krameymartin

The Beauty of Simplicity.

2012-02-15T12:24:00.000-08:00

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9

Life has been a little intense lately. Not bad, mind you. So so good in fact. It just kind of feels like the stakes are high right now. For both Taylor and I, things are feeling a little unsettling. School is coming to an end. There's not a whole lot set in stone after I get done with school (in May! Ah!). We're to the point where we really need to make a change in our living situation; the commute is killing me and our bank account. This and that. And that and this.

Through all of it however, God has been so present and has provided for us in so many tangible ways. I feel like I'm growing a lot- and much more pleasantly- than I have in a long time. Life is good. So good. It's just a lot right now.

So, as I try to continue to grow and focus on the things that are truly important, instead of distracting myself with things I would have in the past: TV shows, shopping, etc., I'm simply dreaming of an unknown future, which I hope to fill with sweet moments and simple pleasures.

January Playlist.

2012-02-01T14:36:00.000-08:00

I love music. But I would never claim to have "good taste" in music. I like what I like and I listen to things in a very random, sometimes completely irritating to others (or so I've been told) way. I've really loved reading about other bloggers taste in music though, so I thought I'd add in my two cents now and then. Behold, what I've been listening to this January.

The Civil Wars | Oh Henry
Bon Iver | Michicant
Sleeping at Last | Turning Page
The Avett Brothers | Salina
The Avett Brothers | Go To Sleep
The Avett Brothers | I Would Be Sad
Damien Rice | Delicate
She & Him | Fools Rush In
Glee Cast | Rumour Has It/Someone Like You
Adele | Don't You Remember

From my iPhone: January.

2012-01-30T12:03:00.000-08:00

I had every intention of participating in that #janphotoaday thing; I've so enjoyed seeing everyone else's daily photos. But I'm kind of hanging on for dear life right now with my crazy pants schedule and a photo commitment seemed like one more thing that might just push me over the edge. So here's my happy compromise, inspired by Wit & Delight.

Closet Cleanout.

2012-01-21T14:31:00.000-08:00

I know I said at some point I was going to be done with these closet sales, but after almost 5 months of culinary school and not really buying any clothes, I've realized how little I wear some of the pieces I have and how much someone else might appreciate having them. Shipping for all pieces is $5 (US) and $10 (Outside US). Email me and I will send you a PayPal invoice. Hope someone can give these lovely pieces a better home.

1. Anthropologie, Moulinette Soeurs, Maeshowe Shirtdress, Size 6, $95. SOLD.
2. Anthropologie, Belt, Size M, $10. SOLD.
3. Anthropologie, Slender Strands Belt, Black, Medium, $15 (See photos here). SOLD.
4. MiH RoadTrip Jean, Size 28, $65. SOLD.
5. Anthropologie, Hei Hei, Gray Wool Shorts, Size 8, $30 (See photos here). SOLD.
6. Jantzen, Vamp Suit, Red, Size 4, $35 (See photos here). SOLD.
7. Anthropologie, Odille, Button Sampler Skirt, Size 6, $25. SOLD.
8. Anthropologie, We Love Vera, Stars & Stripes Skirt, Size 6, $35.
9. Anthropologie, Cerulean Swing Coat, $75.
10. Anthropologie, Odille, Emerald Cascade Blouse, Size 4, $35. SOLD.
11. J.Crew Striped Sweater, B&W, Small, SOLD.
12. Anthropologie, Odille Gaslight Blouse, Pink, Size 4, $20.
13. J.Crew Brown Tweed Blazer, Size 6, $80 (See photos here). SOLD.

Broken success.

2012-01-18T23:42:00.000-08:00

Source.

Finding myself grateful tonight for people and a savior who can see and value me as I am, broken. All my life, I've wanted to be the best at something. Just one thing. I didn't think it was too much to ask. And I've tried really, really hard at a few different things.

I tried for a long time to be the best basketball player. I tried to be the best at graphic design. I tried to be the best at blogging. I tried to be the best at cooking.

Guess what? I'm not the best. And guess what else? I'm not meant to be the best.

In fact, I'm meant to be flawed, to not quite ever reach my full potential. I'm mean to rely on the only one who can make me complete, and even then, I'll never experience perfection in this life. I'm trying to unlearn 25 years of striving to work hardest and achieve what I feel is "success," and learn new lessons about grace, balance, peace and the real meaning of success in God's eyes.

It's a hard lesson and I'm not "the best" at learning it. But tonight, I'm grateful for the people who can point me in the right direction. And for a savior who is carrying me when I just can't even try to be the best at anything right now.

Restraint.

2012-01-11T15:37:00.000-08:00

Some of the things I want to spend my Christmas money on, but am not going to. I'd ideally like to save my money for experience-related things. Fun dinners out, a trip away, or something of the sort. I thought posting the "stuff" here would provide some relief from the money burning a hole in my pocket/brain.

