Wicked thunderstorm

So last night I was awakened by an extremely powerful thunderstorm. It kept me up from 4-5, and sounded absolutely malevolent. When I got out of bed at 6, I was expecting to see a huge amount of destruction outside, but there was nothing that I could see.

Hershey wasn't so lucky. When I was headed to work, I noticed a lot of downed trees and branches, and the road I usually take was closed, which made me 10 minutes late for work, which irritated the hell out of me.. Anyway, when I finally got to work, I noticed that it was a lot darker and emptier than usual. When I walked into the kitchen, I was greeted by one of the full-time AM cooks, who told me that the power was out, so we couldn't risk opening the already warm walk-in to do any prep. 2 hours later, the power was still off, so the chef told us to go home and that we would get paid for 4 hours today. I'm irritated that I'm only getting 4 hours, but I'm happy that I'm getting paid for sitting on my as for two hours. Haha

Anyway, as soon as I got off, I picked up my check, cashed it and then went to hang out with Anna before she had to go to work. Then I came home, put an air conditioner in the living room and played with my nephew for the better portion of the day :)

All-in-all, a pretty decent day. Haha

You can make anything dirty

I learned that a while ago, but I proved it today. I managed to turn labels for salad dressings into something related to sex. Here's the proof:

Meat slicer

So today I spent the better part of two hours slicing meat for a meat tray. I sliced two whole turkey breasts, two while hams, and a massive thing of roast beef. My arm was super tired and my legs were stiff from standing in the same position for so long. What made it funny was the fact that I sliced a lot more meat than I needed to... Haha

It's one of THOSE nights

You know the kind of night I'm talking about. One where you literally have nothing to do. Everything is cleaned as well as it can be in the middle of a shift, everything that can be prepped is prepped, and there are no orders.

Every time I look at the clock, I'm expecting it to be 20-30 minutes later than it really is... I've gotten to the point where I'm so bored I wanna eat, but I've already had dinner... What makes it worse is that my iPod battery is almost dead, so I can't even play games on it anymore... :/

I guess I might as well try to find some detailing to do that won't require me to unplug anything or break out deadly chemicals....

Cheesecake updates

The cheesecakes are done and in the fridge. The peanut butter cup looks gorgeous, but I'm a little concerned about the chocolate strawberry. It didn't set the way I wanted it to, and I'm not entirely sure if it's completely cooked... Haha... It looks nice though... :p

Cheesecakes

So I decided to make a couple of cheesecakes at home today. I'm hoping they turn out well. I'm making a peanut butter cup and a chocolate strawberry. The one I'm concerned about is the chocolate because the recipe was for the peanut butter cup and all I did was take out the peanut butter and substitute 3 tablespoons of cocoa powder.

Well, we'll see how it turns out haha

Organic food movement

I'm not entirely sure I agree with the organic food movement... I mean, I understand and agree with the concept, but it's a bit ridiculous right now. I mean, the only difference I've seen between what is now considered regular food and organic food is increased price, smaller size and a slightly better appearance from the organic food. The taste isn't all that different though.

Perfect example:

Hot, humid days

People always say "It's not the heat, it's the humidity." I usually agree with that, but the heat alone can be bad enough on some days. Unfortunately, PA is good at providing days where the heat would be bad, but then decides to add rainforest-like humidity just for fun.

I'm so glad I work in a well air-conditioned kitchen right now

Good day off

So Anna and I took advantage of our employee discounts at Hershey Park today. We got free parking, free admission, and discounts in chocolate world and for food. It was pretty awesome. We didn't go on any rides, but we didn't care. We got exercise and had fun spending time together. :p

Also, we got a totally kick-ass characature done :p

Slow nights suck

Well, it's Monday again... You know what that means.... Another slow night. I wish I could just make time go faster... That'd make it so much easier to deal with the boredom.

It'd be nice if I could take advantage of the lack of customers and throw together random stuff, but I'm not allowed to waste money like that... Well, that's not entirely true... I could throw together another dessert of the day, but I did the last one and somebody else already has a new idea that they want to try out...

Well, back to trying to find stuff to do...

The calm before the storm

I hate the time between 5 and 6:30... No matter what day of the week it is, that's almost always the slowest portion of the pm shift. It's when you've finished all your prep, including getting all your backups ready, and you're waiting for the orders to come. All you do is try to find something to occupy yourself, but you can't do anything big or something that would involve breaking down your station... I usually take the opportunity to blog, but that only takes up a few minutes...

