In the past I've said that obstacles only make things more interesting...

So today, I came across perhaps the biggest obstacle in my career I've had to deal with yet. I am certain there will be more, bigger ones, much more difficult, but I can't get to any of those until I find a way to fix this. More on that later. Recently, I've been doing a lot of job hunting (related) and I haven't really had a lot of time to just sit back and make food in my house. So when I had the opportunity to make popovers, lasagna, and blueberry muffins these past two days I had to post about it; after all, what's a twist without a main story to alter?

The popovers where a lot simpler than I recall to make; just mix milk, eggs, melted butter, and flour, add some salt, and pour into a greased muffin tin. Ashley and I were going through some of my old pictures from last year, and apparently exactly one year ago yesterday, I baked popovers in my bp150 class (according to the pictures date). Then I remembered that we didn't have anymore flour, and that no one ever wants to take me to the grocery store for anything. So I began to entice the hungry Ashley with stories of how they are almost like a muffin and and omelet combined, mostly to get her to walk with me up the street so I wouldn't be bored, but also so that she could try them. Long story short, we walked to the store and bought flour, milk, and blueberries (more on that later). Fast forward two hours and we have popovers!

*Said with excitement continued from last paragraph* These are not the popovers! These are lasagna noodles, which I needed to start on while they were in the oven because the recipes are at two different temperatures. I decided against putting anything else other than cheese in it for fear that no one in the house would eat it if I added spinach like I wanted to. I also didn't have any herbs to add to the ricotta mixture, so it was just plain. I actually did not take pictures of the lasagna after it had just come out of the oven, but I did take one while it was on the plate....the thing is....I had already taken a large chunk out of it. At +discow+ I have posted enough mildly disgusting photos, so we don't need one more :P

These are the popovers!!...they look wet /: Anyway, we added cheese to half of them (not these), all of which got eaten. They went quickly....like 5 minutes quickly lol. The good news is that they don't take long to make so maybe I'll do it again tomorrow.

This was my lunch today. After my job interview I went to the Starbucks at the bookstore on the Avenue, and I originally intended to only get a drink, but I found three extra dollars in my pocket (pathetic) so I bought a pretzel too! Instead of the feta/spinach pretzel, which seemed dry, I got the pizza stuffed pretzel because I figured the marinara sauce would keep it moist, which it did. That's when I got the phone call about my "problem".

So later on today Ashley and I started another baking session in which we made blueberry muffins for dessert. I reheated the lasagna I made yesterday (which was intended to be eaten today, just incase anyone was wondering) while we measured and mixed for the muffins. Let me say that muffin mix has to be my favorite kind of raw egg using, unbaked, batter between cakes, cookies, and brownies. Especially muffins made with buttermilk (not these lol), because they have that tart with the sweetness thing. Anyway, here they are.

Okay, so onto the part that I'm sure everyone has skipped down to see how dramatic Dominic is being today. My job interview that was supposed to happen tuesday ended up being re scheduled for today. After I sat down and showed him my portfolio, he asked me if I really wanted this job.

I was shocked when he said that I was over qualified for the job (especially since I had never worked in a restaurant before except Ireland). I told him that I still wanted to work there, just to get my foot in the door. During the job interview, my age came up (like I was sure it would), and the man said it absolutely did not make a difference to him or the restaurant. So we did the whole "oh wow, how did you do that" thing that usually happens when people find out my age, and then he said he'd be in contact and I left.

However, while I was eating my pretzel (I had to spit out a piece to answer the phone), he said that he had some unfortunate news. He said that he spoke to someone in the department of labor to make sure I could work there, and they basically told him that I can't. Not just at that place, but pretty much in every kitchen. They said that the slicer and the food processor and things like that were all considered machines, and that they were "too dangerous" for me to handle.

W...T....F...??!?!? I'm not a toddler, I'm not going to put my hand in a robot coupe and turn it on! I'm sure now everyone has their "I told you so Dominic" faces on, but don't write me off that quickly. I will find a way. I will get a job. I have gotten over things in the past and I can do it now. They told me I was too young to take the ACT, but I did. They told me I was too young to graduate high school when I did, but I did. They told me I couldn't afford to go to culinary school but. I. did. Things just wouldn't be interesting if I didn't have something else to deal with. So I will handle this, I don't know how, or what to do, but I will. Dominic will get a job in a kitchen.

