Saturday, February 19th, 2011     4:21p

Thanks to another bought of insomnia, the days have flemn flewn by in a blur. Thursday was a productive day of running errands I've been neglecting for awhile, as well as getting started on my taxes. Yesterday was a very interesting day. It started off on a bit of a rush, despite having no sleep in for that morning. Half way to the school I realized that I didn't get my journal for class done Thursday, so I had to crank on out in one of the labs. After class was when some real interest happened...

5:45p

As I was saying before having to get back to work... I got in touch with some old friends from my previous life as an IT professional earlier in the week, and by chance, they were having a get-together on the only Friday I've had off in months. From my schedule pad, it looks like the last Friday I've had off was back in December. At any rate, last night was a much-needed feast for the soul; not just food for the soul, a feast. I got to talk with many of the guys from the old office on how much my life's changed for the better, how I got here where I am now, caught up with their lives, which sadly hadn't changed much, all while getting pleasantly inebriated on Guinness, in a kilt, while listening to an Irish punk band play, let by my apparent replacement. Put together like that, and felt like in a trance. Good company, good drinks, good music. I left last night feeling full; not just from the beer and snacks, but spiritually as well. I had a smoke to try to equall out my head. While life is wonderfully  busy productive, and full of promise, it's good to take some time off from it all and just enjoy a good moment evening with some friends. Now that I think about it, my good friend Dustin's having his birthday on Wednesday. I've work that night... but it'd still be nig nice to try to do something for him.

Wednesday, February 16th, 2011     6:44p

But they were apparently too done. I got them finished just before class started, and had to quickly get everything from the old dinning lab to the classroom. Despite the extra effort and pre-planning, our critique was rather, neutral. Objective, I guess would be a better description. I actually felt good about getting so many comments on things to improve on. After getting so many good critiques, or with little to improve on, it's good to get a critique with nearly EVERYTHING to improve on. Chef Josh even came in to give a mini critique, and over a smoke break I got to discuss and brainstorm on ways to make it better. Mikey and Laura seemed a bit broken up about the critique. Though perhaps not. Mikey's mood is sometimes hard to guage, since he's always wearing a smile. I just feel he sometimes wears it as a facade to how he's really feeling, since there's been more than a few times that he's thrown into a rage over something not coming out right. He's also talked to me about some family troubles he's in right now with his mom, some lawyers, and millions in back taxes due. That's no weight anyone should brunt alone, especially as they're trying to start their career. I can't help but feel like I should give him a hug. But knowing Mikey's mind, I take him as being slightly homophobic. Though that seems like another facade he puts on as well to keep with the "locker room mentallity" of your average kitchen.

Tuesday, February 15th, 2011     3:21p
Another early day to the school, but not so much to catch up on homework, rather for lab work. Production in Garde Manger last night went fairly well. I'd say 95% of what we needed to get done was finished, leaving few items to produce tonight, so we can focus mostly on presentation. I just finished prepping our barquettes for the midterm buffet, and they've been in the oven for about 15 mins. now.

3:30p
And they have awhile to go. We actually completely finished one item on our menu; the hot dog mousse, and bean salad. Together, with some barbeque sauce, the salad canape tastes JUST like frank & beans. It's a bit of a surreal experience. I wonder if the chef will think the same.

3:45p
And the barquettes are done! At least the first batch.

Monday, February 14th, 2011     4:46p
I've a few minutes before class, so I thought it best to take the time to write. I slept in this morning, with a load of laundry I needed to do, and an MG club meeting to get to. So a bit of a rush heading out this morning. Business for today's MG meeting was just that; business. As we are right now, the club is in desparate need for more members. So tra to raise awareness of the club, we're working on getting a booth set up for two weeks to bring in new members. This will also raise money for the club, since we'll be doing a taste tripping event on the second week. I've also checked my grades thusfar, and a little surprised by the results; good and bad. Classical European is still 99%, as is Garde Manger, which I'm pleasantly surprised by, but Management is down to 80%. Better than I feared, but I was surprised I got half credit on participation certain weeks. I wonder if that may have been from playing with the camera from MG to break up the dulldrum of the lecture. Work last night was interestin, since Molly trusted me to decorate some cupcakes, with much trebidation. Admittedly the first few I produced were subpar, but I quickly got the hang of it.   There's more that I could and should write on, but I need to get some coffee in me before class night for my Garde Manger midterm.

Friday, February 11th, 2011     12:17p

With my bought of insomnia earlier this week, and the dinner last night, it feels like this week was only three days long. I've been so busy this week that this is the first free moment I've had. The dinner went incredibly well; I heard nothing but praise with from all of our guests, as well as Madeline, the school president, and Chef Mark. It was a fun and busy night. I wish I had more to write about, but my mind is a bit wrecked from how little sleep I've gotten this week. Besides, I need to run off to work.

12:50p

I just had a wonderful ego boost. I bumped into Chef Mark out in the hall, and he stopped me to shake my hand and thank me for helping with the dinner last night. He also said "You have a bright future, Dylan." I can't say that anyone has told me that as sincerely as Chef Mark did. Just that small comment made me feel the best I ever have.

1:28p

Another moment of ego boosting. Soon after finishing my last entry, I bumped into Chef Franc, the chef many of the students say is a real hard-ass. He said "Thank you young man (Chef Franc barely remembers anyone's name, so he calls everyone "young man/lady" or for the young ladies in class he likes, "Giiiiiirl") for helping last night. I really appreciate it." It was the last part that really boost me. Chef Franc's a very short, and straight forward type, with a bit of a little hard ass in there. But for him to sincerely thank a student; that's something. I felt myself dosing on the drive to work, and have some time to kill, so I stopped here at the Starbucks here in town for some coffee. It's a nice quiet place to sit and write, with just a little sizzle coming from the "kitchen" of sorts that they have. Right kind of place for me to recollect my headspace that I seemed to have lost track of this week. It's interesting what little it takes to put one at ease sometimes.

