Who okay FrekeChild....lets hear your life story...

[ladypirate]

Hey Freke

If you were an animal, what kind of animal would you be?

As someone who has attended culinary school, do you think it made you a better cook/baker?

What are your top 5 cookbooks?

 

[FrekeChild]

I think Miracles and I need to meet up and have Iron Chef: Asparagus Battle. I suck at cooking all other green veggies. Ok I take that back. I''m a bad@$$ at cooking sugar snap peas and snow peas.

LP
If I were an animal I think I''d be a cottontail rabbit. Fast, cute and non-violent.

Yes I do think that attending culinary school made me a better baker. I''m very much a ''do'' learner and not a ''reading'' learner. Luckily that is what C school is all about. I don''t know what I''d be doing now if I hadn''t gone to c school, but I''d bet my life would be totally different. Of course, at crossroads everything is always different but I think my life would have been very very significantly different. There is even the possibility that I could have been married to my high school boyfriend. Yikes! Next question!

My Top Five Cookbooks (that I think everyone should have) are:
1. The Joy of Cooking
2. The Professional Chef
3. The Professional Pastry Chef
4. Baking and Pastry
5. Culinary Artistry which is NOT a cookbook, but it gives you a VERY good idea of what flavors work together well, and therefore, what flavors don''t work together well at all. When I think about creating a new dish-this is what I turn to.

Those are my turn to books when I cook. I love the Joy of Cooking because if it doesn''t have the exact thing you''re looking for, it has something similar. And in normal size portions too!

My list of Five Fabulous Cooking Related Books That Aren''t Cookbooks:
1. Kitchen Confidential
2. Don''t Try This at Home
3. Any of the Best Food Writing Books
4. The Making of a Chef
5. The Soul of a Chef

I miss cooking professionally.

 

[miraclesrule]

I seriouslyy considered quitting my job last year and enrolling in culinary school. We have two here in La Mesa, but ::::sigh::::: golden handcuff syndrome for me right now. After my daughter is married, I may reconsider it.

Nothing beats knowing what to do with all those fresh herbs and spices at the farmers market.

I think I really need to give the prosuitto and cantaloupe a tray. I can''t say that it sounds good, but I bet it is since both of you say so.

I make a mean salad dressing too!!

 

[ladypirate]

Date: 6/21/2008 2:26:05 AM
Author: miraclesrule
I seriouslyy considered quitting my job last year and enrolling in culinary school. We have two here in La Mesa, but ::::sigh::::: golden handcuff syndrome for me right now. After my daughter is married, I may reconsider it.


Nothing beats knowing what to do with all those fresh herbs and spices at the farmers market.


I think I really need to give the prosuitto and cantaloupe a tray. I can''t say that it sounds good, but I bet it is since both of you say so.


I make a mean salad dressing too!!

You seriously do, miracles! It is so so so good. The sweetness of the melon with the saltiness of the prosciutto is a match made in heaven.

 

[gwendolyn]

Date: 6/21/2008 11:47:50 AM
Author: ladypirate

Date: 6/21/2008 2:26:05 AM

Author: miraclesrule

I seriouslyy considered quitting my job last year and enrolling in culinary school. We have two here in La Mesa, but ::::sigh::::: golden handcuff syndrome for me right now. After my daughter is married, I may reconsider it.



Nothing beats knowing what to do with all those fresh herbs and spices at the farmers market.



I think I really need to give the prosuitto and cantaloupe a tray. I can''t say that it sounds good, but I bet it is since both of you say so.



I make a mean salad dressing too!!

You seriously do, miracles! It is so so so good. The sweetness of the melon with the saltiness of the prosciutto is a match made in heaven.

Absolutely! I love it when there''s delicious contrast in my foods...mmmmmm....

 

[FrekeChild]

Lol SDL I never got anything from mine. Oh well. I do have a dinky medal floating around somewhere though.

Miracles! When I first started it was nothing like what I thought it''d be. Have you gathered any information from the schools? Looked at any websites? If you have any questions, I''ll always be around to answer them.

