I can't wait to tell you about the class that I'm taking this summer. As some of you know, I'm down to the last two classes of my prerequisites and will be finished the day that I jet off to San Francisco to go to my wedding. I'm taking biochemistry online (which I love, but I won't bore you with that stuff) and a class called "Foods" at University of Illinois in Chicago.
"Foods" meets once a week on Mondays. I take the train down there in the morning and I'm back by the late afternoon. In between, everything revolves around food. My professor is a chef with a culinary and a biology degree (I forgot specifically which type of bio degree) who has a certified organic farm out in the country and invites his students out there. He teaches in my masters program, so I'm hoping that I'll get to know him well enough for an invite! As you would expect, he knows a heck of a lot about food.
We have a lecture that goes for about two hours (last week was about the chemistry of food), and then we go into our kitchen lab. In there, we work in groups and have full access to the pantry (I felt like I was on "Chopped" or one of those kinds of shows on my first day). We wear aprons and hair nets. On our first day, we prepared a whole bunch of little samples of things such as rice, tomato sauce, cheese dip, vinegar and salt water (to taste!) and sugar cookies to run comparison taste tests. Last week was the meat lab. I don't eat red meat anymore, but I did find Boca Burgers in the freezer and made one for myself for lunch! It was great! I also made steak stir fry, but only a few people ate the beef. The rest of us stood around and picked at the veggies off of the plate. Tomorrow is the poultry lab, which I know that I will enjoy. We get to eat everything that we make, so there's obviously no point in me bringing lunch.
I called this post "Mouthfeel", because this is a term and a concept that you need to understand when selecting your herbs for your foods. "Mouthfeel" applies to how the food feels inside of you as your tongue moves it against the roof of your mouth. Something creamy, like gelato, has a very different mouthfeel to something like potato chips. My chef professor brought up this concept when we asked him if we should use dried or fresh herbs in our sauces. He told us that foods with a softer mouthfeel, like a cream cheese dip, needs something to match it like fresh herbs. A different texture of food, like garlic bread, goes better with dried herbs. This may seem like common sense to most people, but I never thought about it that way. He also taught us that when you slice a big hunk of meat before cooking it, you must cut it perpendicular to the muscle tissue (not parallel).
I like cooking poultry, so I can't wait to see what kinds of tips I come back with tomorrow. If I didn't have to study for an exam every week, this would be the best class ever!
"Foods" meets once a week on Mondays. I take the train down there in the morning and I'm back by the late afternoon. In between, everything revolves around food. My professor is a chef with a culinary and a biology degree (I forgot specifically which type of bio degree) who has a certified organic farm out in the country and invites his students out there. He teaches in my masters program, so I'm hoping that I'll get to know him well enough for an invite! As you would expect, he knows a heck of a lot about food.
We have a lecture that goes for about two hours (last week was about the chemistry of food), and then we go into our kitchen lab. In there, we work in groups and have full access to the pantry (I felt like I was on "Chopped" or one of those kinds of shows on my first day). We wear aprons and hair nets. On our first day, we prepared a whole bunch of little samples of things such as rice, tomato sauce, cheese dip, vinegar and salt water (to taste!) and sugar cookies to run comparison taste tests. Last week was the meat lab. I don't eat red meat anymore, but I did find Boca Burgers in the freezer and made one for myself for lunch! It was great! I also made steak stir fry, but only a few people ate the beef. The rest of us stood around and picked at the veggies off of the plate. Tomorrow is the poultry lab, which I know that I will enjoy. We get to eat everything that we make, so there's obviously no point in me bringing lunch.
I called this post "Mouthfeel", because this is a term and a concept that you need to understand when selecting your herbs for your foods. "Mouthfeel" applies to how the food feels inside of you as your tongue moves it against the roof of your mouth. Something creamy, like gelato, has a very different mouthfeel to something like potato chips. My chef professor brought up this concept when we asked him if we should use dried or fresh herbs in our sauces. He told us that foods with a softer mouthfeel, like a cream cheese dip, needs something to match it like fresh herbs. A different texture of food, like garlic bread, goes better with dried herbs. This may seem like common sense to most people, but I never thought about it that way. He also taught us that when you slice a big hunk of meat before cooking it, you must cut it perpendicular to the muscle tissue (not parallel).
I like cooking poultry, so I can't wait to see what kinds of tips I come back with tomorrow. If I didn't have to study for an exam every week, this would be the best class ever!
Other Fun Happenings
Below: My cousin (at least I think we're cousins- we're definitely related to each other by marriage, so can I just call her my cousin?) Ellie's dance recital! She asked me at Passover if I could watch her, and I certainly could not miss out on that. I loved seeing all of the kids dance.
Ellie with her mommy Julie!
Did you know that I was in a ton of dance recitals when I was younger? I took all sorts of dance classes like ballet, jazz, modern, tap, and then I took one hip hop dance class. Unfortunately, my body doesn't move like a hip hop dancer. Not at all. I didn't like that class. Ellie is a fantastic hip hop dancer, though!
I also volunteered two weeks ago at the North Shore Half Marathon. My mom and dad ran in it, and my mom signed me up to volunteer with the DermiNation team. I was a little annoyed that I had to be there at 5:45 am to set up the water and Gatorade station, but I ended up having a BLAST!
The streets were very peaceful when I walked to the meeting spot from my car. The path was lined with trees, which I'm sure the runners appreciated.
Shade or not, though, the temperatures climbed up to the high 80's by the time that the race was in full-swing. I was located at the mile 7 Gatorade station (so halfway through) at the end of a big hill. I have never encountered an experience in my lifetime (yet) where people were happier to see me. I yelled, "GATORADE! WE GOT GATORADE! WATER AROUND THE CORNER!" so many times that I was surprised to leave with my voice intact, but I enjoyed every second of it. I was just glad to be there to help...and a little happy that I was standing still and not running. It was also fun to see my parents run by me!
I had so much fun that I want to volunteer for the Rock N Roll Half Marathon in Chicago, but it's also the weekend before I leave to go to San Francisco. I might have to sit it out, because I know I'll have so many things to do!
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