dad comes down and shows me pounds of peanut shells that have burned into a carbon crust on my air filter leaving only a half inch space for air to get into the engine.
Thankfully, we installed a K&N filter when I bought the truck so he can just rinse it off, oil it and reinstall it. 
I tell him what is going on with my machine and the wise@ss says with a big smirk.

'Well, when my computer fails I call Jo, she fixes it."

I explain about my project due in 5 hours, my recently completed taxes, my budget forms all gone, 4 weeks of photos from school that must comprise part of my final portfolio that I have to present as part of my final grade. All gone.  Poof.

Smirk widens.

"Jo always tell me I should back my stuff up or I'll lose it."

I tell him to piss off and he wanders up the stairs chuckling to himself.

Thankfully Gmail has saved the umpteen iterations of the project I have mailed back and forth to my partner and I only have to recreate the last two days of work.
I abandon my machine and head over to husbands to start working.
It's now 4:00.  I have three crisp, clean copies of our project in hand.  I pack my bag and head over to Starbucks to buy my coffee before I drive to class.
I start the truck and before I get to my first light, it stalls.

F*CK

I manage to keep the engine revved enough to make it past the next light and on to 128.  I get off at Rte 16, keeping the engine revving and trying not to hold the clutch in too long.  I turn the corner from Beacon into Starbucks and she coasts in to a stall...sputter...die.
I head in to buy my coffee, get back in and decide the best thing to do now is head straight to a commuter rail station, do not pass go and get to school.
I make it back down 128 and over to the station, she dies as I pull in the parking lot.  I slide into slot 63, pay my two bucks, and hop on the train.
Having no cell phone (we are looking for cheap phones that allow you to just buy minutes when you need them, mostly a phone for emergencies - any suggestions??) I find a pay phone and leave a message telling husband that I now have to try and catch a train home to the station and that if he hasn't seen hide nor hair of me by 9:30 come looking for me on the road to the station.

By now I'm f-r-a-z-z-l-e-d and we dive right in to class and a quiz.  Bet I failed that one.  Handed in our projects and he let us go nice and early.
Thankfully Brian offers me a ride home and I decide to take the offer and leave my truck until the morning.
Husband, bless him, had gone and bought me a new hard drive and was installing it when I got home.  I've spent the morning installing software and going through the pain of making my world, my world again.

Dad came by this morning and we went with some tools over to the truck and got her running fine again.  We think that some of the hoses might not have been reconnected properly of maybe some peanut shell dust got into the breather.  He took everything apart up to the manifold and reconnected it all. She's running fine again - for now.  I'm going to get her a fuel filter change and put some injector cleaner in the tank to dry any potential condensation.

NOW....what I didn't tell you was...

and I warn you..look away NOW if you are squeamish.

I murdered a lobster on Tuesday.
As part of basics class we made a paella and I had to murder a lobster.  My partner in class that day was Sharon. He is from Israel and he keeps Kosher.  He's been really brave and has tried the pork dishes, he had fish the week before, he had never really had fish much in Israel.  He had an oyster, he peeled the shrimp.  He asked me to please do the lobster. 
Up until Tuesday I could not even put lobster in the pot of water.  My Mom and I would leave the room and have my S.D. so it.  I could not deal with them flailing around in the pot.  Now, I was going to kill one and rip it apart while it was still alive. I did all the mise en place and tried to psych myself up to do the task.  When I was ready I dumped it out on the cutting board and waved to Chef.  It was time.

I held my 10"wide wurstoff up straight and plunged it behind his eyes into his skull and ripped it forward.  As he was still flopping, I had to rip his body apart and separate the body from the tail.
When he was in two pieces, I put the head back down on the cutting board and it was still moving the small legs and it's eyes.  The tail was still flopping.  I had to run two skewers down the length of the tail to keep the tail straight when it cooked and all of the legs on the bottom were still rapidly flipping back and forth. I had Sharon take pictures to prove that I had done it.  Do think of this the next time you order baked stuffed lobster or any lobster dish that is not a steamed or boiled lobster.  This is how it is done.
I did what I had to and walked away to work on the paella.  An hour later when I was ready to put the lobster pieces in the hot pan to sear them, his leg still moved in the pan. 

I think I have severely scarred my Karma and yesterday was a payback for Tuesday.

Now I need to know how I can get back to normal.  Up my karma level. Set things to right. 
Mostly I need to just erase the vision of the lobster from my head.

We need your votes!

Okay.  The Food management project for school is now coming to a close.  We have chosen the dishes we will sell in our shop, done our cost comparisons, created our menus. 

Now we just need you to vote.

We have to hand our results in by tomorrow night.  Yikes!
If you would be so kind, please choose one appetizer, one entree and one dessert you would likely choose if presented the following options.

And thanks in advance!!

