Posted by: StephanieRN
On Thursday I got a phone call from Tyrone saying that he wanted to have some friends (Chasity and Janel)over that night that he knew from Mercy Ships and of course I said sure. It was so fun to meet people that Tyrone and known before me and get to know them. Tyrone made us yummy frozen coffee drinks and I baked cookies and we chatted the night away. I think that at times it was Tyrone that felt out numbered being that he was the only guy, but he loved it.
Friday, October 12, 2007
Chocolate truffle ravioli with...
So I guess my playing around with the pasta roller 'rolled' on over into work.
As of the beginning of this week (maybe earlier, I don't know) our International Board (capitalization?) was here at the Operations Center for conferences and meetings. Meaning: they wanted us to plan some lunches that would be lite (mind read salads) so possible board members would be more alert for 'meetings' and such...And because they would be taking them out to eat dinner later in the evening for a more 'full' meal. But anyways...
One of the desserts led me to get a little creative. Using a chocolate truffle recipe that Gary (fellow Chef) gave me and some fresh made pastas rolled thru the machine, we put together our Chocolate Truffle Ravioli with a Vanilla Bean & Cardamom White Sauce accented with a Raspberry Glaze...Yes, I know - How delicious! hahaha!
The trick with the fresh pastas is frying it which melts down those oo-ee gooey truffle centers...enjoy the slide show:
As of the beginning of this week (maybe earlier, I don't know) our International Board (capitalization?) was here at the Operations Center for conferences and meetings. Meaning: they wanted us to plan some lunches that would be lite (mind read salads) so possible board members would be more alert for 'meetings' and such...And because they would be taking them out to eat dinner later in the evening for a more 'full' meal. But anyways...
One of the desserts led me to get a little creative. Using a chocolate truffle recipe that Gary (fellow Chef) gave me and some fresh made pastas rolled thru the machine, we put together our Chocolate Truffle Ravioli with a Vanilla Bean & Cardamom White Sauce accented with a Raspberry Glaze...Yes, I know - How delicious! hahaha!
The trick with the fresh pastas is frying it which melts down those oo-ee gooey truffle centers...enjoy the slide show:
Monday, October 8, 2007
One by One...
Posted by: StephanieRN
As the time comes closer to moving out of our apartment and onto the base then eventually onto the ship my things (my lovely, wonderful possessions) find new homes. Today my dining table and chairs got packed onto a truck and hauled away. It was bitter sweet. I probably won't miss my table per-say, but the girl that I am attaches memories to my things. But then again, because our belonging are gone we have much more flexibility in order to live on a ship and live out our dreams. Oh man, if I get this emotional over my table I imagine I will be a mess when I have to see my amazing collection of shoes step into new feet.
As the time comes closer to moving out of our apartment and onto the base then eventually onto the ship my things (my lovely, wonderful possessions) find new homes. Today my dining table and chairs got packed onto a truck and hauled away. It was bitter sweet. I probably won't miss my table per-say, but the girl that I am attaches memories to my things. But then again, because our belonging are gone we have much more flexibility in order to live on a ship and live out our dreams. Oh man, if I get this emotional over my table I imagine I will be a mess when I have to see my amazing collection of shoes step into new feet.
Saturday, October 6, 2007
Pasta Roller, Pantry, & Packing
Tonight I made a simple tomato sauce with canned (that's right, Muir Glen organic fire-roasted) tomatoes, garlic, oregano, and a little red wine. Oh yeah, a little of the extra virgin olive oil.
The pasta was pretty simple, a pinch of salt, cup and half flour, pour of oil, and a few eggs...when it starts coming together in little balls is a good sign just to smoosh it all together in a ball and let it rest in the fridge for about 15 minutes. Roll it thru the pasta roller down to 2, my pasta roller goes from the high numbers to
the low. Our pasta roller at work goes from low to high, kinda crazy huh?!Instead of going the simple (or hard?) way of rolling it thru the fettuccine or spaghetti cutter I cut 2-inch squares and finger egg-washed the edges of the square folding the sheets over some pan sauteed leftover spinach mixed with some shredded provolone cheese. (I threw a quick fix of cajun seasoning in there too...just for good measure.)
Read the labels on your spice mixes if you have them, usually no matter what they call it there are a few that have all the flavors you want. Like Cajun seasoning, it usually has some salt, pepper, cayenne, garlic, onion, etc...and 'other' assorted spices. I usually don't buy spice mixes because I have so much of everything I can make about any mix I want. But there are a few that seem to be good quick solutions to bump up a little flavor.
Anyway...Maybe you remember a few posts ago about Konop Meat Market in Wisconsin and how my mother-in-law bought up a bunch of meat for me? Well, I oven-roasted them in foil. They were called Swiss & Mushroom Brats (totally pork) and maybe you're saying they didn't really go with the pasta and sauce...but you can't tell my stomach or my wife that. We are sitting pretty with a smile on our faces.
