I can say in my experience as an adult, far removed from immature teen and young adult attitudes, that when you have your career path honed in, you can’t settle for anything. You have to drop the things or people that aren’t helping you. Like Toxic waste there will be jealous people trying to get what you have. I guess a luxury of life experience, ups and downs, is that you can see through fake people at my age the best part is you don’t have to be friends with people like that.

While I know I won’t see a lot of the fun classmates I have met over this summer, I hope to see most of them for at least one semester. I am hoping with the help of a new vice president that I love, we will have the hospitality club well on its way back to glory and pull one good year out before the college tries to get rid of cooking classes. I made my first connection as president with the head of  Student Life, the people we have to go through when we want to sell food, and this guy is great. There was a HUGE mix up and we almost couldn’t cook but things worked out and we were able to sell our goods this week. Now this guy was so cool about everything and before we even brought food over he was asking me if the club would be interested in helping with a local festival coming, we’d be parking cars and making money for the club for 4 hrs worth of work. AND he said he wants me to email him because they want to book us to sell food at the Basketball games!

So while I thought I wouldn’t be in he kitchen this summer and get withdrawals, I think not only will I be there helping a ton (its not a job its all volunteer) I will gain so much experience, it sounds like an amazing adventure and I am glad I finally took that step. In the meantime I think we may plan a trip to Chicago, we need to decide quick though, as in, by Monday, which is also the date of the last culinary event. I’m helping out being a server for that and students in the culinary artistry class will be cooking. I’ve had the pleasure of tasting some of their menu and its all tasty. I hope to have lots of photos!

1. Community colleges are so basic. Its the place where kids on financial aid got to get the core classes before heading to a real college. You know what a real college looks like, they have dining halls and dorms and take up half a city. I appreciate that the price is sort of low for me but in my field, if they don’t approve the proposal to build a new facility and get accreditation, I can never get a culinary degree there.

2. The idiots in your high school that acted like idiots there senior year have not bucked the trend, and they act like idiots in college too. I mean is there really a reason to shout all the way down the hall and laugh as loud as possible? I realize I am an “older” adult but come on, college freshman are usually 18 and that is legally an adult. TRY AND ACT LIKE ONE!

3. Advantage goes to the older folk – because honestly, for myself personally, I don’t give a crap what classmates think of me and I am not trying to “fit in” nor am I trying to catch a man. I am not a person to judge appearance but WHY do I have to have an image burned in my retinas of a clueless 19 year old girl wearing 5 inch stilettos with leggings and a sparkly shirt and she can barely walk. Of course I don’t say anything to her because when she realizes that wearing silly clothes in 30 degree weather isn’t a good idea, chances are she’ll be laid up from busting her ankles. community college is NOT a night club.

4. Flirting..it happens. I am married, not dead, and smart enough to have boundaries. HOWEVER young people(guys) sometimes don’t realize that its not okay to just come up behind a girl and talk about her ass when she can hear you.  Ok to clarify, I appreciate that you noticed my behind looks good in my Levi’s and you may assume I am in my 20′s. Thanks for that, it makes a girl feel good to be noticed for being hot. BUT its not so cool when you look at someone’s ASSests and don’t even TRY to spark a conversation or say hello, you are acting a fool, like a teenager, and this HOT girl isn’t feeling it.

5. There is a very strange phenomena with the different age groups, both between students and between students and teachers. There are the usual groups of young kids that cluster. Then you have people like me, usually one or two in my age bracket and no I don’t hang out with people in classes. Then you have the over 50 crowd and strangely they flock together. For me? Nobody ever guesses that I am in my thirties so the mid twenties people interact with me and so do the teachers. The strangest dynamic happens in the culinary program. There’s a lot of us cooking there all different ages. I am in the clubs though and usually behind the scenes. But my chef is about ten years older than me, and the student that I talk to the most is ten years younger than me. Her worries and concerns in life are NOTHING the same as mine, so for me I mesh better with chef. Mostly because we have a ton in common but also because I am married to a guy that is nearly 40 himself.

