a taste of danger

While there was a taste of danger involved, no fingers were lost on the first day of my culinary classes. I know some of you are a bit concerned about my excessive handling of a very sharp knife - rightfully so based on my first day in class and sometimes general clumsiness. But I'm happy to report that I can still count to ten with my fingers.

We received an overload of information on Saturday and I'm still trying to process it all. The culinary world is similar to the pastry world, yet also very different. The exact measuring of ingredients goes out the door and suddenly recipes are just guides. Cooking is more about knowing how flavors work together and using the best ingredients available to make the natural flavor of the products shine. We learned how to slice and dice potatoes, onions (tears were falling) and lots of fruit - including mangos, pineapple, apples and citrus fruits. And I'm happy to say that the knife and I are becoming friends again, although it hasn't totally won back my trust yet. I don't think I'll get stabbed in the back, but the hand is another story.

We made acorn squash, sautéed snow peas, braised peas a la francaise and whipped up some hummus. Everything was delish, but unfortunately I don't have pictures to prove it. I do, however, have pictures of the lovely picnic that Greg and I shared for dinner that evening.

And also the scrumptious brunch that I whipped up on Sunday. These potatoes faced the wrath of my knife and were transformed into fairly symmetrical hash browns. I think I can julienne myself an A on our practical next week if I turn these babies out again.

In closing, I'd like to share my favorite Chef quote of the day. I really took this to heart because of my on-again off-again relationship with my knife. Chef was demonstrating fruit slicing and pointing out how important it is to slice off one side of the fruit first so that you have a flat side to lay the fruit on before you continue slicing and have the whole thing rolling around the table. Then he picked up a huge watermelon and said, "When you see things like this, you should think danger." Well said. Welcome to the danger zone. I'm your host, Kenny Loggins.