Bread day! I made pita bread with garlic, cumin, and red pepper flakes.

Look at some pictures from the day over at my classmate’s blog: Une Vie Saine. She also has a post from our dinner at V-note. Check it out!

 

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“Stick a tap in me; I’m pretty sure I’ll bleed maple”

-Friend from school. We use maple crystals and syrup instead of sugar in almost everything we bake at school. Good thing I’ve always loved maple!

Vegan Apple Galette (which we’re being tested on tomorrow!)

Vegan French Walnut Tart

Sadly, didn't have time to set up. It tasted incredible though!

I love baking!

One Love, One Heart.

Let’s get together and feel alright. -this is what I’ve been playing on guitar today: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdB-8eLEW8g Makes me miss playing steel drums! The chords are Bb, F, and Eb, but I’m lazy and used a capo on the first fret (A, E, D)

School is going way too fast! We’re already halfway through the Chef’s Training Program, and I’m just now getting comfortable in the kitchen. Since the program is so short, I’ve been trying to soak up every experience and opportunity that I can.

So far, I’ve worked 3 and 1/2 Friday Night Dinners. I really enjoy seeing how every chef manages the kitchen. Everyone has their own modus operandi. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to work in a restaurant when I first arrived in the Big Apple, but now, I can’t wait to cut my teeth in a NYC kitchen!

Today, I demoed at the Greenmarket, Union Square. Basically, I just chopped green beans for a few hours while promoting my school and the local farmers. To be honest, this wasn’t my cup of tea. It was fun talking to people, but I’m not great at schmoozing it up for somebody else. However, I do love green beans and I got some bangin’ Lavender Apple Mint tea at the market, so the day was worthwhile.

Tomorrow, I’m “catering” a coffee hour at The Church of the Village. Their kitchen isn’t ready for use yet, so I’m making some fruit skewers and other hors d’oeuvres that don’t require “cooking.” Hummus & veggies, anyone?

Off to One Lucky Duck for dinner, then prepping for the coffee hour! Running around nonstop… Ah, the life of a chef-in-training.

oh! and I’m up to running three miles 2-3x a week! ow ow!

“Words are weak at expressing our true emotions”

-President of Virginia Tech reflecting on the VT shootings

I was in the 5th grade back in Virginia on 9/11/01. I remember my teacher asking us if we had relatives in NYC and that there had been an accident at the World Trade Center. We had no idea what had happened, but kids were getting checked out of school and teachers had tear stained faces and worried looks. Finally my teacher turned on the news and we witnessed the collapse of one of the towers. My teacher turned the news off shortly after the collapse and tried to resume with spelling. Needless to say, my classmates and I were confused and couldn’t shake the images from the news… spelling was the least of our worries. As soon as I got home, I turned on the news and watched the events over and over again with tears streaming down my face. When my mother got home from work, she turned off the tv and held me as I weeped. With the attack and my parents splitting up, I felt like the world was crumbling and there was no hope for the future.

I never imagined I would be living in NYC on the 10th anniversary of the attacks. As soon as I woke up this morning, I felt the somber heaviness of the overcast atmosphere. My mother was here visiting for the weekend, and I was so glad to be able to hug her as I did 10 years ago.

I’ll share some of the touching moments from today:

Photos from School

I believe this is seitan day

"Infustions" Oils and Vinegars

Watercress Potato Soup

really yummy lemon lentil soup

Perry St. tea from "The Tea Set"

Seitan and Sea Veggies and Soy! Oh My!

Happy 80th birthday (yesterday), Grandma!

This week has been so cool at NGI. Monday, we praised seitan… all day. Only three of us (the vegans/vegetarian) were really excited about it, but we all had a blast making the rubbery mass. It can be challenging to get the right texture when preparing seitan, but ours turned out really well! I have a ton of new seitanic recipes to enjoy.

Yesterday was sea vegetable day! Our instructor was Chef Melanie. She asked, “What do you think of when you hear ‘seaweed’?” I thought uh… green? salty? Nope, correct answer is… minerals! Sea vegetables have an abundance of minerals which is important because our soil has been depleted from centuries of overuse and whatnot. We made some awesome dishes including apple juice jello, sushi, Hijiki Caviar, and coffee and coconut/lime custards.

Quick Update

I’ve been volunteering for Housing Works thrift stores recently. It has been an incredible experience so far! I’m proud to be a part of this organization. Anyway, while I was looking at the HW website, I found out that Hannah Hart would be hosting a Q&A/ screening of MDK at the Housing Works Bookstore Cafe. As I’m sure you all know, I am somewhat obsessed with the youtube show, My Drunk Kitchen, so of course I went to see her. She was just as adorable in person as she is on her show!! (pics on my fb page)

After the MDK screening, I went out to a bar with some friends and hung out until my cousin texted me. I remembered that he was in town, so we met up at one of my favorite restaurants. It was awesome seeing family in the city! He said he’d try to bring my dad out here too.

