Official Update

It's been forever since I have updated my blog and I am sorry. I graduated on May 20, 2011 from Johnson & Wales and received an associates degree in culinary arts with honors. I wore a black cap and gown and had a gold rope for completing the honor's program and I had a gold sash for having a high GPA. It was a great graduation I got to see all my friends and classmates again and then my family went to a cook out with Drew's family at Lake Norman. They had a cake made for us and it was made by a former JWU grad! I then went home to spend a week with my family that was great and it was what I needed.

I then had to go back to reality and go to work, and we changed a few things on the menu and are planning to change some more later in the season! I did get to do something fun and volunteer for Special Olympics Championship, that was so fun and so hot outside. All the athletes were so excited to compete and they were good! I worked the long jump event.

I recently have been thinking and praying about making this internship into a full time job. So I talked with my chef about the possibility and we made a deal and I think I'm going to take it :) He has let me finish my internship and come home for the rest of the summer and then he will have a job for me to come back to sometime in the fall season. I finished my internship and am back home!

Now I'm home with my family and all our animals. The day after I got home officially Mayday our goat had twin baby goats :) They are tiny and both girls. They have little legs and are still wobble and they fall down with their legs spwalded out, it's so cute. We named them Sugar and Spice! That was exciting.

Since I have been home I have gotten to cook supper alot and help mom plan supper around what we get out of the garden or at the farmers market. We have had so many good meals!

Yesterday mom and dad took me out to eat and I have to tell you about this wonderful restaurant. It's called Nana's located in Durham, NC. The dining room had a great calm atmosphere and was decorated very fancy and elegant with white table cloths and local artists displayed their masterpieces on the wall. The servers worked in a semi-brigade with the head server who tended to the table and took orders and changed the flatware. Then one server only did bread and refills and another brought out the food. This was very similar to what we did and was tested on in Dining Room Class at school. So it was neat to watch and remember what I had to do in that class. The restaurant is a farm to table style french restaurant and has a new menu every month depending on the season. So after mom and dad had asked me a million questions about what was on the menu and what it was lol then it was time to order! We shared an appetizer which was a Risotto with Chanterelle mushrooms and roasted red peppers and sweet corn topped with apple wood smoked bacon. It was delicious, very creamy and very flavorful. For the entrees Dad ordered a Black Angus beef tenderloin over eggplant ratatouille with bearnaise sauce. Mom ordered pan roasted scallops over summer sweet corn with haricot verts and topped with a rock shrimp and tomatillo sauce. I ordered cast iron roasted duck breast with mango relish over Moroccan couscous and cherry tomatoes with a chilli relleno stuffed with spinach & goatcheese. Oh my goodness they all were amazing! And we were celebrating my birthday early and the chef surprised me and made a special white peach souffle with lavender honey anglaise sauce and a candle on it! It was very very good and cooked perfectly. We also ordered a blackberry tartlette topped with a wildflower honey ice cream. Lets just say it was a delicious night and a great birthday dinner.

My Duck Breast                                                                         Blackberry Tart

 

Mom's Dish

Today I had foot surgery to fix my bunion because it has been bothering me especially when I work 9 hour shifts in the kitchen. So since chef gave me some time off I decided to go ahead and get it done so I will have enough time to recover and be back on fresh feet when I get back to take my job. It went good I'm still nice and numb so not in pain yet. I had a pleasant surprise visit from Mike and Angela and they brought me my first care package full of goodies and candy! It was so so nice of them to do that, thank you two.

So the plan is to recover well and quickly from surgery and come out with a strong foot in the end. I hope to get a part time job that I can sit down sometimes while I'm here at home. I am considering starting with Pampered Chef because it would be something I love doing. I want to save up some money while at home so when I go down to Florida I have some to lean on. Then I hope to start my full time job, hopefully, and start some classes that will go toward my Nutrition Degree. That's the plan and that's my goal so far. I have plenty of time to think and pray about my goals while I recover.

This is my officially update sorry it took so long.

P.S. Tomorrow is my birthday!!

Mother's Day Today

My brother and sister missed me alot! It was so good to see them, on Thursday I met them at their hotel and we went and ate breakfast then we went shopping at the Florida mall and we took Nolan to the m&m world. We went back and swam in the pool and had fun then got hungry so we ate at KFC at like 9 pm and I got to show them my apartment and stay with them the rest of the night since I didn't have to work. On Friday we played put put and ate lunch at sweet tomato and then went to downtown Disney and walked around and watched Soul Surfer, which was a really good movie. We ate seafood that night and then we had to say goodbye :( Nolan brought me some eggs from our chickens and mom brought me my Easter basket and she fixed it up and wrapped it in a bag so I would have to open it on Sunday morning! I loved that, I missed being there on Easter morning very badly but having a basket to open just like always made it better and made my Easter special! We did dye eggs at work and gave them out to the kids, that was cool!