Recycle Pie...?

I'm just going to say that the pie that I baked today wasn't exactly recycled (that'd be disgusting). I'm not quite sure what the word is for it, but there was a 3lb bag of apples in the second refrigerator in the rec room, and I knew no one would ever eat them. So I decided that since I'm not doing anything today, why not bake an apple pie?! I ran into a few problems along the way, but I like to think that obstacles only make things better. GET TO IT!

(Also, really sorry about the picture quality again. I'm trying to get this job, and if everything goes well, I'll have a lot more money. One of the first thing I plan to do is get a real camera so I don't have to take crazy pictures with my iPhone and put them up here :P)

So, these are the apples (why I feel the need to introduce them, I'll never know) and I must say, this picture makes them look very large. However, I will have you know that they were not. These had to be the smallest variety next to crab apples, probably not the best kind for baking a pie out of. The recipe didn't specify what kind of apple, and I had a few large granny smith apples in the fridge, but I didn't think sour apples would be so great in a pie. So I decided just to go ahead and peel, core, and slice 50 (<-dramatic) baby apples for this pie. Frankly, it was a hassle.

Let me tell you all how I had to fight the damn squirrels for my pie pan. I was looking for one of them, under the island in the cabinet where the rest of my bake ware is, and I couldn't find them. So I looked all over, only to be told that someone moved most of my things into a plastic bin in the shed. I hate going in the shed period, but more so in the winter because that's when the squirrels move in. I made sure to bang on the door to let them know I was there, but they still decided to continue their party on the roof. So, I walked over as they scurried away to the bin to get my pie pan, when one jumps inside. So I quickly got the pan, slammed the container shut, and walked out...and now in a week I get the pleasure of fishing a dead rodent out of the bin.

Skipping right through the crust, filling, and topping making, I bring you to a disgusting picture of an unbaked pie. The filling was a cooked one (do they have a recipe for non cooked apple filling?), so I spent a little time on that. Before I made the crust early this morning because I knew it had to retard for at least four hours.425°F and 35 minutes later...

THIS came out of the oven! I was very pleased with they way it came out, mostly because sometimes my oven in crazy and it burns things for no reason. This time I was prepared and reduced the temperature by about 15°F. That way, my pie wouldn't come out looking like a volcano. I would like to try the same recipe again, with a few changes that I've noted, one being less butter in the crumb topping. That with the caramelized sugar reminded me of palmier cookies, my nemesis.

Yeah, this has been a pretty lame post, but I honestly didn't do much else today, and I wanted to put something up because I'm not going to be posting tomorrow. I'm going to be away from my desktop and the little laptop frustrates me to use sometimes, especially typing large paragraphs. Anyway, I better get going, I have a bag to pack.

O.o Wednesday Brunch?

No. The answer to the question is no, I did not a fancy brunch this morning. I had half of a day old donut, some milk, and the last cashew out of the trail mix bag in the pantry. I had brunch at Roberto's on Sunday morning, and I (for some reason?) waited until now to post about it. Anyway, lets not dally and go straight into it.

When I first sat down with my first plate at the brunch buffet, I wondered to myself, "Why did I get cheese? This is going to be disgusting, just a wedge of cheese like this...". Strangely, it wasn't just a dull cheese like cheddar (not that there is anything wrong with cheddar, I just don't usually like eating large pieces of hard cheeses alone), but it was a very spicy and flavorful Pepper Jack. I tried it alone at first, and then with a piece of strawberry that I put on the plate, not thinking to eat it with the cheese. Well, it was just good. Also notice the slice of onion bread and pineapples slices.

This is a picture of juice. No, I will not be talking about the juice lol, but I would like to use this opportunity to talk about the service at Roberto's. I have to say that they have a really attentive staff here. The moment I got up to get another plate, someone was refolding my napkin, pushing in my chair, taking the old plate away, dusting the table for crumbs, and re-filling the juice and water glasses. Most places don't really have service, and I think that's a shame because these waiters probably get huge tips, and other restaurants could get the same amount of gratuity. Just thought I'd say that.