Give cantaloupe and proscuitto a try! Its one of those things you either love or hate I''m afraid, I actually get kind of irritated if the proscuitto isn''t just so. But I love it anyway because of the flavors.

What kind of salad dressing do you make? I don''t make any anymore because I''m not a salad person and BF isn''t a salad dressing person. If he uses anything it''s straight lemon juice. I dunno. He''s weird.

I think LP and Gwen said it all.

I''m getting really irritated with the lady that lives upstairs. First of all, she parks next to me and parks about a foot away from my car-my car is the one that''s a foot away from the line, and she parks on top of the line. And I keep finding new little dents in the passenger side door with white paint (her car is white), and I''ve been dealing with it for over a year now. But today, she''s been walking around her place upstairs nonstop. It was so loud earlier this morning that it woke both BF and I up. I am not a happy camper. And to add on the fact that she''s a renter always makes me consider complaining to the owner. I''m getting tired of being woken up at 7am by sounds of events that would be reproductive in nature. Not to mention the music, TV, stomping around, banging my car with her door, and general irritation I feel for the woman. But I need a more valid complaint. Although the car thing could get interesting...UGH!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok, apparently I needed to vent. Oh, and she just left. There is a huge gate that is in between the units that is on the wall of our bedroom-that just so happens to be the wall our bed is against. The gate has nothing to keep it from slamming.

Guess who just slammed it?!

Anyway. Here is a pic of my kitchen before it was finished being renovated. At this point the condo was still unlivable because there was no toilet. We had a silver wall in the kitchen, tile on the counter tops (although no back splash yet), appliances installed, but no toilet. No it didn''t make sense to me either. I would take some more recent pics of it, but it''s a mess and I don''t really feel like cleaning at the moment. But you can get a feel for it. Besides-this is where the real *magic* happens.

 

[iwannaprettyone]

You fascinate me Freke!

 

[FrekeChild]

Lol IWPO! I have no idea why! I think I''m pretty boring.

I went to my parent''s house today and took a bunch of pictures of it and my parent''s stuff. The house was built in 2000-01. We moved in February of 2001 My mom and I designed the floorplan around all of her furniture-at the time she had a baby grand piano-which has since been sold, her massive 12 foot long custom dining room table (I think it''s ugly, honestly) as well as a huge master bedroom set, my antique twin beds and the rest of the furniture set that goes with that. It''s around 3,500 sq ft with an additional 1,500 sq ft of garage space. My mom and I picked out all of the light fixtures, flooring, hardware, tile, etc. Oh and the idea that she could half the house if she wanted to, I''ll just quote what I said in the other thread:

"my parents built their house as an expandable thing for when I moved out. Half of the square footage is on one air conditioner and half is on the other. The side they live on consists of: Master bedroom, 2 master bathrooms, sunroom, casual living room, kitchen, breakfast area, laundry, powder room and garage. The other side has 2 bedrooms, 1 full bath, entry, formal living, formal dining, coat closet, and linen closet. I mention the closets because they are all walk-in and very large.

So when guests come to stay, they can crank up the air conditioning or heat and have a huge house, and when they leave, they can turn everything off and go back down to a half of a house. It''s really very cool, and my mom and I designed it that way."

The whole idea was that she wanted to be able to close off the *guest* side of the house and have it not be dirty because it doesn''t get used. My parents are messy people-I don''t have any pics of their suite, the kitchen and most of the TV room because it''s full of medical supplies and other stuff because the cleaning lady hasn''t been there for a week. Which kind of sucks, because the rest of their house is pretty nice. When it''s clean. And I didn''t get any pics of the garage-which is enormous. Anyway. On to pictures!

This is the TV room-the more put together part. The TV cabinet was custom made for the house and this TV by the cabinet maker who did all of the rest of the cabinets in the house. I don''t particularly like it. I''m very minimalist modern though. Anyway, the kitchen is on the other side of the tv wall. To the right would be the breakfast nook-which I love the table but the chairs are hideous. And if you look at the pic to the left of the tv, that''s a painting my aunt did of the front of their house from a photo that was taken after it snowed. I really should get a better pic of it. It''s the best one she''s ever done.