1. Le Crueset.
2. New jeans.
3. & 7. Vintage Style Tees.
4. High Top Bensimons.
5. Fancy lens.
6. New nerd goggles.
8. Delicious leather camera/tote bag.
9. Flannel.
10. Tweed TOMS.
11. Knit Uggs.
12. Wool socks.

Say Love.

2012-01-10T14:50:00.000-08:00

| 1 | 2 |

Kind of jonesing for some time with my love today. Good thing I have a night off from school tomorrow night! :) Romance, here we come!

Lemon Hazelnut Tiramisu.

2012-01-09T12:40:00.000-08:00

I had planned to make this dessert for our Martin family Christmas dinner, but with the 470 other courses, I didn't have time and no one would have had room. So, since I still had the ingredients, I decided to whip it up yesterday for a small gathering we were having with our friends. After two baking disasters earlier in the day (biscuits and a berry tart) I was a little wary, but this dessert proved easy and fun to make.

For not being a huge fan of whipped cream, or generally creamy desserts, I have to say that this Tiramisu is absolutely delicious. The lady fingers have just enough bite and tartness and the hazelnuts are rich and nutty. I even loved the cinnamon mascarpone whipped cream.

Here's the recipe, adapted slightly from Giada's original. I don't care who you are, Giada is awesome.

Ingredients

Lemon Syrup:

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice (from 3 lemons)
Zest of 1 lemon
1/4 cup water
1/3 cup sugar

Tiramisu:

1 1/2 cups whipping cream
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
5 tablespoons sugar
1 (15-ounce) container mascarpone cheese, at room temperature
1 Tbsp hazelnut syrup (I used Torani)
2 packages hard ladyfinger cookies (I had a hard time finding these at the grocery store, but found them at World Market)
1 1/4 cups lightly chopped (about 5 ounces) toasted and skinned hazelnuts
2 lemon, zested

Directions

In a small saucepan, combine lemon juice, zest, water and sugar over medium heat. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 2 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the sugar has dissolved. Take the pan off the heat and allow the syrup to cool. Add in hazelnut syrup.

Whip the cream in a large bowl until thick. Add the cinnamon and 2 tablespoons of the sugar and continue to whip until the cream holds soft peaks. In another bowl, cream together remaining sugar and mascarpone cheese for 30 seconds. Mix 1/4 of the cream into the mascarpone. Using a rubber spatula, fold in the remaining whipped cream. Set aside.

Dip 1 layers worth of the ladyfinger cookies in the lemon syrup and line the bottom of a 13 by 9 by 2-inch serving dish or other decorative serving dish. Spread 1/3 of the mascarpone mixture over the cookies. Top with 1/3 of the hazelnuts.
Repeat the layers until dish is full. Spoon any remaining syrup over the dipped cookies.
Cover and refrigerate for at least 6 hours or preferably overnight.
Enjoy!

Photo Friday: Fish Tacos.

2012-01-06T11:31:00.000-08:00

Fish Tacos I made a few months ago. Crusted, fried Mahi Mahi, shredded lettuce, cheese, radishes, homemade salsa, lime juice and a toasted tortilla. Yummy! Although I found out that fried fish are not really supposed to go in fish tacos. :)

Rustic kitchens.

2012-01-05T15:35:00.000-08:00

Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

The more I become a "real" cook, the more a perfectly coiffed kitchen feels claustrophobic to me. I love being able to see and reach every tool I need at school and would love to replicate that in my own living space at some point. I have no clue what our home (or homes) will look like after this one, but I can't help but admire these more rustic, lived-in cooking spaces.

Resolved.

2012-01-04T15:47:00.000-08:00

I, Krameymartin, being of relatively sound mind and mostly in-shape body, hereby do resolve for 2012 to...

fall deeper in love with and learn more about my savior.
pursue my relationship with my husband.
take more photos.
get better at taking photos.
have more adventures (nature-y and otherwise).
transform this bloggy place from a crazy, disjointed, neglected journal into a space documenting our life, my inspirations, our love, delicious food, beautiful photos and a little bit of fun.
finish culinary school, find an awesome internship and be open to the future God has planned for me after graduation.
support my love as he considers grad school this fall.
give back to my city- find somewhere to serve/volunteer a few times.
work on building my very own dream business.
pursue personal fitness in the form of yoga/pilates and regular running.
continue to simplify our lives by spending less, getting rid of possessions we don't need and enjoying time spent with less distractions.
continue to eat and cook healthily and organically.
frequent more farmer's markets.
read more books about food.
read my Bible more.
write boldly about my faith journey.
pay off my school debt and start saving for travel.
get paid to cook for people.
cater some events.
sell our house and find a place to live that we both really love.
fall deeply in love with my niece/nephew when he/she graces us with their presence.
work on deepening my prayer life.
celebrate my brother-in-law and new sister-in-law's wedding this summer.
put in some good work and make some progress in my struggles with anxiety.
cook some daggone good food.
plan/spend more time with friends and family.
continue to invest and get involved in our church community.
give time care and energy to my friendships.
continue to step out of my comfort zone.
when we do buy things, buy local and/or handmade.
...and focus on enjoying every day, one day at a time.