I really dislike pictures of eggs. Especially omelettes. Especially omelettes with cheese and tomatoes in them. I do, however, like the taste of them, very much. I know that its terrible manners to say mildly disgusting things while we're eating (or looking at pictures of) food, but I have been known to say worse at the table. This omelet looks like a giant sneeze. Yes that is foul, and yes the next time you eat an omelette, you will think about sneezes, but it will pass... or not....

I also noticed that the woman who usually carves the roast beef and makes the waffles hasn't been there the past two times I've gone....perhaps she got fired /: (speaking of which, I didn't get a waffle while I was there...now I want a waffle...)

*said in sarcastic tone* It just wouldn't be a review of Dominic's brunch if dessert wasn't half the meal. Anyway, this time they surprised me at the usually repeated dessert table by replacing all the old items with new ones. They had mini creme brulees (which I hate), mini flans (which I also hate), and they had mini key lime pies (which I like). You can also see here that I got some assorted candies and small cookies. I also got another one of the mystery "sacher cookies" which I have yet to find out why they share the same name as the cake (they taste absolutely nothing alike).

This was probably my favorite part of the meal; warm blueberry compote with crumb topping. It wasn't hot like fresh baked pie filling, but just right like the porridge in that story. (I think she should've gotten eaten. That's what she gets for breaking into a bears house... mhhmmmm... why am I even going off on this tangent?) There isn't really too much else to say here, other than I found more crumb topping in the bottom... so does that make it crust?

And for the final part of the meal, some chocolate covered strawberries. Again, not too much else to say here besides they were pretty good. I actually took a few more off the table on the way out, which Ashley glared at me for... speaking of which I re-did her blog. Now I only have one more banner/title card to do for someone, then I'm donneeee. She also changed the title of her blog, now its (clickable) The Look of Things. But that's about all for this post, btw I never explained why I didn't finish the Miami arc. The reason is that I got some sort of stomach sickness, and as soon as I was over it I got my tattoo on my wrist, which made me no longer able to type because it was right on top of my tendons. More tomorrow ;D

FOOD and FONT

So yes, it's been exactly three weeks today since I last posted, and certainly a lot has happened. I got a tattoo, I got back from Miami (more on why I stopped posting from there in a bit), and I am now looking for a job! You all might have also noticed that the blog looks a bit different, which is probably surprising as the post directly before this was about how I re-did the blog. Anyway, this change should be a bit more permanent, I just though the other one was a bit too harsh; to explain, I've put together a pictorial I think everyone will find interesting. (Because Photobucket is acting crazy today, and the fact that I'm posting from the slow BIC computer, the pictures a hilariously smaller than usual)
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Who remembers these lol?! This just goes to show how far I've come since first starting this blog a little over a year ago. The one on the left is the second title card that I had for +discow+, this was when it wasn't even a food blog... just sort of a let's document my life for fun kinda thing. The one on the right is the third title card I had, and it was the first card for the "Food Blog". Notice how in both of these pictures I had oodles of hair -.- The one on the right was also the first in color.

The picture on top was the fourth re-do of the title card for the blog; and it was the fist to feature actual food. It has the picture of a salad that I reviewed a little while ago, and another that hasn't been in the blog at all. That's because its my stracciatella gelato that I had on my birthday at GROM. I really want to go back there soon, but something tells me work will prevent me from doing so in the future. Anyway, the one on the bottom is my very first title, again back when this wasn't a food blog. Notice the very crappy and poorly done image. (Ignore the background, its just lorem ipsum)

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So the other day, I was thinking to myself, this blog layout is too harsh (with the giant red sign, and huge pictures) so I thought to myself, "Let's re-do it over again, but this time with something that won't get stale in two months". So I decided to make three different, new titles using modern fonts and color schemes, and decide which one worked best. The two above are the two that didn't quite make it to being in the blog. I really liked the one on the right, but the cut off look and the fact that it only has three words in it don't say much. Plus, I wanted to stray away from my usual colors (black, white, red) so that it wouldn't look like a giant target ad. The one on the left was based around using a dark purple color that a lot of websites are changing too. I ultimately decided against it because it looked too much like a home & garden magazine cover.

