Hey blog buds!

I hope you’ve had a marvelous weekend so far!  As I type this, I can’t believe how fast time is flying by.  Can you believe we’re only 11 days away from Thanksgiving?  2010 has truly ZIPPED by in a blink!

And with Thanksgiving being close, that means we’re only 15 days away from the start of MIDTERM WEEK at school!

Which explains why I’ve been a little MIA lately.  Between now and December 3rd, time will be a little tighter than usual.  Friends and family will begin to wonder where I disappeared to, I fear! (More on that later…)

In the meantime, here are a few of the things I’ve been up to lately.

KOMBUCHA - my most recent batch was a blend of green and black teas and it was the best batch yet.

It even got fizzy!  FINALLY!

But the truth is, I’ve not been drinking it nearly as fast as the batches brew, so I am storing my kombucha culture in the fridge for a while and taking a few weeks “off”.  And if the culture doesn’t survive, I won’t have to worry about withdrawal symptoms ;) now that it’s back on the shelves at the store.

SQUASHING - I sliced the top off of a gorgeous delicata squash, planning to cut it down the middle and bake it in two halves as a side dish.  However, the shape of the piece I lopped off looked like an adorable little flower so I decided to just cut it into rings and bake it like that instead (and glazed in maple syrup).  Aren’t they cute?

BARGAIN SHOPPING – it seems someone mentioned this to me before but one of our local health food stores puts their produce on sale for a DOLLAR a BAG when it’s getting a little close to being TOO ripe.  Check out my $1 loot!

Four organic red/orange bell peppers and three organic mushrooms!  For a BUCK!!!

So I proceeded to roast my red peppers over an open flame:

Then I let them steam, covered, in a bowl for 15 minutes or so, peeled off the skins, deseeded & destemmed them and waiting in the fridge.  Chances are I’ll be making them into a pureed sauce of some sort this week.  :) The house smelled amazing, too!  This is one of those things I would NEVER have done before attending Bauman.  One, because I probably just would have purchased roasted red peppers in a jar.  But two, if I would have decided to make my own, I’d have probably put them under the broiler.

However, roasting them like this right over the flame makes it feel like you are camping – in your kitchen!

PREPPING FOR MIDTERMS – last but definitely not least, this is where most of my time has been going.  I’m spending a lot of time going back through all of the power points from each class, all of my notes, attempting to catch up on reading, practicing knife skills (we were told this week our knife cuts WILL be measured with a ruler!!), and trying out some sauces/soups/grains/salads for our kitchen practicals.

Trying to cut something to exacting sizes such as 1/8″ x 1/8″ x 2-1/2″ is actually not that easy!  :)

Almost 1/2″, but only almost!

Improv cauliflower soup (mmm this turned out really well!)

And then after all the hustle, bustle and busy busy, THIS happens when I try to read my school books (and MSP sneaks pictures!):

Out like a light the minute I sit down.

Rascal thinks studying is hard work too!  ;)

The next recap I do for you about school will cover some of our Ethnic Cuisine days, Mediterranean and Thai.  So delicious!  I’m loving this module so far!  See you again soon!

– Shari B. =)

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