So lets see its been two weeks since Easter. So I will go through the highlights, we had a room inspection and we received the white glove award, yay! I got to shadow at the Grand F. Cafe and that was alot of fun, I met new people and new chefs and did some networking! And Chef Amy that I met there I found out today that she is transferring to Cinderellas soon, my chef told me it was a secret right now though. But im excited she is an amazing chef and she has a ton of great recommendations. The past two Friday and Saturdays have been Grad Night and our restaurant closes early so our shifts are shorter for the day time and the night shift gets out at like 6:30 instead of 11:30. Today was the last Grad Night and I worked the morning shift and then stayed till 6:30 cause the night shift needed more people. So today I worked 12 hours, but I got off and took a nap and watched a movie and went to the hot tub. My roommate's birthday was on Cinco de Mayo and that was fun, yummy guacamole!

I found out my boyfriend got an internship for the summer here, and he got placed at Cinderella's!!! Isn't that crazy the chef that interviewed him had over 30 spots to place him and he put him at my place. I told him I am the princess in the castle and maybe he can be my prince! We work good in the kitchen together so I think it will be fun. There is officially 23 days till he gets here.
I graduate in 13 days! Which is crazy to think about. Me. . I am graduating college! And by the way since I am counting there is only 75 days till my birthday!

The clock just turned to 12 and it is now Mother's Day. I want to say I am so thankful for my mom and all she does for me, I couldn't ask for anything more. I also am thankful for my ma maw beach and for everything she does for me and she supports me in. And to all my "second moms" I love you and I am always thankful to have you in my life. Happy Mother's Day to all the wonderful moms that have touched my life. And Happy Mother's Day to my mommy, I love you!

I love the great women in my life!

Not so homesick now

This week we officially opened up the full restaurant because the renovations got finished. So now we serve about 500-700 people for breakfast and the same for lunch and at least 1000 for dinner. I have been working breakfast and lunch most of the week, and they put me on a new station, domo which is a large puff pastry with cabernet sauce and a scoop of mash potatoes and then a scoop of roast beef and sauteed vegetables on top then an aoli sauce drizzled on top. I also got to work saute for one day. Then the past two days I have worked nights and got to work fryer one day and saute the other. There where so many orders of fish since it's getting closer to Easter and people are on lent or fasting they only eat fish or vegetarian, which is the two dishes that saute does. So the day I worked saute we were slammed! This whole week me and my amazing roommate had the same schedule so I was nice and took her to work everyday and picked her up so she didn't have to ride the bus. We are getting along really well and I am so glad I have her as my roommate and not any of the other girls in my apartment. They are all really nice but we don't always get along with each other, but I guess that's what you expect from a room full of 6 girls. This week I have been talking to my chef about shadowing at other places around Disney, and he got me a day to shadow at the Grand Floridian next week! One of my suite mates works at one of the cafes in the Grand so she met me there after work and showed me where to park and where to go in. That place is huge! and it's gorgeous they had a jazz band playing in the lobby and then when they got done a piano player came out and played on a huge grand piano(I really wanted to play that piano when he wasn't there, I miss playing). So I am really excited about going over there to see their kitchen and I am supposed to meet Chef Amy, who will be the first female chef I have met since I have been here. But my chef told me he would introduce me to a few other really great female chefs around Disney!
Two days ago I got to go meet up with my aunt and cousin and ma maw in St. Petersburg, which I found out is only an hour and twenty minutes away. I got to see my cousin's house, which is beautiful I really want to live there! and I got to meet all her dogs and see her town where she lives. It was such a cute little artsy downtown with lots of restaurants and bakeries and a peer. If I can't find a job anywhere I can just go there and I will be happy. But it was so good to see them and spend time with them we went and ate at a really good french restaurant! Now I know where I can go and visit if I get homesick again or if I need anything.
Today Mom, Melissa, and Nolan got here, but I was at work. I get to go see them in the morning and spend my two days off with them. I'm so excited :) I have missed them so much and they just came up to see me for a few days, yay! So I can't wait till tomorrow morning! I will update on what all we end up doing soon.

