Week #2

I decided to name my blog entries by week instead of sessions. hope you don't mind!

This past week was generally more of the same with some good exception. For our Basic Cookery class, it was just more review of sanitation and an overview of culinary history--guilds, french revolution, careme, escoffier, etc.

But as for Garde Manger, i was really exicted because we moved forward beyond the introductory material.

We were divided into teams and given a set of recipes to prepare next week. I was fortunate enough to be named one of the team leaders.

Each team was given roughly 10 recipes. Nothing too crazy. I organized the dishes, prep lists, and other logistical details this weekend.

So the dishes we are preparing are 1) salsa; 2) hummus; 3) tapenade; 4) mayo; 5) remoulade; 6) compound butter (really just garlic butter); 7 and 8) 2 different vinaigrettes; 9) tahini; sauce; 10) tortilla chips; 11) crostinis.

So again...nothing difficult or outlandish. It will just be nice to get into the kitchen.

I am really excited because after such a long time of following other paths, I finally feel like my skills will be tested. Maybe I will do well, maybe not. either way, there is just something to be said about testing yourself and your skills. Again, this week may not be too advanced, but at least we are done with the introductory material.