Kat

I have decided to nix my current program in favor of another.  I am DONE with this place.  Most of my friends know how unhappy I've been at this college.  Fortunately, although the new college is a little further (okay, a lot further) away, I won't need to relocate.  It'll be a drive, but worth it.  I am not sorry to be ditching TDC, for damn sure, although avoiding him was not the prime motivation behind my decision.  I should be only two semesters away from a degree, and instead I'm looking to be spending at least four more, because of this place's stupid refusal to offer more than two or three new classes a semester.  They're dragging this whole process out, and I just want to be done already.

...denotes that dreaded time of semester--finals!  Finals and projects!  Which I am almost through with!  *flail*  One more final to take this afternoon and the second semester of culinary school is officially over!

I recieved a grade of A on my Nutrition project, as well as some nice comments from the instructor.  Not bad for the slapdash effort it was.

I've already mentioned I did well on my practicals-- 

( Speaking of which... )

I am so glad I practiced this at home!  The practials for stocks and sauces weren't as fun because we chose three sauces at random.  But then we went in the kitchen and he'd set up one of the tables in front of the range, and said he wanted us to pretend we were on a cooking show and tell the class what we were doing as we made our sauces (mine were veloute, mayonaise, and buerre blanc).  Gah!  It wasn't so bad, but still--most of you know I hate getting in front of people--for any reason.

( Just for a laugh. )

And look!  There is my hand!

So all I need to do now is take the written final for Stocks and Sauces and the whole thing is finished.

Oh yes, and I forgot to mention that this morning I overslept and was an hour late to International Cuisine.  As I was walking to the building, I saw my instructor and called out to him--good thing, too, because he had been about to leave.  Not only was I late to take the final, but I missed the scully, too.  (Which is just a funny term for cleaning the kitchen, or parts of it, anyway.)  Oh, darn!  I was so looking forward to cleaning out the walk in fridge!  I was able to take the test though, and that's the important part.

 

International Cuisine's practical is going to be a bit more difficult than the one for Stocks and Sauces.  We have to create a three course fusion menu, and the above is what I came up with.  I have Mangoes and Sticky Rice Pudding (Thailand +  Europe), Indian Risotto, seasoned with garam masala that I made myself (India + Italy), and there in the back Southern Style Eggrolls with Piri Piri Sauce (China + American South + Africa).

( More pics here )( More pics here )( More pics here )

For Nutrition, we have to complete a project to pass the class.  The project is to develop a healthy alternative menu for a restaurant, to consist of 2 appetizers, 2 salads, 1 soup, 2 entrees, and 1 dessert. 

We have to include recipes, yields, garnishes and plate setups, all that good stuff.

Pffff, say I.  I can pull that off lickity split.  And I did.  In one afternoon I had a neat little menu all set up, and I was even going to make the food, take pictures of it, and turn it in with the project (Due Monday), just to show how committed I am.  

Unfortunately, I somehow completely missed the section that said I needed to include nutritional information. Such as Calories, percentage of Calories from fat, saturated fat, etc...  To be fair, the instructor also wrote down a website that will let you enter in a food item and its search engine will dig around its data base and tell you all about it.  However.  That would mean entering in every single ingredient by itself and adding up the total.  Which I do not feel like doing.

So I ended up spending all morning looking up recipes on the American Heart Association's website, because not only do they have recipes, they also include all the nutritional info as well.

( The menues, before and after. )( The menues, before and after. )( The menues, before and after. )( The menues, before and after. )

Gah, I need money!  Chase is not exactly being forthcoming.  I didn't get a final NO, I got a quantified NO pending further review of my application.  I need a cosigner but everyone who'd be willing to sign with me has bad credit.

But I found out about a scholarship opportunity, wherein you earn a scholarship by blogging.  No kidding!  It's called collegenet.com.  I kept it simple and used the same username over there as lj.  Sign up for a free voter account, poke around over there, and vote for the people you think deserve it (namely, myself) based on what they say in their blogs.  I can win up to $5,000!  Go, vote!

