Happy Fourth of July! July 4, 2008

So it’s a holiday and you guys are bbqing or chillin or whatever and I am working.  I have plans with a friend when I get off. I guess I’ll see how that goes.  Since I have to work on a lot of holidays I’ve made a conscious decision to have fun no matter what. The main thing is always festive headgear. I’m wearing a really tall hat that is very cat in the hat meets yankee doodle and star shaped beads around my neck that are red, white, and blue. The customers really dig it. I’ve gotten a lot of  compliments.  I’m not sure why. Is it really the hat or is it that I’m secure enough to wear a silly ass hat to work and act like it’s normal.  When the regional president came to walk through the store in march I was wearing a headband with shamrocks on them. They said “Let your…Sham Rock!”  He stopped and told me he liked them.  Thankfully I work at a place that allows you freedom to express your creativity and be yourself, much like the US.  So on this day that we celebrate freedom have fun and be free.  When this day is over know that you are free to do as you please within reason.  That’s what being American is all about.  Well guys, my break is almost over so I’m going to put my silly hat on and go back to work. Have fun and be safe today!

~andiepandie31

Take me out to the Ballgame June 9, 2008

Ok, so I was cleaning out my inbox and realized I never posted this piece sent out via email on 7/27/07. Anyway here it is.

 

Ok so I got a new job…well two but I’m not ready to discus the other one
yet. I work part time at a fine dining establishment on the garde manger
station or you could just call me the pantry chef. I make salads, prep
desserts and plate them when the order comes in and if I do say so myself it
looks like it came straight out of the Top Chef kitchen.
The restaurant is a little like Hell’s Kitchen minus the incredibly insane
executive chef. There is a lot of :

“Yes Chef.” “Two Minutes Chef”

Sometimes… he yells. My chef is firm but not abusive. He also cuts me a
lot of slack. I like to tell myself that it is because I’m new or because
I’m only there two nights a week but deep down, I know it is because I’m
female. And all I can say is

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!

I’ve heard the way he talks to the guys. It scares me. HE scares me but I
know he means well. He just wants me to be a better cook. He sympathizes
with the fact that I went corporate and as a result walked away from my
passion, my life. During my interview he asked me what the best dessert I
ever made was and at a loss I blurted out-

Tres Leches.
-Tres Leches, that’s simple and really good if done well. I’d put it on my
menu. (insert my smile here)

We also bonded at the fact that I was from Panama and he had been offered a
job in Bocas del Toro, Panama. I felt like I was hitting it out of the
park.

On a side note, I ran into an old customer of mine from Trio. He asked me
when I would start cooking at this new place.

Well… they have me doing this (this, meaning stocking shelves) and I don’t
have time.
-What?!?! That’s like making Barry Bonds the batboy! Well maybe one day they
will see what they got in you.

I smiled. Mostly because I didn’t know who the hell Barry Bonds was and I
was too ashamed to ask. Later a friend told me and I smiled some more.
Aww, he thinks I’m Barry Bonds! I realized I hadn’t completely sold out if I
still had people savoring my Cuban style rice pudding or my suspiro cookies.

Anyhow, I digress. I spent a lot of time trying to be one of the boys but
realized the heat that comes with being male is more than I can handle. He
dosen’t let them half-step. EVER. When Miranda isn’t there I am the only
female cook and Chef doesn’t allow the men to curse or be sexually explicit
around me. I wasn’t used to that. I thought I had to put up with it to be
respected when in reality it was slowly starting to turn me into a potty
mouth kitchen @#$%. Trust me, I’ve met the type; it’s just not cute.

Walking into this restaurant I was expected to know certain things and found
myself being quizzed on a regular basis.

Andrea, what are the measurements for fine dice?
Ok then I need you to fine dice these jalapenos.

Make a 1/5 recipe of anglaise. (Anglaise by the way had been my nemesis at
Trio. I couldn’t get it right. I always scrambled the eggs. I got it right
on the first try that day and I was soooooo proud of myself! Again big
smile)

What are the four appropriate ways to thaw frozen food?

