the "professional" chef

Since the beginning on October I have been taking a culinary course two nights a week. I would like to share with you some of the first half of my learning experience. 

French Onion

Mango Salsa

Duck w/ purple mashed potatoes

 

Diner chips

Potato "mushrooms"

Fried Potato 

Chicken Caccettori 

Curry chicken

Duck with cherry sauce

Wings

Homemade BBQ chicken

Shnitzel

Tuna Salad... DELUXE!!! haha

crazy good curry soup of sorts

6 Rices: from risotto to pilaf, sweet to savory, and everything in between

taking a stance

It has been SOO long since I last came on here. I apologize. Life has a tendency to get busy and fly by making it seem near impossible to do that which we enjoy. Really its just all a lazy  (and quite lame) excuse, I can tell you very honestly that it certainly feels REAL while in the midst of it all. Maybe a little less Facebook or meaningless chatter and I would be surprised to find oodles of time left over for such things as blogging, knitting and cooking. (Probably the three things I wish I did more of :/ ) Although you can be assured that I would just find other meaningless things to fill my time with. ....SIGH.... to stop and breath and reconnect to direction, meaning and purpose is such an important ritual and one I find incredibly challenging to accomplish in the city. Maybe I am just blaming the city and if I were to leave the city I would find something else to blame it on, but I really do think it's the city. Life is so fast here. No one has patience, no one has time, no one cares. After having lived in Brooklyn for 8 months I returned to the countryside of Massachusetts for 2 months in the summer. The clarity and peace I found within myself during these all too short months was indescribable. It was a feeling I have had at many time in my life but ever have a felt it so acutely. The juxtaposition of brooklyn life right next to the Pioneer valley allowed me to see very clearing the environment in which I thrive vs the environment in which I struggle. After my extended vacation I returned to Brooklyn. It has been three months since my return. That connection to my purpose has faded dramatically. I find myself longing for time were I can let myself be me without holding anything in and I find myself yearning for a period of time that I can spend completely connected to the raw essence of this world: nature. 

Over the last few days I have had several conversations that have left me feeling that maybe I'm just not good enough. That I don't have what it takes to make it in the real world. Or that I'm incredibly immature and seriously need to figure my life out and grow up or I will be miserable forever. Now, I don't want to write these feelings off because there are elements of reality in them. However, we learn in Torah that Hashem continues to send us messages until we really listen. Sometimes we understand the first time and sometimes it takes many tries. When we notice that something is repeating itself in our lives it is a good sign that there is something here for us to understand and/or change about ourselves. So given the repetition of this feeling and in light of the above, I believe, with a newfound sense of direction, that I have a very clear mission. This mission is not on the beaten path and therefore living in an environment that is entirely about the beaten path is incredibly draining for me. I have to embrace this and let myself fly. And yes, I do need to get my act together, but not in the sense that others see it, but rather, start making the "impossible" very possible. I cant wait forever for the perfect situation, I need to MAKE the perfect situation. With the help of Hashem, I hope to make valiant progress toward becoming ME.

Cooking Up A Storm!

Truly the most exciting thing I have had to share with you in some time is this small, soft, white, ball of CHEESE!!!! Thats right, I just made cheese. And it is really small... I mean REALLY small. When you go to the store and pick up a package of cheese or two or five.... you dont realize just what went into that. Well, let me tell you, a lot did. I understand now why cheese factories dont just have a few cows but rather a massive HERD of cows. It takes a LOT of milk to make cheese. Roughly 6 times the amount of milk goes into every bite of cheese we have. I dont know about you, but I eat a lot of cheese... now thats a lot of milk!! I will treasure this small little ball of cheese very much over the next week as it gets added to various dishes I whip up. And I think I will treasure all the cheese I eat just a little bit more now that I realize what went into making it.

