the au ju tastes like au ju!!!

i was so tired yesterday. thinking about not going back to school next year. and just becoming a barista. sounded good in my exausted mind.

but today i awoke in a better mood. had a diff chef teach class today, and this guy was just what i needed. he ran around yelled alot and was fun as hell. like chef willy wonka(but italian). and after a few days of re-thinking school and being pissed. i realized, you never know what strange thing will happen and bring you back up. 

today it was a crazy man in white, and a shared note. 

"i'll give you the window seat"

what will it be tomorrow?

remember to smile.

goodby.


hello.



its going to be a long week.

a day in the life...

above: cooked veal, raw veal, carrots, boque garni, onions, leek, bread, knife!!!!
today we made a bunch more french stuff i dont like. and the names are silly so ill spare you. but we did braising and stewing.

the beer was for a beef dish that is seared then put in the oven for two hours. and that is june in the background, she's cool.

this is braised escrole, brasing was not needed, it gets all mushy. may i repeat, damn french.

we also cut up some chickens for tomorrow but the pics i took on my phone didnt save, oops. (i also wish id taken pics of chicken marionette, and fish-head puppet day)

i am enjoying school, and i know the french "created" fine dining. but i dont care. at this point iv decided that the process is whats importent. many times i find myself mentaly blocking all the french worship. whatever. im tired and dont want to type allot. but i must include a conversation i had with our assistant dean last week. chef zonka-she can be nice. but i almost just walked away mid "lesson". ill skip to the good part.

chef Z: well, I'd neve hire someone with tattoos on their hands.
me: thats ok chef, i'll never apply to such a close-minded kitchen.
chef Z: then you might have trouble finding a job.
me: dont worry about me chef, ill be fine.

i like to be a nice person. its easier than being an ass. and i do respect my superiors(sp?). but.....well.....hmmmmmm......ill stop here.

oh, and i also set a kid in my class straight today for being the racist hillbilly he is(immagine if adam sandler was 19 and his front teeth stuck out a bit into this goofy smile). the girl above, june, he calls "june-pow". and all the times he makes dumb comments about "mexicans". today was the line for me after some "mexican low-rider" joke with a dust pan.
me: you know johnny hayseed, white guys drive low-riders too.
JH: johnny hayseed? whats that?
me: thats your new name if you keep calling june, june-pow, and saying dumb white-trash things. im a white guy from a town of 1,300 people and IM offended by your ignorance. keep cleaning please..

i dont sound like im becoming jaded? do i?

just another day...

sunday lunch.

sunday i made lunch from stuff i found in kits kitchen. thats an important skill to have as a cook, so i like to do it. to look at everything you have and make some tasty treats. lucky for me she has lots of veggies. so i made fritters(a great brunch item-and easy)
cabbage/carrot/corn fritters.
its just cabbage, corn, carrots, soy milk, egg whites(left over from the flan we made thursday), flour, oregano, garlic powder(or fresh), chili flakes. salt/prpper
i didnt mesure anything, sorry. but its not hard just mix it all together till its a slurry. and fry in a pan until sexy, like so........


and i made guac too!!!!! that was just red pepper, tomato, avocado, cillantro, and garlic, salt/pepper. and when you make it for two people its fun to put the mix back in the avocado shells. it just looks cute.


all we were missing was sour cream. :(

on the menu tonight. tomotillo and plantain soup(a recipe from my zine-you can make it once i distro it). and mango kulfi(a bangen indian desert(ill put that up later.

im happy iv found someone who likes to cook. kit and i cook ALOT. it makes me happy. and im learning some good stuff too.

wear your friends on your sleeve, carry them always.

last week at the coffee shop, one of the regulars who owns a tattoo shop down the street told me that my tattoos were "inspiring". id never herd that before. it felt nice. he ended up asking me alot of questions about them and while answering i started to see them as one tattoo, not eight.
all have individual meanings but the more i thought about it the more thoes meanings became one. all of them represent friends i have and i believe i was ment to know them and they were ment to be a part of my life. so in my mind, if i was ment to have thies people in my life at one time, it is my duty to cary them around for the rest of my life.
when i get a tattoo, i dont see it as adding somthing to my body. im bringing out somthing that was there the whole time. i just needed to see that it was missing. and once its there it feels like it had always been there. i know, wierd right?
now to business, the squares on my right arm. i got them as kind of the opposite idea of the rest. all others are specific in who they are about. the squares are just that. squares. i was quite lonely in chi. and the squares are empty boxes that i hoped would someday be filled with friends and life in chicago. and now that iv found a good life in the city they are not going to be filled. but instead they will continue around my arm and back to the other arm. interconnecting parts of my life by changing as they reach other tattoos. like the last chapter in a book tieing everything together, stories about monkey'en around, growing older, releasing the hopeless from isolation, and soaring high with great plans and nothing but blue sky ahead. i hope to never stop living such an enchanted life.
many years later, as he faced the firing squad. joshua lucas would rember the sunny day that the first needle touched to his skin. and the many after that. he would think of friends, and lives lived with vigor. all the beautiful people he walked among. and the marks that cover his arms and body. a testament to there great lives and determination.

a lala...lazy day.

because of the cold front that came through this weekend, kit and i decided to stay in all day sunday. we had a bag of live blue crabs, coco, cookies, chips, soy milk, a bunny, and some movies. and in the middle of lunch(it lasted 2 hours) i realized "whoh...this is a day lala would blog about with a bunch of photos and beautiful words" so iv got a bunch of pictures for you.....and beau.....ok just words-mostly spelled wrong.

kits dad got her a huge bag of blue crabs so we filled my sink with water and some salt, and put'em in. crabs are very angry at humans and each other so they fight ALL the time, kinda fun to wach. one crab inparticular was a total badass. so we named him frank, this is frank and kit.



we put all the crabs in a raundau(rondo-kitchen talk) with a little water and steamed them for about 20 min. this is what a pot of cooked crabs looks like. mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.....................





i also clarified some butter to dip the crab meat in. it takes a long time to eat whole crab. lots of breaking and pulling and mess. totally worth it. if you have the time, its very relaxing and a good way to get to know people better, and just talk. one of the things i love most about food. its one of the great mediators of man.
so after about 3 crabs i came to frank. a little advice. never name somthing that you will eat 8 hours later. its kinda wierd. frank was no longer blue but bright red. and all the badass had cooked out. lifeless and stairing me in the face, frank said " this is an important day, act as it is, so i will not have died in vain". wow, thanks buddy.
"R.I.P.- frank. 2007-2008"


movies, coco, and cookies after that, and i stayed true to franks words.


and i got 'merica boots on saturday. yay 'merica!!!!!!!!!!!

from an attic on a corner

this was my fron porch this morning, waking up after a fun private coffe shop party to 8 feet of snow and no school already makes this a good day.
also,
-got a job painting the effen vodka offices' on sunday for 10 an hour. scrach!!!!
-its warm
-being given a paper crane, that opens into...........
............awesome.

snow angles!!!!!!!!!!!