I recently met a new friend, Emily. We are both adventurous eaters, so when I came across a Russian restaurant, Russian Banya, and didn’t think I had ever eaten at Russian restaurant before, I asked her if she wanted to try it out.
Life recently decided it was not only going to get in the way but completely derail all my plans and I realized there was nothing left to do. I had to scale back.
So when we were having a friend stay with us, I had a sudden thought. What if we had a fondue party? Long story short: I am a genius.
First of all, chickpeas have actually been garbanzo beans this entire time! It’s true!
Who’s to say the answer could only be gleaned from a formal setting? At this point, I think it’s time for me to try this on my own. I can go at my own pace and focus on what interests me. I can also dig deeper into the skills that I struggle with and really discover what gaps I have in my culinary knowledge.
The good news is that I definitely did learn a lot in my time there. Even though it ended unpleasantly, it was enjoyable to be back in a classroom again. Learning is great. Just… Not all the time.
You know when things aren’t going well but you’re so determined to ignore it, by the time you actually deal with it you’re well past “not going well” and fully planted into “I am having a mental breakdown right now” territory?
When I swapped the AAS degrees for certificates, I knew it would be a big change. But get this, if my classes goes according to the schedule above, I will be able to walk in the May 2026 graduation ceremony (!!).
Despite the deck being stacked against me, I decided that it was worth a try if I could solve this problem. Also, it would be nice to keep a plant alive for the first time in my entire life. Just one. I’m not asking for much. I hope…
This is the top shelf of our garage fridge where showing the traditional pickles, pickled peppers, and pickled green beans. When I say idle hands are the devil’s workshop, no one seems to believe me. Then I do shit like this…
So, I don’t even like pickles. The texture freaks me out and I’m not crazy about vinegar tastes. But one day at meal prep, T asked me if I could make her some pickles and I thought, why not? How hard could it be?
I might be extremely late to the game on this one, but I don’t care. Everyone needs to know about this. Because if you are also late to the game, you deserve to have your life changed as well.
I ended up deciding to try making my first dressing out of pure laziness. I needed honey mustard and I didn’t want to go to the store. I was not prepared for how easy it was or how amazing it tasted.
When I first had the idea to go to culinary school, I knew I wanted to earn the Associates of Applied Science in Culinary Arts degree. Unfortunately, as I got more familiar with the degree programs and all of the requirements, I became acutely aware that this might not be the best idea after all.
My 8-week class Safety and Sanitization has wrapped and I emailed my instructor to thank her and tell her how much I learned. She said she enjoyed having me as a student and asked me if she could use my final paper as a sample paper for future classes! I was honored and shocked and delighted all at the same time
Finally, I knew I had no excuses left. I got my supplies out and I sharpened all the knives. It was actually a lot faster and easier than I thought it was going to be.
So yes, Safety and Sanitation is in the bag. Now I can focus on Basic Food Prep for the rest of the semester.
I regret to inform you that my science experiment didn’t go to plan. At all.
But it got me thinking about how I spent real time worrying before I started classes about if I would be able to keep up with classes. If I would be simply “too old.” If the younger students would have some huge advantage over me.
My final project for Safety and Sanitation class is a science experiment. I love science! Even if most of it goes over my head. But I was happy to find an experiment I could understand and order some petri dishes off Amazon that were clearly intended for grade school students. The experiment is simple: I…
