Quarter #2

I apologize for the delay in posts. Ike really kicked the crap out of Southeast Houston. I lost power on Saturday morning Sept 13th at 1:17 am and I got it back sometime friday morning Sept 19th. I have to say: What an incredible storm!

This is a view of my apartment on Saturday morning. It is still raining lightly and all of the drains are over-flowing.

This second picture is a view of my street.... that tree was struck by lightning and blocked the street entirely... thank god I don't live in a cul de sac.

My real problem was an inch of standing water in 3 of 4 of my rooms. The only room that was almost entirely dry happened to be the room with all of the stuff propped up. I am cheap, so some of my furniture (night stands, etc.) were cardboard boxes and now they are wet, crumpled garbage. Also, I assumed that the front rooms were more susceptible to flooding to the back... it was the exact opposite. I had some stuff on the floors in the back room that I though were safer than the front rooms and had a lot of clean up work. Ugh... luckily I didn't lose anything that I can't replace.

This week marks the beginning of my 2nd quater of school. This quarter I am taking 3 signifigant classes.
1. American Regional Cuisine: explores the use of indigenous ingredients in the preparation of traditional and contemporary American specialties. Each of the following regions is considered: New England, the Mid-Atlantic, Florida, the Central Plains, the Southwest, the Rocky Mountains, California, the Pacific Northwest and Hawaii.

2. Food and Beverage Mgmt: explores the psychology of service, professional standards of performance for dining room personnel, the fundamental skills required for serviceware handling, the service sequence, order taking, guest relations and the liability and consumer dimensions of alcohol service. The budgetary process is introduced, employee scheduling fundamentals of wine selection and pairing is covered.

3. Planning and Controlling Costs: explores the planning and control process in the food and beverage industry. Topics studied include budgeting, menu pricing, standardized recipes, and food, beverage and labor cost controls.

I also owe y'all a post about Poaching and Braising and about my final from my first quarter that I failed to upload due to lack of electricity. I've also got some great new food stories from my new job. I am working at the Meat Market at Central Market, an enormous specialty food grocer. I first heard of CM when I lived in SF and saw a Food Network special entirely about this store.

--Rees