Can you chiffonade this romaine?

Argh!

I knew it. I knew it all. I just didn’t think I would have to prove myself
on an hour-by-hour basis. I also didn’t realize that new job = new mistakes
to make.

A party of 30 came in and they all ordered the same salad. I got out a big
bowl and started making it. After plating them I put them in the window.

30 House salads up!
-Thank you House. (They thank you when you’re finished with the name of the
dish)
He steals a piece of lettuce off one and eats it.
-Wait did you taste this?
Yes chef
-Taste it again
As I’m chewing I start to kick myself
-What do you taste?
Pepper, chef
-Throw this out and redo them, FAST!

Embarrassed and flustered I struggled to redo them.
Lesson learned. Be careful with the pepper.

One day I was fine dicing the jalapenos, which by the way is 1/8 by 1/8 of
an inch. I was happy as a clam that I was getting to work on my knife skills
when my hands started to tingle. By the time I was done my hands felt like
they were on fire. It hurt so bad I couldn’t think straight. I asked my
sous chef and he was like

Aw man, I should have told you to wear gloves.
Shoulda, coulda, woulda, I thought.

He told me to go ask Chef what I should do to make it stop. Chef said that
there wasn’t anything I could do and it should go away in half hour. EIGHT
HOURS LATER my hands were still burning. From time to time I would run it
under cold water to get some relief but it was only temporary. As soon as
my hands were dry the fire would start again.
Lesson learned. Wear gloves when chopping peppers. You can’t punch someone
when your hands hurt.

Later that night I was cleaning the sink out and decided to flush it out
with the hot water on full blast. When I was done I cleaned the shelf above
the sink and my arm touched the pipe. It was scalding hot!

Ow!

I jerked up and slammed my hand against the metal shelf.

@#$#$#@#@$%$#@%#$@%#$@%#$@%$#%@#!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I sighed. The last time I was there I was too close to the oven and burned
a patch of skin off my arm.

Barry Bonds was making rookie mistakes.

The next day I looked at my arm and I had a bar shaped burn on one side and
a big bruise on the other. Oddly enough, I smiled. I had war wounds to
show off again. My hands and arms used to be full of scars where I had
burned and cut myself all in the name of the game. They have healed and
most have them have faded because during the day I work in a safe, plush
environment. Also you can’t burn yourself with a pricing gun.

My moral for today:

Whether you are a rookie or Barry Bonds – find a reason to smile.

Not taking herself too seriously,
Andiepandie31
 

Welcome to My Good Life May 20, 2008

So my sister Jessica got married in October. Yea! I was a bridesmaid which was nice.  If it had only been that simple then I would have no story to write but being “the chef” in the family means no matter what I’m expected to put on my chef hat and dazzle everyone.  That was the longest and most interesting five days of my life. 

Tim and I arrived at five in the morning after a 11 hour drive. We had worked up to the last min so we were very tired.  After a quick introduction to my my family we hit the sack.   After breakfast we began the task of baking and decorating cookies.  We had four pound blocks of sugar cookie dough that we mixed and froze back in Alabama and packed in a cooler in dry ice during transport.  Tim and I didn’t do much strategics that day. We were just cleaning, rolling out dough, pressing out cookies, baking, cooling, and stacking cookies. About three hundred of them.  My sister said she had not realized what a huge undertaking it was until she came home and I had cooling cookies on every surface in the kitchen including a coffee table I brought in and wrapped in plastic wrap for extra space.  There were cookies everywhere. 

You know why it bugs me when people tell me they bake at home like I’m supposed to feel like we have something in common?  Because we have very little in common.When you are at home and you bake cookies how many do you bake?  20? 40 at the most? Pastry chefs deal in volume.  While I can appreciate the home cook for their wisdom in flavors and consistency, there is a very big difference in baking a dozen cookies for your family and three hundred cookies for and order.  Jessica’s order was standard for me.  I work at a grocery store though.  There are chef out there that fill much larger orders. Anyway, I digress.

