Two posts in one day! Who'd a thunk it. WELLLLLLLLL I realized I set out to make this blog not completely food related, so let me tell you about one of my comic book obsessions: Fables by Bill Willingham.
 **Warning may contain vague spoilers**I find it only fitting seeing that my first comic book class is TOMORROW! 
Fables is one of my favorite series. It's a long ongoing story, with twists and turns, lovable characters, and yes, MAGIC! It's about our lovable (and not so lovable) fairy tale/folk lore characters living in our world. New York to be exact. They come over to our world after being run out of their own. The story chronicles characters such as the Big Bad Wolf, Snow White, King Cole, Pinocchio, Boy Blue, and so many more. Because I'm not a writer or a critic let me share with you a broad blurp from Vertigo's cite, giving you a quick overview of the series:

"Fables chronicles the world’s most beloved fairy tale characters hiding out in a magically hidden neighborhood within Manhattan. Run out of their happily-ever-after homeworlds by a mighty conqueror known only as The Adversary, these universally recognized princes, princesses, talking animals, heroes, and villains now face a new challenge: adapting to a modern world filled with sex, violence, and lots of moral ambiguity."


I own 15 of the bound volumes and I'm not even caught up yet. There are a few spin-offs including JACK OF FABLES! He is Jack the nimble, Jack frost, Jack the giant killer, and many other Jacks you've heard of. He gets himself into trouble everywhere he goes, and although he may be obnoxious in person, he is one of the most fun characters to read about. SO I AM! I just finished with his escapades in in Las Vegas where he runs into Lady Luck and learns first hand how the city can bring you up and then crashing right back down. I've started the next installment called "The Bad Prince" and so far all I know is that he has some dealings with Excalibur and some chest pains. ;)  This story is a saga and can't even be put into words how much I love it! So be sure to check it out from your local comic book store. (That's Star Clipper for me!)


Okay so there you have it a peek at what I'm reading. 
Some of the new baking photos are up!
And don't forget to check out the grapefruit vinaigrette! 

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!

These next few weeks are going to incredibly busy.  If you are in the Saint Louis area you should stop by SLU Friday or Saturday night to watch the SLU Monologues! They are real stories from students, staff, alumni, and faculty of SLU performed by SLU students, staff, alumni, and faculty  that tell stories about identity. Needless to say they will be awesome. I've been working on them with my fellow core team members and actors for some time now and we are really excited about this year's show. The flyer is attached in the post. Soon Vagina Monologues will be here as well. Next week my office is holding Celebrate Generosity week at SLU which will only make things more hectic. With everything going on I have near to no time to cook. But cook I must for sustenance! The other night I made a great roasted cauliflower dish with lots of caramelized onions (YUM!) and last night we whipped up potatoes and brats. Tonight I am roasting radishes so be on a lookout for recipes! Many people ask me how I find time to cook between 2 jobs, Una, school, studying, and the rest of life. Well it's like this:

 1. I love cooking and I need it in my life not to kill people.
 2. I take advantage of bulk grains and my rice cooker. We eat a lot of rice and quinoa.
3. Freezing veggies! (Blanching and shocking helps cook veggies faster!) 
4. Some simple planning goes a long way. I make  sure I know what I have on hand so that I can throw something together fast! Prepping things on the weekends also makes life a lot easier during the week. You can also avoid fast food this way. Plan on being stressed during the week and act accordingly (Even if the week isn't going to be... Just so their's no surprises.)
5. Shop and stock yourself so that the item is useful for multiple meals.
6. Wing it.

What are some ways you keep yourself going? Let me know and you can see your tips here!

I love to buy fresh produce. The only problem is that I don't get through it in enough time to actually use it all before it goes bad. So you have 4 options. 1. Use it like crazy. If you are resourceful enough to use those ingredients in several dishes, more power to you! 2. Can it. I don't have the time, nor have I ever done this by myself. With canning you need to be really careful. You can kill someone if you don't do it right. You have to kill the bacteria! 3. Freeze them! But you have to do it right! 5. End up wasting your vegetation. 
So I opt to freeze my vegetables. I don't plan well enough to get through the vegetation like I should. When you freeze vegetables you can't just pop them into the freezer. You have to Blanch and Shock. This is super easy! You just  slightly cook the prepped vegetables in boiling water, no more than a minute or two, until slightly tender then put them into an ice bath to stop the cooking. When you boil the vegetables their colors are so bright and brilliant  Blanching and shocking the vegetables help to keep the dignity of the colors and composition of the vegetables. Without doing this they'll be mush, dull, and not awesome. When freezing you can freeze them on a cookie sheet or sheet pan so that when you transfer them into a bag they don't clump! Now I have wonderful vegetables that I can pop into the oven and have dinner in minutes! Tomorrow night I will have to get the potatoes done before the go bad. I know I've been gone for a while so be sure to check the recipe page for new additions!

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. 

Today was my night class. I have been up and at it since 6am this morning and did not return home till 9:30pm. So no recipe unfortunately. Hopefully next week I'll be more prepared! However, I do have something to share with the few of you readers out there. It's about salt. Not just any salt mind you, but my favorite gourmet salt. The company Beautiful Briny Sea, which only has it's Facebook to  my knowledge, makes these beautiful, hand made, sustainable herb and sea salt blends. My favorite is the Magic Unicorn salt. Why is it called magic unicorn? Because the magic is it goes on anything. I put it on everything too. The salt is blended with smoked paprika, lemon, garlic, rosemary, celery seed, and of course the sea salt. It is marvelous.  It's my favorite thing to put on pork roast in fact. They have tons of other flavors including mushroom salt, truffle salt, Santa salt, lavender salt, Black lava, and so many more. They come in 4oz. tins and can start anywhere from $8 a tin. This is WELL worth the investment though. You are paying for quality! You can catch them on sale at fab.com sometimes, but the easiest way to get your mitts on some is by emailing them at: [email protected]. The organization is hip, cool, and very passionate. Love is put in every order. So check them out! Have any of your own foodie secrets? Let me know!

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!