Yesterday was the first day of Garde Manger! For those of you who have sent in questions Garde Manger is the art of the "cold kitchen". For example making things like salad dressings, meat and veggie trays, and sooooooo much more. We learned that when kitchens were actually ran brigade style Garde Manger was in charge of making use from the scraps from the rest of the kitchen. Like meat scraps from butchering and turning it into a pate. It was only later that it turned into the cold kitchen.
Well the first day we started off with dressings for salads. Needless to say there were a lot of emulsions to make! We took a trip down to the garden here at SLU and picked lovely herbs and greens to use in the recipes for that day. Dressings made were balsamic vinaigrette, grapefruit vinaigrette, some different variations of a beet vinaigrette, fat free Italian dressing, remoulade sauce, Mayo, and a green goddess dressing! Top it off with edible flowers to make one of the healthiest lunches not from a box I've had in a while. Which is so very sad. But delicious! 

It's been a while... a LOOOONNNNNGGG while since I updated anything! Well Summer has hit and its freed up a lot of spare time! I am currently working and taking Garde Manger. That's it! So I have concocted a Summer to-do/goals list! So here is a little glimpse:

1. Blog regularly! I think this is good for me so I just need to keep it up!
2. Read 10 books for FUN! Coming to college has wrecked my recreational reading habits.
3. Attend Star Clipper's comic book courses! You can find out more about those here.
4. Ride my bike in Forest Park. Well I really want to actually GET my bike up here!
5. Go to some Twilight Tuesday's at the History Museum.
6. See a Play at the Muny and the Fox.
7. Go canoeing. 
8. Collect all the capes from Six Flags St. Louis (I already have the sequined Batman cape)
9. Work on my cook book collection. (Will share more as that project progresses)
10. More St. Louis day trips!

Those are the top ten. If you have any suggestions on things to do in St. Louis this Summer comment or email them to [email protected]! Today we do have a recipe for Salmon lettuce wraps, which were AMAZING.  Also new is the photo galleries. I will be adding a new one so that all of the pictures I had from Baking Class are in a easy to find place! All these things will be up in a few days so keep an eye out!

Hey everyone! I know I haven't written anything for, like, A WEEK. I've been caught up in life to say the least. I'll be trying to catch up on everything the next few days, because I documented everything as well! I have a few new recipes coming to the recipe tab soon, as well as some pictures of the Delmar Loop's Ice Carnival. I am waiting on pictures of the sculptures before I post that though. Today was Thursday, which means : BAKING!!! Today was the first part of our cookies segment. We made Tuile, Madelines, Coconut macaroons, and biscotti! The Tuile as you can see to the left were molded into shapes like the flower and spoon. This cookie gets its name , I'm told, because they originally looked like French style shingles called Tuile. Think of a more rounded pringle shape. These were very delicate cookies, but also very yummy. The Madelines - a cross between a lemon pound cake and a cookie, coconut macaroons, and biscotti were all dipped in chocolate. The biscotti Theresa and I made were pistachio hazelnut. They were soooooooooo good, especially after eating all of the other sweet treats. We did have some snacks other than cookies to nibble on of course! This week Chef Todd let us sample some rosemary olive bread as well as some raisin Rye I believe. We eat the entirety of this class. I also picked up a new lavender herb blend at the indoor farmers market. More on that in another post. So check out the pictures from class today and be on the lookout for multiple posts in a day. Happy cooking!

Today was my first baking class! It was a tasty one too! You have to love cooking/culinary/baking to make it through it though. The lab is from 8:00 am - 3:50pm. It's so worth it though. We ate Tomato focaccia for lunch, just because we could. We made galettes with raspberry and apple filling. The whole class, all 6 of us, were pros. Non of the juice leaked from the flaky exterior. It literally tasted like heaven.  We also made scones. My partner Amy and I made cranberry orange and the other two groups made blueberry and rum raisin. They were the best scones I've ever tasted. Ever. Although I cut mine way too big so we got to bring them home with us. Which really isn't such a tragedy. Being forced to bring home handmade bake goods that is. We also learned the difference between short bread and short dough. Some having to do with different flours in each. I felt like we accomplished so much, and were able to have open dialogue with our instructor to learn as much as we could. I wish we had this lab more than just Thursdays. Cookies are up next week so I'll be sure to snap more photos then. 