Later that night my whole family came over and got to enjoy our thirty or so fallen soldiers.  The cookies had a narrow top so they kept breaking off.  While not suitable for icing my family did not seem to mind.

Day two

Now that the cookies were baked We began the painstaking task of decorating them.  First a border had to be piped, then they were flooded.  Confused? Let me explain.  Tim and I made Royal Icing out of powdered sugar and egg whites.  This icing is ideal for decorating cookies because it sets hard.  A thicker coat is applied around the edges as a barrier, a sugary dam if you will.  We then added water to it to thin it out so we could “flood” the cookie.  Luckily we had special helpers, my nieces Jannellis and Jasmeen used wooden skewers to spread the icing after we piped a blob each cookie. I demonstrated on one and then they were off and running.

“Just pretend it’s a coloring bookand stay inside the lines.” 

I was proud, they were good little chefs.  They washes their hands often and stayed inside the lines. That was our only task of the day since the thin icing takes 12 to 24 hours to dry.

Day Three

The end was in sight.  All we had to do now was add detail work and package them and we were done!  The detail work is always my favorite part of making sugar cookies.  As my brother in law looked on he said “Man you must need a lot of patience to do this.” “Not really. It’s fun to me.” I said. Tim piped brown borders as I did scroll work in a lighter shade of brown. As I did the last one I asked Tim to take a picture. Thank God I was done.

The Cakes

That’s a story for another time.

Good Times

At the reception I ate, drank, danced and was merry.  It was nice to have all my work behind me so I could focus on spending time with my family.  Towards the end of the night my niece Jasmeen  was sitting on my lap when my sister in law Jeanina came over and asked her why she wasn’t dancing to her favorite song. Good Life by Kanye West.  We had been dancing all night and decided to take a breather. 

“Is this really your favorite song? We should dance then.”

We got up and started dancing and when the chorus played she threw her hands in the air as the song said and I followed her lead.  I started thinking about what it meant to live the good life.  To me it’s when you love your job so much you work for free. When you have friends so nice they travel with you to also work for free. 

Tim turned to me at one point during the trip. “Everyone in your family loves each other so much. My family isn’t like that”

“Hmm. Really? That’s a shame.”

It’s weird I think everyone is chasing what they think the good life is instead of consciously making their own life a good life or seeing what they have in front of them.  Every time I start to forget I look at the picture we took that day we were working and it’s all good again.  I’m not sure I have a moral for this story. I just wanted to tell you about how my nieces Miss Jasmeen and Miss Janellis reminded me of how good I have it.

Single Chef and the City February 14, 2008

12/8/07 

A couple of months ago someone asked my Dad how his girls were doing.  Here is how that conversation went:

How’s Liza?

-She’s fine, She just got engaged.

How’s Jessica

-She’s fine, She is about to get married in a couple weeks.

How’s Andrea

-She’s fine, She has two jobs.

 

My mom was not happy. In fact she was mortified.  I, myself,  thought it was really funny. My life is all about my work right now. I mean, I do date but the thing is I am very picky.  A guy once tried to pick me up at Wal-Mart with the line:

“Hey shawty! What yo entrée is?”

I was in my chef’s jacket and needless to say he didn’t get my number.   I want to be in a relationship. I really do but I’m so focused on work right now because it teaches me lessons for life. Things I know that make me a better person and one day will make me a great wife. You can’t rush some things because you will ruin them. I want to get married and dot, dot, dot but I’m in no hurry.  Cooking has taught me something not even my Mom could teach me – patience. 

The first time I made Hollandaise sauce I was told to put to egg mixture over a double boiler, keep it on low and stir continuously until thick. After about five minutes of whisking my arm was dog tired to I decided that I was smarter than the recipe and I would speed things up a bit. I cranked the heat up and started whisking at warp speed only to end up, not with hollandaise sauce but, with scrambled eggs.

$@#%!