6. Time. This is a big one. I thought I had tons of it but I was very wrong. Its all by choice though, I chose to be a blogger and a student and a mom. I chose to volunteer to be on the boards for the clubs, which admittedly take a lot of time but I get to LEARN for my career so I enjoy it. But I will say if you have three kids and a spouse, and you try to throw blogging and culinary stuff in there you are probably going to fight. Let’s be honest, I have 4 people at home pulling for my attention and then I have classes but I have the club and have 2 or 3 more people fighting for my attention too. I am spread thin. I get stressed. I get through it.

My advice? Be absolutely positive what you want to go to college to do and absolutely work out a plan on paper. Your planner is your best friend. If you are lucky you will get an instructor (or chef if you go to culinary school!) who you really click with and they are passionate about the stuff you are studying and will be there for you to help you muddle your way through. Its a tough world out there when you are fighting these teens and 20 year olds you are sitting next to in class for jobs. But stay confident, don’t be intimidated and show those young kids that your life experience is better than being young!

I can say there are two things I realized as soon as I stepped foot in the institute. The facilities are amazing, state of the art. They have seperate kitchens on separate floors, one for culinary and one for baking. The culinary kitchen itself is AMAZING its got two full restaurant size cooking areas complete with grills and everything. Shiny, stainless steel, it was just amazing.

The other thing I realized is that when chef Ian showed up a smidge after 8 am. The man is absolutely passionate and excited to be an educator and have the opportunity to do that in an ADEQUATE kitchen.

Aside from him having to chug coffee the guy was just super excited to be there and since another chef called in absent he just happened to be called in to certify NEW chefs and he did that. I went to grab my camera from the car and when I was there I decided to wear my white chef coat and in doing so I was allowed to get inside the kitchen! I went to the back and talked to some people there and learned about how awesome the institute is. I looked up to see chef Ian concentrating on his duties which was fascinating.  He’s a cool as a cucumber guy but when it comes to this responsibility, he takes it very seriously.

Also when I was back there I saw so much to be in awe of. I saw what could happen if we are granted the pleasure of having our own institute.

Its so sobering to know that yes people pay a lot more money than me to learn in a kitchen like that but for me its not the money its the ability to have the choice. I don’t right now because I can’t drive 2 hours one way to classes in other cities. I need the instructors I have and in the city I am at now.

So back to the competition we saw some amazing stuff. We witnessed two girls be certified as brand new pastry chefs! This girl is one of them!

A Sacher torte, didn’t ever think I would see one of these outside of the time when we made ours in class!

Turkish wedding cake, this was neat!

I spent quite a bit of time in that bakery section. The area with the cake in the photo above is in a room about the size of the kitchen we cook in right now and it was JUST for cake decorating. A room JUST for that. I couldn’t believe it! It also had a sugar sculpture and chocolate one, the chocolate was actually done by a professional, the sugar by a student.

Beautiful stuff!

It was getting near lunch but we had some time to check out the food competition. We didn’t know that nearly all of the competitions were being held that day, the previous schedule said cooking would be sunday so we missed quite a bit. We did see some hot foods

Those plates were actually better than the plates we saw on the first day. What I REALLLLLY loved seeing and I am thinking about doing instead of the 5 course is COLD PLATTERS. Just look how COOL this is:

We left and decided to go to the Hofbräuhaus in Newport Kentucky, chef Ian said it was the coolest place that has german food and house made beer and people dance on the tables. I was ok with that I was ready to hang out and chill!

We could have left after I had my drinks and Apple Strudel but I went there because Ian said they had the best PORK so I wanted to stay put. They didn’t serve that pork until 5 Pm so we had to wait quite a while. Not to worry though there were little appetizers and beer. Before then I wasn’t a beer girl but I am pretty sure that place turned me into one. If you ever go there try the Dunkel!

Ok here is that platter Ian waited ALLLLLL afternoon for! And he was so nice he share it with us

Oktoberfest Schweinshaxe

(Slow Roasted Pork Shank with Crackling, Sauerkraut, and Potato Dumpling.)

UH-MAZING. Not cheap either that one was $24.99 but I argue it was not only worth every penny but tasted very good with the beer. After this we walked across the bridge and into Cincinnati where they were packing up activities for the day. It was cold and windy anyway. We had some really amazing conversations both during lunch/dinner and also during the walk. The school and moreover hanging at the Hofbräuhaus were my favorite part of the trip. I learned quite a lot!

