Poor Tongue!

Tonight will mark my third week and 6th night in culinary school.

Tonight will be the 3rd Thursday I walk up the street and smell the Puget Sound with excitement in my tummy and my recipes on my mind.

Tonight will also mark the 6th day that I have put my tongue thru hell.

Pure hell.

The kind of hell where there are crazy demon men poking at puddles of fire .

One of the girls in my group constantly cuts herself. She cut her finger on day one, she cut her finger on day 3, i think she cut her finger on day4, she cut her finger practicing at home, she cut her finger on day 5.

It's now a on going joke and has gotten a bit ridiculous.

I haven't cut my finger. Nope. Not yet at least.

I'll tell ya what I HAVE done though!

Day 1: burnt the tip of my tongue on stock

Day2: Burnt the tip of my tongue on stock

Day 3: Burnt the tip of my tongue on Espagnole and Veloute

Day 4: Burnt the tip of my tongue on Tomato sauce.

Day 5: the tip is no longer burnable, I think it has been subjected to too much in the past 2 weeks and is now rebelling against me. So, I burnt the MIDDLE of my tongue on minestrone, white beans, french onion, and Black bean puree.

I feel so accomplished!

My tongue now has the EXACT same texture as a cat.

It now has the EXACT same look as a cat tongue.

I have yet to start cleaning myself with it, but I have a feeling after week 8 it might just make the best exfoliator in town!

It hurts, it hurts real bad-like.

I don't think I can taste anything anymore. I don't think I can EAT anything anymore!

Tonight I'm making consomme and chicken waterzooi.

Tonight I may just burn my tongue again. Why ruin a tradition?

I suppose these are the times I should be thankful that the BF isn't big into making out.

I suppose now is the time to stay away from citrus.

I suppose I should finally learn how to blow properly.

Um, yeah... Disregard that last comment.

I suppose now is the time I should learn how to let things cool a tad before tasting.

Other than my tongue pretending to be a cat tongue and full of hell fire, I love school.

I decided it last night and so I think you all should know.

I love it! I adore it! I am meant to do this right now in my life.

So here is my love to your smooth, cool tongues and may you forever appreciate the pale pink tenderness that is your sweet innocent tasting tongue!

Hectic Hectic!

So, I always said that I don't want to work in a kitchen.

I don't want to be a cook or a chef. I don't want to waste my nights sweating and producing food for countless people if I can't be there to do it for the ones I love.

So why in the heck am I spending $20,000.00 to do just that for the next year of my life?

This is week 3 of my culinary journey at the Art Institute. So far I have made beef, chicken, fish and vegetable stock. I have made bechamel, veloute, espagnole, tomato, hollandaise, mayo, buerre blanc, and demi glace.

This here is my lovely hollandaise with fresh tarragon.... I proceeded to eat ALL of this by myself with a ton of roasted veggies and french fries....at 10:40pm

My hands have a constant smell of grease, onion, carrot, and celery to them for about 6 days out of the week. My dreams normally consist of one or more of the former recipes being made.

In the three weeks I have been to school, I have cooked approximately 4 dinners, two breakfasts, packed 2 lunches and baked once at home.

I have desire to do it normaly on Sundays or Mondays. But those are the only two days I want to step foot into the kitchen. Although, my kitchen has been staying pretty clean this way!

When I do prepare a quick snack, normally some stoner-version of food I randomly pull out and mix together, I rarely want to clean it up. I want to put it on the counter and go hide in my room. I want to pretend that 1) I never ate whatever crap I just digested and 2) I don't want to wash another dish in my life!

 I find myself eating SO much more food!

When all you do is think about, dream about and read about food all you want to do is consume food! I can eat a HUGE dinner and a few cookies for dessert then go upstairs to do homework for 20 minutes only to creep back downstairs to steal more food and bring it back up with me so BF doesn't notice!

This has now become an issue!

So, to battle this beast that has been growing inside me, I have decided to invest in a treadmill. I figure if I run while studying it will be harder to sneak food into my mouth. Good plan? I also have been spending 10-15 minutes every morning stretching. That is mainly so I can keep my body from wanting to wilt away after 13 hour days 3 days a week. I'm also trying to just drink water whenever the hunger hits. It has been hard! Chewing ice seems to work though!

 I tried drinking as much coffee as possible to keep the hunger at bay, let me tell ya that was a horrible idea!!!

So today will be day 1 of week 3. I am off to school.

Let's hope I can still fit thru doors at the end of this year.

Oh what a year can do...