 

[FrekeChild]

This is the powder room-well one side of it. The cool side. The other side has the door and the toilet. It''s pretty boring. Some kind of forest green beeswax plaster treatment on the walls. It''s the coolest room in the house IMHO. I don''t like the light fixtures, but my mom did at the time, so it''s all good. It was all based on the mirror-which she had bought about 5 years before, and a pic of a bathroom in a magazine that had funky green walls.

 

[FrekeChild]

This is the entry. My dad inherited the table from a friend who passed away and knew that my mom really loved it. And it kind of took over the design from there. The front door is to the right, and this area is amazing during the summer when the front door is wide open and letting a breeze in and some light. The house faces North so it doesn''t get a ton of light most of the time. But there isn''t any natural light that comes in here, so it''s a little dark most of the time.

 

[FrekeChild]

Dining room and the hideous table. There is a fake wood thing on top of the real wood top of the table. The thing weighs about a million pounds-ok closer to about 600- and is about 12 feet long I think. It was carved by monks. Don''t ask me. I hate it. And the custom hutch that is at the end of it-that was made to match it.

Yuck yuck yuck.

Although it does look nice during Christmas and other holidays. Mostly because you don''t really see the table.

 

[FrekeChild]

Here''s the one full bathroom in the house. It would be my old bathroom, and I got to pick out everything in it. But my mom wouldn''t let me paint it, so it''s pretty boring. I haven''t lived there in over 2 years so it''s changed a little bit, but most of it is still the same.

 

[FrekeChild]

Here is another view of the other part of the bathroom-and this is probably my favorite room in the house. I insisted on a window in my shower-which is amazing to open from spring to fall and let the breeze in while you''re taking a shower.

 

[FrekeChild]

A picture would be nice right?

 

[FrekeChild]

So here is the formal living room. My mom didn''t want a typical New Mexican fireplace or one of the stone things-she very much wanted a wooden traditional fireplace. We went shopping in NYC for one, she harassed people all over the dang country for this thing, and finally found this one-I think in Tennessee. And then there was picking out the granite for it. Oy. I picked out the living room light fixture with no problems BTW.

And she originally had this hideous tin New Mexican chandelier in the dining room-so it was very New Mexican/Spanish and the living room was very traditional. Being that they are very much not separated by any real walls and really one cohesive space, it didn''t work. But a few years ago my mom decided it was hideous too, so it went bye bye. Oh, and it wasn''t up to code when the house was built either, so they pretended it didn''t exist until after the zoning people left when it was promptly installed. But now it''s gone. And the Liz is happy.

 

[FrekeChild]

And because I''ve spent so much time talking about the house and my mom, here is a pic of us. I''m thinking this was in 1982 sometime. My mom was so happy! But of course, this was taken way before I turned into a little demon.

 

[FrekeChild]

Ugh.

 

[miraclesrule]

Date: 6/22/2008 11:58:58 PM
Author: FrekeChild
And because I''ve spent so much time talking about the house and my mom, here is a pic of us. I''m thinking this was in 1982 sometime. My mom was so happy! But of course, this was taken way before I turned into a little demon.

Ahahahaha, I have a picture of my daughter in what looks like the same dress...only your Mother is much more gorgeous in that picture than I was in ours. I think our was taken when she was a few months old.

So anyway, I thought of you today. I pulled in the gas station to get some gas...at $4.73 a gallon by the way...and pulled in right behind a big Chrysler 300. You were the first thing that came to my mind.

That is why I love to hear your stories. It brings you to life for me....and into my life apparently.

I just made blanched green beans for snacking this week. I''ll have to challenge you to those too.

I make whatever salad dressing I can with the ingrediants on hand. I am loving this organic banana vinegar I found at Whole Foods. I love any salad with walnuts, pears, goat cheese...that sort of thing. This banana base makes it all taste interestingly tropical.

Today I was in Trader Joes and bought shredded cabbage, because I am the epitome of lazy this week. I am going to use it as a salad with cilantro dressing and grilled tilapia with a bunch of cilantro and a bit of salsa. I am hoping it will be like a fish taco without the fried batter and the corn tortilla. I know that''s a big hope, but I''m thinking it could work.