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These two are the final cards, the one on the left being the one used now. I also changed the color scheme to match the black and yellow "theme". I also like how the discow, my often used nickname for the site, is yellow; I've also replaced the + signs with lightning bolts. The one on the right was the one used right before the current card, and it's mainly not up anymore because of how generic it looks. It certainly was modern, but perhaps a bit too modern. More tomorrow :D

Taking Pictures of Strangers

It's what I've been doing recently; its great fun. I have a stranger as the background for my phone. :D Also have you noticed something else? I re-did the blog! This is the third change this year, but I honestly think it was time to change it a bit; as in turning this from a joke to a serious blog.... not one with a picture of the pig tails afghan lol. Okay, so I should warn you now that since this is now a serious blog, all entries before June should be ignored.

That being said, you all should know when I promise a double post for one day, that's probably not going to happen. So I am going to wait until later and do the review for both yesterday and today's food. It will give me something to do later tonight after I get back from Lincoln. But for the most part I'm enjoying Miami and I will be back home Saturday night. I am really glad I brought this computer with me so I don't have to procrastinate doing a vacation post. Anyway; let me save some text for later. More in a few hours :P

(Insert Clever Title Here): Day 2 in Miami

So, readers, you're probably wondering how I'm posting from Miami. Well, in the basement, I seemed to have forgotten that there was a brand new Acer netbook, full of memory and ram! It goes just as fast as my desktop, so its nice to use. It's also even more convenient because it has the 3g card built in; I am typing and posting this (with pictures ;D) from the truck. Anyway; into the post:

So, it snowed in Maryland a few days ago. ALOT. So I, naturally, was concerned about the status of my flight yesterday afternoon. I was honestly expecting the plane to be delayed until today, but it was only by 45 minutes. Then the plane took forever to take off, but oter than that it was fine. Usually I have the opportunity to take a picture of the food on the plane, but since it was only a two hour ride, I didntthink any of you wanted to see a picture of ginger ale and an oatmeal raisin cookie. However before I got on the plane I did have lunch.

First for lunch was Cheddar and Broccoli soup; something that I thought I was going to regret ordering (once I found out that chili was available), but surprisingly didnt. The initial smell was off putting, as it reminded me of the samekind of soup from the Safeway salad bar, but I got over it and I really enjoyed it. I guess theres just sometingabout not eatingall day that makes everything taste so much better.

To finish the small lunch, I got a sugar cookie and cream soda. What I didnt quite understand was, why do they check me for sharp objects on the way in, but then sell me a soda in a glass bottle. Not saying that I would do anything with it (I threw it in the Wendy's trash can), but someone could. Anyway, the cookie I didnt actually eat until I was actually on the plane. I was really hard and crunchy around the rim, and almost under baked in the middle. STOP COMPLAINING DOMINIC! IT'S A COOKIE!

That night, after we had arrived, I went to La Carreta for food (dinner?). I ordered fried yuca, which tastes almost identical to french fries, but didnt have that disgusting, greasy after taste. They were served with some kind of spicy pesto mayonaise, which only made it better :D Anyway, Monday isnt over yet, so I'll be on later to do my post for todays food.

HD cameras ruin everything

I'm incredibly bored today. Plus it's Friday night and what am I doing? Blogging. I actually have a decent excuse for being a shut in tonight; I'm broke! And since I dont have a car or a license, I can go nowhere without money. So now, I'm going to make all of you sit in my puddle of boredom with me. I'm going to explain to you my incredibly mundane Friday.

So I woke up this morning around 7:10 or so, even though I didn't have any kind of class or school to go to. (I dont think I mentioned this before but IM FINISHED CULINARY SCHOOL! More on that tomrrow though, I dont feel like typing all that right now) I wasnt really tired, so I went downstairs and ate some honeycombs cereal plain, because we only have chocolate milk and that'd be gross. After I ate, Madina came downstairs and I went to drop her off this morning. Upon returning home, I listened to music and played farmville for half an hour. Then I watched various ABC re-runs on iTunes. A few hours later I went ahead and emptied the dishwasher, then I cleaned my bathroom up a bit. Then I got dressed for the day etc. I continued watching shows until around 4:30, when I took Ava to the dog hotel to stay for the week while we're gone. Then I came back home and had random small talk with cat ball for about an hour. Then I read my "Fat Duck" book for a while, then I made dinner (farfali and white sauce). And now I'm here, eating a brownie, trying not to get crumbs on my keyboard. Lets hope tomorrow is a more eventful day.

