First Quarter of school is done!

Shew! I had a final yesterday and another one this morning! It's hard to believe but my first quarter of classes are all done! I now have Sanitation & Safety (CULA110) and Introduction to Culinary Skills (CULA105) under my belt. Those 11 weeks just flew by and lots of fun and learning was done along the way!!!

Last week in my cooking lab we ground our own beef to make hamburgers. Each student was to bring in a hamburger recipe, adjust the recipe to make 2 patties, and grill them on the indoor grill. One burger was for me to eat and the other one was for the Chef to sample. At the end of class the Chef was going to tell us (in his opinion) who had the best burger. Guess who won?!?! Me and another girl went home with the best hamburger title! :) It was fun seeing everyone's creations. Some people put pineapple on their burgers, some had mushrooms and swiss cheese, while others had a fried egg on top. I'll remake my hamburgers soon so that I can post the recipe and picture on here soon.

Yesterday I had my final in Sanitation & Safety. It was over fire safety, CPR, and first aid. I still don't know what my grade from that final is but I'm confident that I ended up with a A in the class. This morning I had my cooking final for CULA105. Wow! It was exhausting! We had 3 1/2 hours to make the following recipes and do these knife cuts:

Knife Cuts:
Butcher a whole chicken
1 Carrot - 1/4 inch small dice
1 Onion - 1/4 inch small dice
1 Potato - Batonett (1/4 x 1/4 x 2 inches)
1 Potato - Tourneed
2 Tomatoes - 1/4 inch Concassée
1 Zucchini - 1/4 x 1/4 x 1/4 Brunoise
Parsley Dust

Recipes:
Hollandaise Sauce
Béchamel Sauce
Sautéed Chicken Breast "Chardonnay"
Blanch/shock/sauté Green Beans
Spinach au Gratin
Risotto
Mashed Potatoes
Coq au Vin

It was non-stop cooking for those 3 1/2 hours straight and I still wasn't able to get it all done! Luckily, the only thing I had left to finish was the Hollandaise Sauce and since I had already started it, I was able to get a few points from it. I scored a 189/210 on the final and ended up with a 98.6% for a final grade. Some may call that an over-acheiver, but I call it having fun and learning a lot along the way! :)

Tomorrow we have to return to class to do a deep-cleaning to the kitchen. Then I am off for a 3 week break!