Tuesday, February 8th, 2011     1:35p
The last few days seem like a blur. This not only comes from what all has been done in the last few days, but also from the fact that I'm going on to my 33rd waking hour. I didn't sleep at all last night or this morning. More of a matter of negligence than insomnia. Sunday morning, before work, I purchased a game that caught my eye for the Xbox 360, called Monday Night Combat. It's recently been ported to the PC via Steam, and with my extra income from near full-time work, I couldn't turn it down at $15. So that was part of the reason for the all-night; being a slack-ass. Given how busy my schedule is anymore a moment (or in this case, a whole night) of relaxation is welcome. Despite being the night of the Superbowl, was was busy Sunday night. Travis had me bake up about 40 trays of cookies, along with doing breakout for the morning baker by myself, on top of regular cleanup. I got everything baked and boxed, but not labelled, and still I got out of work 30 minutes late. Not that big of a deal, since I can take on more hours without reaching that dreaded point of overtime. On the school side of things, everything is much more busy. Yesterday was the "VIP" registration for classes. As of right now I'm scheduled to be at the school Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays for Management by Menu, Asian Cuisine with Chef Josh (which I'm looking forward to the most), and World Cuisine with the new adjunct Chef Breugh. In the MG club meeting we learned spherification, which is used to make faux caviar. Originally we had scheduled this week for learning agar clarification, but since we have a big dinner even to prep for, which will include an apple caviar, it was better to cover the material now. I don't remember if I mentioned this dinner in my entries in my previous journal or not. At any rate, there is a big dinner being held on the 11th floor, in the school's student run restaurant. The Garde Manger class is being highlighted by the dinner by making a buffet for the event. The MG club was also tapped for this event to get more awareness for the club with the big school executive types that this dinner is being held for. The idea of MG helping with the event is simply to go "Hey, look at us! Look at this cool stuff we make!" This might then get word spread to other Ai campuses to get a campus wide club going, like what Ai has for the fashion students and the Beau Monde club. However, I'm getting tapped twice by this dinner, since I'm in the class being highlighted. Chef Lechti is back from...whatever it was he was away for and a bit agast at what all needs to be done. Not only does some of the prepwork for the dinner have to be done by the class, but he also has to cover the material missed due to the weather last week, this week's material, but also the midterm practical next week. For the midterm we're to create a themed buffet table, and present it properly with strong lines that guide the eye into the buffet. Being partnered with Mikey has already proven interesting. Our group brainstormed in the library for nearly two hours thinking on our theme, what to serve, and how to present it. I think those two hours were the most fun I've had in the class so far; brainstorming ideas left and right. That does remind me; I've a quiz I need to finish before class today. Would I have remember it in the current fog my head is in today from the lack of sleep, if I hadn't written this entry? No way to tell now. It's fairly short, so I'm not pressed for time. I might even bang out some of my recipe cards for European as well.

Friday, February 4th, 2011     12:05p
Wednesday I had to call off work, since the county was under a class 1 emergency, allowing emergency vehicles on the road only, and towing anyone trying otherwise. My father seemed to catch a bit of cabin fever pretty quick. He speant spent most of the day cleaning the house, floor to ceiling. He even tried to wax the kitchen floor, but I shut him down on that with my remedy for cabin fever; baking some English muffins. With this latest batch, I tried something new; I made a makeshift proofer box out of the oven by setting a baker's sheet full of water on the floor of the oven, and setting the temp as low as it would go; in the case of our oven, 170°F. The results were pretty good; they proofed in a matter of about 25-30 mins, instead of an hour or more, and the crust was moist enough that it didn't crack (much) when I seared them. Later that night however, my father got more drunk than he usually does, and found something that he could yell at me about, and throw a temper tantrum over; I left three dishes out that needed to be hand washed. He raved on how I don't contribute to the house in keeping it maintained. He always gives this speech whenever he gets into one of his OCD cleaning fits, that I don't help around the house. This, despite the fact that usually the one cleaning the messes he makes in the kitchen. I won't write on this more, since it's far too petty to give any thought to. Last night at work, being on the deli side, I drummed up some dialoge with Pat. I've not worked with her before, but I know we'll get along just fine. She's another can-do types that can see what all should and needs to be done in our little kitchen. It's good to work with people like that; build motivation and plays a bit of Darwinism into the group. Class this morning started at a fast pace, since I walked into class, and noticed from the other students that there was a test we needed to print out and complete. I scrambled to the computer lab around the corner and finished it, purely by guessing and what little I knew already. In the end, I got a 50% on it. Thanks to the extra credit I got from being sous last week, I'm still sitting on an A. After that, production was rather slow paced. A number of dishes were slow to finish or took very little time to cook. I took one recipe, purely on a single word; "clear" chicken stock. Knowing what I learned last quarter in MG club, I treated the stock with some agar, froze it, and filtered it to remove all of the sediment and fat in the stock. By the time the chef rolled around to critique, my soup got lukewarm rather than hot, but he did like the presentation and the clarity of the soup. During the massive downtime while waiting for my stock to freeze, I bumped into Jessica, one of the baking specialty students I've worked with before. She was in tears from making a mistake in class. I gave her a good little pep talk. Later on in the day, I saw her smiling. So I feel I got a bit of karma going from the encounter. I've got a good deal of time to kill before I have to get to work tonight. Aside from finishing this entry, there's nothing keeping me here at school. Hopefully tonight I'll get off in time, unlike last night. I suppose I forgot to mention that.