anyakrauscooks: I'm a Big Baby (& A Lesson on Herbs)

I think today was our first real day of class. A large amount of tension was circulating throughout the kitchen. The amount of work we had kind of pooped on everyone's party. Chef Leake gave us a huge list of tasks to complete in a not so generous amount of time. We turned carrots into perfect squares, three different sizes all carefully measured with a ruler. We did the same to celery. Oh, and don't forget the onions, too. Carrots are rounded. Celery has a curve. Onions are spheres. I don't understand why we need to make perfect squares from them! But I did it! And I did it without cutting myself :) Ha and the funny part is I did actually cut myself--outside of class.

I was basically a drunk fool from sleep deprivation while cutting apples last night...so got a lil bitty slice in my thumb. Yum! Lesson of the day: don't put a knife in a sleepy person's hand. That person will do something stupid. Thank goodness Tom saved my life by blocking my view of the blood, bandaging it and squishing it to make it feel better. Ice cream helped, too :) Too bad I won't have that kind of treatment in class.

(First thought that went through my mind)

I wish I had more pictures to post up here so you guys could get a better idea of what I'm doing all day. But we move ridiculously fast in class it's hard to find a moment to capture any Kodak moments. We have this assignment though, it's called daily reflection. That requires us to take pictures and write instructions for a specific task. Maybe I'll share that with you up here! I'll write another post about how to properly cut a pineapple. Sounds simple, but I'm actually eating some pineapple right now that I cut before this class started. It has those nasty hard parts and pieces of the outside, so maybe a little lesson on that would come in handy.

Ooh yeah yesterday morning our glass was given a tour of the on-campus gardens. There are SO many herbs. Too many! I can't even tell you off the top of my head how many we saw. I'll give you a little overview (and some tips, too!) of what I learned:

There are two kinds of herbs: annual and perennial.

Annual are short-term herbs meaning they only grow for a short period of time (about one year). Then they die :(
Perennial are just the opposite. They live for a long time, multiple years.

Basil! One of my favorite herbs! If you've ever seen the plant you might have noticed flowers growing on it. Cut them off. The flowers produce seeds and as soon as those seeds drop, the plant dies. Trim your herbs!
Speaking of basil, there are three kinds: sweet (Italian), lemon, and Thai. Don't mix them up, they do not taste the same. Thai basil has a stronger anise, licorice, flavor. If you make pesto with that you might be a little disappointed, unless bitter basil is your cup of tea. But I'm not a Thai basil hater, it's good for other things like pho! Lemon and Italian basil are more similar, so if you're looking to mix things up I'd try switching those two...
Sage grows best on the ocean coast, likes dry weather, and it has tiny little hairs (blech) on its leaves to catch ocean mist for moisture. (Dad, if you read this. Try growing sage in your garden).
Mint will basically eat up your entire herb garden if you don't separate it from everything. So if you want a variety of herbs, don't let the mind poop on your herb party. Get a separate box, pot, or whatever you like to grow your herbs in.
For my fellow mainlanders: cilantro is also called Chinese parsley. Whaaaaat?
Mexican oregano seeds are what make cumin spice, interesting huh? Also, Mexican oregano is best cooked. Greek oregano is the one you can eat uncooked due to it's milder flavor.

Herbs are such an inexpensive (for the most part) and healthy way to bring flavor to a lot of dishes so don't be afraid to experiment with them! I am thinking of starting a mini herb garden in my apartment. Maybe a few flower pots full?

AHA! Found some pictures! Pretty random ones, but yeah this is what we did on our first day in the kitchen. I was stoked to see berries! (Driscoll's straight from Watsonville, CA!)