Anniversary Getaway.

2011-12-19T11:23:00.000-08:00

As I've come back to this space, I've realized that a few things have been missed. Well, more than a few. But at least a few that I intended to post about. We celebrated our third anniversary this fall, which I did talk about, but I didn't manage to cover the surprise trip that we took to Bend a couple weeks later.

Since we knew that our anniversary was going to fall about a month in my crazy new school schedule and right in the middle of Taylor's travel season, we decided to set aside a weekend in November to celebrate. We also planned to simply lock ourselves in our house and hang out, since we knew that we wouldn't have the extra cash to plan something especially costly. Little did Taylor know that I had purchased a Groupon in September for a weekend away in Bend.

Since we've been married, we've really only traveled for work and to see family. We've had a night or two away here and there, but we haven't really taken a "trip." And though it was only a three hour drive for a couple nights, I was over the moon to be able to steal my love away from the rest of the world.

We had an incredible time just relaxing in our sweet little condo, watching the snow fall, eating delicious food and enjoying each other's presence. Our schedule this fall has been and continues to be pretty nuts, and we usually see each other for about an hour total during the week. To have a whole weekend together was pure bliss.

Christmas Letter.

2011-12-14T13:31:00.000-08:00

Here's our 2011 Christmas letter. We've done a photo card in the past with a link to a digital letter, but there was so much to update on this year and we haven't had a chance to take a photo, I figured a graphic-y letter would be a great compromise! Also, printing it ourselves and using WinCo envelopes saved us a boatload of cash, which is quite helpful for a culinary student! :) Enjoy!

Week Who Knows: Culinary Check In.

2011-12-13T11:40:00.000-08:00

I realized the other day that I have not touched this site in a real long time. I had such good intentions of blogging the crap out of culinary school, but that has not happened. And though I wish I could perfectly capture every delicious moment for all, it's often easier for me to live in the moment when I'm not trying to capture it in words. Needless to say, I've been living in every moment of Term 2 and I've learned quite a lot about food and cooking, and even more about myself.

Here's just a few things I've learned during T2 so far:

I can be far more patient than I ever thought possible.
I really like baking bread.
Despite my desire to do it all, I need to be careful about how many things I load up my schedule with.
I miss my friends.
I miss my husband.
I'm really glad this program is only 8 months long and that I'm officially halfway through.
And at the same time, I'm sad it's only 8 months long and I'm half way through.
I have a definite food comfort zone, which I tend to stick to.
But, I've really enjoyed venturing into the lands of international and vegetarian cuisine this term.
I am a huge nerd, and put up a pretty nerdy grade for the first half of Term 2.
I am a person who needs to rely on other people, even though it's hard for me to do. And I feel like lately, the people in my life have really been stepping up and being there for me.
People can surprise you.
Duck breast is kind of stressful to cook.
Team Rocket is awesome (my current group).
Resilience and flexibility are huge traits needed to survive this industry.
Meat is kind of gross. Delicious, yet gross. And I desire to eat less and less of it.
Food prepared by someone else almost always tastes better. Especially sandwiches.
I absolutely, no holds barred, fricking fracking LOVE cooking.
Anxiety totally sucks. But Jesus totally rocks.
It's okay to let things like laundry and blogging and taking photos, go by the wayside when all you really have time to do is wash your uniforms, pack your lunch and snuggle your husband.
I like being around other people.
I love working with my hands.

Here's a few other, non-school related things that have been happening lately:

We had a great Thanksgiving with my brother and Taylor's family.
We found out that in June 2012 we're going to be Aunt and Uncle to a very special Martin baby!
I had the Fab Four (my three best friends) over for a special Christmas dinner. And it was so so great to be together. Our lives are crazy right now, but getting together just makes everything feel normal again.
We had a great time at the annual Gingerbread Competition/Christmas party at our friends' house.
We have NOT sold our house, but I've made peace with it, especially since it has a fireplace and a lovely Christmas tree in it right now.
My ridiculously awesome Aunt & Uncle put together 12! Days of Christmas for me, which means I get to open a present every day from now until Christmas. SUH-WEET!
I actually found time to send out a Christmas Card/Letter, which I'll post here soon.

What's up with you people?

Blessed.

2011-11-21T00:19:00.001-08:00

You know what's ridiculous? Other than my complete lack of blog posting lately. And the wolf scene in the new Twilight movie. How gosh darn happy I am right now.

I keep waiting for it to wear off. I keep waiting for the two-hour commute, the 13 hour days and the fact that I spend just over an hour total with my husband during the week, to burn me out and do me in. And I have days where I wake up tired, feel sick or don't want to head up the freeway to face my commitments. But there hasn't been a night I've driven home that I haven't felt incredibly blessed, grateful and humbled by how lucky I am right now.