 

[FrekeChild]

Date: 6/23/2008 12:30:10 AM
Author: miraclesrule
Ahahahaha, I have a picture of my daughter in what looks like the same dress...only your Mother is much more gorgeous in that picture than I was in ours. I think our was taken when she was a few months old.

So anyway, I thought of you today. I pulled in the gas station to get some gas...at $4.73 a gallon by the way...and pulled in right behind a big Chrysler 300. You were the first thing that came to my mind.

That is why I love to hear your stories. It brings you to life for me....and into my life apparently.

I just made blanched green beans for snacking this week. I''ll have to challenge you to those too.

I make whatever salad dressing I can with the ingrediants on hand. I am loving this organic banana vinegar I found at Whole Foods. I love any salad with walnuts, pears, goat cheese...that sort of thing. This banana base makes it all taste interestingly tropical.

Today I was in Trader Joes and bought shredded cabbage, because I am the epitome of lazy this week. I am going to use it as a salad with cilantro dressing and grilled tilapia with a bunch of cilantro and a bit of salsa. I am hoping it will be like a fish taco without the fried batter and the corn tortilla. I know that''s a big hope, but I''m thinking it could work.

OMG at the gas prices!!!!!!!!!!!!Holy schmoly!!! That is so funny about the 300 though! It is too much car for most people in my opinion. It has a presence all its own.

I have a lot of silly stories! I love reading your thread and about all of your adventures!

I suck at making green beans. I never get it right. How about you teach me on that one?

Banana vinegar? Dude! I can''t imagine what that tastes like.

I''ll eat salad if it contains minimum lettuce. I can handle some spinach, but a lot of lettuce makes me unhappy. And I try to not eat iceberg. What''s the point you know? No real nutritional value, and it doesn''t really taste like much. Pretty much just empty calories. So I''ll eat romaine, spinach, micro greens and others but I just don''t like a lot of them. Whats funny is that I really like salads with fruit in them. Especially apples and strawberries. Yum.

And your tilapia and stuff sounds fabulous-I bet it will totally work as a fish taco without the other stuff. I''d try something like that. I used to eat micro greens with grilled salmon and whatever veggies were lying around-mostly grape tomatoes, cucumbers, roasted bell peppers, a few small chunks of cheddar- all kinds of yummy stuff. You know, I have some herbed chevre in the fridge that I think I should utilize. A salad would be fantastic for that.

Here''s a pic just for you miracles!!! I think I was about 8-10 and pimpin'' it in the late 80s-early 90s.

 

[miraclesrule]

ahahahahahahaahhahaha, OMG, get on wit ''cho bad self!!

And you thought you were so hot, didn''t you? OMG, priceless picture. I love old pictures, especially the 80''s type photos. But seriously, the polkadot vest and that tie. Sheeesh, Boy George ain''t got nuthin'' on you!! lol

I am going to scan some of our 80''s photos at work tomorrow so we can all engage in a bit of nostalgia.

 

[FrekeChild]

Oh lordy if you enjoyed that one, I have a heck of a lot more. Unfortunately none of those are on my computer. I have some others that I''ll probably post sometime-but no childhood stuff besides what I posted already.

However, while I was taking pics of my parent''s house I was running around taking digital pics of all of the paper pics around the house, and this is one of my favorites.

This is my mom''s family. She''s the youngest of ten, with the oldest being 20 years older. This is the only pic she has of her whole family together. Her father passed away of a heart attack while he was walking to work when she was only 2. I couldn''t tell you which uncle is which being that there are 6 of them-but I think I have my aunts figured out. My mom is the baby. Anyway, here it is.

 

[miraclesrule]

Wow, that''s a lot of children. Can you even imagine? I would be giving my husband the hand....
I just can''t raising 10 children. Although when I think about all the people i put up with at work, 10 kids almost seems easier.

I love those old photos. It''s great your Mom has one that is still in great condition.

I am debating whether or not I should cook tonight because I ate an entire foot long Sub today, I think...yeah, it was pretty close to it.