I’ll be having more visitors pretty soon! My friend is coming to visit the first weekend in September, then my mother is visiting the second weekend. The end of September, I’m flying out to CO for a wedding. Lots of family and friend time! Stoked!

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.” -Albert Einstein

“Kinda just tastes like… hot sourdough… which is good! but ultimately disappointing.” -Hannah Hart

(My Drunk Kitchen)

Harto’s quote pretty much sums up my last “relationship,” or rather, lack thereof. I’m not the type of person who gets really depressed about break-ups. I might get sad or mopey for a few days, but usually, I just dust myself off and move on. I’m in New York and there are way more fish in the sea. Plus I’ve got a looong time before I plan on settling down.

Most people indulge in an entire pint of Ben & Jerry’s after a break-up, but I get this intense motivation to work out and be super healthy. Instead of letting that fire die, I decided to channel it and start a fitness routine! Ok, so every day for the next 6 weeks, I’m gonna do cardio or strength and yoga. I do yoga almost every day anyway, but I’ve been making up excuses not to go to the gym.

Also, I’m gonna try to get my diet back on track. This weekend, I indulged in Lula’s ice cream, Murray’s bagels, fake meat chinese food, bomb brooklyn pizza, and waaaay too much coffee. A marvelous foodie weekend, but my body hates me. During my 6 weeks, I’m gonna try to get back in the swing of eating fresh, organic food. My body feels so much better when I pay attention to what I’m eating.

I skipped coffee this morning and walked over to the Tea Set for their Red Peach Vanilla iced tea. (Mmm… I am gonna have to buy a can of that to make at home!) I usually have 3-4 cups a day and this weekend I was going 5-6. yikes. Ok, so gonna shoot for one cup in the morn and another pick me up later on if I’m desperate.

aaand since I posted it, obviously, I have to stick to it. Right?

The Evils of Earth Balance…

Riiiight. Usually I’m on board with everything NGI preaches, but this is a little extreme. I agree, “natural flavor” is ominous and probably not natural at all. Also, it’s not a “whole food.” Our instructor said she called the company and couldn’t get a straight answer when she asked if they use interesterified fats. However, if you’re strictly vegan, EB is an awesome product. Our instructor did say, “Go ahead and use it in moderation. Something else will kill you first.”

It is easy to get obsessed with unhealthy foods and things you need to avoid at this school. Every day, we learn why things we’ve been consuming for years are really bad for us. doom, disease, death. Ok, so I’m already planning on going home and revamping my family’s kitchen, but I’m not jumping off the deep end here. Yet.

I walked into a vegan chocolate shop with some friends from school and mentioned that it would be cool to have a vegan bakery one day. One seemed uptight and said, “well, there’s still all that sugar…” This caught me off guard. Yeah, sugar is really really bad for you and the average American consumes 2 TONS of sugar in his lifetime and we should all cut back. However, I’m not the “average american” and I freakin’ love baking. I’m not gonna feel guilty for indulging in some dark chocolate or for making cookies with my family. Cookies pick me up like no other “health food” can. When I’m going through a breakup or have just had a bad day, a warm cookie is perfection. I remember my mother setting a gooey chocolate chip oatmeal cookie and a tall glass of milk in front of me after losing a basketball game or failing a pre-cal test. Also, my brother, sister and I would get involved with the dough assembly and would fight over who got to lick the bowl (yeah, yeah, raw eggs… whatever, I’m still standing) Granted, my addiction to cookies is mostly psychological, but if my mother had set a bowl of carrots in front of me when I was sad, I don’t think it would have had the same soothing effect. 

I’m all choked up…

seriously, I’ve had 1 and 1/2 artichokes. Yes, that joke was as painful to type as it was to read. My father would be proud.

 

This morning’s lecture was Basic Quality Ingredients (part A) with Chef Jay. We went over the left and right brain approach to selecting foods, and some of the criteria for food selection.

Here are the two approaches:

Left brain: intellect, science, analysis, logic, rationality, thoughts, memory, detail, orientation, numbers, measures, quantity

• calories, fat, weight, volume, diet

Right brain: intuition, art, faith, synthesis, emotions, feelings, vision, holistic, aesthetics, forms, quality

• appearance, color, texture, aroma, eating when hungry

NGI doesn’t count calories or assess fat %; they believe focusing on eating a balanced diet of good whole foods is a better guide to fitness.

The ten criteria for natural food selection:

• Whole
• Fresh
• Organic
• Local
• Seasonal
• Harmony with Tradition
• Real
• Unprocessed
• Nonirradated (though this isn’t a word. maybe non-irradiated?)
• free from GMO

Today, we went through the first 5.