I'm working with amazing people at a place that I truly, deeply believe in. I'm spending my time studying a subject that fascinates me and ignites something within me, and despite the fact that I hardly have time to do my laundry much less hang out with friends, I'm feeling overwhelmingly supported by the people in my life. Especially my poor, neglected husband. :)

I keep waiting for it to wear off, but I'm praying that it doesn't.

Week 9: Term 1 Finals.

2011-11-03T11:48:00.000-07:00

Finals week has come and gone, as has my first term of culinary school. CRAZY! I scored a 94% on my individual, written final, we got a 90% on our group practical and I managed to pull an A for the class. At least I think so, because when I asked the Chef, he just rolled his eyes at me. :)

It was a little bittersweet to part ways with my classmates and chefs, a little scary to be moving on into the unknown, but also pretty exciting. I can't wait to keep learning more and getting better at everything! I've already learned a ton in just the first few days of Term 2.

In other news, Taylor is done with travel season and home for good. I am done sleeping on friends couches and am back to my two hour commute and gas guzzling ways. We're seeing each other about 15 minutes at night when I get home from my, now later, class. So, we are locking ourselves away from the outside world this weekend and are finally going to celebrate our anniversary with lots of good food, fireplace gazing and relaxation.

My style these days.

2011-10-25T12:40:00.000-07:00

Once upon a time, this little site used to masquerade as a style blog. It's a little hard for me to go back and look at it during those days, simply because I feel like my "look" and taste has changed so much in such a relatively short period of time. But, everyone must be allowed time to find their own personal style and refine it, so we'll call it that.

So in the interest of catching you up to speed, I've chosen some of the looks, styles and elements that have inspired me lately in my personal style journey. I finally feel like the clothes I have in my closet and on my body reflect who I am instead of define who I am. The last time I bought anything new was with my birthday money, and I took a great deal of time to spend that small amount on a few, choice items that I've already thoroughly worn in. I'm feeling good about who I am, what I look like and I spend much less time coveting others' clothes, crunching numbers because I've overspent my clothing budget and feeling unsure about a new outfit/piece of clothing.

I may be putting on the same pieces day after day, week after week, but their pieces that I love, feel good in and remind me of all the great times I've had in them. And the simplicity of it all feels pretty darn good.

Week 8: Zuckerman's famous pig.

2011-10-24T11:12:00.000-07:00

This was the song I had stuck in my head all week as we fabricated cut after cut of pork. Poor Wilbur. Or Wilbur's cousin, I suppose. For whatever reason, pork seemed a lot simpler than chicken. Or more straightforward or something. Here's a few highlights from the week:

1. My plate finally got more than 3 votes in the nightly "popularity contest." 15 in fact! :) I've had a harder time with plating than I was expecting, so this was particularly exciting (pictured).

2. I got to help with a catering project the school was doing. I went in early to class two days last week to chop a half gallon of celery, bread 185 chicken breasts and brew up a huge vat of delicious tomato sauce. It was so fun working with the chef that I'll have next term (next week!) and getting to produce such a large quantity of food.

3. Doing decently well on the final T1 Knife Skills test (91%). I didn't do as well as the last time (95%), but we couldn't use our size cards and we had one less potato to work with this time. I felt pretty good about it overall.

4. Finishing my proficiencies. We had a list of some 35-40 odd "proficiencies" to finish before the end of the term and I wanted to get them all done before this upcoming week (finals). I was able to finish them off Friday evening in class.

5. We spent a couple days last week preparing for our final menu project. It was so fun thinking through what to put on a menu, getting a whole day to myself to decide what to cook and being able to design and organize our group's menu. I tried to restrain my Monica Gellar nature and not boss everyone around, but I'm pretty sure by the end of the week, they were real tired of hearing me talk. Oh well, hopefully it will pay off. We'll spend four nights cooking each of our four meal selections this week and I'm already feeling a little nervous.

Four more days left in my first term. I'm almost a quarter of the way done with school. Crazy!!!! But I am looking forward to moving on and learning even more in T2.

Week 7: This is the bird that never ends.

2011-10-18T13:47:00.000-07:00

I'm getting a little tired of trying to write in story form what I've been up to in the kitchen, so here's a little list action to keep you updated on my progress.

Awesome.
Staying with Kerrianne for a week.
Vampire Diaries marathons.
Rhiannon's baby shower.
Completing the chicken unit.
Making a huge batch of delicious soup, recipe free, that Kerri and I subsisted off all week.
Snuggling with Iggy (Kerri's spazzy, yet loveable pug).
Being around a friend who is awesome, inspiring and totally amazing.
Being halfway through my second class of my first term. T2 is coming fast!
Working as a team to make an awesome dish to end the week.
Making some rockin' lemon-y, hazelnutty brussel sprouts.
Having a curry mashing competition with the chef.
Finally being able to relax and laugh in the kitchen for the first time in a while.
Getting re-motivated.
Celebrating three years of hard work...I mean marriage! :)
Good, hard conversations with friends and family.
Feeling God's hand of grace on my life.