This unexpected picture is of a pumpkin I carved two months ago in Garde Manger class. Just thought I'd finally post it because I mentioned it here. More tomorrow.

(Let me explain the title; Today, while watching one of my shows, I saw chipped paint on a house that I used to think was perfect. Random, I know, but I just cant help but think now that thier entire house is covered with chipped paint /: )

"And would you like that toasted?" ...seriously?

WRITTEN YESTERDAY

(Lazy blogger is very sorry)

Yes readers, my lunch today was from Subway. Usually I leave feeling this odd feeling that something isn't right, as though something has gone unsaid by my big mouth. However when I ordered my sub today, it finally hit me like a man on Muary when he finds out that he, is not the daddy (or the wife when the lie detector test determines that was a lie); they always ask me if I would like my sub toasted. Every other time I usually just let it go, but not this time... why would I possibly want something with copious amounts of lettuce on it, toasted? This is what I do not understand. If subway just wants to serve people big logs of sogginess (probably not a word), then why don't they just combine the sub, drink, and cookies into one "meal brick" for $7.99. Especially if the sub has other things on it, then the bread gets all soggy from the hot tomatoes evaporating, the aforementioned lettuce is wilted, and if there is mayonnaise, its probably broken. I actually heard that mayonnaise in the oven or microwave is toxic, but apparently not /:

Anyway now that that's over, as few things. As you may have noticed last blog (which you probably didn't), the size of the pictures are changing. I'm trying to find a permanent file uploading site besides blogger -because it makes the pictures too small- as well as fix up the blog for the new year. (<-- Today will be posted with Blogger+Photobucket) Perhaps the title card will be a bit more sophisticated than me holding up the pig tails scarf. I do know what my new years resolution is going to be: post more.... or at least once or twice a week. Next year some pretty big things are happening and I just want to get all of them down. Speaking of big things, I'm going to Miami in what... four days? Yeah, so I'll be sure to eat oodles of very interesting things and come home and post. So that means no postings from 20-26.

***GORE....Y MARZIPAN FIGURE AHEAD***

This travesty is my master piece, I've named it "the exorcism". Recently there was a gingerbread competition at the CAC, and a couple days I ended up staying late to help with the decorations. On the last day, I got very, very bored and took one of the figures in progress and turned him into what he is today. Dry your eyes and testify. OH! Sidebar: after the competition was over, someone informed me that someone made a comment about my edible figures; they said they looked like sex offenders!!!!!!!! Apparantly because of the way they were placed, it appeared as though two of the men where standing by the tree under a tree house trying to kidnap the child!!!

So last wednesday I ate dinner at Ra, a sushi place in Harbor East. (Speaking of which, that whole area over there by Fells Point is quickly becoming my favorite part of Baltimore) Please Excuse My Dear Iphone Camera... its the new pemdas which explains incredibly crappy photos. (actually, when said out loud, its kinda quite lude, but honeslty how many times am I vulgar? I get a pass on this one)

Atleast in Miami it's sunny, so I should be able to take decent pictures there. Anyway, while I was there I ordered the spicy tuna (right) and the tootsy maki roll (left) which was my favorite. Consisting of crab, shrimp, and cucumber and rolled in not just seasme seeds, but there was some crunchy green stuff on the outside of the roll which was really good, because with all the mushy textures it was nice to have that. I also had the vegas roll, but honestly it was too dark and I was very hungry so I did not take a picture of that /:

Incredibly random paragraph: I really, really like the color of fresh chopped rosemary. Recently everytime I get out fresh rosemary to use in something, halfway through chopping I take a moment and say, "Wow, thats an amazing group of colors". Rosemary does not play around through the brown shade like other plants do, it goes from a vibrant, strong green to pale white to surprising black. No in between. So I decided the other day to take a picture, just because. Sorry for the poor quality. Pemdic?.....yeah thats not such a good idea to make that a regular thing lol. More tomorrow.

