NE Highlights and Challenges (with CIF) | Week #11

This is a class assignment that I write about at the end of each week called Highlights and Challenges. If you are new to my blog I am enrolled at The Natural Epicurean Culinary Academy in Austin, Texas and this is my online journal (among other things!).

Please note that I have included an additional assignment at the very end of this blog.

HIGHLIGHTS

1. Describe: What did you find especially exciting, interesting, inspiring, satisfying and/or fun this week in the kitchen?

This was our eleventh week of class and we now have a two week summer break! 

I am half way through the program! It's a great milestone for me and I'm feeling grateful :)

We have worked our little tails off learning the fundamentals and foundations of cooking as well as vegan, vegetarian, baking, science of nutrition, and current issues in food. We also touched on recipe development. 

This week ended with a class called current issues in food with Chef Leah. She was awesome and I enjoyed her teaching style. She arranged for us to go and volunteer at Johnson Backyard Garden, and at Capital Area Food Bank. Here is an action shot of Chef Leah getting her hands dirty :)

JBG was a great experience for me, and I will be going back there on my own time. I liked to see how a farm operates and my responsibility was seeding with other volunteers. Seeding was somewhat meditative and I was reminded that these seeds will grow into lovely vegetables that we can all enjoy. Lot's of hard work goes into farming and everyone has an important role so don't take for granted the convenience we have of walking into a grocery store and buying fresh produce. 

Oh and check out this rad CSA bag I got for volunteering at the farm:

The food bank was interesting. That was my second time volunteering and I was a food inspector on this visit. We basically inspected all the donated items to make sure nothing was expired or damaged. The thing that I hope for is to have more healthier food options at food banks. Currently, I saw a lot of processed foods and sugary drinks. Maybe in the future that will change. I really don't know and I left with mixed feelings. Here is a pic of us and how much food we processed:

2. Reflect: In what ways have you begun to apply, develop or incorporate this and/or how does this influence your professional goals?

Being mindful of the food choices we have and how we can vote with our money when we go grocery shopping is very important. Support local farmers, buy organic, and eat whole foods!

CHALLENGES

3. Describe: What did you find especially challenging or difficult in the kitchen this week?

I don't recall anything particularly challenging or difficult this week. So with that said, it was a fantastic end to this first quarter!!!

4. Reflect: What might you do to meet and overcome these challenges or difficulties?

Nada.

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The folllowing is a reflection assignment for a class called Current Issues in Food:

This was our last week and it marks the half way point for us. This was a great way to end the week. Current issues in food was a way for us to discuss important food and health related topics. We saw an independent film called Fed Up, watched Jaime Oliver's TED Talk, created a power point presentation for our final project, and went to a couple of field trips (as I mentioned above).

It was my first time watching Fed Up and I liked it. It was hard to watch sometimes because of the emotional connection we have with food. You have to see this film and it makes you realize that we have so much more work to do with educating people about nutrition, and how too much processed foods can affect the body. 

Jaime Oliver is on a serious mission and in 2010 he gave a TED Talk. If you haven't seent this one please make time to see it. Lot's of vital statistics on this country's health problems and the leading causes of death. Even though this was from 2010 we currently still have the same major causes of death. I appreciate this Englishman coming to America to help move us in a healthier direction, especially with kids. 

I'll just go ahead and embed Jaime's TED Talk here, so watch it! I also signed his petition as well. 

The field trip to Johnson's Backyard Garden was the best treat for me! I told my husband I want to go with him so that we can volunteer together while I'm on my summer break. I couldn't tell if he was into that idea, but I will find out when I take him there :P  

Lastly, when I look back at this week, I felt really good with the schedule that was put in place for us, and the class room time we had to work on our final project. It is extremely helpful to be able to work on a group project during class because we can bounce ideas and make edits quickly with each other. In other classes when we don't have class room time for group projects it gets challenging to coordinate with others to find a place to meet. The other benefit is that the instructor is there and can witness our collaboration and answer any last minute questions that often arise. I give this week two green thumbs up!

The End.

NE Highlights and Challenges | Week #10

This is a class assignment that I write about at the end of each week called Highlights and Challenges. If you are new to my blog I am enrolled at The Natural Epicurean Culinary Academy in Austin, Texas and this is my online journal (among other things!).

HIGHLIGHTS

1. Describe: What did you find especially exciting, interesting, inspiring, satisfying and/or fun this week in the kitchen?

This week was a new section of the program called vegetarian recipe menus. We had a new chef instructor teach us and I enjoyed meeting him and making some of his recipes. He is a French chef and it was nice to see him assist my teammate Jeanine make a raspberry souffle. The souffle turned out well, but it wasn't vegan so I didn't taste it. Here is a pic for you to see (I was happy for Jeanine :)

Eventually, I will experiment with aqua faba to see if I can come up with a vegan version of this! I bet someone has already created a vegan souffle recipe!!!

I thought it was interesting to learn a new software program that allows you to create recipes and menus. I was curious what the professionals in the culinary world use and there are proably more software options available that I am not aware of. As I move forward I'm sure more will become apparent.

In the kitchen this week there were a couple of receipes that I enjoyed making. There was a vegan chocolate mousse and roasted vegetables tossed with a vegan pesto that I liked a lot. 

Here's the vegan chocolate mousse followed by the roasted veggies and pesto:

2. Reflect: In what ways have you begun to apply, develop or incorporate this and/or how does this influence your professional goals?

I'm pretty much going to continue and file away the recipes that I discover in class (and enjoy) and prepare them at home. I can modify some of the ingredients to my tastes and share them others.

When people ask me what I make in class they are surprised to hear that the end product is vegan. I feel that by having a discussion about food is always going to be an interesting conversation and most times they say, "I didn't think you could put those ingredients together and it can be vegan". I like surprising people with new ways to use plant-based ingredients!

CHALLENGES

3. Describe: What did you find especially challenging or difficult in the kitchen this week?

While it was interesting, learning a software program was time consuming, but well worth the effort. 

4. Reflect: What might you do to meet and overcome these challenges or difficulties?

Previous experiences in my former career has helped me today with being able to adjust efficiently with learning new software programs. 

I used a program called Living Cookbook software (the free trial version for 30 days).  

For future students who will be assigned the VRM final project, please be sure to nail down your menu by the second day and enter everything into the database. The sooner you enter your recipes into a database and create a menu the faster you can see if you are hitting the correct calorie limit. At that point you will need to adjust your recipes (if you are over or under the calorie limit). Also, in parallel, my teammate was researching and created a document that was called food benefits. By day three modify any recipes, and review the food benefits document. My team's goal was to be done by the third day (middle of the week) and we did. 

One last thing, we needed a place to meet after class and we ended up going to Wheatsville Co-op (the one on south Lamar near the school). They have a community room with internet access and we got the last few details of the project nailed down. Good times!

Ok, enough rambling! Thanks for stopping by!