COMPUTER issues!

Sorry folks been away due to computer problems! My HP died. From what we read it might have been a problem with the AC adapter connector in HPs. I got a new Dell Inspiron.
Its been a busy week of graduations here. My niece and nephew both graduated from High School. A busy week of baking a graduation cake and brownies. My nephew loves Carrot cake and I had a great recipe from Culinary School. It came out great. Ill post the picutre in a couple of days. I made these great triple chocolate brownies for my niece. I used three types of chocolate (intense, dark and milk chocolates). They are thick and gooey just like she likes them. They go great with a nice tall glass of cold milk!
I don't have much time today, so I am outta here for now.
Have a great day all!

Going to Culinary School.....

When I left off before I had chosen to switch career paths after 20 years. I entered Culinary School to get a degree in Baking in Pastry Arts. I had taken a 13 week Saturday Class at the Culinary Academy of Long Island. It was a lot of fun. We made cookies, cakes, and assorted pastries. I loved it and realized I needed more training if I was going to take up a career in Pastry.
I visited the French Culinary Institute (FCI) and the Institute of Culinary Education (ICE) both in Manhattan. Both schools seemed of great interest to me. The deciding factors were (1) ICE had only a few months wait to get in and FCI was over 6 months wait (2) ICE provided an Externship as part of their program where as FCI did not and finally (3) the commute was much easier to ICE. I know FCI has a better reputation but ICE has steadily been increasing its reputation.
In visiting the schools, I found the atmosphere to be a little more comfortable. An interesting tidbit, over 75% of the Pastry and Baking students were career changers. Of those, 80% of them came from Financial jobs (mostly Accounting). I think that basically Baking and Finance are similar in that they both deal with math and measurements. It isn't that people mistakenly thought they were registering for Banking and left out the N!
The program consisted of 5 days a week 4 hours a day for 5 months. School wasn't always easy. We were in a class of 12 students. We shared everything. Most of the mixing and baking was done as teams, and the finishing and decorating was done individually.
I had a really good class. Most of the people were in fact, career changers. There was one older woman who was taking it as a hobby. A pretty expensive hobby at that. She probably needed to be in more of a simple class. ICE does offer recreational courses that probably suited her better.
We also had a number of foreign students. They were from China, Korea, Brazil, Hong Kong, Bulgaria and New Jersey!
Our chef instructors were fantastic. We had four different instructors. Each had their own specialty. We did breads and doughs, chocolate, various pastries, cakes (including our own Wedding cake).
It wasn't always easy. Of course when dealing with 12 different personalities, there will be some conflicts. Some people aren't as willing to clean up after themselves, some are always looking to leave as early as possible, and some just don't know how to act in groups, especially when dealing with hot ovens and sharp utensils.
There was one incident where the older woman who was doing this as a hobby got severely burned when she poured boiling sugar into a plastic container and then tried to pick it up to throw it in the sink. We were all telling her not to do it, and she did anyhow. It healed ok, but she was in so much pain.
Part of the program was to get an externship at a Bakery, restaurant, or hotel. The school gives you leads and contacts and you are supposed to trail (work with a chef for a shift) to determine if you want to do an externship there. It is a great experience. After trailing at a few places, I chose to do my externship at Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill.
I will talk more about that in my next post.
Have a great day!

HOT HOT HOT!

Summer is here! Wow, a scorcher today!
I am glad we BBQ'd a lot of different foods on Friday. There is no need to heat the oven and make the house any hotter than it needs to be today.
I made my famous hamburger recipe only I used ground turkey instead of beef. They were moister than if we just made them plain. We also made Lemon Herb chicken and Garlic Herb Chicken. These were extremely moist and tasty. We had the Chicken Saturday and Sunday and they were still moist! I cut up a Sweet Potato and broiled them in the toaster over with Rosemary and Olive Oil. We have some great toaster oven recipes. In summer, it makes a big difference in the temperature of the house.
Saturday was a beautiful day. We headed to the beach (Robert Moses State Park). We waited over half hour to get in to the parking lot. It was worth every minute. We had our relaxing 2.5 mile walk along the beach. Although, I did not use sunblock and got a slight sun burn!
Sunday was Pride Day in Huntington. Fortunately, we were able to find a spot along the parade route under some trees. It was so much cooler. After the parade, we set up a picnic with a group of friends at the Hecksher Park. There was food, entertainment and booths for vendors and various information. We had our cold tomato and cucumber salad, homemade guacamole and tortilla chips, ham sandwich and cinnamon coffee cakes I had made.
It was a lot of fun even in the heat of the day. The entertainment was various acts, the highlight was Maxine Nightingale singing some old time disco songs. That is my favorite type of music. I could tell by the clouds and heat of the day that we would be hit with some storms, so we started to head home for the day.
After we arrived home and at, we had some strong thunderstorms, and now we are in for a hot and steamy night ahead.
We are looking forward to more wonderful weather in the week ahead.

Monday is SUN day!

Another beautiful day in NY!
We had a mixed bag this weekend, weatherwise. Saturday was a bit of a washout. Although, we did manager to go to a party in the late afternoon and early evening. It was a pretty good party. Good food, good drink, great conversation and entertainment.
The food was pretty much standard party fare. It was catered by an Italian restaurant that we had actually eaten in a few years back. So, you were not going to go wrong with the food from there. I had some chicken marsala and pasta with vodka sauce. They were both delicious. I couldn't stay away from having at least one garlic knot. Although I am sure that kept people away from me for the rest of the night!
Joe's brother's band played throughout the night. Fortunately, the neighbors cooperated and didn't call the police!! They are pretty good. The play the usual 70s and 80s rock type music.
My downfall was the Rainbow cookies that came from the local bakery. They are one of my favorites, although I prefer to have them at holiday time, I couldn't resist!
It was a late night as we didn't get home until after 3am. Fortunately the only plans for Sunday was the Mets game and that wasn't until 8pm.
So we spent a lazy Sunday morning at home. I made some French toast (with whole wheat bread, a few teaspoons of cinnamon, and one of my favorite secret ingredients, nutmeg!)
Of course French toast isn't the same without Syrup! So we, of course, smothered it with syrup!
We took a nice stroll along the beach as it was another beautiful day. The ocean water is still chilly but feels like it is getting warmer! I can't wait to jump in!
We headed home and had an early dinner since I had to leave for the baseball game. It takes about two hours to get there by train (door to seat!). Between the cost of gas and the new stadium being built in the parking lot, I do not drive to the stadium anymore. It only used to take 45 minutes to get there. So, thats the price we pay!
It was a great night for baseball. Perfect temperature, big crowd filled with excitement after the Mets had won in dramatic fashion the day before. Everyone was looking for that excitement again! And the Mets delivered. It was a great game all around. Everyone went home happy after the Mets beat the Dodgers 6-1 and their star pitcher Johan Santana got his 100th career win!
So all in all, it was another great NY weekend!
I hope everyone else enjoyed their weekend!....well except in LA, I know they probably didn't!
That's all for now!
I am signing off for now!
Catch ya later!
PP