We spent the night in Cincinnati and while I am not THAT old I can say clubs aren’t my style. Young single people and loud music and dancing, not my thing. I prefer a quieter establishment with live music but where you can hear a conversation and I prefer hanging out with older people I think. Still I had a good time, lots of laughs, and I miss Cincy already.

I think what I am taking away from this trip, though it was brief, is that there is a whole different world in food. I knew when I signed up that I wouldn’ t be learning how to become a better home cook. I knew I would be in this with a goal of going far because I have an instructor that will never be happy with the status quo of teaching basics and never anything new. I do think I have a future in competitions for a while anyway. I would love to plan another trip soon with the club. I had a wonderful time! And i am glad that I spent some time in Newport on Sunday as well because I got to see the aquarium before we left for Michigan. I can’t wait to go back!

Ok so I don’t even have 15 seconds of fame but probably ten. Today I attended a meeting at college that was an open forum for students and faculty to ask questions to clear the air about the program cuts. The reporter made a bee line for me as I was leaving the meeting and asked me for an interview and without hesitation I said yes though I am usually never ever the one to be in a spot of attention. Apparently the story i told when i asked my question struck a chord with her and she wanted to learn more. As you know I have been a dedicated supporter to save my program, which specifically is the CULINARY sector of the Hospitality Program. The main thing is that the program across the board makes plenty of money and never has low enrollment. We just need a new kitchen and accreditation. I can say that a college educated person should be asking people that work in the industry, how they can build a kitchen and not go broke. That means when you get information, it should come from someone in the program that GOES SHOPPING FOR REAL ESTATE AND EQUIPMENT. I mean its common sense to ask for an itemized list to prove it can be done. And I know it can.

My biggest beef? I can’t go to a different college because being a lower income family we only have one car and my husband also attends the same college as I do. His program is in no danger of being cut. And I refuse to go anywhere that doesn’t have my current instructors. You can have a 10 million dollar facility but without really good instructors the money spent is wasted. And I can’t afford the 30-40k a year tuition for a higher institution.

Community colleges are supposed to be for the community and help vocational programs. The aim is to get people working. How is that possible when the only other college near is a 4 year university and they don’t have a culinary program. So really the only solution is a new kitchen and continued classes. Of course there are more politics behind what I am saying that I won’t bore you with right now but as someone who is shy I have really stepped into an avocational role for my program, because its my heart and soul.

And oh yeah, the reason they turned the camera back on me at the end when they said some are willing to pay more to keep the program? I told them that, the reporter asked how one could keep the program and be fiscally responsible, I said I would be willing to pay a little more, because the program and instructors are worth it.

Last night we finalized our menus, I am competing in 5 course. Its strange because the rules changed and they took out the dessert and instead have 2 appetizers. Seems really strange though, not to have a dessert course. I will reserve my menu for privacy purposes until closer to the competition, because while everyone can get a gold I don’t want to help the competition. I will say my main course is pork

I am so excited for the competition. It’s in Cincinnati, and I think we may plan to stay a couple days because chef says there is a fantastic place in Kentucky we have to check out. In the meantime WE NEED MORE FUNDRAISERS. Our plan? TRUFFLES. They sell like hot cakes and I think its a fantastic idea and we need to get started right away.

I brought cookies to the meeting last night and cooked dinner for the guys. Yeah I was the only girl that showed. I am cool with that. I am reliable and show up, that’s a good sign!

I kind of wanted to volunteer to make the Takoyaki for this class and so I did! We didn’t have any octopus so i had to use squid, and also used shrimp and corn. This is what they look like when they are cooked:

The other food I tried last semester was called Okonomiyaki. This is a pancake type presentation that has shrimp, pork, snow peas, cabbage, is cooked on a griddle and covered with Okonomiyaki sauce, green onions and benito flakes. For our class, my classmate Melissa made it. That sauce is chefs special recipe and its AMAZING. This was a BIG favorite in the class, the girl that made it did VERY well. My husband loved it.

Other foods that were made:

Stir Fry – This was SO good.