Oh yes, I am starting what I can tell is about to become a miso soup obsession for the next little while. It is SOOO GOOD! Not to mention SOOOO easy to make. This was bowl number one of what has already become 3 this week!!  Now thats a lot of miso!! The best part of this little obsession in progress?? It is so good for you, chalk full of healthy microbes that our tummy's are oh so happy to receive a nice dosage of!
 Welcome to what I want to call CUPCAKES! I spent an afternoon learning all the ins and outs of cupcakes and their dear friend, icing. One things for sure, icing is totally not good for you, but totally adds to cake!! This is a chocolate cupcake with coffee icing and the one below is a carrot cupcake with non-dairy cream cheese frosting.  That carrot cake recipe is for sure one of my new favorite baked goods recipes and might just be one of the best carrot cakes I have had in a long time.  SUCCESS!

Really the following picture is only here because i just love how pretty they are and wanted to share. A friend of mine recently got married, these were a selection of the flowers left over after the reception. They adorned our kitchen table for a week before they all became very sad, leaving us with but one picture to remember them by. Alas, now we shall have to wait for a new wedding to scrounge up some flowers at...

I am quite sure that you are completely tired of me showing pictures of omelets, but as I am also sure, you know that I love them, and so, you will have to endure yet another one... This was a particularly good one, consisting of some fried shitaki mushrooms and goat cheese!! YUM!

Ok back up that wedding I referenced by the flowers. SO!  It has been such a long while since I have spent any real amount of energy scrapbooking or general collage work. I miss it. Really, you have no idea. It helps me clear my head. But unfortunately, I have found in increasingly difficult to occupy my time with things that I enjoy when I could, with much less effort, sit in front of my computer. So, I am trying to correct this unproductive path I now find myself on am working on getting back into my old swing of things. Starting with not to overwhelming and time consuming projects, but rather, with simple cards. Here is the one I made for that particular wedding, before any writing was added. With a whole lot of G-d's gracious help, I intend to make many more such cards. :) 

Well thats about it for now. Lots of things happening over here, I will try to share as much of it as I can with you :)

cooking the cold away (figuratively and literally)

I discovered a very delicious recipe for a RAW Japanese style soup. This was an awesome meal that gave me great benefits without all the carbs and depleted nutrients!

OK! so I might be a good girl when it comes to the actual meal (see above picture) but I cant help the fact that I just happen to have a really big sweet tooth (see picture below)... So I went all out and made my all famous chocolate chip cookies with my  new favorite cookie ingredient, DRIED LAVENDER BUDS!!!! I promise you, you try this once, and you will be hooked forever....I am fully aware now that when, G-d willing sooner then later, I actually have a  house to call my own, I will have to have a large lavender patch out front so that I can have a nice stock of dried buds to last me each year for my never ending batches of cookies....and maybe some fresh lavender tea....or you know, all the other various things one may want to do with lavender, like make soap...or essential oil.....or....well....you probably get the picture!

I did mention that I have a REALLY BIG sweet tooth right? Good. Lemon bars =YUM!! These were full of organic fresh squeezed lemon juice and the rinds of those very same lemons. They had such a fabulous sweet/tart quality going on that I cant even describe how good they were...lets just say that between me, my roomates and my friends, the pan was empty pretty fast ! (There are three new lemons sitting in my fruit basket waiting to be turned into this very same creation sometime soon....)

creativity

Yes, creativity. Both, in and out of the kitchen this time :) so, for starters, I must share this with you. My vary own, hand-made, challah cover. Thats right folks!

Truth is I started the center piece, which is painted, last spring. I did it, I wasnt into it, I forgot about it. Then one day, I found it and finding old forgotten about things, can be such a serge of inspiration, its actually ridiculous.  So I dug up some other old forgotten about things, namely fabric from you-dont-even-want-to-know-how-long-ago and, to my big surprise, liked what I found. So I immediately set to work and, tadah! My very own challah cover! Im seriously considering at this point to make more of these little, easy creations to sell or give to others. Because they can be boring, the same old cover at every single persons house, Im pretty sure a new look, could actually get me somewhere....

Now, on to the next coolest thing in my life at the moment...

Ravioli in Orange Miso sauce with Avocado and Tomatoes. Yes, just that incredible.  The sauce was totally easy to whip together and it tasted SOOO good, I think I just might start putting it on everything!

Chocolate!

