Take That Veggies!

I julienned the crap out of some vegetables this week. Carrots, zucchini, celery, leeks, green pepper and scallions all went down without much of a fight. Are you sick of my cut up vegetable pictures yet? I'll try to add some variety this weekend. I can now also paysanne and make a basket out of a lemon (which I'm sure has a french name too but I wasn't paying attention). I was able to tourne some carrots and even got a "looking good" from my instructor (which is the highest level of praise we have heard so far). All while not cutting myself. Winner.

Strangely, I'm actually starting to enjoy cutting things up all thin and tiny. I have even started looking at knives in the kitchen stores. I feel fiercely protective over the precious knives in my kit. I would never have expected this. I'm a little bummed that this will probably be my only class where I get to cut stuff up. But I am happy to be in a program where I don't have to kill a lobster or deal with raw meat. I would much rather be making gingerbread houses and pies. I'll just cut up more stuff at home. Plus the culinary students seem kind of intense. You can definitely tell who is in which program.

In other news, I signed up for another food swap this weekend and I'm not sure what to make. I have a ton of canned goods but I can't bear to part with them and I certainly am not up to canning more. I'm all canned out for the season.

Victim #5

Oh, the French. Who's french idea was it to make 1/4 of a potato look like a football?

Today I learned a new form of torture. It is called tourne. It is the act of turning a vegetable into a tiny football (they also come in medium and large). It caused five students to cut themselves in class today. I was number 3.

My potato on top
Chef's on the bottom

What is really funny is that last night I had a dream that I cut myself but it was so small that I questioned whether or not I had to admit that it happened. That is exactly what happened in class. I nicked myself as I was cutting and I though, "Phew! That was close!" A few minutes later I noticed a small red mark on my hand. I assumed it was pen since I had just been taking notes with a red pen. When I smudged it off and it returned I had to admit the truth. My time had come. The second day of practicing knife skills.

Also, I am not so good at this particular cut. Luckily no one else was either. My chef instructor looks like he is slicing through butter when he does it. I look like I am hacking through cement. I can only imagine what will happen when I have to do this to a carrot.

Knives out!

I like to blame all my inefficiencies on not being allowed to be a boy scout. I consistently lose pine wood derby because of it (it has nothing to do with the aerodynamics of my dinosaur or fail whale car I'm sure). I'm not so good at camping. I'm going to go ahead blame them for my lack of knife skills too. I know, I know, I could have been a brownie. Let's face it, other than the cookies, girl scouts got nothing on boy scouts.

I did get to attend some boy scouts meetings since my brother got to participate and my dad often helped out. I even got to go when they learned about whittling. I asked my dad with puppy dog eyes if I could try too, I think I was 6 at the time, so he gave me his knife and soap. I cut myself immediately. No tears, just the revelation that knives are something I'm not good at. Soap and knife were taken away but my dad did make me a nice little soap whale.

Yesterday was the day I had to face my nemesis. After a brief demonstration we were asked to perform nine different knife cuts ranging from 1/2x1/2x3 inches to 1/16x1/16x1/16 inches. Heart palpitations. I took as long as possible to set up my station but at a certain point I had to get started. The chef instructor was walking around checking our work and I guessed at some point he would be wondering what I was doing. I started off by turning my potato into a nice little rectangle. Man, potatoes look like butter after you square them off! I started with the big cuts and gradually got smaller. I had to blanch a tomato and cut it up but luckily I am a pro at that after all that canning (I did learn a way to cut up the tomato real tiny without coring it and without getting seeds mixed in). Garlic was no problem because who hasn't minced garlic before. I also learned that if you cut the root end of an onion first, no tears!!

I got all my cuts done (first to finish even) and approved by the chef. The knives did claim their victims though. Two girls cut themselves, almost immediately. My time will come. I know this. I am just happy I didn't go first.