This morning I woke up thinking about where I have come in the past year. It's a thought that stumbled into my head just as randomly as anything else. There was nothing to provoke it and nothing to remind me of it. It just decided to weasel it's way in until I finally sat down and paid it some attention. This time last year was exactly a month before I got fired from a very nice job I had as a client service representative. This time last year was when my drinking and partying got to an absolutely ridiculous new low...high? Well, when it got to be way too much. This time last year around November was when I let a boy that had already taken advantage of my mind, heart and body once before, back into my life without considering the outcome of that decision. This time last year is when I had no self respect, no self worth, no self confidence left in me to fight the fight I needed to fight. About this time last year is when I met an inspirational young man into my life to help me start putting the pieces together. Since that time I have accomplished so much that I am so proud of. Since this time last year I have changed my number and my address in order to get the people out of my life that didn't deserve to be in it. Since this time last year I have moved out of that apartment and into a house with a new puppy and a new man. Since this time last year I have almost gotten a good grip on my finances, not including this month! Since this time last year I have a new job that I love working as a barista at a Harley shop in Bellevue. Since this time last year I am now able to take on any challenge that comes my way with more confidence than ever before. I know what I am worth now and I am worth so much more than I ever gave myself credit for in the past. Since this time last year I have been with BF for almost a year now and faithfully so. Since this time last year I have found my faith in God again and can now see him in everything around me. Since this time last year I have enrolled in college at the Art Institute of Seattle for my diploma in The Art of Cooking. Since this time last year I have found incredible peace in my life. Everything is not perfect and I have many struggles to deal with almost daily. Right now I'm working full time, going to school 3 days a week after work until 11pm and looking for a second part-time job because I can't afford my rent and tuition. That is a huge stress but I am not to be deterred. I will be able to make it work if I keep at it hard and long enough. BF and I have issues like any other couple. We argue about what to eat most the time, but now that we have been together and living together for about a year, other things are starting to make their way to the surface slowly but surely.With that we are making sure we are prepared for those conversations by understanding how we communicate together. I realize that because we have had such a blessed and easy going relationship, it may bite us in the butt since we are ill-prepared for how to communicate together about serious issues. There are things I need to focus on more in order to keep my life in balance. I am trying to make sure I spend at least 10 mins in the morning stretching my body. I try to make a point of making it to church almost every Sunday. I haven't been in 4 weeks and I can feel the emptiness taking place in my heart. I can't wait for Friday night so I can catch up with the podcast from my pastor. I am trying to pay more attention to my finances and keep myself on budget. I am also trying to make sure I go to bed in a clean and organized room every night so I wake up with thing in their proper place. All in all, this past year has been very sweet to me and I don't take one bit of it for granted. I appreciate the hard years prior because they gave my the wisdom I needed to realize how great life can be. With out those experiences I don't know if I would be making the decision that are so right for me right now. So, in closing, a year can be rough on you and make you want to give up. A year can tear you down and make it seem like you're spiraling down a big well and will surely hit the bottom with no escape. Just always remember, a year can be sweet to you as well. A year can give you many foot holes to use and climb your way up and out. It just all depends on the path you decide to take. Be defeated, defiant, and stuck at the bottom of that well. Or make your own way out with determination, faith and hard work.

Update!

So.... It's been awhile.

In that while I have had one of my favorite Chrstmas' to date.

 I have had a perfect start to the new year with Cory and I ordering pizza and relaxing.

I had my dad, mom, and little bro in town for all of last weekend and it was amazing.

I started college. I started college. Still kinda crazy to say.

I have started classes at the Art Institute of Seattle for Culinary Arts. Unfortunately I am not able to financially afford to go for a degree program as of this moment so I am doing the Diploma program which is just as great. I Started on Tuesday with my lecture class and Wednesday/Thursdays are my cooking classes. I love my instructors, well, so far at least! My cooking group is made up of 2 other guys and another girl. They all seem like hard workers and passionate about this. So far we are making a great team and I'm excited to see how far we can go together in this whole little adventure we are on.

In our first little quiz we already took home 1st place and we nagged the perfect table, table one! Our table is where all the demos are done and we are used for examples and things like that. I love it and don't feel nearly as intimidated as before I stepped into the kitchen. They waste no time and have you get in there right away. I'm expecting to burn myself here very shortly and hopefully I can withhold from cutting myself with my insanely sharp knives!! I would much prefer a burn to a cut. No product waste that way!

I love the feeling of sitting in a classroom for 3 hours and taking notes. I love the organization of putting things in the right place in my binder. I have a box of freshly sharpened #2's in my bag with the cute eraser caps and spongy grip things. I love school supplies! I think I mentioned this in one of my September blogs. It's a weakness of mine. Going to Office Depot and collecting notebooks, a 3 hole punch, pens, pencils, paper, notebooks, a lock. I loved it! Being able to sit on the floor and spread out with my 5 pages of notes from the first hour of class and my text book cracked open is like a slice of heaven for me. I love school. I always have and now I just need to find away to support this new little addiction of mine! We are encouraged to bring our camera into the kitchen to take photos of what we cook and so I can imagine I will start posting the recipes and photos on here to relate what we are doing. For now, I'm off to do some homework!!