Speaking of which, I went to Checkers last night and had a rather horrible experience. Their cashier lady was really rude and impatient with me. It was raining heavily (drive-thru) and I couldn’t see the menu and it was hard to hear her. Top that with the fact that they apparently no longer carry philly cheese steak burgers and I had to pick something new on the spot…Yeah, she kept yelling at me. I also managed to spill two, large cherry Fantas all over my car thanks to the guy who stopped in the middle of the road for no reason right in front of me. Thank God we weren’t in heavy water or I probably would have slid into his car. When I finally got home, the cheese burgers I did get were pretty crappy. Too much mayo, not enough burger taste. I’m not getting food from Checkers anymore, even if their fries are good.
On that note, tonight’s dinner is a sweet chicken. It’s pretty simple. It’s just a dry rub on some chicken that I’m cooking.
You’ll need:
1 cp light brown sugar
1 tbs salt
2 tbs pepper
½ tbs cayenne pepper
1 tsp tartar powder
½ cp all-purpose seasoning
1.Mix all of the dry ingredients up.
2.Rub them onto the raw chicken, covering as much surface as possible.
3.Put the chickens into an aluminum pan and stick into a 350 degree oven for 45 minutes. The wait will be worth it. The slower you cook something, the juicier it’ll be!
Okay, that’s it. Really simple.
I had a side of corn on the cob with this meal, as well as sweet potato fries and arepas. It was all frozen stuff, so no recipes on them. However, if you have some fresh ears of corn, you can grill it like this:
1. Soak whole corn for 8-10 minutes in water. Do not remove the husks.
2. Grill until husks become slightly blackened.
3. Remove from heat and let it cool down before you peel the husks away. Apply butter if you so desire.
Alternatively, you could just boil fresh corn in water for around 10 minutes.
That’s all for now. I might bake a chocolate cake tonight though, so we’ll see how that goes.
As far as what I’m going to do with my life…my community college has a culinary certificate, a baking certificate, and a culinary management associates’ degree. The culinary certificate program only has a few courses related to actual food preparing. Most of it is management classes as well as food safety and selection classes. Which is fine, but I’m looking for more cooking classes. The baking program is more involved with the actual baking aspect. It has a basic baking, a decorating class and a “professional pastry” class. The cooking is like, basic cooking and garde manager. As the days go by, I’m thinking that I’d rather be a baker anyways. I cook and bake now, but there’s still a lot I don’t know that I’d like to be instructed in by someone who actually knows what the hell they’re doing.
I’ve been looking at the Art Institute in Philadelphia, Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, and the Institute of Culinary Education in New York. All of them have nice diploma programs as well (except CIA which is only associates+). They also have associates’ programs as well but honestly, as far as I can tell from the college’s statistics, diploma and associates graduates make about the same money. I think with enough basic education I can supplement anything I don’t learn in school. I’m probably going to go with the program at my community college, unless I get some serious scholarship money. Pretty much with either program I can start when the current semester is over. It’s just down to cost. I don’t have a lot of money, and I reckon I can’t get a $20K loan.
I am most considering the school in Philadelphia. It’s only a year for the baking and pastry program, and it covers a lot of baking topics without dealing with all the regular school stuff that I’ve had enough of after 1 ½ years at community college. It’s a good chunk of money, but I figure I could pay it off a year or two after I graduate, so it’s really not so bad. I really hope I CAN get that $20K loan. We’ll see. I’d also have to move to Philadelphia. I don’t have a particularly good opinion of the city.
The Culinary Institute’s program probably comes off as the most professional and prestigious. At least, that’s the impression I got from their brochure =D I do believe they’re the most expensive, but not by much.
All of the programs at the fancy private institutions looked like they covered a lot of ground and dedicated more class time to specific areas. All of the programs involve internships, which is something I would not go without. That real life experience is needed and will probably be the most useful part of the curriculum.
I’m going to make an appointment with the Hotel, Restaurant, and Institution Management (RE: the food major at cc) advisor and talk to her about what I actually learn in the program before I decide.
Those are my musing for tonight. Hope it was entertaining…
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