Favorite September things

I wanted to acknowledge the end of September by posting my favorite things for September. This has truly been a month of learning; I don’t just mean learning at school, that I do every month. I mean learning in the school of life, taking those hard hits that make us realize all the good things us already posses.
1. Leaning that the job you had is better than the new one you got, and having the courage to admit it and go back.
2. Starbuck’s new breakfast offering, the oatmeal and dried fruits is delicious! And, yes Pumpkin Spice Latte is back!! Hip-hip hurray!!
Starbucks Coffee!!

3. Learning to make pastry cream, and adding shredded coconut!! Coconut Pie is coming!!
4. Buying School Books, Opening the pages, seeing their glossy shine, the smell new textbooks have, of unused paper, running my hand over the cover and knowing that in a few months I will not used them again!!
5. Olive Garden’s wheat pasta!!

Life is so complicated in today’s world, the economy is a growing concern, it shadowed the Olympics, it is downplaying the election and all the other things we take for granted. Global warming, Wars, and political conflicts also play a part in the many things that worry us today.
Time is limited and time for bonding is scarce, and when we use that time with out iPods, and laptops instead of sharing with another human being. But, its those special little things, the smiles you get when you go out to eat and the server gives you a laugh, the little sprinkles of rain that mark the beginning of fall, your favorite song playing in the radio, seeing the sky turn fiery red when the sun goes down, learning that bad things are not always so bad.

Cypress College Culinary

So, here I am late into the night doing my homework. And then in the midst everything I had a bright idea. Yes, one can have a bright idea at 10:43 PM, after having beeb awake since 6:00AM, going to school all day and eating apple pie half an hour ago.
I though I'd do a post on my school! Yes, a post on Cypress Culinary College. It's not a big name school, in fact it's a small community colle. But the facilites are very good, the curriculum is very well crafted and the teachers are the best. I feel like a small community of friends and family, when I go there. A lot of the students know eachother, they help eachother, they eat with eachother and once in a while they party together.. Hey, you gotta have some fun.
I love the classes, we are getting new menu for our small caffe, we are getting a new computer system, and the culinary classes give structure and freedom.
Like today, we had complete Moroccan Menu for our sit-down restaurant.
I could have gone to Oregon (where I wanted to go) and study at Bend Community College and their complete pastry program, or Le Cordon Blue and their "French Cuisine" or the highly respected CIA which I might one day go, after I have a few years in the industry under my belt. But for today, I'm content with my small community college, our 5 or 6 teachers, our huge kitchen, and our small caffe that is open 4 hours a day.
It's a home away from home!
And if you'd like to visit the website, here its is. I'll post some pics of me in my uniform soon!!


Cypress College Culinary

Asian Inspired

I love Asian food, love it, love it, and love it. Any kind of Asian food, from Chinese take-out, to Japanese rolls, to Korean kim-chi.
However, I don’t really like the fat that comes associated with all that fried food!!
And so, as I stood inspired in my tiny 4 x 4 kitchen the other day, opened my fridge and saw sitting there lonely and forgotten on the bottom shelf, a bag of wheat germ sprouts.
I looked to the left and saw soy sauce, I looked to the right and saw Portebello mushrooms, (my mouth began to water) and then I saw some barbecue sauce. Needless to say we were having sprouts for dinner!!
The recipe is very simple, the presentation is easy to get but the result are awesome. And they can be used as snacks, appetizers, or with some salad do a main entrée.

Asian Influenced

Sprouts

Ingredients:
1 pound sprouts
2 Portobello mushrooms, (diced)
¼ cup soy sauce
2-3 tablespoons barbecue sauce
1tsp dried thyme
½ tsp cinnamon
Salt and pepper
3-4 flour tortillas
4tsp cottage cheese

Procedure:
1. Add some olive oil to a hot wok, then slowly add the sprouts, and mushrooms, and half the soy sauce.
2. Let them sizzle for about 3 minutes, stirring.
3. Then add the rest of soy sauce, barbecue sauce and the spices. Then let them sauté for about 5 minutes or until most of the liquid is gone, and they mushrooms look lightly browned.
4. Meanwhile, grab ¼ cup olive oil and some salt and garlic, set aside. With a large cookie cutter cut shapes from the flour tortillas. Brush with the olive oil mix and toast in the oven or convection over for about 2-3 minutes on each side.
5. Then with a fork put some sprouts on each tortilla and top with cottage cheese.