Appetizers

Buttermilk Acorn Squash soup with toasted seeds: A smooth, silky soup made with seasonal acorn squash seasoned with buttermilk and a touch of cayenne. Served with toasted squash seeds.  $3.00

Leek and Goat cheese tart. Sauteed spring leeks, freshly made Goat Cheese from York Hill Farm in Maine are combined with crème fraiche and baked in a goat cheese acented pastry crust. $3.50

Potatoe Torte: Thinly sliced Yukon Gold potatoes are combined with eggs, shallots, and Mozzerella and Parmesan cheeses and baked into a delicious torte suitable as a starter dish or as a side dish with an entree. Simple comfort food presented in an elegant manner serves as a perfect accompaniment to your dining experience. $3.00

Traditional focaccia bread is baked with a rich layer of Italian sausage, chopped eggs and Pecorino Romano cheese in a hearty appetizer that can be eaten as a lunchtime sandwich item all by itself or served with a robust meat dish and a big red wine for a satisfying Italian dinner. $4.50

Dolmathes: Stuffed grape leaves are a dish as ancient as civilization itself; a savory mixture of rice, pine nuts, onions and dried currants are wrapped in tender grape leaves and gently cooked. Serve one or two as an appetizer, or several as a side dish with other Greek or Mediterranean favorites. $3.50

Entrees
Marinated Halloumi and Vegetable Kebabs with Tomato Salsa: Chunks of Greek Haloumi cheese are marinated in Fresh herbs and olive oil and laced with fresh vegetables. They are ready to toss on your grill and served with a chunky tomato salsa. $8.50

Carbonades Flamandes: Tender chunks of beef and onions are cooked slowly in Belgian Abbey Ale which makes a rich sauce. $8.50

Chicken with 40 cloves of garlic: Chicken slowly braised with cognac and wine and loads of garlic. The chicken is moist and tender and the garlic turns soft and sweet. Spread the garlic on fresh French bread and use it to mop up the juices. $8.50

Gratin of Rigatoni with Roasted Vegetables: Rigatoni is tossed with sweet oven roasted vegetables and baked with a Parmesan cheese sauce. $7.50

Salmon en croute is revisited in a contemporary style using phyllo dough to make light and crispy pouches that surround delicious salmon fillets garnished with a bright and fresh puree of peas and watercress and a delicious dill butter. A perfect light meal with your favorite white wine and some salad greens. $11.75

Desserts

Molten Chocolate Cakes: These molten cakes are made with bittersweet and semisweet chocolate and are ready for you to pop in the oven and bake for 15 minutes. They come out warm with a melting chocolate center. Add whipped cream or ice cream and you have a luscious almost home-made dessert. The house will smell like a patiserrie and you will look like the star chef. $2.50

Every baker in Paris prides himself on the quality of the city's official pastry, the famous Tarte Tatin. Perfect apple slices are covered in buttery caramel sauce atop a flaky pastry crust. The perfect dessert to crown your gourmet repast. $3.15

From the masters of baking comes Viennese Bread Pudding served with a sweet Sabayon sauce. $3.50

Sinks and Junk Drawers

Probably the oddest meme I have ever seen.

Okay Sue and Blackbird, here you go...

My crappy sink that has sink envy for both of yours.

My junk drawer, and sorry, batteries go in the fridge.

And Sue...my cheese drawer, what do you see?

Sinks and junk drawers I would like to see...Mr and Mrs Mc Muffin's and Tonya's.or anyone else who would like to play along.

A bit calmer now

We're a bit calmer now around the house of Sheep now that husband has seen his primary care.  He has some tests scheduled over the next two weeks (A brain MRI and a visit with an Neuro - Optho).  the odd thing was that our doctor said she had a patient several weeks ago with like symptoms.  Sadly for her her eye did not move back after it shifted off.  She still has one eye aiming in a different direction.
What they have said conclusively is that his ticker is just fine, no worries there and that allows me to breathe a bit easier, not that brain scans don't make me nervous.

After his appointments we went over to see the flower show hoping to catch it at a quiet time before the weekend.  No such luck. A long queue to buy tickets greeted us, with only one window open selling tickets.  After 5 minutes of so another woman came and began to prepare opening a second window.  A woman about 20 people back in the conga line, steps over to the window and starts loudly asking if she is opening up her window and then prepares to stand there and wait.  Instantly the grumbles in line started.  The woman behind us started saying 'lady, you better get right back in line, we've all been waiting here before you'.  We turned to look at her and chuckle and she said 'Hey, don't mess with me, I'm hormonal' and laughed. A gentleman in front of us in line walked up and tapped her on the shoulder and said it should be the next person in line who should go and not her.  She started taking the piss and saying 'Well, someone had to do it.', loudly as she stomped back to her place in line. Inside we were greeted by a sea of humanity all pushing and shoving in various directions. I personally would love to see lines on the ground that forced people to follow a pattern.  Someone was always whacking you in the back or shoulder with their bag or back pack or running over your foot with a stroller.  As we were trying to get to the front of an exhibit a woman in a stroller pushed her way through and said to her toddler, loudly, These people will let you in front, you need to see the exhibit.
Well of course he should see it ma'am, but why should he see it before us? 

I thought gardeners were nice, gentle people.  Ha!

This is my thrid or fourth visit to the show and I really didn't think that it was as good this year.  There were not many large, breathtaking exhibits.  Too many amateur, 'Here's my house plant', displays and why on earth was there a Subaru plunked in the middle of them all?
There was a nice big snowplow for kids to climb on and sit in the driver's seat with a sign that said, 'One driver at a time please'.  Rather cute and very popular.

We wanted to see the Mahoney's exhibit which always wins the big awards and this year was no exception.  Someone in my class at school also works at Mahoney's and he (along with some co-workers) built the Japanese tea house that was the center of the exhibit this year.

Some picies

Flower Show - The Aviary
Flower Show - The Pheasant
Flower Show - The Black Swans
Flower Show - The Teahouse
Flower Show - The Teahouse II
Flower Show - Castles and Houses of Ireland Exhibit

Now we are off to tick things off of our hunting and gathering list.