Sunday, February 27, 2011

The Rest of February

Since I last posted, I have:
Walked through an empty city after the blizzard
My landlord cleaned this - thank you!

Can you spot the street?


Path along Diversey Harbor


Diversey Harbor. You can see the tow trucks on LSD way back there.
















Dug my car out:

Entrance to parking underneath my building.


Good thing I put the wipers up

My back wheels and trunk were hiding...

Took me an hour to dig out - at least it was sunny!


That white car has 3 inches of dust underneath the snow. I have never seen it not there - I wonder if it even works anymore. And who owns it.
 Thanked the second grade team for doing their job:
Made my own frozen berries

Didn't have room in my freezer for a bigger tray. 


Screw IQF - they came apart just fine!


















Cooked and cooked:

Beginnings of Filipino Adobo Chicken

German pancake

Lasagna

Tofu. And yogurt. because I didn't measure the garlic chili sauce. Whoops!
Stopped by HomeGoods and TJMaxx on my way home from the gym:
2 9-in cake pans, mise en place bowls, orange teapot, turquoise bowl (tag: "not for food"), marble, 8x8 pan, Le Creuset: 10 1/4 rectangle & 9 1/4 square, 2 Bormioli Rocco glass storage jars: just over $100. Awesome.
Participated in Restaurant Week. Twice!
Cute bartender: awesome cocktails, before visiting French Vietnam: grilled beef tenderloin strips, Chilean sea bass, mango sundae.
Laughing while drinking half a bottle of wine: baked oysters, chicken breast with mole, vanilla bean ice cream with chocolate-espresso cake
Will definitely go back here again, for a special occasion.

What I've learned:
Friends make good food even better.
Three thunderstorms in Februrary is a beautiful sound of an incoming spring.

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Internship, First Try

I neither had the time availability nor the interest in completing my internship at a restaurant. Unless it would have been working under a pastry chef. But even that, it wasn't really my interest.
 
What I was interested in was combining my interests of food and psychology, preferably in a way that helps others. There were two options for this: a non-profit baking company that was aligned with a church to train homeless people how to bake (and job-skills, of course), and a cooking program through CPS. I couldn't do the high school program because, well, I work during the day.
 
So I talked to the baking company. I'd link, but there's this thing on their website that says you can't link to it without talking to them, and, as you'll see, things didn't really go so well that I would want to link to them.
 
The purpose of the company was to put a group of homeless people (about 6-8) through courses on sanitation, baking, and job skills, and then they would work in the kitchen, under the guidance of two lead bakers, who had years of experience working in restaurants and hotels. The company is a collaboration between a really talented pastry chef who worked for years in Florida and a church ministry. They sold their baked goods to companies in Chicago - particularly breakfast items that were delivered daily and baked goods for special occasions.
 
I tried to start my internship early - with the permission of my program. I was trying to bank the bulk of my hours over my winter break, since the company worked only some days in the evenings and weekends. 
 
I accidentally asked the lead baker if she was one of the students - oops. See, this is where introductions would have been helpful.
 
We had a set schedule that would have allowed this to work, but then the manager decided they should stop accepting orders during the week between Christmas and New Year's. Which was a business choice, but did not exactly work well for me.
 
While the bakers and students worked hard, I couldn't quite figure out what the other people did - there was the person who ran the classes, but there were multiple weeks between groups, and I couldn't figure out what else she did. She was really nice to talk to, though.
 
And then there was the manager - I think she created the recipes, but it appeared that every time I was there, she spent those hours (and sometimes I was there for at least 6 hours) just talking in her office with someone else - I think he was in charge of selling the products and managing customers. I could have missed what else they did, but it appeared that they had more people working there than were needed. Then again, it was the end of December, and they didn't have a ton of clients.
 
Somehow, their computer program that multiplied the recipes didn't work properly - they wouldn't come out the same as the single batches, which they are supposed to. That isn't good for business.
 
The snow didn't help. While that storm was nowhere near as bad as the one we had just last week, it was enough that they sent us home early. But I didn't get to leave for awhile since we were on a side street and my car's wheels spun and spun no matter the amount of salt I put around the tires. Luckily, a chef from a catering company down the street, who was much stronger than me, was able to push me out after a few tries. That was not fun!
 
