ACF competition

On Friday the 25th of April we had the student ACF, American Culinary Federation, competition. My team and I have  practice for months for this competition and we felt like we were all ready, which we were! We were a team of four, one person for the appetizer, one for the salad, one for the entree and one for the dessert, which was me. We had only thirty minuets to execute our dish and we all rocked it out in our time. For the dessert the rules said we had to utilize strawberries, cream and white chocolate. So I made a white chocolate cake with a strawberry compote on top, a strawberry coulis, white chocolate ice cream on top of caramelized hazelnuts mixed with strawberry dust. I was vary proud of my finished dish and my team was awarded with a bronze medal!

Taco Bell

Today I stopped at Taco Bell for breakfast because I was hearing everywhere about their breakfast menu, I'm not a fan of Taco Bell I need to be in the mood for it, which isn't often. I got the AM crunch wrap with steak, eggs, cheese and hash browns all in a wrap. Being from Taco Bell it still had that Mexican flavoring, a little spice kick which wasn't to bad. I actually enjoyed it, surprisingly! There was a perfect amount of everything so in every bit I could taste all the components which was nice. I haven't tried all of the breakfast menu but I would recommend for people to try it out!

Molecular Gastronomy

So we have a term paper in class coming up and the topic that I have chosen is molecular gastronomy, which is the blend of physics and chemistry to transform the taste and textures of food. I have heard the term from many different chefs and wanted to know more, the pictures that I have looked at are so interesting and I think it would b something nice to have under my belt. Not saying by the end of this paper I will be able to master the art but have some type of insight would be cool to have. Once I start learning more I will be posting for all of my followers to learn and enjoy!

Grilled Chicken Salad

Last night after class I was sitting in front of my fridge look at all the food I didn't have and slowly came to the conclusion that I need to go shopping! But I was hungry at that point and did not want to go out so I found that I had some spinach and frozen grilled chicken strips so you know what that means, a salad! Since I was so hungry I made almost the whole bag of chicken so the meal turned into a bowl of chicken and a pinch of spinach but it was so delicious I wouldn't have wanted it any other way! I cooked the chicken on a skillet to crisp up the outside because that is the best way, I was going for a chicken Caesar salad but found I only had ranch, but that was ok because ranch and chicken go together like burgers and cheese, it just makes sense.

Green Power Juice

So me and my friend are on a diet together and her mother makes us these amazing green power juice. They have kale, celery, apples and cucumbers, she uses a bullet to perfectly blend all of the ingredients together and it helps so much through the day! I hope to stay on this trend so I can lose some of this weight by summer. Wish me luck!!!

Competition Team

Being on the competition team at school I have been practicing almost every day. The competition is this Friday, April 25, 2014 and I am doing the dessert portion for the team. I am making a white chocolate cake with a strawberry compote, strawberry sauce. Along with white chocolate ice cream on top of caramelized hazelnuts mixed with strawberry dust. The terms of the dessert portion is you have to utilize strawberries, cream and white chocolate. I think I have encompassed all the aspect as best I can on the plate and I hope the judges think the same! I am nervous because this is the first time I have been in a competition like this but I am also excited because I love the adrenaline I get from cooking under pressure, as long as I had plenty of practice.

Easter cake 2

Since the first bunny butt cake I made I have had some orders to make for other parties so I stayed with the same concept just changed a few things to make it more personal to my customers. I never used the "grass tip" before and was excited to work with it. I did find that if your icing starts to heat up then you don't have the individuals pieces of icing you end with all of them melting into each other, so it took me a little long than I was expecting but I think the end product was exactly how I imagined it. For the color free I got I used neon food coloring so it wasn't to green it played into the colors of Easter the more lighter spring color scheme, which I thougt was better than a bold grassy green.

Schnucks

During school we get an hour lunch break, we mainly go right up the road to Schnucks because they have a variety of hot and cold items to choose from and they are only two minuets up the road. When you walk in you have so much to choose from, a salad bar, a hot line, a whole section dedicated to wings, and a place they heat of the sandwiches they made that day for you just to name a few. I like to go get a hot sandwich and a small salad. The prices are not that bad to for the food you receive, who ever came up with that idea to put something like that in a grocery store was a real good thinker! How many times do you go to the store and realize you are so hungry you are about to buy out the whole store, so why not stop over and grab a bit to eat, GENIUS, if you ask me!

Sweets on a stick

At school we have competitions almost every month, the chefs come up with something and we have about a week or so to do some research and find some ideas to do. This month is sweets on a stick like cake pops or dipped marshmallows with nuts or candies on a stick. I was just told about this yesterday and I been doing a lot of research but it seems like most stuff I have came across just seems to simple. I want the judges to look at my work and be like wow how did she do that or this food combination is awesome. I have a few ideas one being honeyed fig pie pops which sound pretty good to me or strawberry cheesecake stuffed amaretto cake pops. Cake pops are so original but then again simplicity can go a long way. Does anyone have any ideas or have came across an idea on a stick that they thought were amazing, but it has to be sweets?!

Easter cake

Last night my sister came to me and said I need to make an Easter cake for her class Easter party, she is in high school......umm okay?! Anyways like a lot of high schoolers she wait till the last minute to say she wants an awesome cake and of course I had to say yes, it's family. So we looked for the cake design she wanted and went to the store pick up product I didn't have, by this time it's about 9 ugh! I worked on it all night as she is laying on my kitchen floor saying she is tired, yea I'm just a ray of sunshine right now! With my need to have the cake to look "perfect" in my eyes I was up till about 2 in the morning, not to mention she also wanted cake pops and cupcakes. Anyways I used fondant for the first time and just played around till I understood how to work with it, it was fun and I will be using that more frequently on my desserts from now on, just so many possabilities with that stuff and baby showers and birthdays are coming up so everyone watch out!

Canyon Cafe

The other day I went out to lunch at Canyon Cafe located at Plaza Frontenac, it's a high end Mexican restaurant. I had the spinach and portobello mushroom quesadilla that came with avocado salsa and chipotle mayonnaise, not liking any type of hot food I stayed clear away from that dip. It was filled with just the right amount of mushrooms and spinach with not an over barring amount of cheese. The bad thing was the sauces were placed right on the plate not in a separate container to dip In so the quesadillas that were next to that mayonnaise were not eaten, we'll I tore the parts off that we're sitting in the sauce because I wasn't going to waste the top of, are you crazy that stuff was good. Anyways I ran out of the avocado salsa that was on the plate which sucks because it was vary tasty. Overall the experience was nice and the staff knew what they were doing, but you have to expect that coming from Frontenac, right?! They also brought out a white chocolate with almonds dessert, it was wrapped in a corn husk and you unwrap it and it looked like a stick of white chocolate with almonds but tasted amazing, I'm not a big white chocolate fan but this was amazing, and free...did I not mention that, yea it was complements of the chef, some how I had a feeling it was because I had my chef jacket on but free is free right! 😃

Chinese food

Doesn't it seem like every time you order Chinese food your eyes are always bigger than your stomach, you end up getting way more than you really should have ordered! Then you eat about a forth of  what you got and about 20 minuets and one bathroom break later you are ready to eat again, it's a vicious cycle that is so delicious you always go back to it knowing what is about to happen. I love me some Chinese food and Panda down the street from my house in kirkwood is awesome! It's not like you can order just chicken then you need a side of rice, then an egg roll, oh and you can not forget the crab Rangoon and after it's all said and done you have a meal to feed a family of 5 and it's just you, but hey Chinese food is not to bad warmed up the next day!😜




P.S Ja Bowl in Waterloo, IL has some AWESOME Chinese food! go check it out!!!!