So, today was another Bulgar wheat recipe. It didn't go so hot. Ideally this is going to be a crisp, tropical, and refreshing salad. It needs work though. It wasn't completely god awful, but it wasn't my favorite thing ever. So things to improve: 1. more balance of the sweetness and acidity. 2. Scallions... not white onion. 3. Less olive oil-- It wasn't greasy, it just had a very strong flavor. and 4. Larger, firmer, slices of avocado. On the plus side the shrimp on a white wine dill butter sauce was very good! The recipe is in the tab. Once I perfect the Bulgar recipe it will be up here! I don't think it will be to awfully hard to fix. I just have homework tonight! Not enough time for cooking experiments. :/ Tomorrow will be a better day in the dinner department. Aside from that my phone has decided it HATES me. Also, it's a Samsung Galaxy 2. Also the cost $$$$ to get fixed. Even with insurance. Sad face.
Do you have a recipe that you're trying to fix? So close but yet so far? Let me know! Maybe we can help each other.

So today was the first day back to school for the semester. It went smoothly, but I need to talk to my body about waking it up. It doesn't think that it's necessary... In celebration I brushed my hair and put a little product in it.  Thus it looked presentable and people were astonished. Sadly I wasn't surprised. With the start of a new semester the start to my ever changing menu began. Today I treated myself to some crab cakes with a homemade aioli . The recipe is under the menu tab. This crab cake is very loosely packed. I needed a metal ring to really get them in shape, but I did without. My kitchen armory is being slowly built up. The aioli is very simple, much like your basic mayo recipe. The aioli could be used on other things but they'd need to be a sturdier protein. For example, Salmon would be a great partner due to it's ability to hold up to bright acidic flavors. Never made a mayo before? No problem this recipe is super simple and can be done by hand without your arm falling off from whisking! Pairing this with a dry white wine like a Riesling or Chardonnay would taste great. This would also benefit from a lighter side like a dark, green, leafy salad because of the crab cake being fried. Prep time and cooked time combined didn't take me more than 20-2 5 mins.  Totally doable on a tight schedule! I didn't even have anything prepped in advance like usual. Well check the recipe out and let me know what you think! Also new is the contact me form! Let me know if you have any recipe ideas, or any cool places to visit in the city!

This weekend the roomates and I tried to relax as much as possible before Monday.... The first day of school before the semester. To start the weekend off right Brittany and I headed off to the Delmar Loop. This is my favorite place in St. Louis. We started first at the Three Kings, an English pub restaurant. The atmosphere is friendly and inviting. The tunes are always good, and they have a wide range of beer on tap. Above the bar is a painting of King Kong, King Louis, and Elvis. The food there has always been good. I love the burgers, the rosemary chicken sandwich, and the fish and chips. It also serves ginger ale, which is more rare than you'd think. The real reason I love the Three Kings? The calamari! They have my absolute favorite fried calamari in the city! Needless to say this is what I ate for my Entree. Brittany enjoyed the flamethrower. 

Next we visited two of our favorite bookstores. First a small store called Subterranean Books. It's a beautiful little book store that has everything. If it doesn't they'll order it for you. Then it was a quick visit to Star Clipper. Very possibly my favorite store in St. Louis. It sells comic books and nerd gear galore. They always have something going on. They bring in local artists, have comic book signings, and will actually have a artist search for lion force comics  Saturday, January 26, 13-3pm. I've fallen in love with so many good reads here and the staff knows me by name. 

With all that excitement we finished off the night with board games Zombiecide and Mansions of Madness. Our friend Connor loves tabletop games so we always have plenty to choose from. He's going to France this semester and we sent him off after a great night. Every game night in this apartment includes endless pots of tea served out of dainty teacups. How else would you fight zombies? Today we celebrated Brittany's eldest brother Tim's birthday with nachos, cheesecake , and ice cream! Now that the weekend is over tomorrow starts the semester of accounting, statistics, baking and more!

As I've Mentioned before I am extremely busy and don't seem to have enough hours in my day. I am striving to eat healthier food though! It's so easy to slip into the fast food rut when you're rushing off here and there . But eating well is important! This week I conquered two meals at once. As I made a yummy Roasted Tomato and Parsley Salad I prepared Tabouli for the next day. This is the secret. Prepare as much as you can in advance so that when you have those days you are exhausted and the last thing you want to think about is cook, your life can be a little bit easier. These dishes are both vegetarian. Now, I'm not a vegetarian. Lord knows lobster and steak are two of my greatest vices. But I have lots of friends who are, and vegan as well. So don't be surprised to see an overwhelming amount of veggies up here. They're good for you! You should eat more of them! You can find the recipes to both meals in the recipe tab. Let me know how you like them!