my plan is to split up the 6 courses and write about each independently.

tonight: the amuse bouche

an amuse bouche (amuse the mouth) should be just that – a single bite to warm your appetite and get you thinking about food.  it’s often said that the amuse bouche should represent the chef, his abilities and his meal more than any other dish on its own.  the amalgam of flavors should be perfectly balanced and contrast in such a way that send your senses shivering.  i really love that it’s just a single bite of perfection that warms your appetite for what’s to come.

the amuse bouche is kind of a lost art in modern cuisine.  we toss it into the hors d’oeuvres category as a finger food… but it’s bigger and bolder than that.  at many classical restaurants, the amuse will come first – as an item not on the menu and at the chef’s discretion. the chef choses the flavors which is why it’s usually a representation of his work.  i mean really… how often does a chef get to tell his guests what to eat?

(home-made piping cone)

the amuse bouche for my meal was simple but had some nice sweet/savory contrast (as most should).  the more the ricotta and fig blended with the savory cracker, the more my mouth salivated.

if i had to change anything about this amuse after the fact, i would probably poach the figs in a sweet/citrusey liquid just to give it another dimension of flavor.

dried fig with herbed ricotta on a feta rosemary butter crisp

yield – 8 servings

2 dried figs, quartered
6 oz ricotta cheese
3 tbs heavy cream (or half and half)
2 tsp oregano, minced
2 tsp thyme, minced
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp lemon juice
8 feta and rosemary icebox crackers

instructions

1. quarter figs.  lightly whip ricotta cheese with cream, oregano, thyme, salt, pepper and lemon juice.
2. on each crisp, pipe 1 – 1 1/2 tbs ricotta mixture as a base, press fig lightly into ricotta mixture.
3. enjoy – it’s really that easy.

My last meal for the school project was a non-vegetarian meal.  I was most excited (and nervous) about this meal because 1. it was the most complicated and 2. i was making it for my ENTIRE family.

…side note – we all talk about this in school, how people get really excited for us to cook for them and they expect so much… but sometimes they forget that we don’t have an education yet.  I haven’t even cooked anything at school yet!  it’s okay, we still like to cook for you all!

So, the first course (appetizer) was pretty simple – a Greek style pizza with an olive oil base, feta, tomatoes, oregano and prosciutto.

Recommended by a friend from school, I used Trader Joe’s herb pizza dough.. having never used pizza dough before, i wasn’t prepared to make my own.

The topping for the pizza was pretty simple because I decided to do it all as one pre-mixed mash.  First I blanched the tomatoes, peeled the skin and cleaned the inside before giving them a rough chop.  Then mixed those with the crumbled feta, chopped oregano and sliced prosciutto.  After forming the pizza rounds, they each got about a teaspoon of olive oil and the topping before the cooking action.

The only other part to this dish was the arugula.  The pizza was plated on top, but was meant to be eaten with the arugula on top.  It gave an already fresh tasting pizza an even fresher kick.

The main dish was what I was most excited for… mainly just because I love stuffed chicken, cheese and olives.

I’ve had trouble stuffing chicken before.  I’ll slice it too thinly on the bottom and it will leak out, or too thinly on the top and the flavors aren’t infused enough.  Well, this time, I thought I’d slice down on the chicken breast about 1/4″ then in on each side about 1/2″.  This way, it had a solid bottom base and was deep enough to really pack in the flavor.

The mixture was basic – goat cheese, a touch of milk, chopped olive mixture and chopped fresh sage.  Stuffed with about 3TB of mixture each, they roasted up nicely getting some perfect browning under the broiler.

The dessert for this meal was simple but delicious.  I liked the idea of lemon sorbet with a small sugar chip or something, so we used puff pastry (phyllo) dough (about 5 sheets) and topped it with sugar for a nice and lite pastry chip.  yum!

Special thanks goes out to my family for eating my food and to my mom for supplying some monetary factors… without which, this dinner may have never happened.  Special thanks to my sous chef – mom, I couldn’t have done it without your help.  Also, I feel God in this Chili’s tonight.

Continuing the nutrition project for school tonight, Kris and I experienced an ovo-lacto vegetarian meal.  This was another three course meal (appetizer, main dish and dessert) incorporating eggs and/or dairy.  It was surprisingly difficult to balance the carbs, protein and fat content of this meal, but what I came up with was pretty swell.

We started with a traditional Greek food, and one of my favorites – falafel.  The appetizer was just a small bite into the glorious world of falafel, and if you’ve never tried it… call me, we’ll talk.

This mash of ground up chick peas and seasoning is traditionally served in a gyro (pronounced – yee-row) which is kind of like a Greek burrito.  It’s usually filled with parsley, hummus, onions, tomato, tzatziki and of course, falafel.  You can get them with pork, lamb, beef and other meats, but falafel is my top choice.