Last but not least, I had some sweet white wine I wanted to use up so I poached a few fresh pears I had with a little cinnamon sugar mixture (I also wanted to get rid of). Made a little caramel-type sauce with the leftover juices and poured them over the pears which were on top of some puff pastry (that I also had in the freezer begging to be used). Yes, it could have been better but nobody cared to go get the ice cream so we had to suffer and eat it like it was.
Kinda made me feel like a 'Door Knock Dinner' success...what is that? It's an old Food Network show where...oh never mind.
Monday, October 1, 2007
Ethical Fried Chicken and a caterers dilemma...
Suppose your business was asked to cater a backyard picnic for forty that consisted of several side dishes say like: texas caviar (a blackeyed pea cold salad kind of dish), potato salad, spinach salad, corn bread. The main dish is Fried Chicken.
Lets say your commercial kitchen was not really outfitted for a fryer but added a small one (and I mean small, one basket tabletop) as a side thought 'just in case' would be the reply.
After cooking all the other dishes for the event you had the bright idea of saving yourselves some time and headache and increasing your chances for delivering hot, juicy (maybe still crunchy, the event was 30 minutes away from our kitchen) fried chicken by just picking up several 'mixed' chicken buckets from a local fried chicken place (closer to event, 5 minutes away) and then just putting them, the buckets of chicken, in your chafing dishes.
What would be the harm in that? Is there some line the caterers would cross by doing that? Or, is it ethical?
Hmmm...there is a poll please cast your vote or leave me a comment. Just leave a comment please, crusty old poll froze up on me!!!
[poll=1]
Lets say your commercial kitchen was not really outfitted for a fryer but added a small one (and I mean small, one basket tabletop) as a side thought 'just in case' would be the reply.
After cooking all the other dishes for the event you had the bright idea of saving yourselves some time and headache and increasing your chances for delivering hot, juicy (maybe still crunchy, the event was 30 minutes away from our kitchen) fried chicken by just picking up several 'mixed' chicken buckets from a local fried chicken place (closer to event, 5 minutes away) and then just putting them, the buckets of chicken, in your chafing dishes.
What would be the harm in that? Is there some line the caterers would cross by doing that? Or, is it ethical?
Hmmm...there is a poll please cast your vote or leave me a comment. Just leave a comment please, crusty old poll froze up on me!!!
[poll=1]
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Blue Mesa
Stephanie and I got...[Uh, yeah sorry for the interruption. Here is an update:]
While being back in Dallas for travel we went back to Blue Mesa and now I am glad I just saved this as a draft that I almost never got back to...because this last time was HORRIBLE.
Service, food, everything.
Imagine chicken tortilla soup tasting like a watered-down version of Campbell's vegetable soup. There was nothing that made it discernable from a bad chicken and veggie soup. Maybe if you squint and close one eye you can imagine seeing a few sprigs or flakes of cilantro? Nah, I can't taste it.
Eat at your own risk.
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Michael Ruhlman - The Elements of Cooking
The Elements Of Cooking, by Michael Ruhlman.
An article/blog by a colleague of his can be viewed at this link -
A Hunger Artist:
The Elements of Cooking by Bob Del Grosso...or an Amazon article at this link - Essay.
If you reference my 'Tyrone' page on the right panel I have a pictorial of a few culinary books I have referenced or read in the past and Michael Ruhlman has written at least 3 of them.
I will be excited to read how Michael 'puts it down on paper.
The Elements of Cooking by Bob Del Grosso...or an Amazon article at this link - Essay.
If you reference my 'Tyrone' page on the right panel I have a pictorial of a few culinary books I have referenced or read in the past and Michael Ruhlman has written at least 3 of them.
I will be excited to read how Michael 'puts it down on paper.
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Backup
So I (we) was in a couple of stores tonight to buy an external hard drive to backup our laptops on and I turned and said to my wife, "What do you think? The Seagate, or the WD My Book?" She looks at the boxes, then she looks at me...then she says, "Give them to me so I can see which one is lighter, thats the one I think we should get!"
No comment.
No comment.
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Hometown, homegrown, homemade...
Whatever you want to call it, specialty places, stores/food services that have been in place for generations...that's what real food is made from, or at least originally came from. I am glad to see that these days have not gone by the wayside yet.
Although I was a bit disappointed that Krohn Dairy Store would not let me tour the facilities (9/11, regulations, insurance, blah blah blah) I still managed to get my hands on some fresh samples and Judy (my mother-in-law) made sure we went away with a few pounds of their best cheese and cheese curds.
Mark Konop at Konops Meat Market seemed a little taken back that I would actually want to see his families operations...apologizing that the particular day we came there was not a whole lot of 'excitement' going on, but come tomorrow...that's ok Mark, I had to get back to work.
