Too Much Snow

There was a snow storm that came through yesterday. It snowed part of the night and then all day long. At one point during the day, he accumulation rate was 2" per hour. In the afternoon and on into the evening, we also had some stong winds, which caused drifting of the powdery snow.

This is a picture off the front porch of my apartment building. The apartment manager had shoveled a path to the driveway so we could get out. The walls of snow along the path is up to my waist. My car is buried in the snow and won't be going anywhere for a while.

Meat Fabulous, The Sequel

Meat Fabrication 2 is the class I started this past week. We are building on what we learned in Meat Fab 1 last year...and getting a refresher...but we get to break down more primals (those are the large hunks of "primal cuts" that the carcass is broken down into) into portsions. For instance, we broke down the pig loin primal (pictured here) Thursday into Pork Loin Chops, Baby Back Ribs, Pork Tenderloin Medallions, and a loin roast which we just cut up for making sausage. Yesterday we made three sausage kits, which we will continue working on Monday, one of which (breakfast sausage) used the pork from the loin project. How cool is that!?!?

Wine Dinner

In our Chef's Table class, my group had to create a menu for a Zinfandel dinner. The wines for the 5 courses were chosen by the beverage manager and our chef instructor assigned us a list of proteins, starches and veggies that we had to use. We could add other ingredients, but had to use the ones on the list she gave us. BTW, it was a 5 course dinner. We were responsible for the first 4 courses and the Plated Desserts class was responsible for the 5th course.

We tasted the wines during lecture a week before the dinner and took tasting notes and decided which of the proteins would be the best match for each of the wines. We then met before class the following day and discussed in detail what we would prepare for each dish. At lecture that day, we presented our menu to our chef instructor.

The following week, our dinner was served to a group of 26 people who had made reservations. It was a huge success. We didn't get to taste our dishes with the wines until two days later, but when we did, it confirmed that we had made wise choices when designing the menu. Our chef was very pleased with our menu and we all received an Exceed Standards for this portion of the class. :-)

The photo is of Chef Lynnette helping us plate up the souffle.

Here was our menu:

1st Course:
Game Hen Consomme with Game Hen and Brasied Cabbage Ravioli
Edizione Pennino Zinfandel, 2002, Rutherford, Niebaum-Coppola Estate
2nd Course:
Bayley Hazen Blue Cheese Souffle with Radish Salad
Hendry Block 7 Zinfandel, 2003, Napa Valley
3rd Course:
Monkfish Osso Bucco with Golden Beet Fettuccine, Chestnut Gremolata,
Marrow and Zinfandel Sauce.
Rosenblum, San Francisco Bay Zinfandel, 2003, Carla's Vineyards
Intermezzo:
Raspberry-Zinfandel Sorbet served in a Tuile Cone
4th Course:
Veal Breast Roulade & Grilled Lamb Chop
Roulade stuffed with Veal Sweetbreads and served with Tomato Jam
and Pommes Anna. Lamb served with Cranberry-Cherry Chutney and
Baby Root Vegetables.
Ridge, California Zinfandel Late Picked, 2001, York Creek
5th Course:
Fig & Pinenut Beggars Purse, Poached Fig and Zinfandel Reduction
Rosenblum, Rosie Rabbit, California Late Harvest Zinfandel