 

[FrekeChild]

Date: 6/23/2008 9:58:54 PM
Author: miraclesrule
Wow, that''s a lot of children. Can you even imagine? I would be giving my husband the hand....
I just can''t raising 10 children. Although when I think about all the people i put up with at work, 10 kids almost seems easier.

I love those old photos. It''s great your Mom has one that is still in great condition.

I am debating whether or not I should cook tonight because I ate an entire foot long Sub today, I think...yeah, it was pretty close to it.

Lol. Catholic family from little town Texas. I can''t either, and having your husband pass away unexpectedly when your youngest is 2?! Yikes. She was an awesome lady I''m sure. I never got to meet any of my grandparents mostly because my parents are old enough to be my grandparents, so my grandparents were long gone before I was around. (When Dad and I are out and someone has an idea of how old he is, they ask if he''s my grandfather and I''m his granddaughter. He''s 71 and I''m 26, so that''s a good 45 years. His sons are 17 and 20 years older than I am.) Anyway, I think my grandmother really sort of let them do whatever they wanted by the time my mom was old enough to remember. By the time she was 5, her next oldest sibling (Aunt T) was 8 and then my Uncle W was about 11. The rest were older than 13 I think, so they were able to help out with the younger ones, if they weren''t out doing their own thing. My Aunt Mary E got married to my Uncle H at 18 and I think he was 22, and Aunt Mary E had to take my mom on their dates as their chaperone. I think my mom was about 3 at the time.

Aunt Mary E has children that are only a few years younger than my mom. Aunt Mary E was actually a HUGE influence in me going into food. She used to run a wedding cake business out of her house, and her kids were always begging for store bought cookies instead of homemade ones. She and Uncle H flew out here to visit my mom for a day very recently. I started crying when they left because I think that Uncle H and my mom basically said their goodbyes to each other. He''s 87 and probably won''t be around for much longer, not to mention my mom''s health seems to be declining just about everyday.

Anyway! I think my mom''s mom had a lot of help. Uncle H was the first real father figure my mom had, and all of her siblings were pretty old. I think the first 5 or 6 were only a year or less apart. So when she was about 5 they were 25, 24, 23, 22, 21 or so. I hope they were helping out!!! My mom has lots of fun stories from when she was growing up. Something about going into the bathroom (there was only one in their house) to use the restroom in the middle of the night and the whole room being full of frogs from her brothers going frog hunting in the middle of the night, from her mom to make frog legs the next day.

I made some yukon gold potato casserole with ham and asparagus thing that D didn''t like very much for dinner. And then I made blueberry cheesecake cookie squares for dessert, but they are still cooling, so we''ll see how that turns out.

Here''s another pic. This would be in some airport somewhere. That would be my nephew (who is 16 now) at about 18 months, my dad on the phone with his office and my brother on the phone with his office. My dad is 6''3 and my bro is 6''6 and a basketball coach. He''s the one that is about 20 years older than me, and now he''s almost completely gray on top. I have a more recent pic with him, my dad, me and my other brother from bro #2''s wedding about 7 years ago. Maybe I''ll post it later. (And it was about 6 months before my surgery, so you can kind of see what I was dealing with...although it got much worse in those 6 months!!!)...

Pic!

 

[FrekeChild]

For Miracles.

Liz @ age 17 in her Junior prom dress, at the end of the summer with icky tan lines. Lookie those eyebrows! Cleaned up, but NOT shaped at all. The photographer thought I was fantastic because I didn''t take 30 extra minutes between outfit changes to redo my makeup and hair, like all of my peers. I have thin fine hair that doesn''t have any volume, which means that I like to straighten my hair because if I don''t, it''s crazy wavy on the bottom, and totally flat on top. Ok. I''ll stop talking now. Oh and this is hanging on the wall in the hallway to what used to be my room in my parent''s house.

Enjoy. Next time I go to my parent''s house, I''ll get some really goofy ones.

 

[miraclesrule]

OMG, whats to laugh at!?!?!?! That photo of you is beautiful. Simply beautiful. You look wholesome and fresh and pretty as hell. It''s a great photo. I don''t think it will ever be dated. Unless we do all end up looking Star Trekish....

Okay, I can''t same the same for the second photo.