Not so awesome.
Having a few more "down" days in class, feeling like I wasn't doing well.
Not getting all of my proficiencies done by the end of the week, which was my goal.
Taylor being out of town for 8 days.
Having hard conversations with people I love (yet awesome at the same time).
Spending our third wedding anniversary without my other half.
Shedding a few tears.
Not getting nearly enough sleep.

As you can see, and as usual, the good outweighs the bad. What's new with you guys? Is there anyone still reading out there? Bueller?

Week 6: Don't be a Chicken.

2011-10-12T13:16:00.000-07:00

I'm not going to lie to you, after an intense first month and finals week, I had a bit of a let down. Last week, our first week with chicken and with new groups, was less than smooth and I found myself feeling more easily frustrated and discouraged. I also had my first day when I did not want to go to class and my first case of not being completely (and overly) prepared. I am happy to say that now, halfway into week 7, I'm feeling re-motivated and reengaged. And I still have a perfect attendance, despite my class skipping inclination.

But overall, the first week of chicken went well. I learned two ways to butcher a chicken, was amazed how much cheaper it is to buy whole chickens and even managed to make a decent consomme.

In my first class, in my first group, I felt like more assertive for some reason, often getting to produce the project or item that I wanted. In my new group, which I like just as much, I'm finding myself taking a backseat and filling in where needed. I'm not sure what to think about this as I definitely want to make sure I am learning all I need to learn. But maybe recognizing and filling needs is good at times, too? Trying to find a good balance on that.

The last thing that last week brought was a bunch (not enough in my case) of studying for our ServeSafe test (National Restaurant Association food safety test). We took it this week actually (Tuesday) and due to my super busy weekend and general procrastination, I didn't quite finish reading the book. Our pretests were based mostly on the chapters I had read, so I thought I'd be fine, but after taking the exam last night, I'm feeling a little worried. You only need a 70 to pass, and I'm going to be totally embarrassed if I don't.

It wasn't a perfect week, I guess you could say my "worst" yet, but I'm not going to let myself think that way. I'm back on track, re-motivated and still, weekly if not daily, realizing how incredibly blessed I am to be on this adventure.

Ten Favorite Moments from the last 3 years.

2011-10-11T09:00:00.000-07:00

Today is Taylor and I's THIRD wedding anniversary. It simultaneously seems like it was just yesterday and forever ago. To commemorate the event, especially since my darling is gone for this entire week, I thought it would be fun to reminisce about some of my very favorite, random moments in our marriage. So here they are, in no particular order.

1. Visiting OCI (my school) for the first time, sitting in the school restaurant and deciding that we were taking the plunge and starting this adventure. I kept asking him over and over, "Are you sure?" And he just smiled and took my hand and said, "Let's do it."

2. Standing in line at Space Mountain (Disney Land) at 1 a.m. on our honeymoon, with a high fever and wicked cold, realizing that we had a 3 hour drive back to Palm Springs yet to go. In which my darling husband decided he was too tired to drive the last hour and left me, in my sickly state, to finish the journey. I was not happy about it at the time, but it's pretty funny now.

3. Being played the ridiculously pitiful message I left on my love's voicemail during his first long recruiting trip in Colorado. I had a really bad flu and I hadn't slept or eaten in a few days. It's the saddest thing ever and he still listens to it and laughs.

4. Driving up to our church, Mosaic, for the first time and just knowing that it was the place for us. Taylor is not as "instinctual" as me, but talking about it on the way home and knowing that we had found a place we could get connected to and grow together, was a great feeling.

5. One morning, a couple of years ago, I was driving to work and drove right by a pair of shoes in the road. I remember thinking to myself, "Taylor has shoes just like those!" and I continued on, minding my own business. Later on in the day, I get a call from my darling who is telling me how he had to wear his tennis shoes for a recruiting visit because he couldn't find his dress shoes. He figured he had left them at home, but as soon as he said that, I knew exactly where they were. I could not stop laughing.

6. The few days we spent stuck in our tiny little apartment, due to a freak snowstorm, just a few months after we were married. We kind of drove each other crazy, but I also remember walking to get groceries and coffee, taking photos in the snow and snuggling up on the couch, watching MadMen.

7. Watching my love and his three brothers play in and win Hoopla (a local 3-on-3 basketball tournament) the last four years in a row. I've always loved watching Taylor play bball, it's why I first fell for him, but it's always catches me off guard how totally foxy he is on that court. :)

8. Working through a lot of conflict related to dreams, doing a lot of communicating and being super intentional about listening to each other. We both have talents and interests that we've been exploring the last couple of years and at times it has seemed that those conflicted, or the other didn't share them or even that we couldn't reach those goals while being tied to the other. Through a couple years of work and God's grace, I feel like we've been able to fine tune those dreams to fit into our life together and understand enough about the other's to stand behind and support them. It's truly freeing and has been a huge step in our relationship. We're not tying each other down, we're taking turns lifting each other up, closer to the things we want to achieve.