Thats right all you chocolate lovers out there! I learned the art of chocolate. Four hours of the most intense chocolate immersion I have ever experienced. It has been my please to share some of these tasty treats with family and friends and I can not even begin to tell you how much I look forward to getting my hands into that mess again for a second round. And, if all goes well in that second round, EXPERIMENTING with chocolate! Oh I know that caught your attention...I mean how could it not, if this is good, imagine what could happen if the recipe was deviated from!  Anyhow, as much as I am personally trying to stay away from the intense sugar intake, I have totally been on a sweets kick when it comes to kitchen time. What can I say, I just like dessert the best! thoughts currently milling in my mind: culinary school for both general culinary as well as pastry and baking arts :) We will see what time and money have to say on the matter....

FYI I think I am going to have a very big knitting project to share with you all very soon so keep posted!! 

Shabbos Shira

This is the week that we read the portion of the Torah when the Jewish People crossed the Sea of Reeds. When they crossed to the other side Miriam led all the women in a song of gratitude to G-d for saving them from the Egyptians and bringing them out of slavery. It is noted that as they sang they all played their tambourines. The women had the foresight so know that they were going to be saved and they we were going to need to celebrate, so as they were leaving Egypt they brought all packed these small instruments that would allow them to sing praises to G-d and rejoice in the fullest way possible. It is known that when G-d again redeems his people, and indeed redeems his entire creation with the coming of Moshiach that the women will again praise G-d with tambourines. So, as preparation for this coming Shabbos and the immanent coming of the righteous Moshiach, a few friends and I took it upon ourselves this week to decorate tambourines this week. Please G-d, we should be able to use these immediately!

My current favorite evening drink? A nice cold glass of Reed's Extra Ginger Brew. Between the bubbles and the flavor, there really is nothing quite like it....

A little calm before the storm: I made up a nice pan of home made lasagna last night as a nice good bye to the cheesy goodness of my favorite italian comfort cuisine. And now you might ask? I venture into the world of RAW! A mid-winter cleanse is in store and with G-d's help it will be just what my body needs to feel rejuvenated on the inside in order to change the world on the outside. The winter is a time of hibernation. A time to look inside and digest the goings on in life. Its when we step back and say OK, when I come out of this cocoon, where am I going? Who will I be? And most importantly, how in the world will I get there? So embrace these cold days of isolation for the beauty they bring us each year and take account of where your holding. So that when the spring air moves in, your braced and ready. So that this year, when you move back out into the world, its not back out into the same old mundane life your used, but rather....into the life you want it to be, moving the whole world one step closer to perfection. 

Dear Omelet, I will miss you over the next few weeks. You were there for me through thick and thin. Always by my side with a suggestion of ultimate culinary perfection. Sometimes you handed me vegetables I had not seen in ages, other times you offered up a chance to try the cheeses I normally only sigh over at the grocery store. But you were always there Mr. Omelet. And now, I abandon you. For what? I know, and I'm sorry. But await my return Omelet, because I will be back. I would never leave you forever. Just know, that in my heart, you will always be there. 

Back In Action

Hello all!! It's been WAY too long but, thank G-d, we are back up and running strong. I have a few fun projects underway that I cant wait to share with you. But in the mean time you will have to suffice with my culinary adventures. Having spent 5 months without a kitchen to call my own, I have a new found appreciation for the haven of my kitchen space. Despite the lack of time in my life at the moment, cooking has been a priority and I have been whipping up scrumptious meals on a regular basis. As a new member of a local (AMAZING) food co-op, I have been thoroughly enjoying fresh, organic produce that was harvested within 500 miles of my home! It is such a treat to eat veggies that are packed with so much nutrients like the ones I buy at the Co-op.

Favorite vegetable of this winter: Jerusalem Artichoke. I like to roast it in the oven with beets for a sweet side dish, put chunks into stews and soups, as well many other tasty recipes. 

The dish pictured is one of my easy, delicious dinners I have been making a lot this winter. Tofu in a tamari/olive oil/nutritional yeast/maple syrup dressing with roasted beets, jerusalem artichokes, carrots and purple potatoes. (Want grains? Try it with a base of quinoa!!)