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!
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