I opted to make the tzatziki sauce from scratch since I found a great recipe on a food blog I follow called Kalyn’s Kitchen.  It was extremely simple to make and has such a succulent taste!  Maybe some of you will get to taste it this weekend…   I’ll write about just tzatziki later.

The falafel I made was from a mix.  Most high-end grocery stores (and even some low-end ones like ours) sell a mix you can buy or they sell it in bulk.  It’s also pretty simple to make from scratch – just pulverize some chick peas and spices a food pro and presto!  I used a pretty general mix and add some chopped parsley because… well, i like it.  I molded them into patties and set them to deep fry in my oil set at 360 degrees.

The beauty in this dish was the fresh, and simplistic composition.  It just looked so great in it’s neat little pile.  Love it!

Since a huge part of this project is the nutritional makeup of our meals, the main course needed to be light.  I chose to do a simple pasta (linguine) tossed with some olive oil, sundried tomatoes and diced feta cheese.

The simplest meal so far, it was as easy as cooking and draining the pasta, draining and chopping the tomatoes, dicing the feta and throwing it all together.

The highlight for us (especially Kris) was the roasted garlic, buttered over fresh toasted French bread (some roasted garlic cloves were also tossed in with the final pasta mix).

Topping the dish off with some fresh, chopped rosemary and it was simple and satisfying.

Dessert in our house just doesn’t seem to go right very often.. at least not when I’m making it.

The idea was something very simple.  Lowfat vanilla ice cream with a couple roasted (with cinnamon and sugar) apple slices on the side.  I think the idea is great, but the apples didn’t roast like I’d hoped.  ..and they kind of looked like they were doused with paprika =/

Oh well, they tasted fine and I didn’t have to feed them to anybody…  The ice cream looked great, I just need to figure out a different way to get thos apples cooked!

So, all-in-all, Greek meal number 2 was a success.  If you ever want any of the recipes for what I make and talk about, email me, I’m more than happy to share.

I started brainstorming some ideas and knew that I wanted to do my own recipes (we’re encouraged to find recipes online and in cookbooks for this project) and just manage it all myself.  It really embodies why I came to do this and why I’m excited to go to school every day (well… most days).  I was able to bounce ideas off kris and we came up with 3 courses (appetizer, main dish, and dessert) that I think are really well balanced and appropriate.  I spent all evening cooking each course and kris photographed; it was just so satisfying knowing that I can come up with meals that work well together, taste great, look great and are appropriate.

My ‘restaurant’ is greek, so I’ll have a greek vegan meal, ovo meal and non-veg meal.  By the way, I’m taking name suggestions for my restaurant.  Here are the vegan courses:

The first course is an appetizer.  I wanted to make some simple cous-cous with shallots, garlic and fresh parsley, and top it with just a bit of chopped, roasted peppers.  I really wanted the bright reds and yellows from the bell peppers, and the bright green from a (moderately spicy) cubanelle pepper to contrast with the light yellow of the cous-cous.  After brainstorming with Kris, we decided that it needed to be a little bit less of a side dish, and more of an appetizer.  So we settled with toasting some bread, and plating it with a bit of cous-cous at the tip of the bread, and some of the pepper salsa sitting just next to the cous-cous.  This way, it’s more of a bread-topper than a side dish and I think It worked really well.

The first thing was to roast the peppers with just a bit of olive oil.  Once those were done, i put in the sliced bread (on a bias, to get maximum length).

Meanwhile, some shallots and garlic were sautéing and some vegetable broth was simmering for the cous-cous.  I chopped the peppers into small pieces and stirred them with some oil, parsley salt and pepper.

When the cous-cous was done, i added a bit of parsley before fluffing it.  The hardest part was arranging them on the plate, trying to keep everything in its place while keeping things clean.  The final verdict: excellent!

Next on the list was the main dish.  Being a vegan dish, this is a vegetable rich meal.  Since I need to find a way to get vital carbs, proteins, fats and fiber in, while keeping a ‘greek’ trend, rice and beans were appropriate.  Greek recipes often call for stuffed veggies filled with rice, and I thought I would flip that around.  Let’s stuff an eggplant with large chunks of vegetables (give it a hearty feel) and lay it on a bed of rice.  Kris suggested a wild rice mix for better nutrients and we decided to grill the eggplant to give it some attractive markings.

Since the rice needed about 45 mins to cook, I started on the pilaf.  Diced onions and slivered garlic, toast the rice for a minute or two before jumping into the vegetable broth.

Next – more veggie roasting!  I sliced some zucchini and tomato, squared some peppers and red onion and roasted them with some salt and pepper.