-”What happened” said Chef Jerome

I messed up

-Start over

Ok

Most of my relationships have turned to scrambled eggs and hit the trash just like my sauce.  It’s no big deal but those were not right.  I’m at a point where I have learned the lesson and now I’m standing there at the double boiler just stirring away. Slowly, with the fire in low, just waiting until its ready.  I hope my Mom realizes there are worse things my Dad could have said and the fact is he is proud that I’m such a hard worker.  So while Jessica enjoys her Eggs Benedict and Liza’s sits in the window waiting for the server to pick it up- my plate is just not ready. Slowly, steady, I stir. I want it to be just right.

So my tip for you (like you haven’t already guessed) is

Take it easy. Don’t be in a hurry.  Anyone can make scrambled eggs, only some can make Hollandaise.

Keep stirring,

andiepandie31

 

Published February 9, 2008

8/17/06

Hey everybody!
Ok so I don’t really have a story for you today, I mean I do have tons of
stories but I’m working on 3 projects at once and I’m just trying to graduate. Expect to hear a lot
more from me come mid september. I just wanted to tell all of you that I
submitted one of my stories to the school newspaper The Scoop and they
decided to print it. They even gave me my own column!!! A day in the life
of Andrea! I guess I was meant to leave school with a bang. So thank you to
all of you that wrote back and encouraged me. Thank you for all your
compliments because without you I wouldn’t of tried it. My biggest thanks
goes to Wanda Bell for making sure I got on the newspaper staff and my
classmates for threatening to submit my writing behind my back. It’s funny
I thought I just wanted to cook. Turns out writing aint so bad

Love,
andiepandie31

Viniculture February 9, 2008

8/2/06 

When I sat down with my advisor to pick classes for my final quarter we
discovered I was 2 credits short of being considered a full time student
which is required to get finacial aid so she allowed me to chose a filler
class and I chose Viniculture.
Viniculture is the study of wine and wine production. To quote Dave
Chappelle:

“IT’LL GET YOU DRUNK!”

was the only thing I knew about wine. I wanted to learn practical
information to use in cooking as well as have an educated conversation over
dinner or at a wine tasting. (and who was I kidding, I would get to drink
on the school’s tab. Whoo!!)

So now every Monday I get to sit in class and sip wine. My teacher presents
me with a small plate with several cheeses; Bleu, Guryere, Brie, and/ or
Goat. As well as chocolate and dried cherries. One time we even got bread.
We look at the wine, then smell it, then taste it and take notes on it.
Then we taste it with the items on our plate to determine appropriate food
pairings.

It is a lovely time! Pity you weren’t invited.

The first day we drank I had a hectic day and forgot to eat before class, so
by the time I got done tasting 4 wines I was cheery to say the least.
Lesson learned, I packed a sandwich the next week. It doesn’t matter
though. Whoever I dial when I get out of class usually gets an earful of
tipsy talk. This class helps me deal with the fact that I am spread so thin
this quarter. It’s fun and interesting. I don’t even mind getting tested
because I like to see if I’m actually getting anything out of the class.

I friggin love it!

My tip for you is to go out and study up on something you find interesting;
even if it doesn’t fit in the curriculum of your life. It doesn’t hurt to
learn – it might however get you drunk.

In the wine aisle,
andiepandie31

Red Neckerchief February 9, 2008

6/26/06

I’m excited. Today is the first day of my last quarter in culinary school
and because I’m in my last quarter I get to wear a red neckerchief instead
of a white one like the rest. Since my first quarter I thought about what
it would be like to wear the red neckerchief. The beginning of the end, of
a long road of apparent flakiness on my part. Soon they will come to watch
me walk across the stage and finally finish something.

But I want you all to know that the flakiness is not my fault. When you are
a special flake like me but don’t know it, it takes you a while to figure
out your purpose. I am like a grit (because I’ve grown especially fond of
the south). And for a long time I hung out with other people, truly special
people but very different than me.

First came my sisters who are like sugary breakfast cereals like Capt crunch
who have nice office jobs and wear “business attire” all day. I thought I
was supposed to end up like that hence the majors in elementary education,
business management, and Spanish. I wanted to be a teacher or a translator.
Turns out it wasn’t for me.

