Double Date!!

Last night was a night for double dates and hamburgers! 

After work, I went home to prep the hamburger buns. Once again, the smell of yeast filled the room as I combined the flour with the warm milk and yeast. I really think I am in love with making bread. 

All-in-all, the process was fine... however, the end product I think had too much flour and was over mixed, making for a very dense buns. Production pictures are below :-)

Pre-rise, before I let it rise for 20 min:

Post-rise:

The finished product:

I didn't take a picture of the finished product with the meat in the middle!! Kicked myself in the face for that one. But seriously, it was absolutely amazing! Regardless of the demon-possessed grill trying to turn our patties into charcoal bricks...

Of course, we HAD to grill up some corn on the cob and then we HAD to coat it with butter and sprinkle it with salt. 

The burger, paired with the corn on the cob, the glass of wine (I can't remember the name... but it's the only red really I have liked), and the great company made for an amazing night! 

Oh, I managed to organize my cooking books (-ish). Check it out! Notice that my fiance's computer books only take up a third of one shelf and my culinary/hospitality books take up one whole shelf, and bleed on to the next:

Good night all! Sleep well :-) 

PS- Casey tried the green beans, and I quote, "Ew, those taste like crap!" Told ya babe! 

Interesting Night...

Last night, August 19th, I came home from work and decided to cook dinner for Girl's Night. The menu? Parmesan chicken, steamed snap peas, and homemade rolls. Let's just say only ONE of those items actually made it to the plates. 

Here's a snapshot of the kitchen I am working out of. It isn't exactly commercial-grade, but as a soon-to-be married woman I am not complaining. 

I started off with my rolls, I knew it was going to be about 2 hours total for them just to rise. Let me just say here, I don't think there is a more amazing smell than yeast softening up in warm milk. It is close to heavenly! I got my chicken set up and turns out the 4-pack of boneless, skinless chicken breasts actually had 6 very large boneless, skinless chicken breasts! So I halved them and reserved four of the halves for the parmesan chicken. Then, cut the rest for stir-fry, but I will have to get more into that later. 

Long story short, my chicken decided to cook to at least 180 degrees internally. I say "at least" because after I pulled them out and they cooled for a few seconds, that was the read I got. Oops! 

Massive fail!

So, turns out my prep for tomorrow's lunch - stir fry - paid off! I marinated the strips in raspberry walnut vinaigrette and prepped the saute pan. [BTW, if you find your tea pot to be steaming because the oven beneath your stove-top is 400 degrees... don't pick it up to look inside. There is a 90% chance it is boiling and that you will pour it on yourself. Lesson learned.] It turned out beautifully and my entire apartment was FILLED with the scent of raspberry, chicken, and bread yeast. Yum! I boiled up some rice and put that beneath the chicken in a large ramekin to keep warm.

*my computer died at this point in my post... so I will attempt to keep my comparisons just as wonderful as the initial write-up*

Let's see... where was I. Ah, yes. Green beans. Disgusting, nasty, horrible... they tasted more rancid than a cocktail of stagnant creek water and urine. My fiance thinks I was overreacting, I will just make sure I am present when he tastes them, as he asked me to save them for him in the fridge, so I can be entertained by the inevitable facial expression. I decided to serve cucumbers coated in extra-virgin olive oil, red-wine vinegar, and a little salt & pepper. 

By the time I had cleaned up all the previous messes, it was time to unveil my swelling bread dough and portion it out into heavenly rolls. I said earlier there was nothing more amazing than yeast in warm milk? Well, I was wrong. I then painted each dough mound with hot, melted butter and THAT my friends is the most amazing smell in the world! After a short time in the oven, they were done. And they were perfect! 

In order to ensure perfection, I once again painted each beautiful roll with melted butter. They melted in my mouth.

So to conclude, the original menu of parmesan chicken sided with green beans and rolls quickly changed to raspberry chicken over rice with a side of cucumbers and fresh rolls. Not a bad change, it all tasted very fresh and clean. 

Good day! Time for me to head to work. Nanny by day, foodie by night. Gotta love it! 

My Inspiration

I am sure, since the day after Julie & Julia, the use and/creation of blogs has shot through the roof. I wish I could say I am not one of the many followers inspired by the movie to start a blog, or atleast to create another one devoted to food. Alas, that is the very reason I have decided to start this. However, I do not have a goal in mind and my intentions are purely to hone my cooking skills. 

I am a culinary student, going through culinary/cooking school who doesn't really like to cook. Odd? Yes, I realize this. My passion is to bake. I absolutely LOVE baking! It comes so naturally to me. When I set out on an endeavor to cook, especially if there is raw meat involved, it never really seems to end up like the picture I create in my head. Kind of like me writing sentences, they always seem more poetic upstairs than when they are penciled out. 

In 10 days I will change my last name and become an old married woman -> a house wife. With this comes the responsibility to create menus, stick to the menus, and create edible meals for the both of us. I decided to use this as an opportunity to grow and develop my cooking skills. 

Today was the first day of many to come, and I wanted a place to jot down what I learned and hopefully figure out how to post pictures. This is where blogger.com comes in handy :-) 

I am logging off now, but just as a teaser tonight's dinner consisted of: parmesan chicken, green beans, and homemade rolls... or, atleast that was my intent. It didn't exactly work out like I had planned.