Then the manager called me in for a photo shoot for the baked goods for their website. I made it through the snow, and she didn't really explain how much shortening I was supposed to put in the ganache to make it hold under the camera lights. So I kept having to put more in. But then it didn't even matter because the photographer couldn't get there due to the snow. Darn it. More hours that did not happen.
 
Next I had to go back to my actual job. And I started to look at my calendar - when could I call in sick? Did we have any days off? Looking at the number of hours I still had to complete, I just could not figure out how I could make it work without putting my school psychologist career in jeopardy. And I went through this huge debate in my head - why did it even matter if I completed it? I wasn't planning on becoming a chef, so did it matter if I graduated the program? Well, if you know my family, it mattered. We're not big on quitting.
 
So I hunted down some help at the culinary school - turns out, they don't advertise it, but if you do well in the program, such as be on the honor roll like I was, they'll let you complete the internship in their in-house cafe. I had to meet with the head of program, but she approved me, and I called to set up an appointment with the manager of the non-profit.
 
I made the appointment. She didn't show, and wouldn't return my calls. I left a message with the minister, who was the only person in that day, and he was really nice. I would have liked to speak to the manager though. It just felt wrong to quit that way, even if they weren't paying me.
 
Then again, writing this two years later, and you all having read the post about how I ended up quitting that high school job in a not-so-great way either, that this is clearly something I need to grow up about already...

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Blog Thoughts

So, in theory, I love the idea of a blog. I love to write and think, think and write. And I love opportunities to be creative.

At the same time, I'm a pretty private person. Not if you're my close friend or family, but to everyone else. co-workers know pretty little about my life. I don't want 15 minutes of fame or everyone in the world to have a chance to learn details about my life.


But, that's kind of what a blog is - it's on the internet and open to the world.


Good thing nobody really reads this and I have a day job that I live far away from so I'm gone 14-16 hours a day and don't have time to blog on a regular basis


I have been cooking and love to share. But Blogger is kind of stupidly set up and makes it difficult to upload and move photos within the text. Okay, now I saw they updated editing materials. But, Google, get your act together because there are essential things one should be able to do that I can't (see below).


So, I'm going to try something. First, I'm going to begin posting again. Which means I should probably take more photos of things I cook. And then, I'll share that I do this with people.


I might even share my name.

Maybe.

That would mean people could find me. If anyone were interested.


So, to start, this has been my cooking list for the past few months. I am not allowed to buy a new cookbook unless I keep doing actually cooking from them. I'm finding I'm not interested in some recipes I've collected over the years, but I'm also discovering some gems, and that's great!


Okay. See, blogger, what the hell? I should be able to copy and paste, especially from a google doc, which you. also. own. I figured out how to copy and paste, but seriously, blogger, a little annoying of a process. And, since you have to copy and paste into Edit HTML, all my links for the paste disappeared. Booooo Blogger.


List will come. Once I get over being annoyed at Blogger find the time to do all the links over in my list. And, no, I will  not be using the snow day for that - that is going towards cooking and baking for a team that did their job on time and music and movies.

oh, yeah, and going down to the lake to see the waves and what the snowstorm did. Fun!

Because travel is always worth a half-day's docked pay

Took my second annual trip to San Francisco this year to visit my sister Suzan. Beautiful weather, fun times!
This is what happens her friend Karo is a fabulous pastry chef:
So sad I could not take the rest home with me on the plane!

And her lifelong best friend, Pegs, bought me these:
Also wished I could take these home - so beautiful and smelled amazing!


Taking advantage of warm November weather, we took in the view from a big bridge: We walked among trees.

And found an elf who just did not want to leave.



Then we took a sunset cruise to Sausalito.



A bookstore sucked us in and I bought the fattest copy of War and Peace I could find (and finally finished it in the beginning of January).


And Sunday morning we visited Pegs and watched the Bears game (near) the Marina.
Next year: we hit the vineyards.


Gosh I miss the sun given this is what we are currently living in:
(credit: Chicago Tribune)


(credit: NASA)


P.S. Did you know thunder can come with a snowstorm? I didn't but it's happening right now!

Until next year, SF.