Variety Is Key!
Today I had a great day at school!
Our classes were varied, we had 2 breaks in which I had lunch and tea with friends and we got a lot accomplished.
After having a knife review, we took a quiz. Chris helped me study last night and I did some early studying at Starbucks this AM so I’m pretty sure I did well.
We had a good 40min break after the quiz as everyone finished early. Me and some of the girls went and got tea at a local pastry shop. It was the first time I had Mighty Leaf. I had a mint flavor which was very good.
I especially liked it because with each cup they give you an adorable little pound cake which was moist and had a nice almond flavor.
After that we had a class on quality ingredients. The topic this time was sugar and salt. I learned a lot more about refined sugar especially the fact that there is no physical need for the body to have it! I also have a list of 78 ways sugar can harm your body that I’m going to bring into work.
Yes . . . I realize I have a picture of a pound cake before that paragraph 
Next we broke for lunch. One of the girls took us to the limelight market which is in an old church. It’s filled with cute little (expensive) shops that make me wish I had endless amounts of money. We went to a place for sandwiches that looked awesome, but were wicked expensive.
SOLUTION: I split the sandwich with Samantha! Shes vegetarian so we got a sandwich that had hummus, cucumber, tomato,feta and a nice bean salad on ciabatta bread. It was very tasty and it got me thinking that about how convenient sandwiches are and how I gotta start making healthy ones like these for myself on my “travel” days.
Then it was right to work on our grains. Now that we know how to cook basic grains, today was all about turning them into recipes. The class made . . .
Polenta cakes – broiled and fried
Millet Croquettes – broiled and fried
Asparagus Risotto – in a pressure cooker
. . . And a stew from Argentina that I can’t remember the name of.
Here’s some of our creations. hi Sam!
I was in charge of the broiled polenta cakes. The cooking was good but the flavoring was bad. The recipe called for white pepper and honestly it had an after taste of like lipstick or something. I wasn’t the only one who agreed about this so I’m not crazy . . . At least about this.
When we were all done, we sat down to a nice dinner with a home made cranberry lemonade type drink.
Like I said . . . Very accomplishing day. At the train station, I was really craving a soda. I waited a while to make sure it was coming from my body as the last thing I wanted to do after the class about sugar was have it in its worst form but it kept nagging me. I think it was my body craving out for energy or hydration.
I decided to go with it and bought myself a REAL coke.
I drank half and it really hit the spot. I’m putting the rest in the fridge but hopefully I wont want it.
I got a busy week coming up. I gotta go into the city 3 times this week all for school so I gotta make sure I rest up!
How did your week turn out overall?
Grain Train
You’d think with our new bed that I’d be sleeping like a baby!
Unfortunately last night, I did not. It’s so hard to get to sleep on Saturday nights lately. I gotta make sure I have all I need because I leave the house at 5:20 am and don’t get back until 9 pm!
I really wanted to bring in my big girl camera to school, but I already had so much stuff with me and it was damn cold to be walking the streets of NYC that early.
Today ended up being a lot of work. First off, I was the class supervisor but since someone couldn’t come in because they were sick, I ALSO had to take her job as a steward. Prepping our ingredients and making sure we had everything.
Today we practiced cooking grains! All kinds of them . . .
Kasha
Bulgur
Long Grain Brown Rice
Short Grain Brown Rice
Long Grain Brown Basmati Rice
Cous-Cous
Wild Rice
Udon Noodles
The basmati rice was a baked rice recipe. It was toasted in coconut oil then mixed with cinnamon, clove and cardamom for a nice warm flavor.
Unfortunately, it was also the dish that I received this beauty.
I some how touched my hand on the inside of the stove. It was stinging for a while. I kept dunking in ice water and then put some burn gel on it.
And just when I thought I was over it, the side of my arm touched the long handle on the pan on that very same dish.
I’m ok with a few battle scars though, as long as it doesn’t happen often or scar too bad.
Our groups were also in charge of making a dish with all of the grains. Our grou made tabouleh.
The other classmates made Kasha loaf, udon stir-fry and a wild rice salad that was amazing.
After we broke for lunch, we had a bean demo with some more great dishes. A few that I plan on making very soon so stay tuned!
We were able to make it out early after hustling to clean everything up. That extra hour is going to be spent staring at a wall before passing out.
Sounds good to me!
Have you ever made a dish with an interesting grain that you normally wouldn’t think of using?
