This week we finished our Foundations Section at NEACA. We are just speeding right along! I think I’ve said it before, but time is moving so quickly at school while at the same time it feels like we have been doing this forever because we are absorbing so much information. It is wonderfully exhausting ;). Emphasis on wonderfully. . .

This week we continued our studies on different grains and vegetable families. We had fun each making our own batch of granola and teamed up for some experimentation with Breakfast Bars. We also experimented with cooking greens, dolmas, which I’d never had before. .. Seriously! Where have you been all my life Dolmas? And we made some yummy salads featuring grains. Pics below!

As far as highlights and challenges go this week, it was an eventful week for me. A highlight was definitely being able to experiment and play with some granola recipes. I really enjoy making granola and experimenting with different techniques to see what will happen. It was also fun to cook with some heartier greens. I have always been a fan of kale or spinach in a smoothie or kale in soups but I haven’t really expanded much from there in my personal cooking so it was fun to try some different methods on some different greens and find out how delicious and how much variation you can have with them.

Wednesday morning we were able to talk about preserving methods and that was cool. Mr. Plate and I have frantically preserved food each summer and fall the last 5 years. We always seemed to have something “ON” and needing to get processed from our little quarter acre edible landscape in Utah. There is always more to learn though. We haven’t tried fermenting much on our own and we were able to make Kimchi in class and I can’t wait to taste it in a few days.

We also had a Conscious Cooking Class which was awesome. We talked a little about the energetics involved in the kitchen either with the method you are using to prepare food, or with our own emotions and mindset. I feel this could be a life long learning process but it was nice to have an introduction of the topic now. In this class we had been talking about the importance of good food and healthy eating habits and I even got a bit emotional about it. (It was a perfect storm of hip openers the night before, fatigue, and other things-oh well. Sometimes I don’t just wear my heart on my sleeve, I throw it in your face) We were all talking about our own personal journeys and how that has motivated us to work in this field and I really felt touched by it all. I’m grateful to brush shoulders with, learn from, and work with such inspiring individuals. The ladies in my track are kind and courageous and I really feel so fortunate that we have all been thrown together on this journey. I need to write a whole blog post with greater detail on this topic.

And then we had our first big Practicum! It included knife skills, product identification, and preparing 3 recipes in a given time frame for our Chef Instructor to taste and critique. Oh boy, I was so anxious. I have a bit of performance anxiety but I practiced at home (made all three recipes for Mr. Plate last weekend and he ate like there was no tomorrow, I haven’t cooked much for him since starting school- the irony of being a Culinary Student is that you don’t cook at home much) and did my best and it went alright. I think all of us were pretty relieved to get the first one under our belts. When I have described the experience to friends and family they always say it sounds like a reality cooking show. Well, I haven’t watched many of them but I have heard about Gordon Ramsay and I’m sure glad our instructors are nicer than that!

A challenge that I noticed this week is getting things done and plated in time! Sometimes I think I’m as focused and fast as I can be, but things need a bit more time in the oven or something than we are able to have. I think this is partly because we have a smaller track and so less hands to chop and dice and help clean up as we go. It makes it more of a challenge, but I can see how it will really be a benefit in the end because we will all be better Chefs for it. In the meantime I hope to focus a little harder and get my knife skills and flow going even better.

Wish me luck!

Loves,
Ash

Our Goodies this Week Included:

Food For Thought:

Did you know that some foods, and yes, healthy whole foods have goitrogenic properties? Goitrogen is a medical term used to describe any substance that can interfere with the function of the thyroid gland.

A list of common foods that are goitrogenic:

Foods Containing High Amounts:

Bok Choy

Broccoli

Brussels sprouts

Cabbage

Cauliflower

Collards

Kale

Kohlrabi

Mustard greens

Rutabaga

Turnips

Foods Containing Small Amounts:

Bamboo shoots

Millet

Peaches

Peanuts

Pears

Pine nuts

Radishes

Spinach

Strawberries

Sweet potatoes

So what does this mean?  Should you be scared to eat these things?  I don’t believe you should.  I haven’t done a ton of research on this yet, but I really think if you follow your intuition, eat all things in moderation and as locally and seasonally as possible and prepare things well with a variety of methods you shouldn’t worry about it.  I really liked this article on this topic.