Tuna – Sashimi because its raw, but it was seared on the edges. I didn’t try this.

Last but not least, SUSHI! I never tried it before tonight and man I was missing out this stuff is GOOD. I still wasn’t brave enough to try it with the EEL in it but hubby did, he liked it!

Man this was so good and soo needed after not being able to eat much or sleep that last couple days because of the problems at college. Such a nice reward! Next week there isn’t classes because its Spring Break but I have to go in Sunday, we start practice for competition next month in Cincinnati. I will be competing in 5 course meal. And lucky for me because I am a member of the American Culinary Federation, the competition will earn me points towards my chef certification after graduation!

So here I sit today sort of melancholy sort of depressed most of the day today. On one hand the decision has not been made final and I am happy to report news outlets want to talk to us about this. And I believe in chef Ian too, he is the reason, he ignited the spark for me and told me not to worry, I will graduate. I know he will fight as hard as he can. I know the other chef instructors will fight too because they LOVE WHAT THEY DO. I even had a professor from last semester, my anatomy prof, come and shake my hand and tell me I did a wonderful job. He is passionate about his hatred for the way they treat the staff and students at the college. He realizes there are students that are extremely eager to learn and are passionate, just as there are teachers who want to teach but the politics have hands tied on both sides!

I don’t know the fate of the program but for today i know I did my part to support. I spoke from my heart. I thought of things I should have added more comments after the fact but I am proud I stood up with my classmates and a couple instructors to voice my feelings. My path was laid before me and when i questioned it, my chef believed in me, said age is no factor, and made me believe that I could become a chef. I still can, and I will, but the path went from easy and fun to complicated and iffy for the time being. My program pretty much could use a miracle. Even though we bring in $500k a year for the college and fill all seats and have waiting lists, we cook the food that those board of trustees members eat at their banquets, they want to cut the cooking. They say we don’t have culinary degrees. Um, would you like to know why? BECAUSE THEY TURN DOWN PROPOSALS OF ALL KINDS TO EVER IMPROVE THE CULINARY ASPECT OF THE HOSPITALITY PROGRAM. They can’t cut us because of money or numbers we are way up there for money making. They say they can’t afford to build us a better kitchen. Okay fine, FOR NOW LET US STAY, and then realize WE NEED TO BE RUNNING A RESTAURANT ON CAMPUS, as in, move the food service company out of the building into another one and LET US TAKE OVER THE COMMERCIAL KITCHEN.

Okay I m getting fired up again but its all just so stupid. The answers are right there and they are playing a game of cards with my future and its making me mad. I just wish some celebrity chefs or someone would catch wind of this travesty and just build me and my instructors and classmates a new state of the art kitchen and find us a grant to start a degree program. I don’t much like having to go to a community college as it is but its the only program near me that is worth anything. And I love my instructors. We all deserve BETTER.

***UPDATE***

Chef Ian met with the Provost today and he had good news. Firstly he had told me what happened after I had to leave the meeting, it turns out that the meeting people were throwing out information and figures that were completely ignorant, so chef meeting with the Provost (highest seat in the whole college) was a good move because he actually had the right information for them, complete with telling them we can get an accredited certified kitchen for a measly 60k. He told me that the decision to close was taken out of the administrators hands (GOOD) and given to the trustees, and the reason THAT happened is because I stood up there with a few students and faculty and pleaded with them. He says its because of me and the other students. They needed to hear from us. SO there is hope. He also said that if they say we can’t have the kitchen that he will find a place off campus that the college will lease so we can learn. Decision is not final until mid april on anything but I believe chef now when he says I WILL graduate.

I think the best thing, considering my youngest is only 2, is if I can secure a paid internship in Paris, France and move my family there for a year. I figure my oldest will probably be near college age anyway. That would be a good dream to start. I would love to travel all over with my family and they would see different cultures and get out of this box we call home. And I can learn from some amazing chefs while I am at it. I am only 33 years old its not to late for me to become something amazing. I have the best teacher right now, but I can’t stay in college forever to work with him. I feel that I will need to move away from home to get more experience. I just wish it was cheaper to do with a family!

So without further ado I am bringing you a complete dinner!

