Why, hello, strangers.

Well it’s about halfway through the semester and I’ve learned a ton. I haven’t been very great about updating but I thought I’d catch you guys up on what I’ve been doing.

Sorry for the crappy cell pics. I can’t exactly bring my nice big camera to class while I’m lugging all my other tools. I’m also still a little new to the photoshop thing so things are going to look a little rough around the edges on my picture layouts…

Egg Chapter

Eggs Benedict and Cheese Souffle

Omelette and Quiche

I forgot to fold the omelette over because I was so excited that I had successfully tossed and flipped it in the pan. One victory at a time, ladies and gents.

Class sit down meal 1
Every group is assigned a course. Ours were the bread/butter and the dessert. This was after our chicken chapter and we decided as a class to do a French theme.

Top left: bread with herbed compound butter
Top right: escargot in mushroom caps
Middle: Chicken en cocotte with Cote du Rhone, haricot vert, butternut squach gnocchi
Bottom left: Salad with walnuts and goat cheese
Bottom right: Tarte tatin with vanilla ice cream

Class sit down meal 2

This was after our fish chapter. Our group made the vegetable and starch sides.

Top: Mushroom and brie in puff pastry pouches
2nd picture: Tuna tartare
3rd picture: Smoked salmon entre, pepper salad, French potato salad, vegetable tagliatelle
4th picture: Bread pudding

Baking
I haven’t had a lot of chances to take pictures in my baking class because it seems like we are always in such a rush. By the time the product is out of the ovens, we’re usually just in a hurry to pack them up so we can leave. That class is from 7 pm to 10 pm so you can imagine people are itching to get home by then.

Cinnamon buns

Popovers

Stay tuned: Next post will be about all the cooking I’m doing outside of culinary school!

Born and raised in the Philippines, and migrating to Texas (!) with her family at the tender age of 14, Denise was spoiled from an early age by a mother that prepared home-cooked meals almost everyday. Perhaps at the fault of a constantly full belly, she did not realize that one day she might actually be expected to fend for herself. For strangely convoluted reasons, Mama and Papa are now back in the old country and Denise, now in her mid-20’s, finds herself without her regular fix of Filipino food.

And so the madness begins. I’m Denise, and this is a record of my culinary stumblings and fumblings, and finding my way home through food.

Why the name “Endangered Adobo?”

I’ll go ahead and tell you right now that the reason is not very PC. Look away now if you’re still determined to try to like me.

That’s why.

It is a running joke between my friends that I will eat just about anything that moves. This isn’t true of course (I wouldn’t eat your puppy, for example) but news stories like these, plus that Andrew Zimmern episode where he eats an aborted duck egg does little to convince them otherwise. It’s become something of a gag, that endangered or not, I would probably eat it if it were cooked adobo-style.