Lobster Fun

Sorry I haven't  updated in a while I have been super busy. So I told you about my promotion to saute station well the next day they put me on grill, which is the station that changed alot when the menu changed so I had to be refreshed on what to do, but after the first couple of tickets I got the hang of it. I cooked the rack of lamb for the lamb dish which has Israel cous cous with mushrooms and cherry tomatoes and sauteed zucchini topped with 4 slices of rack of lamb with an apricot sauce and a mint oil drizzled on the side.Then the pork edtufe  dish is built with a round mold and I put two scoops of corn spoon bread and pulled pork then press that down and put braised swiss chard on top and surround the mold with edtufe sauce, then pull the mold off and top with bacon. Both dishes are very tasty but have alot of work in plating them. I also grill the kids mahi mahi and the asparagus for the tenderloin station. I did well on grill so now when I work nights I have been working saute and grill. Yay. The renovations in the dining room are almost done, so lately we have been really slow, but sometime next week we will be back up to speed. Last night we were super slow and chef ordered in some lobster so we had fun with them posing them for pictures and having lobster battles and then we cooked them just for us and ate them for supper with some melted butter, they were SO yummy.

A few days this week I worked mornings too and usually they just put me on salads or dessert station but one day they put me on saute to see how I would do, and I did good the morning chef told me that I was one of the best college program students he has ever had, he said most of the students that come in don't work hard and don't know what they are doing and don't use common sense! I talked with some people that have stayed working here since their college program and asked them how they liked it and what they thought. One guy told me he finished the college program and went to seasonal status to stay on the pay roll and just worked over the summer while he finished school and then came back and got a job offer and has been here ever since. He said it's great cause there are so many places to work and if you get bored or want to work somewhere else you can transfer and don't have to worry about quiting and finding a new job like in the real world. Then I also talked with some people that have worked here for 25 years and asked for their wisdom and their advice on what to do for my career, it was neat to hear what different people said but basically they said do everything, learn it all and move around! So that is my plan while I am here I already asked several places about shadowing other restaurants and resorts.

Today I had  a day off and went to the doctor and then went searching for hotels for mom and then went to Epcot. I walked around the whole park and found some restaurants that I want to eat at when I have money. I got to sit down and eat at the Mexico area and it was the perfect spot to watch the Reflections of the Earth light show so I stayed and watched that. When I was sitting there an elder couple came up and asked if they could share the other half of the table since there were no more seats, and of course I said yes. So they started talking about how they live in the area and they brought their grandchildren here when they came down and had one more day left on the ticket so they came and walked in all the shops and looked around by themselves. They asked me about what I do and how I liked it. Then they found out I worked at Cinderella's and they said on one of the days their family was here their grandchildren went and ate breakfast there. So then they called their daughter and told her that they just met one of the cooks that made their breakfast in the castle. It was neat to see how excited they were and to hear about how much they enjoyed the food and the restaurant. I don't really get to interact with the guests that much but I do get to have an impact on them. When I got back from Epcot I had a letter from a friend waiting on my bed for me. It really made me smile and the two penguins (Waldo and Rubert) are now beside my snow globe to keep my room nice a cool :)

A visitor and a package all in one week!

