Tales of a Super Student Chef

Good reason to not have facebook!!

2011-10-26T15:09:00.001-07:00

My fave halloween cartoon - theoatmeal.com. Click picture to see whole thing

2011-10-26T11:44:00.001-07:00

Its been how long??

2011-10-26T11:04:00.000-07:00

Holy smokes! I cant believe its been so long since I have posted on here! I'm a terrible blogger.
Anyway, I am in my last semester of schooling and work watching my nieces and for my brothers law office. I'm going to start looking for a job in a bakery in the next month or so. Im super nervous and excited because my life has been consumed by school and 2 or 3 jobs at a time for the last year and a half. Its going to feel odd to have 1 job again and hopefully not be horribly poor anymore!
The 20th of this month was the 2 year anniversary of dad passing away. Lily and I went to his grave and saw that it was half grown over with weeds! We cleaned it up and left him flowers. It still feels weird that hes gone. One day maybe it will sink in.
I will try to be better about my blogs in the future!!

Hard Work!

2010-10-08T17:07:00.000-07:00

School has been in for a little over a month now and I am definitely feeling it. I have a hundred times more studying to do this semester than I did last semester. Chef Satan is horrible, awful, and unbelievably mean. He has actually pushed me out of the way twice. He has no manners at all. If you don't get out of his way he will actually and purposefully run into you. He is ridiculous and I cant stand him. Now, he is a genius as far as it goes in the baking world but that doesn't mean he should get free reign of the world just because he is a douche! The good part of the class is that I am learning to make amazing breads. I brought some home and amber thought that they were professionally done. I can't wait to start trying to recipes out at home and sharing them. Its amazing what a few extra ingredients and techniques will do to a product.
My other chef, we will refer to him as Chef French, is amazing. He is the exact opposite of chef satan. He is so patient and nice and really appreciates people who work hard and try to get everything that he wants done. I hope that he realizes that I work my butt off in that class. I would love to be able to work for him one day. That would seriously be an honor. We will have to see what the future holds. I still don't know if he is teaching more classes next semester but I hope so!! In this class I am learning how to make more fancy fillings, glazes, pies, etc. Its not a ton of stuff that I would use at home but I there are definitely some amazing recipes that I want to make for everyone. I guess thats the benefit of me being in culinary school, all those around me really benefit!

It Begins Again!

2010-09-07T18:00:00.001-07:00

School has officially started and I am already officially ready to be done. Being as how I have another 4 months to go, I need to quickly get over this.
I am taking 5 classes this semester in hopes that I will be done by next summer!!! WOOT WOOT!
I already have mounds of homework and quizzes due this week. I wish that teachers would wait a couple of weeks to get really hardcore but, unfortunately, what I want means nothing.
My cooking classes this semester are going to be HARD! I am taking Principles of Baking with the strictest man in the world. This class is so important for me because this is exactly what I want to do in my future, but the teacher is something else. He has told us numerous times in the 2 classes I have had with him so far that he is not our friend and he wants to know nothing about us. He wants us to come to his class and do our work and shut up. If he deems that you answer something not in the exact way he would like he tells you quite politely to think before you speak and to read the book. He has had 60 years to learn this stuff, I have had a week. Give me a break. He LOVES to go off on tangents. For example, he was talking about milk and if you end up having to throw away a half of the gallon of milk, only buy a half gallon. Then he started talking about how families break up and children dont listen to adults. Now, I, personally, and not really sure what one has to do with the other but clearly they make sense to him. He also loves to remind us that if a recipe goes wrong or if we can't find jobs, etc then something is wrong with us and we need to change ourselves. He is crazy. Certifiably. And, even as I constantly broke out into laughter over this crazy, much older mans serious rantings, I couldnt help thinking how sexy and assertive he is. Oh dear. Its going to be a long semester!
My next cooking class is Quantity Baking. It just teaches us how to make huge amounts of items and have them come out nicely each time. With a family as large as mine this will certainly help out! This is the first class that this teacher has ever taught but he is incredibly nice and patient and I know that while it will be very challenging this class will be rewarding.
One day, far, far, far away from now. After years of peeling oranges and emptying flour into bins, to get the experience I need, I will be able to claim a little hole in the wall as my own. Here's to hope and dreams!