5''2 with Double FF''s, how the heck did you manage not to face plant when you walked? You would like gravity would''ve had you falling over all the time. It must have been really bad for you back too...

Your story reminds me of Punky Brewster, didn''t she have the same problem?

 

[FrekeChild]

I think she did.

What''s funny is that my dad had fallen the day before, but I had as well-I just wasn''t wearing the proof on my face, like someone else...But I biffed it and was wearing a wrap skirt that went up and over my head. Yes, I flashed everyone who was looking that day in Tennessee.

And to be honest for the year after I had surgery I fell about once a day at the least. My balance was TOTALLY off. One of those times was on my way to my first class at CIA, dressed in business clothes. In winter. In a icy puddle. That had road salt all over it. THAT sucked. I fell on my birthday at school, ripped my pants, and twisted my ankle and couldn''t walk...Seriously though, I fell ALL OF THE TIME until I finally adjusted to it. I got used to falling after a couple of weeks though...

That dress didn''t do anything for my chest did it?

Thanks for the compliment on my senior pic. I look back at it and see all of the flaws, but I guess everyone does that right?

 

[ladypirate]

Freke, I love all the pictures!

Also, don''t feel too bad about falling--I''m a total klutz and I don''t even have an excuse for it!

 

[FrekeChild]

Lol LP. I got to a point where I didn''t even try to catch myself. It was so weird though, I never expected it to have that big of an impact on my balance. It was only about 7 pounds...Well...thinking about it like that, I guess since it was located in one area, it would make a difference. But since I was only 5''2 I had a super low center of gravity. Ugh. I dunno. I''m weird.

Here''s another pic. This is my oldest friend in the world. She''s 5''11, strawberry blonde, green eyed and a successful artist. Physically she''s just gotten a bit taller, and her hair is longer, but she hasn''t changed at all. We grew up across the street from each other, her mom brought her over a few days after my parents brought me home from the hospital. She''s slightly under 3 months older than I am. Anyway. Here we are in front of her house, I''m guessing right around our graduations from 8th grade (we only went to school together in elementary school K-4th). We stay in touch pretty regularly, and she''s the closest thing to a sister I''ve ever had. It''s very odd to see us hang out together because I ordinarily wear flats (at 5''2) and she usually wears some kind of shoe with a chunky heel (5''11+2 or so) bringing the height difference to around a foot. Anyway. An awkward 12/13 year old Freke. Who had grown as much as she was going to grow.

 

[gwendolyn]

By the way, your hair in your senior picture is GORGEOUS! I have thin hair but I have never in my life had as much as you do--it is beautiful, I love it!!

Also, your parents'' living room and powder room is to die for. Stunning! I love their taste (and yours since you helped design it

)!

 

[FrekeChild]

Date: 6/26/2008 2:13:53 PM
Author: gwendolyn
By the way, your hair in your senior picture is GORGEOUS! I have thin hair but I have never in my life had as much as you do--it is beautiful, I love it!!

Also, your parents'' living room and powder room is to die for. Stunning! I love their taste (and yours since you helped design it

)!

Thank you. My hair is a crazy beast. I should probably post a pic of it when it''s not all flat-ironed, curled or otherwise controlled, but I really don''t think there are many. I''ll look around. It may look like a lot, but when it''s straight and gathered into a ponytail, the diameter is MAYBE an inch and a quarter. Doesn''t help that I have hypothyroidism and loose gobs of it everyday.

Lol about the house. They are totally traditional and my mom can''t help but to buy antiques (well she hasn''t done it for a while, but back in the day...) and I am SO NOT traditional at all. I''m more eclectic/modern and a tiny bit funky. Even though I''ll probably inherit every single piece of furniture in their house-I only want one-the breakfast nook table that has awesome curvy legs. Other than that, none of it is really my taste at all. One day I''ll clean up our junk and take pics of the condo (which is actually made up of random cheap or second hand furnishings, but I think it looks nice considering). So none of it really reflects my taste, only what I know my mom likes (because lets face it, dad didn''t really matter in this equation!)

I tried attaching a pic but it didn''t like it and now it won''t let me attach, so I''ll try again...