Almost time to go back!!

Okay, it's been forever since I've posted. Last semester finished pretty well. I managed to squeeze an "A" from my on-line nutrition course - I pretty much hated the course, but I did learn a lot. Along with my "A" I was awarded two departmental scholarships. They weren't the biggest, but has my hubby says, every little bit helps.

Last week a I got a big surprise - I had applied for a James Beard Foundation Scholarship in May and figured I had about a snowballs chance in **** getting one as James Beard Foundation is such a big time culinary foundation and they have several hundred people applying each year. Well, a chef here who runs one of the top 100 restaurants in the world set up a scholarship through James Beard just for students at my school - he didn't even go to my school, he's originally from France and trained there. Anyway, the envelope came last week and all that was on the outside was my addy, the return addy and scholarhip information enclosed. I was terrified to open it, but it contained a letter announcing that I had gotten the scholarship and it's a big one. So tution is covered and some of our before school care is covered for the year!!

I took the summer off from class mainly because my kids summer break was only 7 weeks and we wanted to go to the Mainland for vacation. Downside of living in paradise is vacationing anywhere else takes a full day of travel each way.

I'm really looking forward to starting class this fall. I'm taking fundamentals of baking and intermediate baking, both of which start at 6:00am - so sixteen weeks of dragging out the door 5 days a week at a time that I should be settling down with my first cup of java and the paper. I shouldn't complain, I'm out at noon. Hubby and son can't wait for me to bring home some fresh bread and my daughter is anxiously awaiting some baked goodies. I'm thrilled that I will be back in a kitchen hanging out a bunch of other geeks (hubby's term) who talk and think about food all the time.

Now I just need to find a sitter to come in early and who can get my kids out the door to school!

Scholarship rant

Well, I just had my second nutrition test. Amazingly, I didn't even look at any of the chapters covered until the week before the test and I still managed to pull an 88%. Will I get the "A" I want, maybe since we have one more test and I've done pretty well on homework. As a friend said, "just get through it, take a "C" if you have to. We can't always be perfect." However, I really want to do well to keep my grade point up so I might be able to get a merit-based scholarship for next year.

I've been looking all over for all kinds of scholarships and there are only two that I can even qualify for. As I told my Chef from last semester, I checked into all kinds of scholarships for women over 40 returning to school, but I didn't qualify for them because I wasn't displaced or widowed. I mean, come on, I'm 41, have two kids and have spent the last 13 years following my military husband around the country, doesn't that count for something. I'm finally going to school to do the thing I love, trying to return to the work force, show my kids that learning is a lifelong thing, and because I have a husband who has a decent paying job, I don't qualify for a whole slew of scholarships. While I don't need the money (although school is definately taking a bite out of our budget) for school, it would be helpful. Not to mention that I'm pursuing a degree in a very male dominated profession. Really, have you looked at who the top chef's are? Women are definitely the minority - which a whole nother topic for another day.

Okay, back to the scholarship thing. The James Beard Foundation gives out over 70 scholarships to culinary students every year. Being as they have different types of scholarships, I'm thinking I've got a shot. Well, I would if they would ever get the applications up! Students were supposed to be able to download the applications in Jan. Then it got bumped back to Feb, then it was supposed to be March 15th. Are they up yet, nope! I called - keep in mind there is a 6 hour time difference, so it was early here - and got the voice mail of the woman that is supposed to know when the forms will be available. She hasn't called back:( I'm really put out, this is THE James Beard Foundation, the best known food industry foundation! Being recognized by them as a Chef or restaraunt of the Year (region, style, etc) sets you for your career.

Well enough ranting - time to do some evaluation of my latest english muffins attempt.

Okay, this semester hasn't been that great so far. I've been taking an on-line nutrition class, yuck! Anyway, not being in class and taking a class that I don't really like (and some stuff with my kids) has put in a bit of a funk.

Currently, I'm trying to bake my way out of it. My current baking obsession is trying to find the perfect english muffin recipe. I know it's out there, but I have yet to find it. I'm also considering trying my hand at artisan bread again. Especially now that I've up-graded from my KA Artisan to the KA Pro 600 - it's so sweet! Okay, so about two months ago as I was in the middle of making my weekly batch of pizza dough when the dough hook quit moving, but the motor was still running. I had managed to blow out the worm gear (apparently I had pushed it to much while hitting the top end of the flour-power rating every week). Anyway, since I live in HI, sending it back to KA to be fixed wasn't an option and the local authorized repair place wanted $60 just to crack it open and tell me what I already knew was wrong. Anyway, some other nice KA forum members were kind enough to guide me through repairing it myself, so for about $40 and 30 minutes of my time, the Artisan was repaired. In the mean time my hubby decided that since I had managed to kill the Artisan in 3 years, I probably needed to upgrade. I didn't argue and now have the coolest new Pro 600. The new mixer has inspired me to try bread again. I decided to try english muffins first because my kids love them for breakfast. I've tried a couple of recipes, but I've yet to find one I really like. Anyway, at least the not quite right muffins are pretty good!

My first entry about school

After getting a BA 15 years ago that I never used, joining the Army and then being a stay at home mom and Army wife for 10+ years; I decided that at the age of 40 I needed to pursue a career that I was passionate about – Pastry Chef. In August I started class at Kapi’olani Community College in Culinary Arts. At first, I was a little nervous about going back to school, after all, I was old enough to be the mother of most of my classmates, but as the semester went on my nerves eased and I got pretty well acquainted with a lot of my classmates.

Truthfully, my biggest fear was my fundamentals class. The Chef instructor had graduated from CIA in the early 1970’s and had worked all over Hawaii before becoming an instructor a decade or so ago. I had to have his approval to even register for his class – consisted of e-mailing him a Word document answering a list of questions he had (the answers were on the class website). He has reputation has a demanding hard-a** (well earned) in comparison to the other fundamentals instructor. Just getting through his class is a right of passage among the students!

That said I busted my butt in class, practicing at home and turning in every writing assignment (7 each week). Our first writing assignment, due on the first day of class, was “The Role of Food in My Life”. It took me about 5 times to get the paper the way I wanted it and it ended up being 2.5 pages (could have been longer but it was late). Several people only had a paragraph or so, I mean come on, we’re culinary majors, food should be your passion! I’m not saying it needs to consume every waking moment, but if you’re not passionate about what you’re doing, it’s going to show in a big way. Oh, and we had to discuss our papers in class, so while I rambled on for a while about how food plays multiple roles, some were more along the lines of “I learned to cook because my mom went back to work” end of statement.

So, anyway, I survived my first semester back (really hard with kids and a husband) and am looking forward to tackling next semester. I think I was a little over ambitious last semester and took 11 credits, which with the family, was hard. Next semester I’m only taking 8 credits – nutrition and dining room service. I’m not in hurry to graduate, but would like to done in under 3 years!