Caramelized Beet & Grapefruit Salad

FYI, the salad in the post below this I have discovered is even better with kale instead of spinach!

More to the point, the following recipe was inspired by a challenge from my land-lady to make a better beet salad than she had at a restaurant recently, a disappointing beet salad at an upscale restaurant I went to recently, the presence of a beet and grapefruit in my refrigerator drawer that needed to go, and the principles of salad making I learned from my chef instructor at school. I must say this salad met and exceeded my expectations!

A Day in the Life of a Culinary Student

Today is day 2 of week 2 of culinary school. I have never been so tired in my whole life, but I've also never had so much fun! It makes me so happy to be cooking good food every day. I'm enjoying learning new things every day, but also delighted to discover how much I really do know already, and that not all of it is bad habits that I'll have to break. I absolutely love my instructor. He's a good teacher, very articulate (not just a good cook, but an intelligent one!), and he pushes us hard, but he's also got a sense of humor and does everything he can to make learning easier for us. I enjoy most of my classmates. Haha. I chose the school I'm at because compared to other schools, it's a short program, inexpensive, comprehensive, and every time I visited it just seemed like a friendly, family-like atmosphere. I'm more convinced than ever that I chose the right school for me, and I'm so looking forward to what the next 8 months will bring!

My mom asked me to write a journal piece describing a typical day at school, so she could get an idea of where I'm at right now. If you're interested in mundanity, read on. If not, skip to the bottom where I will throw in a bonus recipe that I learned yesterday.

Chef Wolf gives us a grilling demo...

The Original Skyline Chili

Print or download the recipe:
Cincinnati Chili

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Have you ever been to Cincinnati? I hadn't until after 20 years of eating my mom's homemade Cincinnati Chili. She got the recipe from a newspaper clipping that her native Ohioan friend found in the '70s. It was one of my all-time favorite meals growing up; the distinctive smell filling the house as it simmered on the stove would send me into ecstasies. Then I went to an actual Skyline Chili restaurant on the actual Ohio river, and it tasted exactly like Mom's. There are lots of recipes out there claiming to be Cincinnati Chili, and Skyline claims the original recipe is a well-kept family secret. But people? I'm pretty sure this is the real deal.

This is the same recipe my mom's used for years, with two minor alterations. There's more meat, because why not? And the cooking process is slightly reordered to achieve the most flavor possible from all the different ingredients (e.g. cooking the spices with the browned meat instead of adding them after the liquid). Here's the drill.

Zesty Asparagus Salad

I might give up on the whole step-by-step photo thing. At least most of the time. Because most of the time the best things I make are things I think up on the spot, like this asparagus salad. So if I keep limiting myself to posting things with step-by-step photos I'm going to keep blogging infrequently. Plus, there are some things I make that are just so simple there's no point to step-by-step photos. Like this asparagus salad, which I served alongside seared chicken breast and fresh-made croutons. It was a light, delicious, and refreshing meal. And pretty!

Here's the recipe:

Glazed Orange Cake

Print or download the recipe:

Glazed Orange Cake

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When asked to bring dessert for dinner at a friend's place, I altered the Cook's Illustrated recipe for basic sponge cake and turned it into a wicked delicious glazed orange cake, which paired perfectly with the oriental flavors of the main course. Ah, I love it when things I invent turn out well. Unlike the chocolate mousse cake I tried to make a week ago which literally fell apart (but it still tasted amazing as a "trifle"), this cake turned out perfectly. It was light and sweet and slightly tangy and simply delightful.

So here's the scoop.