Aaaaah, Fall

I know I have mentioned before how much I love fall. The leaves here are kind of eh. It was still 85 degrees last week so the leaves are mostly just turning brown and dropping. Thankfully, the maples are doing their thing and there are bursts of brilliant reds and oranges along my daily routes. It makes a November baby all warm and fuzzy inside.

Speaking of November babies… The big 33 is this week. I’ve been too busy to really ponder the birthday thing too much, but on a culinary note, Keifel, the amazing man that he is, gave me two wonderful gifts: a weekend of touristy loveliness and Sheraton sweet sleeper deep, deep sleep in Chattanooga and a beautiful (long coveted) Shun santoku knife. I’ve been staring at the box all afternoon while I finish my Culinary III project packet. (When I figure out how to post recipes from Excel I’ll add those to the Foodieporn Library o’ Goodness.) I can’t wait to chop things with this knife. I’ve been using one at Ye Olde Pot & Pannery in the cooking classes for sometime, hence the coveting. It takes all kinds of abuse there and stays razor sharp. And, O how happy sharp, sharp knives make me. My, that sounds disturbing.

The semester is rocking along. Aforementioned project package is due tomorrow night and I have rotated into the garde manger kitchen at Hotel Chi Chi. I love it. Lots of fruit chopping and bleeding knuckles from my hands being wet all the time, but I have taken to wearing cloves almost constantly to avoid that problem. C. has shared many secrets of the kitchen, mostly ones that my life would be worthless were I to share, so I shall remain silent on those points.

In the getting my business off the ground ring of my personal circus, I may have a new business partner. And it looks like we may have a catering job already. An open house for 50. Bigger than I generally wanted to do as my equipment list is still nearly zero. We shall see how it all comes together. CSG has also asked me to possibly cater some breakfast meetings at her place of employ. It looks like I might actually have some revenue to offset my business expenses for the year.