Hard to go back

2010-03-23T20:33:00.001-07:00

Yesterday was the first day back to school after spring break and it was not easy to go. I found a grade for my sugar rose and the teacher only gave me an 80% for it and said that I need to work on my roses. Had she not shown us how to do it 4 hours before I made it, I wouldnt have cared so much. She is throwing so much down our throats that I am ready to vomit. She doesnt have much care for the fact that we are just learning this stuff and that we need more time to practice. I cant wait for this semester to be over. Chocolate class was a mess. I got so freaking dirty that it looked like someone literally threw chocolate all over the side of me. And, I have absolutely no idea how I got so messy. I just went to the bathroom and saw it in the mirror. And my feet and back were killing me. I was still super sensitive from standing for 3 straight days getting ready for angs wedding. I am super glad thats over. Sugar was better. I managed to burn my pinky pretty bad but I'll certainly live. Erin/Heather came today and made sure everyone knew that she has permanent nerve damage in her hand and that she cant feel anything and that it will take 2 years for her to be fully healed. There was something a little bit off cuz she kept saying that she was so seriously hurt so I kept watching her and she could definitely feel in that hand cuz she burned herself again. Thats what liars get. Even though she was hurt really badly, she doesnt need to over dramatize. Try having a 13 pound tumor scraped off your ovary and taken out through a 12 inch slice in your gut, then come talk to me about what hurts and for how long.
Here are the completed projects for this week. The swan on the far right has crazy eyes cuz I messed him up. I cant stop laughing about how crazy he looks. Anyway, Enjoy!

Todays Adventure

2010-03-09T21:16:00.000-08:00

Class this week was rough, to put it mildly. My chocolate class was a mess. My teacher thoroughly believes in the trial by fire method and I seem to be doing OK in my sugar class but not so much in my chocolate class. I worked for the entire 5 hours on my chocolate structure only to have it crumble at the very last minute. My teacher was totally unfazed by it because it happens to everyone, even professionals, but I was DEVASTATED. We cleaned the kitchen and then left and I tried not to cry the entire way home. It was definitely a day that made me question my chosen career.
Then tonight I was reassured that I am doing the right thing. It was my sugar class. We had 4 hours to make at least 1 rose and some kind of sculpture. It certainly wasn't easy but I was so happy that I was able to get it done. Luckily, we are no longer working as teams in that class because the girl I am teamed up with really struggles and I end up doing all of the work. Me no likey.
There are extremely weird people in my class and I have to tell you about two of them specifically. One of them we will just call T. I have no idea why she decided to take the sugar class because she never does anything in it. Literally. She just boils and burns her sugar the whole class and never makes a project. We don't use normal sugar, it is a special kind called Isomalt, which is extremely expensive, and I am not exaggerating when I say that she wastes at least $45-$50 each class. And, she is heinously oblivious to things. My point coming soon. Then we have Erin. Erin is a 19 year old girl who swims around the teachers colon all day long and feels that she knows everything about everything. I cannot stand this girl. I have on many occasions asked her to not speak to me unless she can remember that she is not my mother. The thing with Erin is that for some reason I ALWAYS call her and refer to her as Heather. I have absolutely no idea. I will even call across the classroom to get her and yell Heather and get frustrated that she doesn't answer until my stupid self realizes that its not her name! Anyway, the point of my story. Erin and T were working at the same table and T burned her sugar and started to pour it into a mold directly on a stainless steel table. If she left it there the sugar that overlapped would have to be scraped for hours to get it off the table and the mold would take forever to cool down. So, Erin-Heather, thinking that she would help this hot mess of a girl, grabbed the mold and started to pull it on to a silpat(silicone mat). T, apparently thinking that Erin-Heather has hands of steel kept pouring the molten lava sugar onto the mold and Erin-Heathers hands giving her 2ND degree burns!!! T, didn't even know what she had done wrong at first. That's how clueless she is. So, I'm watching all of this happen in a 3 second time frame and start to holler for the teacher that Heather has been hurt badly. The teacher had no idea who I was talking about and then I looked like an ass and had to say, again, that I don't know why I call her Heather. Erin ran to a container of ice water and had tears pouring down her face. We ended up calling an ambulance and she had to leave. I cant stand the chick but I was sad that she got hurt so badly. It goes to show how important paying attention and working cleanly is. Anyway, here is the picture of my sculpture. I definitely need more practice but for the first time, its not so bad.

