it's a lot harder than it looks

so it's been 3 nights on the line and, well it's hard work! wednesday night we were slammed and i got a real taste of what is to come. at one point i had 5 different salads that all needed to be out at the same time. i have to admit, i have no idea how to make that happen, no idea at all. i gave it my best shot and made it work the best way i could. this was the moment i realized how hard this job was, mostly b/c how to work smoothly on the line is not something that can be taught, it is something that needs to be learned through time and experience. this is a frustrating notion to me...this is the first time i've lacked a certain intuition in the kitchen...the logistics of the line are not coming to me as easily as many things i've done in the kitchen and are subsquently causing me lots of worrying and over thinking everything i am learning. i know it will eventually work out, it will just take time and and many more shifts on the line to get into the swing of things. so needless to say i've been a bit burned out.
to help normalize myself i had 2 pilates session with the fabulous Mo, up here, and have spent as much time outside under the sunshine as possible.
town is really starting to fill up with the tourista's....lots of couples wearing matching "Maine" sweat shirts, lots of confused pedestrians baffled by maine's "pedestrians have the right of way" rule, and even more baffled that the cars actually do stop for them. i've already began my search for alternate driving routes to work so i can avoid as much of the tourist traffic as possible...i guess 'tis officially the season!
my parents arrive up here tomorrow for an extended july 4th vacation. hopefully they aren't too worried about the number of mason jars in the fridge...pickles and strawberry brandy. yes i'm attempting strawberry brandy. it needs to sit in the fridge for 3 days, then it gets stored in a dark cool place for a month...i guess the next mention will be the beg. of august when were are all sauced on strawberry brandy cocktails for my mom's birthday. perhaps i will try to make some blueberry as well, how so very maine of me!
and finally the baby pigs are out at work! for those who may not know, we raise pigs (not me personally, but my place of employment) and right now they are soooo cute! apparently over the next month they really begin to fatten up and by the end of july whole loaves of bread can be thrown in the air and the pigs will catch them. they eat lots of slop all summer long to prepare them for use in september. a meat curing space is currently being set up at work...very exciting....it will be sort of like the in house curing done at otto without having to deal with MB's bullshit.....oooh but i do miss that olive oil gelatto, yum!
ok time to go, working 9am shift tomorrow.

i'm a line cook!

well last night marked my first official line cook JOB...yes mom, i finally have a real J-O-B!!!
well it must be real b/c my name is up on a schedule . oh yeah and i love it! i started trained at garde manger last night. we are responsible for all the salads, soup, amuse bouche's, and some other items on the bar menu. all i can say was that it was awesome!!! everyone was soooo nice and helpful, willing to offer me advice and help whenever needed.
i won't get into too many details of my day yesterday partly b/c i am pretty fried and partly b/c i have to be back at work in 2 hours to do it all again, but the restaurant is closed tomorrow so hopefully there will be time for more details.
after our last ticket last night (last table) at around 9:30 (got to love maine!) we spend about 2 hours breaking down and scrubbing the kitchen. there is no cleaning crew or service, we are the cleaning crew and service. lots of sweeping, mopping, wiping, wrapping, drying, windexing etc... the highlight of the cleaning was getting to drive on a golf cart like mini pick up truck vehicle to transport the linens, garbage and recycling to the other side of the property.
we got around around 1145 (which isn't too bad) and headed to the black bull in rockland ( the regular bar of the primo staff....so yes there are thing in maine open past 10pm, but last call is at 1245.
ok well more later, have to get ready for work.....

my first day of work

before my first day of work I spoke with my grandmother who asked me to start my first day by going up to the Chef and telling her, "my grandma in california says that i'm wonderful and thought you should know that!" needless to say, i didn't not say that to Chef Kelly upon my first minutes working in her kitchen, but my first day was a hit!
i worked an AM shift which is 9-5 doing all sorts of prep work for dinner. The am sous chef, graduated from the CIA in may, but externed at Primo for one of his 3 required externships. he seems like a really nice guy, proving to me that some CIA grads are actually nice people and not as bad as their reputation that precedes them. I spent the day working along side Tom, who is a mid 50's career changer. he worked in pharmaceuticals to put his 2 kids thru college, once they youngest graduated he enrolled in community college in bangor which is a 2 year culinary program. I can't stress enough what a nice guy he is, but still very new to the world of professional cooking.
most of my time yesterday was spent making meat balls...400 meat balls. these particular ones contained ground beef, ground pork, eggs, bread, marjoram, oregano (picked from the garden), parsley, Parmesan, lemon zest, nutmeg and white wine. the test patty i tried was delicious.
one of the guys (whose name i don't remember so we'll call him X) was making food for family meal and asked me if i knew had to make rice in beans. that is one of those things that would NEVER happen in a NYC restaurant. for the 2 months I worked at the Cleaver Company, where 2/3 of the staff was spanish, I saw rice and beans made every day for lunch. rice and beans in usually a staple in many of the family meals in NYC for obvious reasons. X was making rice and beans to switch things up a little, i was very quickly reminded of the cultural differences between NY and Maine, which many might think is a "duh" kind of thing, but in the context of the professional kitchen in a huge thing to get used to. In a kitchen where I have the best knowledge of how to make rice and beans and the dishwashers are all local high schoolers i guess i'm not in Kansas...oopss i mean NYC anymore toto.
So today is day 2, an evening shift, on the line. i'm very excited and equally as nervous. i know it will be intense, but that's why i do this right?

