Chef Crazy

Mike decided to take a weeklong motorcycle trip to Wisconsin leaving me home. Wah, wah, I know. What's a girl to do?  I decided it'd be best to dive into Culinary Arts Course at Iowa State.  Obviously, I have in-laws who allow me to take advantage of things like this. 

Otherwise, I'd be nothing more than a desperate housewife eating tater tots. 

It started out Monday morning and I swear I learned more in 2-1/2 hours than I did in 4 years at ISU- maturity matters.  For example, I learned how to breakdown a chicken.  That means knowing which bones to break where to get 8 pieces from each chicken.  Below is my interpretation of "Airline Chicken".  Note the perfect shoulder bone of the chicken standing perpendicular to the breast.  And Goose had nothing to do with it!  Yep, these are the things that get my adrenaline flowing these days.  This was also lunch on Day 1.

The second day was filled with tours of Des Moines Restaurants.  We started out at Pizza Ranch.  G'funk of all people, taught me if you can't say nothin' nice, you shouldn't say anything at all.  Moving on we went to Lakeside Casino to tour their kitchens, buffets and cafes.  The employees there seemed SO burned out.  I've never been SO grateful for my college education.  After that we headed to the Embassy Club Downtown.  It has the best view of Downtown Des Moines EVER.  We ate with the CEO and owner of the Embassy Club.  Below is lunch from day 2.  Apparently I'm 75 years old and have started taking pictures of food. 

This is 4 oz of Iowa Fillet served with the most delicious horseradish sauce I've ever eaten, topped on grilled asparagus, with crispy shallots and a wheat berry salad next to an appetizer of a gazpacho shrimp shooter along toasted baguette with prosciutto.  The dessert was vanilla panna cotta with fresh berries. 

And this was the view from where I sat.

I've added "Become a Chef" to my Bucket List. 

However, Chefs have horrible schedules. 

For example, If I were a Chef, I'd never get to spend my evenings with this little Chef.

Yes, she's wearing hair extensions.  We do those sorts of things around here.

I pray she learns to embrace her Passions, Stop at NOTHING and know the world is SO much bigger than she could ever imagine.

Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food!
Hippocrates