Breakfast in the Afternoon

I woke this morning feeling a bit ill. Perhaps it was merely psychological; but throughout the night I kept waking up at the slightest noise either one of my nephews made—Paulo, heavy breathing and Andre, the most horrific sounding coughs. You know when you are around sick people and you feel like you’re getting sick just by breathing the same air? The whole waking up at the slightest noise is funny really, because I remember that my dad was always a very light sleeper. I could be down the hall with my door shut and whisper “DAD” in the middle of the night and I would hear a “What? What’s wrong?” in response all the way from his room. HA! Who knew I would inherit that light-sleeping-quick-snap-out-of-delirium quality. Sick or not, I had a late start and ended up skipping breakfast so I could arrive on time.

When I arrived at Lab 3, I set up at my new station (due to the unreliable oven). I was a little apprehensive about moving to the other side of the room but the inconvenience of running back and forth to use a working oven was taking up valuable time. The other side of the room consists of fewer people.

Today we learned the “cutting method” and practiced by making biscuits and pie dough. Rather straight-forward. The key, of course, is cold water and cold butter. While we worked at our stations, Chef prepared gravy from bacon, rosemary, and basil. Hungry as I was, you can imagine how wonderful it was to sink my teeth into my hot flakey biscuits drenched Chef’s delicious concoction. Because we had some extra time, we prepared a crumb topping that we will use tomorrow when we assemble our pies and Friday when we make our muffins.

Eating My Biscuits in Class

In my second class we had an exam on pathogens. Basically, we had to know the causes of and preventative measures for various food related illnesses such as: Hepatitis A, Norovirus Gastroenteritis, Bacillus Ceres Gastroenteritis, Listeriosis, Hemorrhagic Colitis, Clostridium Perfringens Gastroenteritis, Botulism, Salmonellosis, Shigellosis, Staphylococcal Gastroenteritis, Vibrio Vulnificus Primary Septicemia, Anisakiasis, Cryptosporidiosis, Giardiasis, etc… I think you get the point. I did well.

I came home and quickly photographed my biscuits before the family gobbled them up for a pre-dinner meal.

Biscuits

Biscuits and Gravy (compliments to Chef Guillard for the gravy)

Yolanda convinced me to go out for the evening and explore Pasadena—it was more like a push out the door. I took pictures of my walk up to school and shopped around at a bookstore and Target. Pasadena is a rather mellow city with a calm night life. I quite like it. On the way home I picked up a movie for my sister, brother-in-law, and me to watch. It was another late night, I’m afraid. Here are some pictures! It's too bad the camera died after the first three or four shots and it wouldn't let me focus correctly.  Grrr. 

 I live on Bellevue Drive

This is the street I walk up to school

The door I enter every morning