I would have gotten more pictures but I didn't want to get anyone nervous.
And don't ya know, after packing all that meat and cheese in my check-in bag I had one of those 'inspection' tags in my luggage upon returning home and unzipping it to put it away. It was sittin' right on top...and luckily for them, nothin' was missing!!!
Although I was a bit disappointed that Krohn Dairy Store would not let me tour the facilities (9/11, regulations, insurance, blah blah blah) I still managed to get my hands on some fresh samples and Judy (my mother-in-law) made sure we went away with a few pounds of their best cheese and cheese curds.
Mark Konop at Konops Meat Market seemed a little taken back that I would actually want to see his families operations...apologizing that the particular day we came there was not a whole lot of 'excitement' going on, but come tomorrow...that's ok Mark, I had to get back to work.
I would have gotten more pictures but I didn't want to get anyone nervous.
And don't ya know, after packing all that meat and cheese in my check-in bag I had one of those 'inspection' tags in my luggage upon returning home and unzipping it to put it away. It was sittin' right on top...and luckily for them, nothin' was missing!!!
Friday, September 7, 2007
Freezer to Green Bay
Well, this week we had quite a challenge at the IOC kitchen. Our walk-in freezer went down...actually I think by the time we realized it was not keeping temp it could have been down for 24 hours. We do not frequent our freezer every day, it's not necessary.
We called US Foods & Sysco but to no avail. Neither could produce a trailer with refrigeration(freezer capabilities) at 4pm in the afternoon (which seems kind of hoky to me), but tried to promise one first thing the next day. But of course, that would be too late...we were a bit disappointed with the food companies.
But we got it all squared away ourselves and for now, our walk-in refrigerator is maxed out. We'll just cook/make our everyday menu out of the thawing meats and products as they become defrosted and in order of the most likely to go bad first. We think we have a pretty good chance at staying one step ahead of having to waste anything. That was yesterday...
Today I am getting ready to leave work..we (my wife and I) will be attending a marriage up in Green Bay, WI. This is Stephanie's extended family(Grandma, Uncles, Aunts, Cousins, etc...). And it will be a good time to spend with them since all her immediate family will be there as well.
We'll be flying out of Dallas in the morning...(yawn) 4 am comes quick!
We called US Foods & Sysco but to no avail. Neither could produce a trailer with refrigeration(freezer capabilities) at 4pm in the afternoon (which seems kind of hoky to me), but tried to promise one first thing the next day. But of course, that would be too late...we were a bit disappointed with the food companies.
But we got it all squared away ourselves and for now, our walk-in refrigerator is maxed out. We'll just cook/make our everyday menu out of the thawing meats and products as they become defrosted and in order of the most likely to go bad first. We think we have a pretty good chance at staying one step ahead of having to waste anything. That was yesterday...
Today I am getting ready to leave work..we (my wife and I) will be attending a marriage up in Green Bay, WI. This is Stephanie's extended family(Grandma, Uncles, Aunts, Cousins, etc...). And it will be a good time to spend with them since all her immediate family will be there as well.
We'll be flying out of Dallas in the morning...(yawn) 4 am comes quick!
Sunday, September 2, 2007
I am so excited!!
Posted by: Stephanie
Almost 10 years ago I met this girl who had just finished 2 years with Anastasis in the Drama Department. She showed me the video about Mercy ships and talked to me about how Mercy Ships brings hope and healing to the poorest of the poor. I was in college at the time.... well mostly I was skipping classes, developing an impressive social life and wardrobe. One night after talking to her I went home found the Mercy Ships website and for the first time in my life I had clarity and purpose for my life. I knew then that Mercy Ships was for me. That summer I worked at Hume Lake Christian Camps and had a mentor nmed Stephanie. We went through all of my strengths and weaknesses and pretty much just picked the career of nursing. At the end of the summer I got really sick and spent a long time in the hospital and God placed the desire in my heart to be a nurse and re-sparked my desire to go work with Mercy ships. After bit more screwing around in college, I over heard one of my so called friends telling another girl I would never make it through nursing school or to the ship. That one comment was the turning point for me, when I enrolled for my courses that semester I new it would be different this time. Not only would I finish these courses but I would do well and this time I had the motivation of not only proving that I could do it, I also knew that I wanted to work with Mercy ships in Africa and Nursing was my vehicle. So in 2004 I served 1 year on the Caribbean Mercy as a nurse. In January, almost 10 years from that day I watched that video my husband (Tyrone, whom I met on the ship) and I are heading to Sierra Leone to work on the Africa Mercy. I will be working as a nurse and Tyrone will be working as the Cheif Cook. My plan was much different, but God is so good and His plans are much better than mine. I am so excited to be on the ship with Tyrone using the talents God gave us, to serve Him and truely bring hope and healing to those in need.