And now let me sound like a television cooking show. These are tasty and delicious and easy to make!!

The Last Class Cake

I know, I suddenly stopped writing about the cake decoration classes I was taking at Wilton’s. Well, they were finished at the end of August, the second class! I was very fun and there was way less people than the first one, what an advantage! Every Thursday we leaned flower techniques using Royal Icing, and also Color Flow! We diligently did different types of flower and saved them in long plastic columns called (flower curlers).
The last day we leaned how to do basked weaved with buttercream icing and, to decorate using the sugar flowers we had made the previous weeks.
The end result (in my view) was a beautiful cake that was very hard to eat, because we didn’t want to break it! And though other things got in the way of me, the camera card, and the computer I had to put them up for all to see!!
Sadly school took first place and has to use Thursday night for a Menu class, so cake decorating class 3 will have to wait until December!

The All-American Meal

Yes, the All-American Meal equals a hearty burger and dessert. It totally invokes nostalgia; it has become so popular now a day's that the true enjoyment of it has been lost.

Here I have decided to post my Portobello cheeseburger and my plum-peach tart.
Being a vegetarian it is hard to find a place that offers decent veggie-burgers, most chain-restaurants offer the alternative to put a frozen patty on there, or simple bring you a bun with vegetables!! That is hardly vegetarian at all.

Now, here is for everyone’s enjoyment my own "Veggie" burger.


Ingredients:

1 loaf Challah Bread (cut into 6 pieces)
4 oz cup mayonnaise
2 oz cup soy sauce
2 tomatoes (sliced)
6 lettuce leafs
1 egg
2 Portobello mushrooms (chopped)
1 medium onion (chopped)
1 bell pepper (chopped)
6 slices Provolone Cheese

Procedure:

1. Heat a large non-stick skillet, add oil
2. Mix the mushrooms, onion bell pepper and eggs with a wooden spoon. Mix until the mixture is pasty, add salt and pepper to taste.
3. Drop patties into skillet, let them brown 1 minute, position slice of cheese on top, let it stand another minute, them turn and let it cook about 2 more minutes.
4. Meanwhile toast the Challa bread, and mix soy sauce and mayonnaise. Spread on toasted bread.
5. When patty's are done put one on each bread, add tomatoes and lettuce, top with remaining half of bread.

You can add a salad, French fries, or potato chips. They are very filling and healthy so you can save all the calories for my plum-peach tart!

Ingredients:

8 oz all-purpose flour
2 oz yellow cornmeal
3tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
4 oz chilled butter (chopped into small pieces)
3tsp orange juice
1 tsp all-purpose flour

1 can Plums
2 cans peaches

Procedure:

1. Pre-heat oven to 400F
2. Combine 8oz flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, and salt into a food processor; pulse 4 times or until blended. Add butter, and pulse until mixture resembles coarse meal. With processor on add orange juice through chute processing until blended.
3.Press mixture gently into a 4-inch circle on plastic wrap, cover. Chill 15 minutes. Slightly overlapping plastic wrap.
4. Roll dough, still covered into 11-inch circle. Remove top sheets of plastic wrap place on baking sheet. Sprinkle dough with 1 tsp flour.
5. Let plums dry on towel paper, repeat if necessary. Then cut into slices, and arrange alternating peach and plum.
6.Fold edges of dough into center pressing gently to seal. Bake at 400F for 25 minutes or until crust is brown.

The Daring Bakers

So, I really hope this counts, because I'm posting a day late.

For my first post and in the middle of the first week of school, and also a hectic week at work, I managed to make the famous eclairs...