+.+ there are too many popsicle sticks in my desk drawer

Well hello everyone. It's been about a week since I've posted I think, and honestly I'm okay with that. Sometimes I'll post three, four times a week and sometimes I'll post every couple weeks. I think I make too big a deal about "getting back on track" and whatnot, so now I've decided to take a more relaxed attitude about it. So now I'm posting for the first time in December, which is good I guess /: ?? Either way, lets get right into it! (Btw, all of you would probably think I'd have some big thanksgiving post, but no. I'm not going to get into that right now [80/20], just know that I only have one topic for the holiday).

So, before I actually ate "Thanksgiving Dinner", there were a few things put out as snacks until the main meal was finished cooking. All of the food, fruit platter, fruit and cheese platter, Chex mix, etc., was all very nice, except for one thing: the whole nuts bowl. I wanted to DIE! I have never been able to use a nutcracker, and now I still cant. That's just grand, because I really wanted some almonds but those were the only ones! So I tried, and tried; I must have gone through 10-12 nuts until I just gave up. Above is the remains of all my failed attempts -.-

Anyway, the next morning, I went "Black Friday" shopping....and not for Christmas gift either. I wanted stuff for myself, so I bought a new comforter and sheets for my bed, and I also got some new stuff from express. On my way back home, I stopped at Dunkin Donuts for breakfast. I normally dislike fast food breakfast (McDonald's, Burger King, etc.) but I really like DD breakfasts. While I did not get any actual doughnuts, I did get an egg and cheese on a croissant, a strawberry cream cheese egg bagel, a hot chocolate, and hash browns. I always over eat at breakfast time, examples: here, here :P

On Sunday, I ended up going to Delaware, again, but this time was a bit more interesting, with all the Christmas decorations, me not getting put out of the casino like usual, and the fact that I actually ate real food while I was there besides stale pretzels!

I have this problem, and I think the cause of it is that I see something I really want to eat, and I just go ahead an buy a regular sized portion. But then I think "What if I want more?! What if one just isn't enough!??", so I buy the largest size they have, and then I only take three bites before I realize "I don't want this anymore". That's kinda what happened here. The caramel apple crumble gelato at the casino cafe was really good at first, but after about five minutes, not so much. The caramel started to taste like butter to me, and I kept thinking that the apple chunks had fallen on the floor; all things that led up to me throwing it in the garbage mere seconds later.

There was also a Godiva there, so I went ahead and bought some chocolate. I wish I had waited before I ate four pieces to take the picture, but you get a pretty good idea of what I was eating here.

Okay, so let me tell you all about the foulness that is the holiday brick thingy. I couldn't remember the actual name, but I wanted to vomit after I had eaten it. It tastes like a reindeer ate potpourri egg nog, and Christmas lights, and spit out this. It was just so nasty, please don't buy it.

Ashley got a paper funnel filled with chocolate strawberries, but I couldn't eat any because they were milk chocolate, and I despise milk chocolate. Plus, she found one with a strawberry that looked like boobs o.O

And this takes us to our final picture, "The Boss" pizza at a restaurant of which I was too careless to remember the name. I would have loved to tell you that it was a delicious white pizza topped with roasted tomatoes, olives, feta cheese, and basil, with a great picture to accompany it. Unfortunately, I cant because I don't have a real camera. I am tired of the iPhone camera, only because there is no flash, and a lot of restaurants have dim lighting; which means I either have to take the food outside to take a decent picture of it, or I have to take on like this. DIM. I need a real camera, particularly one with macro settings. That is why I'm getting a job next month once I'm done with this school. -.-
More tomorrow :D

Green Eggs and....Lamb?

