I Really Don't Like Sunsets

I can imagine how those text only articles were starting to piss people off, so that's over with. These past couple days I've been building up on photos so I actually have something to blog about. Everyone has bothered me in some way or another, Alex won't leave me alone long enough to think, the woman behind the pizza counter looks like a skinnier "Ugly Betty" apparently, my legs are made of plastic, and I've only been home for a week. A few things have happened this week and after this entry, everyone will know all about my new amazing chicken skill :D (Side note: I honestly don't like sunsets. I find them beautiful, but only slightly, and not the kind of beautiful that you'd want to look at. I suppose I like the idea of a sunset much more than the sunset itself, mostly because they orange lighting is really irritating. I wish the sky could just jump from light to dark. Surprisingly, I enjoy watching sunrises; that is if I'm up.) Anyway; It's time for pictures.

Just a random photo. I always walk past this place and I really want to go in to see what's inside, but the only reason I'm ever near it is because I'm going to some other place I need to be. Eventually Miss Shirley's Place, eventually.

Anyway, after walking past the other place, I went to Panera for breakfast on Monday. Speaking of that day, it was also my first day of being a TA, and I did absolutely nothing for the 2 hours I was there. But that was expected; the first day of lab is just hand out the syllabus and go.

My breakfast: A chocolate chip bagel with raspberry cream cheese. I did like this, but I didn't ask the man to toast it first off, and then he burned it on the bottom a little, and then he didn't bother to make a new one, and just stuck it in the bag. Also, the raspberry cream cheese has seeds in it, so be careful not to choke O.o

Later that day I was in a convenience store and I saw that Orbit had a new flavor, Pina Colada. While I am very aware that gum is not food-even though I swallow it- I felt as though I had to talk about this for two reasons. Number one, I love gum. I want gum like people in the desert want water. Number two is the scent and taste. If anyone knows what bed head hair products are, then they probably know about "Dumb Blonde" reconstructor. This gum smells just like it! And to be honest, the whole time I was using it (pre-hair melt) I really wanted to see what it tastes like. And now I know!

Speaking of which, I am significantly less bald (yay!)

So, yes this picture looks disgusting, as I mentioned earlier, I'm a TA. So Friday I was allowed to practice different things around the kitchen, the main one that day being chickens. Instead of just breaking down the chickens the normal 8-way method, I was taught how to debone a chicken completely without cutting all the way through; thus creating a chicken that, when cooked, could be sliced anywhere and eaten without worrying about those pesky bones. (<-- I sound like an infomerical.)

This picture looks even worse. Let me explain before all of you vomit; these are the three chickens that I deboned earlier, rubbed with a spice rub, and stuffed with a force meat mousse of chicken breast (eggs, chicken, basil, panko, s&p). Then, I wrapped them in caul fat to help the bird hold its shape in the oven, instead of butchers twine, so that they don't look like the saggy mess seen above.

Here are the chickens after about 60-70 minutes in the oven. I kept checking the internal temperature with my thermometer, and it kept coming out 120F. Chicken is supposed to be 165F, but since there was a mousse inside I thought I'd let it go to about 170F. Apparently my thermometer is broken, because I used a different one and it was at 168F.

You all might think the fact that I used caul fat is disgusting, but it actually worked a lot better than twine would have because it formed sort of a skin, soft enough to glide a fork through, but strong enough to retain so much of the chickens juices. I sliced one open after they had cooled down a bit, and the juice came flowing out. This was a good thing though, as the bird was incredibly moist.

Random odd little side note: I was eating a lunchables pizza the other day (yes I eat those and they are delicious), and I noticed that there were four little pizza discs instead of three. I didn't know whether to be excited or upset; I got an extra pizza, but now I had to put less sauce and cheese on each, thus causing more of a problem than good.

So anyway, to tie off this post, I just wanted to end by saying that I am starting a second blog, just for my surveys, just to have a separate place to put them besides a crumbling website. But really besides that, that's about it. Tomorrow I'm going to do another "RecipeTorial" for the Raspberry Cream Cheese Brownies I made a few days ago. Until then, MORE TOMORROW.