Then came my college friends who are in professional post graduate schools
studying to become lawyers and doctors. They are like oatmeal, yummy and
good for you. For a while I thought that was what I should be like so I
majored in Biology with aspirations of going to dentistry school then vet
school. Long story short, not for me.

Keep in mind these majors didn’t end in a degree.

One day I saw a commercial on TV for Culinard, the culinary institute of
Virginia College and I had a funny feeling food was for me. I came on a
tour and fell in love instantly. No, really, in love. I was among other
grits. Cheesy grits were the savory students and the sweet grits are the
pastry students. I went home and filled out the application and prayed and
prayed and I got in and in time even got a scholarship and now I’m almost
done and managed to maintain a 3.5 GPA

I’m telling you all this because there maybe someone in your life that seems
a little flaky. Or maybe you have been wrestling with something feeling
like something about your surroundings isn’t right. You might want to do
something or change something in your life. Just have a little faith.
Unlike sugary cereal or oatmeal, Grits take time to boil.

To all the people who waited…The grits are almost ready!

I love you all,
 
andiepandie31

Health Inspectors February 7, 2008

5/25/06

Being from Panama sometimes gives me a distorted view of things. I will
agree yet disagree. That is how I feel about health inspectors. One of the
first classes you take in culinary school is sanitation and you basically
learn what can happen when you don’t work in a clean environment. You learn
lots of gross things you can contract, some of which are fatal. So I
understand the need for them.

On the other hand I have eaten carne en palito (meat on the stick) from a
man that made a grill out of an old large paint tin. There was no health
inspector notice on there. I don’t know where he got his meat or if he had
washed his hands recently I did know for 50 cents I could get a snack after
the football game in high school. Shopping downtown in Panama was always
fun. I loved stopping to get plantain chips and chorizo sausage, or an
empanada with some orange juice or chicheme (a milk and cornnog) Again, no
health inspector, no nothing.

The health inspector assigned to my store is a…well let’s just say her
other car is a broom. She is ruthless and unnecessarily condescending. So
far she has graded 2 departments. Produce was one of them and she tore them
a new one. 85%, which is not good. It’s not the worst I’ve ever heard but
it’s not good. The worst was a 74 given to a restaurant here in B’ham. My
boss was like “it must have been really bad over there. You have to be
“shi####” in the food to get a 74″ A score like that got that restaurant
shut down until their violations were rectified. Anyway I’m sure my
department is next and I’m sure we will be pimp slapped into the next week
because one of my coworkers is a slob. A dirty, nasty, filthy, slob. He
makes me so mad because I spend half of my work day cleaning up after him.
A surprise to those who know me best, I’m a neat freak at work. I’m always
cleaning, wiping down and washing. That’s because I handle people’s food
and it is important for them to know I care about their health

We recently had the school inspector check out our class room and because of
drinks me and Miranda had we got a B. All I can say to that is “oops my
bad!” In all fairness though some of the things they count off for are down
right ridiculous. I am accustomed to having a drink with me at all times
because most kitchens are hot. I was talking to a line cook today that said
he worked on a line where the temperature got up to 130 degrees F. So
surprise, surprise, we get thirsty. I have had the inspector throw away my
drink though. There are slobs, like my coworker. Then there are the
germ-o-phobes. I am somewhere in the middle. I’m concerned about the
cleanliness of the establishments I patronize but I am quick to get a hot
dog from a random stranger on the corner…

So I don’t really have a moral for today it’s more of a question. Where do
you fall?
 

I love learning February 7, 2008

5/11/06

I am a student. This gives my a sort of get out of jail free card when I
make mistakes. Usually when I make a mistake my boss just explains the
right way to do it and kind of nods his head. I have pulled some good ones
and I want to tell you about some of my more severe mistakes.