We heated some white beans (contrast of color) to add to the stuffing.  I halved an eggplant and scooped out the pulp before setting it on the grill for just a few seconds.  When the veggies were almost done, i took them out and filled each eggplant half with some beans and the medley.  Back into the oven it went, just to cook the eggplant a bit more.  Once finished, I scooped the rice onto the plate and placed the eggplant ‘boat’ into the middle, finishing it with a shock of bright green parsley.

The verdict: Not too bad!  I think there are some things I’d change.  I would’ve roasted the tomatoes less so they’d keep their shape.  Kris and I also talked about organizing this completely different.  Making a white bean puree for the bottom, then a circular disc of rice, a round slice of eggplant and the veggies on top.  That would give it a different feel altogether.  One thing that MADE this dish, was the flavor of the beans with all the vegetables.

The final dish is a dessert.  What’s more greek than Baklava?  The trick to this is making it vegan.  Baklava is made with phyllo dough (puff pastry) and is layered with LOTS of butter.  Good thing Kris and I have made a lot of vegan friends over the years, because we knew of a vegan butter that has GREAT melting capabilities.

I melted the butter on the stove since we don’t have a microwave, and chopped the pecans in a coffee grinder.  Adding some cinnamon and sugar, I was ready to go to work.  I layered the dough with butter and mixture between each sheet.

Topped it with some more coarsely chopped nuts, the Baklava baked away.  Once finished, we placed two on a plate and finished the dish with a drizzle of Agave nectar.

The verdict: although slightly overcooked, the Baklava had a pretty fantastic taste.  A+ will make again!

I’m glad I’m here, doing what I’m doing.  It brings me excitement and joy and I love it.

(for those of you reading on facebook, click ‘view original post’ to see all the fantastic photos!)

so, we’ve got a pot of vegetable soup in the crock, a scalloped potatoes casserole in the fridge, and wil whipped up some mashed potatoes for lunch (kind of an odd lunch choice, but hey, they were tasty). all in less than an hour and a half…it goes so quick when you don’t have to do the chopping yourself.

i ‘got’ to use his new chef knife. nicely weighted, and extra sharp.

it sounds like chopping up veggies is on the syllabus again for tomorrow…any ideas of what to do with lots of onions, potatoes and carrots?

no plans for memorial day. i actually didn’t realize it was a holiday until a couple days ago when a few of our installers all called and said they couldn’t install on monday. oh right…a day off…what ever shall i do?

wil’s probably working most of the weekend, and our fingers are crossed for maybe one or two more showings, so we’ll see. i’m actually pretty excited about a couple sweets i want to make that i saw on another new favorite food blog, that sarah left in the comments a couple posts back. we hadn’t gone to the grocery store in what felt like years, until last night, so just the concept of food options in our pantry is exciting enough.

tonight, i will be going out to dinner with a handful of o’more girls. haven’t seen some of them since graduation. chinese food and stories about school will definitely be a source of entertainment. and i hope it’s not the last show for me, but will see the champion once again tonight also. so social, i am!

have a great night all.

I’ve spent the last several weeks trying to figure out where we belong and it turns out it won’t be my decision at all.

One of the requirements for enrollment at the Culinary Institute of America (CA) is that I have to have 6 months foodservice experience before entering the school… this is something I don’t have (Starbucks doesn’t count) and won’t be able to get before school starts.   So… Portland here we come!

I’m happy with the result, it feels good to have a destination in mind.  I also know that if this school (Western Culinary Institute) turns out to be something different than I wanted or expected, Kris and I are open to re-transfering down to CA to give the CIA another attempt.  I know my mom is happy, what do YOU think?

but had to at least make the announcement!

but what’s more exciting than our lessons is hearing about different developments in space from his point of view…an astrobiologist highly involved with TSU & NASA. but until today, i didn’t realize the caliber of his background until he showed a recent news interview of himself and a recent discovery.

check out the little two minute interview (click on the picture…i couldn’t get the video to show on our page) and see my teacher and his discovery of water on a new planet outside of our solar system!!!

of course, he revealed to us that some of that information was skewed by the interviewer, but you and the public gets the idea. pretty cool!

oh, and for our final- we will be making ice cream with liquid nitrogen. : )

it was wonderful seeing wil show up with laura at his side…introducing her to all the important people in my life, showing her my makeshift classroom space and giggling with her and my local friends combined.

^ all the girls from work…from left to right: carolyn, my boss, isabella, her daughter and our afternoon cheerleader, cass, me, kim, and amy.
fortunately, although the event ended around 8, the three of us took our rumbly tummies to a mexican restaurant for some good food, drinks and catching up on lost time. and to top the night off, cassie and mike joined us for some late night train…i don’t know how well of a game it really was, since we were all so tired- we basically just deliriously shuffled the tiles around the table while laughing at what sound effects we could make each turn. thanks mike…