9. The morning that our couches were being delivered to our new house (anytime between 6-11), we got up early, packed up all our blankets and snuck into our bare, newly finished home. We turned on the fireplace, spread the blankets over the floor and snuggled in to snooze and wait for our new furniture. Despite the fact that this house has been a huge source of stress, conflict and is now quite inconvenient for where I work and go to school, I still realize how incredibly blessed we are to have been able to have it.

10. The one moment at our wedding that I was truly able to feel and experience the immense blessing I was receiving in Taylor. To be quite honest, despite the fact that it was super fun, we were so blessed to have so much love and support and everything we planned turned out great, most of our wedding is a blur. And, if we had to do it over again (thank God we don't!) I would have gone MUCH simpler. But that one moment I got, in our first few minutes of marriage, while we were up on the stage doing our communion and saying a prayer, that moment of realizing that I could relax, I had found my love and I had a partner to live my life with, that moment was absolutely perfect.

Happy THREE YEARS, love! You are my best friend, an incredible husband, a perfect TV watching buddy, an excellent sous chef and one sexy basketball player. :) I love you.

Week 5: Finals.

2011-10-04T12:29:00.000-07:00

Well, I made it through my first set of final exams. Finished my first class of culinary school, CUL 111, and have now- since this update is a bit late- commenced into the second half of my first term and second class, CUL 121.

Going into finals week I was feeling a little stressed. Despite the fact that I've done pretty well on the quizzes, haven't missed a day and had my notebook complete and put together, with my current schedule, I was facing four big tests and absolutely no time to study. Kind of a dilemma, eh? Anyway, onto the tests. Wednesday was the Practical Exam, Thursday brought 4 Identification Tests, a 30-minute Knife Skills Test and a Written Final Exam.

The Practical Exam....well, it wasn't perfect. I may have overcooked the potatoes a bit, which according to my chef, gave my soup the consistency of Elmer's. Glue. Yeah. The rest of the group did pretty well, and we managed to scrape out an 85%. I felt kind of stupid, but everyone was super nice and encouraging and our grade turned out, so I got over it...eventually. :)

My work was super flexible and I got to come in a few hours late on Thursday so I could study up for my finals. I was super glad because though I remembered a lot of the stuff I went through, it really paid off when it came to the written test.

We started Thursday out with the Knife Skills Test. We'd done two previous "mock" tests to get a feel for where we're at, and I'd done decently on both of those, so I wasn't too nervous. It's one of those things that you just have to practice and then be able to perform under the pressure. For the test, you must make different amounts (1 cup, 1/2 cup, etc.) of 7 cuts (Batonnet, Julienne, Brunoise, etc.) out of 4 potatoes in the 30 minute time limit. I got done a little early, made all my cuts and even had time to pick through and eliminate some of the not-so-pretty ones. The chef graded the cuts while we took our ID tests and then announced that I was the winner, 95%, best in the class! It was a much needed victory after my glue soup.

The ID tests went decently as well. I had done pretty well on both the equipment, herbs and vegetable quizzes previously, so I felt good about those, but I was quite nervous about the miscellaneous quiz that the chef had prepared with items from around the kitchen. There were at least 12 that looked and tasted almost exactly the same and there were definitely a few tricky items thrown in. I ended up missing quite a few on that quiz, which brought my grade down a bit, but with an 85% overall, I was feeling pretty good about heading in to take my very last final.

The Final Written exam was a lot of things that I had studied, thankfully, and I was thwarted only a few times by second-guessing myself. Typical. The one thing that was evident from that test was that I needed to work on memorizing my measurement conversions. No surprise there. I ended up with a 94% and felt pretty great about that. Going home Thursday was super satisfying and could have only been made better by the day being Friday instead.

I found out yesterday that I got an A- overall for CUL 111. For being an inexperienced, out of school for the last 3 years, rookie culinary student, I am feeling pretty good about that.

This week we're tackling our first meat- chicken. I'll let you know how that goes, especially after I get done butchering a couple tonight. Ciao!

Week 4: A month already?

2011-09-26T15:02:00.000-07:00

I cannot believe that it's been almost a month since I started school. I also cannot believe that my first class is almost over! I have finals this week, FINALS! And am seriously wondering when I'm going to find the time to study for them. If only I could read and drive up and down I-5, I'd be set.

Anyway, this last week was made up of cooking massive amounts of vegetables, practicing and having a mock test on our knife skills and starting on the ServeSafe training, which is the nationally mandated food service safety certification we'll need to have.