Written Two Days Ago

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I'm laughing right now ^.^ I amuse myself everyday! This is why I need a real camera; something I've been saying since I started this blog nearly a year ago. Yes, I'm supposed to get Franiel's Nikon, EVENTUALLY, but I kinda don't want it anymore. It's kind of a big hassle because I'm going to have to find all the necessary parts for it, and I'd honestly much rather buy myself a new camera in a month when I have my job and everything. Anyway, I'm sure your all tired of hearing me rant endlessly, so let's get into what I've accomplished today :P

The picture above is of the pieces of meat derived from a leg of lamb that I cut apart today. I had never actually fabricated meat before, well not this large a piece, so it was interesting to learn about where the joint can be cut, and the pieces of meat that come from a leg. The green comes from the pesto rub I made for them: basil, Parmesan cheese, garlic, a little olive oil, and some salt. After the picture was taken, I tied them up with butchers twine and left them in a hotel pan in the fridge for tomorrow. I wonder what method I'll use to cook them; probably braising because the lamb shank is in there with the other pieces.

Another thing I'd like to talk about is whether or not I'm a competent TA. (The second day I didn't know how to use the can opener, but that's not what I'm talking about :P) I'm talking about today when after lab chef pulled me aside before I left and basically told me I'm not aggressive enough in the kitchen. I agree....sort of. While I may be a little soft spoken, and I don't yell across the kitchen everyday, I don't think I'm so quiet that it's become something I need to work on. The part that I do understand is what he said about confidence in the kitchen; he told me that it seems as though I'm not confident enough in the kitchen, and apparently that's something that is obvious. I even see it, but it's not lack of confidence, it's two things in particular.

Number one, I don't want to be one of those people who acts like their food is so amazing, and then people see and eat it, and it's crap. Number two, sometimes I have absolutely no clue what I'm supposed to be doing. Like today for example; all I was told when I got the lamb was remove the fat, remove the shank, and then follow the lines of fat through the meat with my knife until only the bone was left. On several occasions I had no idea what to do next, so I just cut where I thought the fat continued. Oh well, maybe I'll have a better day tomorrow. Speaking of which, I'm so looking forward to thanksgiving break, not just because of the holiday and all the food and what not, but because I don't have to get up before dawn to go to school.

END

Two days ago, I was a much happier person. Two days ago, I wasn't ready to bash someones head in. Two days ago I wasn't looking forward to going back to school so I could be distracted from all this. But I have risen above. I refuse to talk about my personal problems over the Internet. This is a food blog, and I think sometimes I blur that line a bit too often. Anyway, on to better things :)

This is the only noteworthy thing I've done (eaten) today besides cleaning my room. It is a banana chocolate chip loaf from Starbucks. I think I've eaten this about four or five other times, and planned to blog about it on each occasion, but never got around to it. Actually, if you all could see the pictures folder on my computer, everyone would realize that on the days I don't post, I fully intend to. I take pictures of literally everything I eat, but sometimes I just don't have the time (or energy) to post them. Anyway, tomorrow is Thanksgiving and while I personally don't have anything special planned, I'm sure there will be plenty of food to talk about. That is if there is a Thanksgiving at my house (80/20 rule people). More tomorrow; this could get interesting... ALSO! I've started a new blog just for my surveys, sooo..here it is!

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.

IRELAND : DONE

So I'm typing this from the plane, which lands in New York in about 45 minutes. This isn't the longest flight I've ever been on, as the nine hour flight from California to Baltimore nearly 8 years ago was much longer. However it feels like I've been on this plane forever. Me, being absent minded, completley forgot to take a picture of the meal we were served, of which I only ate potatoes, spinach, red sauce, cookies, and a roll. All of that aside, the reality has finally set in; I just spent the 5 weeks on the other side of the planet. It was the longest amount of time I had been away from home, and I honestly thought it was going to be difficult not being with my family. As cold as this sounds, for the most part it wasn't. Yes, I did shed a tear or two sometime in the third week when I watched a video of Madlex being caned by Franiel on a merry-go-round, but until last night I want really all that pressed to return home. It wasn't the place I missed, it
was the people. And the food! How I miss pizza with actual tomato sauce on it, rather than cheesy bread with taco sauce inside. Im excited to return to my life. I like my life, and while I rarely went out at night, I think I've lived enough for the next couple years.

Side note: I've gotten off track but THIS situation is understandable. I'll be back to regular blogging tomorrow. :)