Nine days unscathed...

The title of these blog posts might as well become a tracker of a (hopefully) Brett Favre-ian streak of me not shanking myself with my knives. It may seem like the simplest goal in the culinary world-- point knives away from the soft, fleshy mass that is your body-- but week two in kitchen class proved it to be a seemingly monumental task.

Three jabronies cut themselves this week. There was a casual nick, another girl lost her fingernail when she sliced through half of it (yes, the knives are *that* sharp), and we had another guy take a hunk out of his thumb. The last was the most interesting, as the day ended with him passing out in the back of the classroom. We're all watching the chef show us how to cut a green pepper and BOOM-- a giant crash. Apparently he was walking around the back of the room and just toppled right over. Like-- tiiiiiiiiiimber, straight over/header into the floor. Obviously, once we realized he didn't smoke himself of the (very unforgiving) stainless steel prep tables, or land on a knife...and he woke up...it went from horrifying to hilarious.

It only became more hilarious when a couple other guys in class and myself went to take all of the product we cut that day across the street to the school cafeteria. As we presented the chef with our day's successes, the chef inquired where our garlic and parsley was. We explained that we didn't get to that because of the incident in class. Chef was sympathetic:

"Oh, I see. Well make sure to tell him to put his hand in his pants and find his..."

You get the idea.

Anyway, class was fun this week. A lot more work on our cuts (the knife and cuts are beginning to feel very natural), and we actually cooked a few things. It's been awesome because the advanced classes around us are also cooking more (and not just vegetables). There's nothing like pork chops, homemade spaghetti, or mac&cheese at 9am. Breakfast never tasted so good...

We made cauliflower polonaise Friday (and sauteed some broccoli-- but you all know what that looks like). The gist of the dish is you boil cauliflower, top it with a breadcrumb/parsley mixture and also whites and yolks of a hard boiled egg that have been passed through a strainer to become very fine. I'd say this pic above looks 95% like the stuff we made...so I will take this moment to add that I will start posting general pics of the food we make in class daily so you can be jealous. Cauliflower polonaise is easy to make, and pretty delicious (for cauliflower).

I'd say the most interested cooking event of the week came Friday when we were charged with cooking vegetables in a bunch of different ways to prove how conditions can affect the appearance of food. We cooked things like broccoli, carrots and red cabbage in normal fashion, in water with vinegar (acid) in it, in water with baking soda (alkaline) in it, and we also just overcooked the product. Until you've seen red cabbage turn BLUE...you don't appreciate the science that happens in the kitchen. It's even weirder to see that same disgusting blue mass turn red (and edible-looking) again when you add a bit of acid back into it. It's real Bill Nye kinda' stuff.

Other event's of the week...uhh...I have official Internet and cable. The Pens beat the Flyers. I cleaned the apartment, and I think I need to go shopping today. Pretty standard stuff.

Alright-- the weekend's here and already off and running (it's sad when sleeping in until 7am is sleeping in...but it's not 5:30am I guess). Mary's coming to visit today so I see a tour of the downtown area, Primanti Brother's and a stop out to my favorite bar to catch the Pens/Leafs game in our future. Should be a good one!

OU Homecoming in a week! Hope to see you there! I think both Shugar brothers will be there!