The First Day of Many to Come

Last night I believed I had prepared myself mentally for today.  I had one of my fabulous friends over, Ilse, for a proper baked mac & cheese dinner, a couple of bellinis,  and some Jersey Shore.  It was a perfect evening with lots of laughs and positive juices flowing.  I didn't stay up too late and felt prepared for my big day. 

It was 4:59 a.m. when I excitedly got out of bed this morning.  As I got ready my nerves started to get the best of me.  My stomach was in so many knots that I had to force myself to vomit, yuck!  I couldn't believe how nervous I felt all morning, and this dreaded heat didn't make matters any better.  I was a hot, sweaty mess.  Although I got out of the house on time, my nerves started kicking in again when I hit some traffic on the freeway.  I distract myself a bit by popping in one of my new Italian CD's and started my first lesson.  Before I knew it the traffic was flowing smoothly and I was happily repeating some simple Italian phrases all the way to school.  I absolutely have to set up some kind of camera to film myself because, I can only imagine how funny I look and sound.

Things got started a little slow in class today but, what could I expect on the first day.  After the Chef gave us a little chat about what we should expect and what he expects from us,  we had to watch an hour of a video tape, from the 90's, about safe serve.  Once that torture was over we got to take a break and sample some of the mini cakes the the baking class made.  Let me just say that they were little bites of sweet heaven and what I consider a perfect breakfast.  Who doesn't love cake in the morning?  Will, I actually only know one person that would disagree... Sanna! 

Our first lesson was on knife technique.  The correct way of holding the knife and we started to practice cutting a potato and carrots "Julian".  You need to cut the item perfectly cubic approximately 1/8".  Let me just tell you that this is no easy task.  Needless to say I did not master the technique in class so, I will be practicing tonight with my big bag of russet potatoes.  Mashed potatoes anyone?

Another thing I felt quite proud of myself for was, I made it to the gym.  I was so tired after class and felt so sleepy on the way home I didn't think I could do it.  I talked myself into it and I actually went.  I feel like this is going to be one of the most difficult things to accomplish every day.  I do hope I can do it.  Keeping my gym routine is important to me because, I absolutely don't want to gain weight while I am in school.  We'll see how it goes.

If someone were to ask me how my day went today.  I would reply with a simple "molto bene!"

Life as I Knew it...

A few months ago my life changed quite significantly.  My life as I knew it no longer existed.  Like many others, I lost my job.  As the weeks passed I did things that I wanted to do with my time.  I cooked dinner more often, went to the gym, ate at places I love, spent time with my friends and family, went antique hunting, slept in, cleaned and then cleaned some more, redecorated my house, went to shows and anything else that came up and I wanted to do.  I started to feel more like my self again, I felt like I was actually living my life and not just going day by day.

While I was as out enjoying my life I asked myself time and time again, "What is going to be your new career?".  I knew it had to be something I have passion for, something I never get bored of, something that would challenge me everyday and make me feel like I succeeded at something.  It became quite obvious to me what would be a very natural thing to do.  That is to Cook.  Every person that knows me knows that I have a slight obsession with food.  Not just any food to fill me up and suppress my hunger.  The food that makes you smile when you see it, your mouth water when you smell it and your taste buds feel enveloped with so much flavor you can't believe that bite just made you feel the way it did.  Yes, food can do that and I think we've all experienced it.  It's almost like an orgasm in your mouth.  When your mouth explodes because it tastes sooo good.  I want to create the dishes that make people feel that.

With that decision made I enrolled in to culinary school and will start tomorrow at 7:00 am.  Wish me luck on my first day and I'll let you know how it went.