School Adventure Starts

2010-03-02T23:10:00.000-08:00

On January 20th, 2010, I began my new life. After my dad passed away I realized that life is extremely short and that I DID NOT want to work for welfare forever. I wanted to have a life of my own and do something that I really love. So, after a huge amount of prayer I decided to quit my job and go to school full-time. It has been about a month and a half and it has been the hardest most rewarding decision I have ever made. Each class is 5 hours straight, no breaks, and you are on your feet the whole time. For someone of my size, this is hard. Plus, the kitchens are usually around 85-90 degrees and the amount of sweat on everyone at the end of class would make most normal people vomit with disgust. For my cooking classes I am taking Chocolate and Sugar Arts. Here are some pictures of the projects I have done. The first picture is a pirate ship made out of all chocolate and the other pictures are all made of sugar. The flower is made of pulled sugar and the fruit is made of blown sugar.

Can you hate someone you dont know?

2008-12-20T14:31:00.000-08:00

So, I was perusing through other peoples blogs, as many of us do, and I came across one that was beyond any description of the word awful. After reading 3 of her posts and then being ashamed that I read so many I decided that I hated her. She was the cliche "utah mormon" that rambled about the color beige and her robot bishop and it seemed that each post went on for 100 years. Maybe hate is too strong of a word but I can definitely say I loathe her. Would someone kindly explain the desire to ramble on and on about things with the desire to sound like you sold your brain at a garage sale? It makes no sense to me.

Even More Boyfriends!

2008-06-18T17:39:00.000-07:00

After going for a couple of weeks I got some new love letters and I had to share them with you all. This is the picture of my new lover.

To: lilmegmoFrom: chizkennySubject: Hello Angel,------------------------------------------How are you doing? Hope fine. I just saw your profile and deside to let you know some few words in my mind.I have met a lot of people on the internet, but no one like you. I knew from the start that it will hard for you to acept.me but all am tring to do is to specify my self to you You. Am Kenneth Dike, am from Nigeria, I work with Comminication Trend Nigeria Ltd {CTL} I am an engineer, am single not married.You touched my life and wouldn't let go since i saw your profile. You brought unimaginable joy and warmth to my life. I don,t know how you will feel about this but all am tring to say is that You made me feel to love, able to take on the world. I think we were meant to meet and share in each other's lives. I think we were destined to become friends and lovers too., and i will be grateful in whatever that will brought us together. as one.I want to be the first person to greet you on this special day. You may wonder what day I am talking about, but believe me, any day that this letter reaches you will be truly special for me. And you are the reason why.It has been a special day everyday since i saw your profile on single saints here.. You gave me a reason to wake up with a smile on my face on writing to you. as i wake up this morning, I know that I will be joining a world that includes a beautiful person like you. So this day is truly special. I hope that you already know why.I know I have the habit of making surprises. Most persons i know agree that i never run out of surprising events in my life. Sometimes, i myself am surprised about the consequence of my own contrivance.But I hope that you would not count it against me if i keep making surpises. I love to see the joy on the faces of ANGEL like you as a result of little surpises i have made.gifts, special announcements and sometimes naughty jokes are among my tools in this game of surprising people like you. But i would like to try out something different to see if i can make you happy, although i am sure it would make you happy..What is love? Those who don't like it call it responsibility. Those who play with it call it a game. Those who don't have it call it a dream. Those who understand it call it destiny. And me, I can call it you.Am still saying that if love can be avoided by simply closing our eyes, then I wouldn't blink at all for I don't want to let a second pass having fallen out of love with you.I am not tring to waste much of your time while reading my mail ok but rather to let you know where am coming from.I dreamed to love some one like you but i don,t know if you can acept me because you know , i am a black.man, but i promise to love and be honest to you.I will be hoping to hear from you .Take good care of your self.My best regardsKenneth C.D

So I wrote back to him, "How did you get all of that from just a couple of words on my profile?" Just so you all know, my profile has a super old nasty picture of me on it and all it says is something to the effect of, hi, talk to me. It does not say much at all. It definitely doesnt go into detail about me. Anyway, here is his response:

To: lilmegmoFrom: chizkennySubject: Hello Angel,------------------------------------------How are you today? Hope fine..... Thanks for your responds to my mail, am very glad to to hear from you It is always a pleasure to write a letter for someone so wonderful and lovely like you. My problem, however, is the difficulty of picking the best words to describe how you are to me in other wards, and for your responds to my mail , i know its a blessing and an inspiration to me. I know for a fact that other men feel the same towards you and I cannot blame them. But I just want you to know that of all your many admirers, no one can surpass my sincerity. I would like to confess something. For many years, I have been alone. And I am glad for you ok. it is only when I first saw your pictures in your profile that I began to become appreciative of the beauty of life around you. Without knowing it, i began to think of loving you and it taughts me how to become sensitive. In other words, you taught me how to love. I hope that you understand my intention. I would like to become a part of your life because you are already a part of mine.I can fall from a bridge, I can fall from above, but the best way of falling, is falling in love with someone like you Angel. True love is hard to fine, i know but i really want to keep my worries to God, whom is the creator of everything and i know he will leads us through. I promisd to love you with all my heart and promise to be good, faithful and honest to you as long as you give me your heart. I will be hoping to hear from you again Angel. You can have my email id, chizkenny007@yahoo.co.uk and i hope you will send me yours ok Thanks and remain bless, Kenneth .C. D

I cannot believe that from just seeing my picture, this guy started to love me and I taught him how to be sensitive. He promises to love me and be faithful so i think i am going to go for it. His profile says that he is from New York but his email says hes in Africa so I'm not really sure where I will be living but I know that because he saw my picture and I made him sensitive, it will all work out. And, he will never let go.

My New Boyfriends

2008-06-02T21:37:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago I got a random email from an online dating service that I signed up with over 4 years ago and never went back. Well, I got message from some random dude and now the messages dont seem to stop. The problem is that they are mostly foreign and even if they arent, they are a little bit scary. I have chosen to share the following message with you. Please remember that this is an LDS service:
To: lilmegmoFrom: youngbushmanSubject: Hello------------------------------------------Hello Cutie, Wow, incredible profile you are stunning, gorgeous actually. I saw your profile and it caused and unusual impact, I am interested in you. You have such a beautiful profile. Have you found your lover? If you are still searching, I would like to know more about you, what motivates you? What makes your heart leap with passion? Love? Joy? I find your intelligence and beauty very exciting. Your profile drew me in and captivated me. Mine seems so barren compared to yours. I'm looking for a woman who wants to take the time to get to know me through email correspondence and an open sharing of the head and the heart first through email and Chatting online and then negotiating a meeting in person if we both remain interested. I am ready willing and able to venture forth on a journey that will leave the past behind while preserving the best memories and forgiving the ones that were hurtful and usually unintentional. I live life one day, one hour, one moment at a time. I want and need the healing power of love physically emotionally and spiritually. I live as if time were on fire and I believe that every day of the right relationship should be treated like the first day of our honeymoon. I want to share what I have with one special woman who will appreciate that I have a deep capacity to love that needs to be filled and fulfilled. We can't keep it unless we give it away. I am writing these thoughts as the flow into my head and my sense is that they are coming directly from my heart. I'm feeling very peaceful now and this seems like the appropriate place to stop. If for some reason we happen not to be right for each other, I wish you the best in your search. I wish you continued passion and an exciting lover to keep your fires burning. I appreciate and admire your intensity. Hope to hear from you soon. from David Johnson.... you can search me on this very e-mail (shyseggss at yahoo. com)
This next one I got literally 5 minutes ago:
To: lilmegmoFrom: soulmanSubject: Hello Queen------------------------------------------Hello QueenHello,how are you doing? my name is prince from Georgia,male,divorced with two kids.i live in a city named Lagos in Nigeria.I'm an interactive person who is outgoing, and love games.i saw your profile and i had a nice time on it.so i took out a time to let you know how good you are to have such a great profile.i never new there are still people like you on the internet.if you are single or alone,then i guess we are compatible, and if you are married i wish you the best with your husband. Well i just think i should say hello and how was your weekend?.my mailing add is babykaf_201@yahoo.com Dont forget to add your mail add hen replying.Thanks.I hope to hear from you soon.Save.prince..
Who should I choose?? The decision is so hard!

Warning: This is about poo!

2008-05-05T17:59:00.000-07:00

This is just a crazy rant about poo. So, if you dont want to read about poo, don't read this. I work in an office with a million women so when you go to the bathroom there is ALWAYS someone else there. I would like to think everyone currently living in, on, and around this world knows that there is a water shortage. Well, it seems that everytime I go to the bathroom there is someone that feels it necessary, when they are going #2, to flush the toilet everytime they have a "new addition" to the bowl. You may be thinking to yourself, "self, why am I reading this crazy persons blog about poo and saving water? And, self, why does she pay so much attention to others bathroom habits?"