The vegetable cookery was interesting, starting out with a super hectic first day. I wasn't a huge fan of my braised fennel, which tasted like licoricy mush to me, but the chef seemed to think it was ok. SIDENOTE: I haven't really talked about the structure of the school day, other then the in-kitchen time. We start in the kitchen at 4 p.m., usually do some sort of quiz/discussion/tasting for the first half hour, then get to cooking our meals. Food is supposed to be plated by 6:15 p.m. so we can start tasting and then we have to have the kitchen cleaned up by 7 p.m. We then head into the classroom for a lecture, video, discussion, etc., but only after we spend about an hour talking about the food we cooked. The chef gives his opinions, we all give ours and that's that. Back to the cooking, the second day I got to make glazed carrots, which was actually really fun and simple. I got to use a spice that our chef had received from a friend from Dubai and I was really happy with the look and taste of my finished product. Everyone else seemed to think they were pretty tasty too. The third veggie day, a day when most students venture a little further outside the recipe's "suggestions," my partner and I requested some sausage for our veggie skewers.

Let me just say that sausage (and a little shrimp scavenged by our lab chef) tends to trump almost any other recipe tweaking, especially when we haven't gotten to cook (or eat) any meat yet. The skewers were delicious, and despite being pretty tired from the week, I left Friday night feeling pretty good.

I also had to give a presentation on a vegetable this week. My veg was a beet, which I personally do not care for. But, being the overachieving dork I am, I set out to illustrate BY HAND, a poster that I could hide behind while talking. Come to find out, there are lots of overachievers in my class who gave really nice presentations which made me feel totally silly for thinking I'd overdone it. Next up, Foodborne Illness presentations. YUM.

At this point in school, I'm feeling pretty comfortable. I like my classmates (some of us are even Facebook friends, hi guys!) and despite the impending tests this week, I feel a lot less anxiety about showing up everyday. The things that are starting to wear on me are the 90+ miles of driving I'm doing everyday, being gone from 9 a.m.-10 p.m. M-Th and not having a whole heck of a lot of time with my husband. But honestly, these are literally the only things I can think to complain about. Because the rest of the time, I pretty much can't keep a smile off my face. And I can't stop running through knife cuts when I lay in bed at night.

It's busy, it's a bit intense and overwhelming, but it's a good, good life.

Week 3: No soup for you.

2011-09-19T11:25:00.000-07:00

I felt all week like last week's update was all over the place, so I'm going to try a little harder to stay somewhat organized this week. Week three was/is (we have one more recipe batch today) soups. I had two thoughts going into the week, "Soup is easy" and "I don't like pureed soups." One of these statements was true, the other, completely false.

And I bet you can guess which one I'm talking about.

On demo day, my group was responsible for setting up the Cream of Broccoli demo (recipe set was COB and French Onion). The chef only demoed Cream of Broccoli, so when Day 1 came around, I was pumped to try my hand at the French Onion. Besides, it's a staple in French country cuisine, which we all know is one of my favorite things ever. It was really fun and a whole lot of work, and although both my partner and I thought it came out WAY too sweet, the chef was pleased with it. Day 1 victory.

Day 2 was when things got a little hairy. We had group members who wanted to do the Vichyssoise (Cold Potato and Leek Soup) so my partner and I were stuck with the Cream of Cauliflower. I openly hate Cauliflower, so I wasn't too excited to begin with, but if you add enough cream and salt to anything it can't turn out too bad, or so I told myself. To make a long, sad, story short, we used the wrong equipment to puree, resulting in a major loss of texture and thinned out the remaining liquid too much with stock. The chef helped us punch up the flavor and thicken it up at the last minute, but we ended up with a mediocre product and far less than the recipe was supposed to yield.

And despite the fact that the chef was totally kind about his criticism and despite the actual humor of the situation, I did feel a bit disappointed as I headed home that night. It was the first real "bump" in the road in this journey so far, and though it was minor, it still causes you to question yourself a little. At least at did me. But as I laid in bed thinking about it that night, I realized that because the soup didn't turn out quite right, I will 1) never take soup making for granted again 2) think twice about the equipment I use and 3) not assume that a recipe is bad just because it includes an ingredient I don't like. Some of my classmates Cream of Cauliflower were gosh darn good.

Soups: Day 3 brought Minestrone and Clam Chowder to our group. Our partners wanted to work on the Clam Chowder (which turned out fabulous- and I don't like clams) so we got ready for the Minestrone. As a result of the flop the day before, and the fact that the Minestrone the group before us made received high praise, I was a bit nervous about Day 3. But as we set about gathering up all the ingredients and chopping up all the veggies, that odd sense of chaotic calm set in and I knew we would be okay. The soup ended up really great- I ate a whole bowl for dinner and was even praised by our classmates and the chef. Perfection? No. But it was good and patched me up a little from the Cauliflower wound.