Almost 10 years ago I met this girl who had just finished 2 years with Anastasis in the Drama Department. She showed me the video about Mercy ships and talked to me about how Mercy Ships brings hope and healing to the poorest of the poor. I was in college at the time.... well mostly I was skipping classes, developing an impressive social life and wardrobe. One night after talking to her I went home found the Mercy Ships website and for the first time in my life I had clarity and purpose for my life. I knew then that Mercy Ships was for me. That summer I worked at Hume Lake Christian Camps and had a mentor nmed Stephanie. We went through all of my strengths and weaknesses and pretty much just picked the career of nursing. At the end of the summer I got really sick and spent a long time in the hospital and God placed the desire in my heart to be a nurse and re-sparked my desire to go work with Mercy ships. After bit more screwing around in college, I over heard one of my so called friends telling another girl I would never make it through nursing school or to the ship. That one comment was the turning point for me, when I enrolled for my courses that semester I new it would be different this time. Not only would I finish these courses but I would do well and this time I had the motivation of not only proving that I could do it, I also knew that I wanted to work with Mercy ships in Africa and Nursing was my vehicle. So in 2004 I served 1 year on the Caribbean Mercy as a nurse. In January, almost 10 years from that day I watched that video my husband (Tyrone, whom I met on the ship) and I are heading to Sierra Leone to work on the Africa Mercy. I will be working as a nurse and Tyrone will be working as the Cheif Cook. My plan was much different, but God is so good and His plans are much better than mine. I am so excited to be on the ship with Tyrone using the talents God gave us, to serve Him and truely bring hope and healing to those in need.
Saturday, September 1, 2007
Done...maybe
I think I finally finished playing around with the whole website in general...but maybe to come back and finish a page for each one of us. One Tyrone page, one Stephanie page will probably be added on this blog underneath the introduction link on the right hand side for our favorites and such...
Saturday, August 25, 2007
Websites & such...
I have mostly used frontpage to do most of my website work...no code to write and pretty much get anything cool added or on my website. BUT nowadays they have stopped updating frontpage (I think maybe since 2003) and I am trying to grow with everything else in order to keep up...
I have all this great coffee cup software that can do almost anything so I am trying to use its many different stand alone programs, and they even kind of jive together. Right now I am working with the blog feature which is pretty nice. It is real light and less of a hassle than all the other software that you can have on your own host. Like: Wordpress (I changed my mind about this obviously), nucleus, pmachine...
This software was a free download for using Lunarpages as my website host and domain name server...you can check the prices and things and see if its right for you. I really just needed a good host but now that i have been playing around with this software and learned a few more things like php and mysqul databases...whew, now I am having fun!
So bare with me as you may not be able to access things from time to time. As a side note, did you know that Books-A-Million has wifi now? Yep, and if you have one of their BAM cards (which is only 15$ a year - good for discounts too!) you use the number on the card and get the wifi for free. That would be worth 15$ a year...especially the one I like to visit when I am at home. Nice plush chairs, no hassle, 50cent (not the rapper) coffee for life if you buy one of their coffee for life cups.
Yeah, life is good sometimes....then you go to a third world country. And it gets better...you realize you CAN live without all this STUFF. And you enjoy and appreciate it more when you come back to visit on breaks and fund/support raising trips. Oh, and by the way...I borrowed the BAM card and coffee cup from my father. Yep, good ol' dad.
Here's to ya! While I sip my Vanilla Nut Coffee and upload this post.
I have all this great coffee cup software that can do almost anything so I am trying to use its many different stand alone programs, and they even kind of jive together. Right now I am working with the blog feature which is pretty nice. It is real light and less of a hassle than all the other software that you can have on your own host. Like: Wordpress (I changed my mind about this obviously), nucleus, pmachine...
This software was a free download for using Lunarpages as my website host and domain name server...you can check the prices and things and see if its right for you. I really just needed a good host but now that i have been playing around with this software and learned a few more things like php and mysqul databases...whew, now I am having fun!
So bare with me as you may not be able to access things from time to time. As a side note, did you know that Books-A-Million has wifi now? Yep, and if you have one of their BAM cards (which is only 15$ a year - good for discounts too!) you use the number on the card and get the wifi for free. That would be worth 15$ a year...especially the one I like to visit when I am at home. Nice plush chairs, no hassle, 50cent (not the rapper) coffee for life if you buy one of their coffee for life cups.
Yeah, life is good sometimes....then you go to a third world country. And it gets better...you realize you CAN live without all this STUFF. And you enjoy and appreciate it more when you come back to visit on breaks and fund/support raising trips. Oh, and by the way...I borrowed the BAM card and coffee cup from my father. Yep, good ol' dad.
Here's to ya! While I sip my Vanilla Nut Coffee and upload this post.
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