Boredom

One of the major downsides to what I do is that it's ruined my ability to stay up late and sleep in. I can't explain why, but since I started my venture into the culinary industry, I haven't been able to sleep in past 9, and I rarely stay up later than 12 if I have the option...

Anyway, the reason I bring this up is that is prevents me from sleeping until most other people are awake. This means that I'm stuck wasting time until I can actually get in contact with the bums that are sleeping at 9 o'clock... I just wish I was better at finding entertaining things to do with that time...

Late night; early morning

Yesterday I worked from 2-10, not nearly as bad as what I was doing all last summer, but that's beside the point. Normally, that wouldn't be a problem, but I didn't get out of there until 10:15 an didn't get home until 11. In addition to that, it took me an extra 30 minutes to fall asleep because of my sunburn. And to top it all off, I had to be up at 6 so I could get ready to leave at 7 for my shift that starts at 8.

I did this to myself though... I should've worn sunscreen and I requested to work a morning shift today because I wanted to be able to go to Anna's graduation party and still get my hours and be able to get my check without having to wait until Monday to cash it. Worst case scenario for today, I have to wit until tomorrow to cash it.

Well... Off to work

Sunburn sucks

So, I had off two days ago and decided that I didn't want to stay inside the whole day. What did I do? I helped my mom mow the lawn. However, I was stupid about it. Since I wanted to use the opportunity to get a decent tan, I took off my shirt and proceeded to mow the lawn, forgetting to apply sunscreen... Needless to say, I got burned and it hurts... A lot... To top it all off, the worst of it is on my shoulders and the middle of my back, so when I put on, or take off, my chef coat, it hurts like hell.

Let this be a lesson to everyone, wear sunscreen when you go outside for an extended period.

Angel food cake

I've had to have made 6 angel food cakes in the past two weeks. The recipe is easy and the cakes always turn out great, but God damn... I'm starting to get sick of making them... The worst part is the egg whites. I'm not a pastry chef, so I have to assume that my interpretation of "medium peaks" is right, and I've probably been under whipping them slightly... Like I said, the cakes always come out great, but I'm too much of a damn perfectionist to be ok with not doing it right.

Mondays suck

I hate how no matter where you work, Monday is always the slowest day of the week... Makes me wish we could close early so I could go home... Then again, I don't want to clock out early... I need the money too much to do that...

Oh well... Back to waiting for tickets

Pm shifts vs Am shifts

I'm still undecided as to whether or not I prefer Am or PM shifts. I like AM because I get out earlier and have the afternoon to do what I want, but I don't like having to get to bed early so I can get enough sleep for the next day... On the other hand, I like PM because I can stay up later, sleep in and relax before going to work. I also like that the shift goes faster, gibes me a better chance at getting overtime, and is typically busier, but I don't like that it pretty much takes away my entire day.

For now, I'll just work what they tell me too and not complain about getting money.

Homemade ice cream is amazing

I made some ice cream at work today. Creme Anglaise base infused with mint and turned into mint chocolate chip ice cream... It's so freakin good I can't even describe it to you.

Who says culinary students can't do pastry? Cause I've been proving everyone who does wrong. Haha

Day off

I love having a day off... The only thing that bothers me is that I don't wanna stay at home with nothing to do, but I also don't wanna leave the house cause anything that involves leaving the house costs money... If not to do something, then in gas money to get there... :/

Battle of the chocolate

In PA, and the rest of the US for that matter, most people view Hershey's chocolate as the best in the world. Here's a chef's response to that: Hershey's chocolate sucks. The only thing it's good for is baking, and even then it pales in comparison to a good couverture chocolate. Hershey's is so full of sugar and milk products that you can barely taste to cocoa... It's so bad that their "special dark" is actually what everybody else calls milk chocolate....

That's my rant for the day... I'll most likely give an update on my personal life later today... Ttfn

iPod app

I know it's been a while, shut up...

I figure that since I don't get on my computer to update this thing, I might as well see if using the app on my iPod will make me better at keeping things updated... The fact that I can't turn my screen to type is a pain so far, but maybe I'll get over it. Haha

Working today... Maybe I'll give a better update later today