As I spent about 8 hours doing homework this weekend, I thought about how different this experience is from my "traditional" college experience. And even how different my experience is from a lot of my classmates. I used to be the back row sitting, textbook skimming, occasional class skipping kid who gave just enough effort to maintain my 3.0. Now, I'm that nerd who does all of the reading, who washes and irons their uniforms every night and looks ahead in their textbook excited about the chapters to come. I may or may not have spent 2.5 hours going way overboard on a Beet presentation as well. And to be honest, I kind of like being that Hermione-esque front-row sitting, question answering nerd.

Week 2: Settling in.

2011-09-12T11:30:00.000-07:00

I spent all weekend thinking that I needed to sit down and write this post, but I was trying so hard to relax, get my homework done and squeeze in some quality time with my husband, that it just didn't happen. In fact, I spent most of yesterday not thinking about school or food at all. Okay, that's a lie, but I tried!

Anyway, week two was really the first week of the routine that we're going to follow for the rest of this term (last day of term is Halloween). We started with "Demo Day," on the first day of the week. My class size is 16, and we are split up into groups of four. For each group there is a batch of recipes for each day. So how it works is each group will complete the entire series of recipe batches throughout the week, rotating by day.

So on Demo Day, my group set up the grains recipes, for the chef to demo. The chef also demoed the other three recipe batches- pasta and pasta sauces, and two different groups of potato recipes. The grains looked simple enough as he cooked them, but I've had a bit of a history with rice, so I couldn't help but feel a little nervous about the impending grain cookery. Plus, it was the first day of actual cooking in the kitchen. I didn't know where anything was, how to work the ovens, how to go about doing anything really. Needless to say, I showed up on Day 1, a little more than nervous.

But I have to say, once I finished slicing into my finger while cutting butter (lesson learned: use a bench scraper to cut butter!) and stopped scrambling around the kitchen throwing all of my ingredients together, and started up the ovens and began simmering my various grains (rice, barley, polenta), this kind of calm set in and I felt like I was "in the zone." My rice wasn't perfect, but it was good. My barley was decent and my polenta turned out, dare I say, quite yummy. No one actually tasted my grains, since there were four of each, during the class tasting time at the end, but I left the kitchen feeling sweaty, yet satisfied. And ready to start stressing out about making pasta the next day.

Day 2, the pasta day, went pretty well also. I enjoyed kneading and cutting the pasta dough, despite my cot-ed finger, and LOVED making a big pot of juicy tomato sauce. I added a little lemon juice and zest and it turned out absolutely delicious in my opinion, though by the time we plated and tasted, it was cold and my fettucini had sucked up most of the moisture in the juice. I lugged home the extra sauce though and Taylor and I have been enjoying slathering it all over our not-so-homemade pasta.

Day 3 was potatoes for our group. I got put in charge of the Gratin Dupinoise, which was actually super fun (using the Mandoline to slice my potatoes). I added some garlic and parmesan to the recipe and slid my pan in the oven. I actually spent most of the cooking time doing dishes, since a 16 people crew produces A LOT while cooking, and though I generally hate doing dishes at home, there was something kind of satisfying about knowing that I was helping my classmates and contributing the larger success of our group. I had a moment where I stopped and looked around at the buzz going on around me and just got a huge smile on my face. "I can't believe I get to do this," was mostly the thought in my head. I probably looked like a crazy person, but it was a great moment. One I held on to as I plowed through page after page of homework this weekend.

We'll finish up our second potato recipe batch today and then move onto Soups this week.

Another part of our in-kitchen time has been tasting ingredients. Last week we tasted spices, sugars, sours, salts and fats. Though it was utterly disgusting putting things like butter, fish sauce and green peppercorns in my mouth, it's been so fun learning the purposes and flavors of all of the things that go into our food. We spent a whole lecture time talking about potatoes and I found myself thoroughly intrigued. There's just so many parts of the cooking process that are interesting on so many levels. The science, the art, the taste, the process and even the relationship piece. It's been a fascinating journey this week and I'm so looking forward to getting back in the kitchen, and even back in the classroom.

On a bit of a side note, I was reminded this weekend how easily my priorities/focus can get messed up. This whole amazing process of us deciding I was going to go to school, that we were going to make some financial and time together sacrifices, and feeling like this was really God's plan for us was suddenly washed out of my mind and replaced with stress about being "good enough," worry about learning everything and being able to be good at it and anxiety about planning out my culinary future. I spent most of Saturday feeling irritable and frustrated. But as I sat in church Sunday, and we talked about an upcoming series we're going to be doing, I was reminded just where my mind needed to be at and where my priorities need to be. I love to cook. And, I think I want to open a catering company. And I like to succeed, and learn, and be good at things. But I gave this choice, this opportunity to God to do with me as He wishes, and I just really felt reminded that this process is a step in His plan, not mine. I'm going to a place everyday where I am surrounded by 15 new people who I get to love and care for, to do something that I really enjoy and learn skills that I may need to use for His glory at some point down the road. And as I realized this, all that stress, worry and anxiety faded away. His plan is better than mine, and I am so lucky that I get to be a part of it.