breakfast

so today's pickling did not happen, i went to lunch in thomaston and saw shreck the third instead. it was my favorite of the trio, very funny.

here is a recipe i had for breakfast the other morning:

smoked trout w. sliced tomato on a potato pancake

trout salad:
8oz. smoked trout (stonington seafood preferably)
4T heavy cream
2T chopped chive
ground black pepper to taste

flake trout fillets into a bowl.
whip heavy cream to soft peak, fold into trout.
mix in the chive and ground pepper to taste.
put this mixture atop sliced tomato and your prefered type of potato pancake.
(C) june 21, 2007

starting work tomorrow

so today is my last day before work starts tomorrow. this past week of exploring and experimenting has been fun, but i'm rady to start working already.
This is where I will be working. tomorrow is an afternoon shift 9-5 and then sunday will be my first night on the line and i cannot wait!!!

so today, my last day of known free time i will continue to learn about canning, preserving and pickling. yesterday i attempted my first official jam making with a raspberry lime jam and an apricot red chili jam. i think today i will move on to pickling. perhaps the folks at Stonewall Kitchens should be nervous, there's a new kid in town. actually i won't be selling any of these jarred creations, but anyone who comes to visit will get to test some and even those of you who don't make it up here might get a suprise in the mail if specific request are made, but i'm not making an promises.
ok well the whole day is a head of me, there are walkman's to count at the gym and various vegetables and fruits to be unknowingly pickled!

it's fun to be at the YMCA

so i have now made 3 trips to the local ymca which i joined earlier this week. here are some observations i have made while doing my cardio:

3pm is muscle and tattoo hour, muscle tanks required.
i have seen 8 walkman's, 6 disc mans and 5 scrunchies.
every day at noon there is a woman who is on the eliptical drinking a urine like substance out of a 2 liter soda bottle with the lable removed. she wears a sweat band that looks like it has not been washed since 1986, the same year she purchased the walkman she uses.
i look forward to the characters i will meet at the Y.

i almost forgot, today there was a guy there for a personal training session wearing a denim button down, jeans and brown suede cowboy boots. this guy looked like some sort of a wandering cowboy who some how planned on working out in his riding clothing. i left before he broke a sweat.

some recent creations

last night i cooked my first official dinner party of my new life up here. here's the menu:


asian cravings already!

scallop and scallion pan fried dumplings with a radish and english cucumber sunomono (pickling)

a crispy brown rice cake w/ pickled ginger and scallion topped with baby carrots and snap peas in an orange honey glaze and a salmon payard with a miso and white wine reduction and fresh scallion tops

this was the first time i had made any of these items and all ingredients came from local sources!!

recipes:

scallop scallion dumplings: (makes 15 dumplings)
1/2 lb of scallops
1 egg whites
1/8 tsp chinese 5 spice powder
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp groun black pepper
1/4 c. sliced scallions (green part only)
waton wrappers
water

(copyright june 21, 2007)

place scallops in a food processor (cuisinart) with egg white, five spice powder, salt and pepper and pulse until a paste forms.
scrape into bowl and fold in scallions.
chill mixture in fridge for 1 hour to allow it to firm up.
place 1 tsp of filling into the center of the wanton skin. fold wanton however you want. just note that in order to seal the filling inside the wrapper the edges must be sealed with water. just to moisten the surface, do not make it too wet or the wrapper will tear.
these dumplings can be stored in a single layer of a pan or dish with rice flour or corn starch to prevent stickng (they will stick so do not leave more than an hour)
the dumplings can be cooked using a variety of methods including deep frying, pan frying, steaming and boiling. i pan friend them (heat 2 T oil in non stick skillet over med heat place dumplings in oil once desired browness is reached slow pour 1/4c of water into pan standing away as oil will splatter. cover pan immeadiately and allow dumplings to steam 2 min, remove top and allow extra liquid to evaporate and bottoms to recrisp.
boil in salted water until they float to surface and are cooked thru (2-3 minutes)
steam in steamer over med heat 3 minutes, until just firm to touch in center.

radish and english cucumber sunomono

sunomono just means a pickling.

slice vegetables however you want, i sliced the cucumbers very thinly andthe radishes into smaller wedges. placed them into an airtight container and added rice wine vinegar, tamari, the juice from the pickled ginger jar, sliced ginger, white balsamic vinegar and brown sugar. i let it pickle for 4 hours. i served this atop the dumplings with some of the pickling liquid as a sauce