After a long day of work, where everything seemed to go wrong, on Thursday night the 31st I had a surprise visitor that made it all better, my wonderful boyfriend drove down to visit me from Charlotte since he didn't have to work. :) It was so good to see him and to take him around to meet everyone and to show him where I live and what I do. He is so good to me he had another surprise, he gave me a promise ring when he got here, and he told me he was promising to always be here for me even if we are far away and that he is going to wait for me as long as we need to, and wait to do anything until we were married. He said he wanted to show me how serious he was about our relationship and that we wasn't going to let something good get away just because we had to work at it. Isn't that sweet! And the ring is gorgeous. On Friday we got to go to the parks because I got my guest pass in the mail. We went to animal kingdom, Epcot, and Hollywood studios and back to Epcot to watch the light show, it was a good ending of a wonderful day. Then Saturday we just hung out and took it easy, I took him to my little paradise and it was a nice day to rest, then he had to drive back so he could work Sunday. Then my work week started back on Sunday working in the mornings and I got to work downstairs in the prep kitchen cutting kiwi, strawberries, apples, making the shrimp cocktail appetizer, making some sauces for upstairs and lots of other stuff. It was fun to see all the prep work of the things that I use upstairs, and I was happy to actually use a knife, since I haven't used one since I have been here (other than at my apartment). When I was cutting  the tops off of strawberries I found one that looked like a smiley face, and another lady found one that had a flower shape and one with a heart shape! I worked breakfast and lunch on the line the next day. Then I had two days off and I got to hang out with my roommates and watch a movie and make cookies! My first day off I took my roommate to the dentist she had to get a root canal :( and it rained but then it cleared up and we went to the movie theater in downtown Disney cause on Tuesday there is a special and the price is cheap, that theater was huge they had their own food court inside and they had cool drink machines that had every flavor of coke products you just tap the screen and pick a drink and then pick any flavor, it was neat! We watched Hop, it was a cute movie. Then my other day off I went to the doctor in the morning and got back and cooked some delicious french toast, that I had been craving for a while. Then me and my other roommate went to Hollywood studios for the rest of the day since it was so nice outside. Now we are up to today I worked the night shift and  this time I got promoted to a new station, saute yay! Over the whole night I bet I made over 70 cobia fish dishes and maybe 30 casolette bean dishes. I did good at keeping up with the orders and making sure I had enough fish cooked, even though my oven was not staying at the right temperature so it was taking longer to cook all the way through. My chef said I did good, so hopefully that means I get to work that station again tomorrow. When I got home from work I had a HUGE package on my bed from mom!!!! It had lots of food :) like trail mix, hamburger helper, brownies, macaroni, and Easter candy- sour patch jelly beans(I didn't know they made those), Peeps (already ate half the box :/ and I got a letter and most important, my soccer shoes! I was so happy to get a package, and my mommy knows me so well she had everything that I like in there. I love her! Oh and as of today I have officially been here at Disney for one month.

4th Week

Well this exciting week started on Sunday morning being at work at 6:30 AM I worked the breakfast shift and the lunch appetizers. I think I like working mornings other than waking up so early and not seeing the sun rise, but I don't loose my whole day. I got off at 4 from work and came home changed clothes, then walked to my recently found paradise a little lake across the road where they have white sand and hammocks! I spent a few hours reading a book while laying in a hammock soaking up some sun, it was nice. Monday I worked PM again and was on the fryer station we were really busy, but I kept up, yay! Tuesday I had the day off and I found

a marathon of law and order svu on tv that made me happy and I made pasta salad yum. Then me and my roommate went out to eat and went to walmart along with a million other people. Today I worked PM shift and apparently there was a tornado watch while I was at work and I was up in a castle good thing there was not a tornado, but it was raining alot. I worked on the fryer station again and did really really good all day long until the last turn of the night I ran out of roasted chicken and had to cook one at the last minute so that ticket was a little late, oops. So far I love it here and I really enjoy working in the kitchen and getting to meet new people. Oh and one of my many dreams came true, I got to meet pooh bear!

My day off, their senior trip

Today I had a day off from work, and I got to meet up with a group of the seniors, Mr. Manning and Mrs. Avery and hang out with them all day, that was fun. We went to Hollywood Studios and Epcot and then they went to pack at their hotel and I went to find my car, which I got a little lost but I did find it after about 20 minutes or more of walking in the 95 degree sun, good thing I had on sunscreen(yes mom I really did listen to you). Then I found a new grocery store and got my food for the week. But now I am getting a little homesick and missing everyone, seeing all them made me miss home more but at the same time it gave me a taste of home enough to hold me over until mom and dad and everyone gets here, which is only a few weeks away! It's a little weird and scary to talk to the seniors about them starting college and giving them advice on things cause I still think of them as sophomores and I thought it was just yesterday when I was a senior. But at the same time it's neat to see where I have been and how far I have come. They all were talking about being scared of leaving home and meeting new people and having to live with them and I just think about how I felt the same way but now it's different I've already done that like three times now. I can really see how much I have grown from that little freshman and how I have matured and become more independent. It seems like now that I have gotten out of my comfort box I have more dreams and goals that I want to reach, like this adventure in Disney! All my family and friends that have been in my life forever have helped me become who I am and who I am becoming but I know for a fact that if certain things hadn't happened or certain people hadn't been put in my path I would not be here and I would not be the same person. So back to my original thought, I am so glad I got to see the seniors and spend time with them and talk to them about things they were concerned about.They are currently getting on the train right now and I pray their trip home is safe and enjoyable. Good luck class of 2011
Well I am going to go rest and watch a movie and make greeting cards!! Oh I never gave you all my address, I forgot here it is: 13501 Meadow Creek Drive Apt. #3905 Orlando, FL 32821