I assure you that I am not some crazy person that sits quietly and listens for this kind of stuff. If you worked with as many women as I do and only had 1 bathroom to share, you would hear it too. Remember, everyone goes poo. Everyone! And those that don't will eventually die because of it. Its ok to poo and wait until you are done to flush the toilet. It would really suck if we ran out of water and found out that we could have lived for hundreds of years more if people would stop flushing every time they had a "new addition".

Pictures of Sleepover

2008-04-23T18:21:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple of pictures from the sleepover with Justino. Him in his jammies getting ready for bed, notice the toy he has. He REFUSED to be without it. And then him with his beloved ice cream.

Crazy Folks

2008-04-15T17:36:00.000-07:00

One of my co-workers told me a funny incident that happened to her in an interview and I thought I would pass it on. First, a little background. It is required for people that want cash assistance through the state that they cooperate with child support. A huge majority of the time, for whatever reason, unknown to me, the women are adamant that they not be forced to tell who the "baby daddy" is. They will make up stupid stories, say they were at a party, were on a bus, etc. Even if you were with 10 guys and all you know is that they were tall and had brown hair, that's what you tell. Anyway, this particular woman said over and over again that she didn't know anything about who the daddy was and after getting extremely aggravated said to my friend, "When you eat three cans of beans, do you know which one makes you fart?"

Now, who can argue with logic like that?

Sleepover!

2008-04-01T17:51:00.000-07:00

In my quest to become the best and most loved Auntie in the history of the world I decided that having sleepovers were an absolute must. Pooka has spent the night countless times and even has her own toy box and bed in my room. Well, Amber and I decided that it would be fun to have Justin spend the night and start that tradition with him. So, Friday after work I went over to pick him up. He was so excited he could barely contain himself. He was running everywhere and showing me everything. After making sure he was safe in his car seat we began the trip to my house. He began his never ending explanation of people he would kill and things that happen with poo, when all of a sudden, while going about 75 on the 215 beltway he opened his car door. He thought it was hilarious and I almost had a heart attack.

After pulling over and composing myself I closed the door, making sure to put on the child lock. I am used to having a 2 year old that cant reach the door handle in my car and was ill prepared for such things. Well, we finally made it home, where Amber and I took him to a special dinner at Red Robin. He got a special drink, a Shirley Temple, and kept telling us how "spicy" it was because of the carbonation but couldn't seem to stop drinking it. After putting a limit on his soda consumption and practically having to tape his head to the table to stop watching the TVs in the restaurant so he would finish his dinner, we decided that we would take him for an ice cream before calling it a night. When we got to McDonald's he told the man behind the counter about 5 times that he needed an ice cream cone. When he finally got the ice cream, he took a moment to look at it before eating it. He wanted to seriously enjoy his special treat. When we got home, he and the car seat were covered in ice cream but he was a thoroughly happy little boy. His first request upon getting home was to finish watching The Little Mermaid, which after baths, prayers, and scriptures we did. He also remembered to bless the movie in his prayer. What a good kid! Well, we finished the movie and he went to bed with me. We read a couple of books and then we both fell asleep almost immediately. A couple of hours later, around 2am, Justin rolled over and woke me up and announced that it was time to get up and that he was done sleeping. He tried to crawl over me to get his Transformers toy but I looked at him and told him that he needed to get comfortable and go back to sleep because it was definitely not time to get up. He requested a drink, which I gave him, and then it was off to sleepy land. The drink ended up being a mistake because he had an accident in the bed, but that was quickly remedied in the morning. So, after a heck of a scare on the freeway and a major pull to get him to finish his dinner, it was a great time for Aunties and nephew alike! There are definitely more sleepovers to come!

State of NV

2008-02-25T21:45:00.000-08:00

I would like to announce that after months, and months of waiting, I finally got a job with the State of Nevada. I am going to be an Eligibility Worker with the Department of Welfare and Supportive Services. This is a major step up for me, because as most of you know, I was working as the Assistant Manager at Catherines, a big girls clothing store, barely making $800 a month. Yippee!

The only possible dilemma that could come from this job is having to work with a bunch of serious crazies. But, I know that, for the most part, the people that come to see me are in serious need. I know I shouldn't judge everyone based on one kind of crazy, but you should hear the stories! Anyway, thanks to everyone for all of their thoughts and prayers!