3 parts oil. 1 part acid. 3 parts oil. 1 part acid.

It's crazy to me that I have been doing this for three weeks now.  I had my first two quizzes this week.  I think I did pretty well on the first quiz (culinary skills) the second (sanitation), not as well as I would have liked.  Chef took a quick look and thinks I got somewhere around an 81.  Not terrible, but not the greatest.  I made a really stupid mistake on boiling points (not the MTV show.)


I learned how to make mayonnaise and vinaigrette from scratch.  The mayo making process is pretty much the same as hollandaise with three major differences: you don't mix it over heat, you add oil as opposed to clarified butter and it kills your mixing arm.  If you didn't have muscles before making mayo, you surely will after.  Someone needs to tell Jillian Michaels that instead of doing curls with 3 pound weights, you can just make a few batches of mayo and burn about 400 calories.  There was not a dry forehead in that kitchen.  If you know me, you know I have the upper body strength of a 5 year old so, for me, this was pretty exhausting.  When I finally got it to the right consistency, I couldn't wait to try it. If you know me, you know I hate condiments with the exception of bbq sauce and hot sauce.  I thought it tasted like eggs + oil which meant I did it wrong.  A little lemon juice, some salt and more mixing and I had mayonnaise.


Vinaigrette was a bit more of a challenge.  I started by adding 3 oz of red wine vinegar to 1 oz of oil.  Wrong.  Added some shallots and a tablespoon of mustard.  Wrong.  I tasted it and it was awful.  Chef told me the ratio was wrong and now it is forever burned in my brain.  I fixed it by adding a bit more oil and more shallots to balance the overabundance of vinegar.  I still didn't like the finish product but I think it was just me.  Chef approved so it's fine by me.


10:30 came fast tonight and I have to hit the hay.  Trying out round 2 of "I'm going to get up at 5 a.m. and work on my fitness" since round 1 went much better than I had imagined.  I had a 3 p.m. slump but after a can of Monster I was ready to go.  I'm attempting the Broad Street Run this May so I basically have to go from not being able to run at all to running 10 miles.  I'm able to run for about 20 minutes straight at a 12 minute mile pace.  Hey, you have to start somewhere.