The Menu-

• Stuffed Tomatoes Chinoise
• Cornish Hen Baked with Prosciutto and Herbs
• Blanched Baby Vegetables
• Mashed Fingerling Potatoes
• Sauce Villageoise- a sauce with exotic mushrooms, onion, white wine, and heavy cream. We use Tree Ear Mushrooms!

It was all so delicious. I am posting the tomato recipe for sure and will post the other recipes if anyone wants to know. I really wish I had taken video of chef taking the bones out of the hen!

Tomorrow is going to be grand.. its SHELLFISH day!! I am so excited!

Ah, a rare glimpse into my life for the next 8 weeks! This was me, last night, about 30 minutes after class ended. I am the only person in this class that actually had a class with chef Ian before so you can imagine the torment he put me through. Ok that is a lie, more on this later.

I started back at college this week and my first class was basic Food production, a 5 hour cooking class, twice a week with one day of 2 hours extra lecture time. That means on Mondays I am with food for 7 hours. Sweet. Okay so this semester I am taking the above mentioned cooking class, Intro to Hospitality, Intro to Office and Internet Basics. A few things to note:

Intro to Office is an online course. GINORMOUS book, seems to be smooth so far just saying hello and reading, Word is our first chapter. This is not a filler its required for my degree so there you have it. Hubby is actually jealous because he says he NEEDS this class. I don’t NEEEEED it as much since I use word, excel, and power point it seems at least once a semester.

Intro to Hospitality. A lot of people have asked me why I am not majoring in Culinary Arts. Well at this college, you don’t graduate and then you are a chef, it doesn’t work that way. You have to get your business degree because what good is a chef who can’t run a Restaurant? So as part of it, Hospitality encompasses all service jobs, hotel , food, lodging and entertainment. Food Service (aka. as Culinary) is just one part of the whole and they are ALL connected. Examples? Disney World, Las Vegas. These resorts have many MANY different hospitality sectors all in one place all in the business to give you, the customer, a good time. They all communicate together, thus knowing how each job works and learning about them is key. I have at least 4 classmates in my current cooking class that are required to take it to graduate though they want to work on the hotel side.  This class has a LOT of work for an online class, 3 chapters and 3 assignments including not just posting responses to others but SIGNIFICANT answers, 4 or more sentences. I admit though the material is interesting to read.

Internet Basics : Not much to say about this one its mostly a filler class because I needed to take 12 credits. This class is just 2 hours and we had the first class today. I almost died. My husband who rocks my world is taking the class too so we are sitting next to each other. Highlight of the class? The sub teacher pointed out that I am smart to have a pink thumb drive because blacks ones get lost easy. I know in my heart this will be the class that me and hubby are helping the ones that are struggling because we both know the internet very well. Its good to help people, yo.

Basic Food production : My Jewel. My Love, My smother it in butter luvin’ favorite. As I said before its my cooking class. I am the only one that took a class with chef Ian so therefore I am his “favorite” I really am his favorite though. He picks me to answer stuff and asks me stuff only because I am the only one he recognizes haha. But outside of class he loves me because I am part of the Culinary and Hospitality clubs and I am bringing companies in. Seriously I told him yesterday about winning the mixer and he was shocked and then told him about a place that might help with donating meats and stuff for our clubs and he nearly fainted and pretty much told me I would work for him. I pretty much told him I already knew that In talking to the students he told them what to get for their “tools” and got to the camera and I sat silent (I heard that one last semester) and before I knew it he had the whole class looking at me and told them to check out my blog because of my photography. Its great to be recognized for my photography but also my blogging hard work too. Chef Ian is my favorite, and yes I would take a job with him because he is super smart when it comes to cooking and managing. And he loves me. He talked to much in class so we didn’t really have time to get the bones roasting to make our brown stock so i mumbled having to be stuck on campus until ten and he friggin’ heard me, and asked if I would stay and help and of course I said yes. What was I going to do, I had hours to waste anyway. He trusted me and left me alone in the kitchen. I think that is a good sign.

So its busy as you can see and blogging probably won’t happen everyday because honestly I want to read my books and turn my stuff in to get AHEAD so i don’t get overwhelmed like last semester. To make up for it however I have a giveaway coming up here very shortly!