The day I dropped a $35 cheesecake…

I was in the kitchen with my boss and we made a cheesecake from start to
finish together. She instructed me to put it in the cooler and we could
start on something else. On the way to the cooler I passed my best buddy
Karen and we chatted a bit before I went in the cooler. I stepped in
tripped and dropped it on the floor and it completely fell apart. I
screamed and thought I was going to faint. All I could think was “What is
Chef Notter going to say?” Karen must have heard the scream because she
came in asking what’s wrong, only to find me freaking out.

“Dude what are you going to do?”
“I don’t know”, I said as I wiped away tears and laughed nervously.
I went back to tell Chef and it turns out she wasn’t even mad. Thank God!

Chocolate ganache vs the Executive chef

My new executive chef John Derrek used to work with me at J. Jane’s also
but we never spoke much. When I came over to Trio he didn’t have much to
say to me there either and I was really starting to think he didn’t like me,
not that I cared. Anyway he came over to me the other day and asked me
where the micro plane or zester was. I wasn’t sure so I started looking for
it on the way I went to close the door to the deck oven. (where bread is
baked) forgetting that I had some coating chocolate heating up in it. The
container fell out did a perfect double summersault and splashed
all…over…him.
Has something ever happened to you and you just want to die. Just lie down
and die because there is no possible way to recover. That is how I felt.
Of course, I freaked. He was surprisingly understanding as he cleaned his
hat, jacket, apron, and pants off. Sigh!

“It’s ok, really” he said
Although I was hyperventilating I managed to say I don’t know where the
zester is.
And off he went. If he didn’t like me before….well anyhow.

A smaller mistake

I was trying to par bake cheesecake bases one day and the mistakes made that
day were… well they were just plain stupid. I baked them in a water bath
which is unnecessary but worst of all I didn’t wrap the bottom of the pan
with plastic or foil. We make or cheesecakes in spring form pans, which
come apart, so you have to wrap the bottom. Well since I didn’t wrap them
and the were in a water bath I came back to find graham cracker soup. All I
could do was laugh at myself. Barbara looked at me and my mess with a
puzzled look. I looked up and said

“I love learning!”

She just laughed and walked away.
And I…. Well I am still learning.

The student,
andiepandie31 

Games we play February 5, 2008

3/7/06 

Sometimes you are at work or school and things are slow and there isn’t much
to do. That’s when the real fun starts and as a line cook I knew used to
say “We gotta break the monotony”

Have some down time in class? Try stacking mini moo creamers. My classmate
Heather is the reigning champ with 13. Sounds easy but it’s not I can only
stack 7. I’m such a loser.

Slow at work… try to see who can get the most concord grapes in their mouth.
My friend K-Ron took home the grand prize there with 10, honestly a 6 I
began to fear I would choke to death, and then what would my parents think?
It’s not like I can explain when I’m dead.

And if all else fails…sing

While pumping out rum balls me and my classmate, Barbara, sang Baby got back
as the rest of the class just bopped to the beat. A few classrooms away our
teacher was dumbfounded as to why we were all bouncing around and came to
investigate and ended up with a good laugh.

But my most memorable time was singing Doin the Butt with Danny the line
cook. We both had been given busy work and we were just barley knocking it
out. Next thing you know he was singing and I was dancing. Just when we
were getting to the good part we were stopped dead in our tracks. Here’s
how it went and keep in mind 2 things

1) Danny’s voice is really deep and loud
2) I don’t really know the words to the song

Me- “Shake Shake shake shake shake something something na na ney OW!
Doin the but, oh yeah….sexy sexy…..
Danny- “That butt, That butt, that big old, big old……

GUYS! SHHHHHHH!

The owner’s wife, or Satan as I affectionately refer to her, came around the
corner because she could hear us across the store. I started to feel my
face get hot because I knew we were going to get yelled at but Danny as cool
as a fan turned around and said

We’re sorry. Just trying to break the monotony

To our surprise she said “ok” and walked away. So the lesson I learned that
day which I will pass on to you is

Wait until the cat is away before you start to play,
Still singing
andiepandie31