Culinary School

Ok, I'm having another mid-college crisis. It seems like every 2-3 months or so I have one. You just question your life, what are you doing, your friendships etc. Basically, I review my life and change it for the better (hopefully). Life is good- no complaints. I really have no desire to date right now especially after being reminded by the same person that I really don't like immaturity. Work is being changed for the better. And I still have great desire to go to med school.

Now a speed bump in the road- well not that big of one. I like to make food! It kind of has become a passion. I just threw my first dinner party for some friends, and it was so much fun (well the cooking part at least). It was mostly due to the fact that I had an amazing date that cooked with me for hours, even cleaned up, and was a good sport about the marathon date of 11 hours of hard work! Thanks Laura!

Here's the menu and what I did with it:

Appetizers:

Endive Salad Spears- It was originally a salda made with homemade cheese by Emeril. Well skipped out on making my own cheese and instead I put the salad in endive spears. It was good but definitely needed cheese. Next time I will probably include goat cheese.

Bruschetta with Sauteed Sweet Peppers and Creamy Gorgonzola- This was the only recipe I didn't change at all. It was delicious! It's from Ina Garten who is classy, sophisticated, lives in the Hamptons, and is married to a Yale professor. She's one cool cat. I thought the gorgonzola was going to be a little too strong but it was milder than Bleu cheese. It also added a little saltiness which was complimented well with the sweet bell peppers and crunch of the baguette. I highly recommend this! Oh and for some reason, my bruschetta looked better than the picture :D ha ha.


I was going to make a 3rd appetizer of White Bean dip with roasted garlic. I made an executive decision to scratch it off. But the picture looks nice.


Soup:

Butternut Squash soup with a cilantro cream: Okay easy soup that was earthy, yet light, and a perfect balance on the palate. I cooked this first and the house smelled awesome! My parents then decided I would cook this for Sunday dinner (the dinner party was on Saturday). I added the cilantro cream, which totally helped. It gave the soup a fresh feel and made it look better as well. The second time I made it, it was a lot better I felt. I strained the soup and got rid of some of the grit. The soup was super healthy and felt like you weren't eating much, but it was hearty and even my brothers were full after one bowl.

Main Course:

Chicken Parcels with Sauteed Mushrooms: This is my brain creation! The original recipe was by Rachel Ray, and it included a chicken breast wrapped in puff pastry and filled with fig preserve and fontina cheese. I changed it to be more budget friendly and easier to find the supplies. I changed out the fontina cheese with havarti (awesome!) and the fig preserve with apricot preserve. Portobello and the regular button mushrooms were sauteed and added. Baked and it was so good! Not really as good when they were leftovers but still amazing.


Sauteed Asapargus with garlic and butter: my dad's recipe. Easy and oh so good.

Dessert- was a disaster. But people liked it for some reason. I have to redeem myself.


Perhaps I will document my food tales more often!