I just finished applying to a new program.  One of the ones I looked into before but decided against in favor of my current program (not the one in Atlanta, sadly, but still a good one).  While it's true that things have been getting better here, I can't shake the fact that this was my absolute last choice, scraping the bottom of the barrell.  Not so long ago, before TDC developed dementia, it was a great program.  Now, not so much. 

There's also the fact that this a fast track program, meaning if I started now I would be finished by the end of the year.

Also, I never actually got around to switching my major to pastry.  I could have done it anyway, against advice, but I let myself get talked out of it.  Now I'm pissed that I did, because as much as I like the people at my new job, the job itself is what I have problems with.  Now that I'm doing it for real and not just in class, I have discovered that working on the line truly does suck, and plainly put I just don't feel up to it.  The program I just applied to just started a pastry program, and it looks mighty appealing, let me tell you.

The problem with all of this, is that I need money.  Lots of money.  More than I can save in two months.  A conservative estimate puts me at around $2,000.  There's the money I would have to pay to break my lease (which comes at $800).  There's money to rent a trailer to haul my stuff and I'm not sure how much that costs (I'm going to sell most if not all my furniture; I don't need it, really, and it's not as if I'm attached to any of it--and even then my car simply won't fit all the rest of my things--books alone will account for six or seven boxes), and of course there's money to pay a new security deposit, new utility fees, and I'd best have enough on hand to pay my first month's rent too, so I'd probably need between $2,500 and $3,000.  My solution?  Go ahead and do the FAFSA.  Then go to my student loan company directly and get more money from them, enough to cover tuition and all the costs it will take to move.  A Stafford Loan, even combined with a Pell Grant, simply will not be enough.  Maybe if I was twenty-four and I was applying myself, I could get enough, but I've already bitched about that before and I won't do it again. 

Le sigh. 

Edit: I will be heading to the school Monday to discuss options, look around for places to live and job hunting.  Also looked at some supplemental loans and it appears that I will be good.

I got a 100 on the quiz on Mexican cuisine last week.  I'm shocked, to say the least; I barely sudied, and the matching section killed me, or so I thought.  Go me.  My brain seems to osmotically acquire information without me being aware of it.

Now I get to see how I did on the quiz for stocks and sauces. 

...went well.  Except for the hour long video we had to watch that was filmed sometime before I was born.  Zzzzzz.  It extolled the virtues of margarine as a replacement for butter.  *shudder*  Fake food: just say no.  The class was Nutrition, by the way.  Tomorrow is International Cuisine and Stocks and Sauces, and more careful questioning of instructors revealed that TDC is not one of the "staff" that still shows up on my schedule when I look it up online. 

I just finished Red Seas Under Red Skies and Scott Lynch: You, sir, are a bastard. 

And I do have a lot to say!  First I got a 94 on my food prep final!  It would have been higher, because reviewing the test I saw yet more questions that I know beyond a shadow of a doubt (and the book backs me up) that I answered correctly, which TDC marked wrong.  Such as, a fryer chicken is older and heavier than a broiler.  FALSE.  You want fried chicken to be tender and moist, which means a younger, smaller bird.  But he marked it "true", the fucktard.  But I decided to leave well enough alone, since even if the class transfers I still want to take it over.

Aaaand, the Nightrunners series, which I may have mentioned I love once or twice, is being rereleased with new cover art, by the new guy that did the cover of Shadows Return!  Ordinarily I wouldn't buy them, 'cause why?  Same book, right?  But the covers of the first three are just so...so...not good.  And the one on Shadows Return IS!  I would love to see what this artist makes of them! 

It's almost Christmas, I've survived the Class From Hell, and I've avoided taking more classes with TDC, not to mention that even though class starts January 7, it's on a Wednesday, and my classes are on Monday and Tuesday.  Haha, I get an extra long vacation!  Except for work of course, but I can deal.