Last Week Winter Quarter

Since we are facing a three week Spring break, we try to create dishes on the vegetable/starch station from the last of the things in the refrigerator. We will start with new and fresh ingredients the next quarter, as well as having over 60 students in this kitchen. There will be 28 second year management students for 10 stations, and until some of the first year students drop out for various reasons, we will be falling all over each other as we endeavor to learn to cook.
Cleaning for the kitchen closure is more thorough than usual. We scrub and polish and wash equipment, counters, refrigerators, ovens, and overhead vents a little at a time all week, so we don't have to do it all at once. Almost everyone shows up on the last Monday of the quarter to finish spit polishing the department as part of their grade. One of my graduating friends, a second year management student who has interned in a restaurant in downtown Portland, returns with tales of the fast pace, low pay, slave type labor in a commercial kitchen.
We have an award ceremony for attendance and completion certificates on Monday as well, and I receive my second perfect attendance certificate. They take a group picture, give us a "fix your own sandwich" lunch, and we are out of there.

Nineth Week Winter Quarter

We are making pate en croute (stuffed
dough) fishes in theory practice. First
we make the crust, roll it out and let it
sit in the refrigerator over night. The
next day we cut out the pattern we
have drawn and stuff it with either a
rice filling or a pie filling.

My scholarship rejection notice arrives in the mail. It reads : thank you for applying.
We received many outstanding applications this year and the
screening committee had a difficult time selecting the finalists. Although
your application was not among those selected for an award, you should
be proud of your achievements.

So, I have decided that the Spring quarter will be my last one in school. I
will be earning a certificate of some sort, indicating I have finished 3
quarters of college cooking. Then it will be time to redirect my efforts.
A second year at Clark College would be a management course, and since I
don't plan to seek a management position, it would be costly and
superfluous. (How's that for a college word)? :>)

Eighth Week Winter Quarter

My assignment is called relief, which makes no sense because I am sent to the snack bar every day. Mostly I am deep frying the fries, onion rings, cheese sticks, tater tots, and potato sticks. We rarely have any left over at the end of the day after several baskets of each. I may have over done the repetitive lifting of the fryer baskets as I am now taking a big gun antibiotic for infection in my lymph edema arm.
The young man who is rotating through the stations with me rarely speaks a word to anyone. It is almost as if he is afraid of the sound of his own voice. Let's hope, if he becomes a chef, he can yell, "order up"!
In theory practice we are making clear gelatin called aspic. We make pictures out of carved vegetables on a paper plate, then preserve them with a layer of clear aspic. Another food art project is peeling tomatoes and making roses by winding the peel in a spiral. My friends are all interested in seeing how to make these food decorations to make plates more appealing.