Week Three Reflection

What a week it has been.  For the past seven days I have been working so hard to complete the cookbook.  The only thing I have been doing lately is working on my cookbook and it feels like senior project has taken over me. 

Earlier in the week, Monday and Tuesday, I devote myself and my time to write up all twenty of the recipes that I choose to put in my cookbook.  Even though I took good notes when ever I cooked, this took a while and I was able to get about ten recipes each day.  When I was finished I worked with Lathy editing each recipe and functioning with here to get her advice on what I needed to change. 

            Wednesday I met with Deb McKew who helps me create a template to use in Pages and layout my cookbook how I planed to create it.  During this time many little details were taken care such as pages size and layout, fonts, titles, and choice in pictures.  This set me up to work extremely hard on Thursday, typing in all the recipes and basically putting the cookbook as a whole together.  I finished in the late afternoon and we made a mock-up of the book to give to the printers and Flash Photo.  I could tell already the it was going to look great.  Ahead of schedule I drop the mock-up off in New London on Thursday and was assured that it would be don by the weekend.  I felt great that I was finished working on the cookbook and my part of it was over.  Friday I really had nothing to do for the book, so I spent my time writing my self-evaluation and preparing for my review on Monday.  This weekend I picked up my copies of the cookbook, which might I say look very professional, and cooking all of Sunday for the review and open house on Tuesday.

            It is crazy to think that senior project is over, but as I look back on cant believe how great of an experience it was.

Day eighteen

Friday, May 23

Today was the last official day of my senior project.  I spent most of my time today working on writing my self-evaluation.  This was pretty self-explanatory; all I had to do basically was answer about eight questions based on the time I spent prior to and on senior project.  I talked about my goals and how I attempted to achieve them.  I gave an explanation why I could achieve one goal of men.  I talked about the benefit derived from my experience as well as some negative aspects of it.  I talked about specific skills and procedures I learned.  I tiled about personal qualities I developed and discovered about you.  I talked about people I found exceptionally helpful in making my Project a success.  I lastly talked about if I were to do your Senior Project over again, what I would differently.  The self-evaluation came out well and was good because during writing it prepared myself for my review on Monday.

Day seventeen

Today was one of the most productive days I have had during my senior project.  I stayed at the McKue’s house last night working on my cookbook with Deb and when I woke when right to work.  I worked in Pages from 8:30 AM to about 2:00 PM.  There was a lot to get to say the least.  I had to input all twenty of my recipes in to program and format them all to look the same.  I also had to import all 20 pictures and coordinate witch ones went with each recipe.  Also, I had to create my front and back cover and put the whole book in order.  After I was done working in Pages, Deb and I proofread the entire cookbook and printed out a mock-up to chow to the people that worked at Flash Photo.  This is because they are the ones that will be binding my cookbook and I really wanted them to know exactly how I wanted the cookbook to look.   When we were all done checking over the cookbook we went to Flash Photo in New London to drop on the mock copy and talked to the people there about printing the copies.  I left the store in good spirits feeling that my cookbook was in good hands.  The assured me that the book would be done by tomorrow and I ended the day feeling extremely happy.  

Day sixteen

Wednesday, May 21^st

Today was a great day.  I got in touch with Jack McCue’s mother, Deb, last night and asked for her help.  I had originally planned of using a program called BookSmart that binds custom books, but as I have been working on my project have realized I do not have enough time to use.  This is because the program takes about 7 to 10 days to get the book back.  Deb agreed to help me with my problem of putting the book together so today I drove up to here house and we worked together on creating a template on the program Pages, to use for the recipes I wrote.  After working for a few hours with Deb, we ended up with a great template to work with for the cookbook.  The deal was that if Deb helps me with my cookbook, I would cook her dinner.  I kept my end of the bargain because I so happy with the end result that we came up with and make a feast for us.  The ended by working some more the cookbook, putting the recipes into Pages and formatting the book.  

Day fifteen

Tuesday, May 20^th

Today was a monumental day.  I finished writing and cooking all of my recipes.  It feels really good to be done with that part of my project.  I work all day and finally finished writing tonight and after sent all of my work to my mentor.  I explained my situation to her and the fact that I really needed the recipes back ASAP because the cookbook has to be done within a week.  Fortunately she read all twenty recipes and got them right back to me tonight.  The feedback I go back was great, “THESE RECIPES ARE AWESOME…”  I feel confident in my dishes and where I am in the project and hopefully it will all b coming to end soon. 

Cedar Plank Salmon

I discovered the method of cooking on cedar planks in the fall of 2007 and was amazed on much flavor the wood gave of to the fish, thee taste of.  The smoky flavor the salmon packs in from the cedar couples nicely with the teriyaki marinade and the end result is unbelievable.

3/4 cup light soy sauce

2 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons peanut oil

1/2 teaspoon sesame oil

1 tablespoon minced garlic

1 tablespoon minced ginger

1 tablespoon minced green onion bottoms

4 (6-ounce) salmon fillets

4 untreated cedar planks

2 teaspoons vegetable oil

Put the soy sauce, sugar, peanut oil, sesame oil, garlic, ginger, and green onions, in a blender and process on low for 1 minute, or until the ingredients are well mixed together.  Transfer half of the sauce to a shallow dish and add the salmon fillets.  Turn to coat well, and refrigerate, turning occasionally, for at least 2 hours.  Transfer the remaining sauce to a non-reactive container and refrigerate until ready to cook the salmon.  Soak the cedar planks in water for 1 hour.

Preheat a grill to medium.  Remove the planks from the water and pat dry.  Place 1 salmon fillet on the top of each plank.  Place the planks directly on grill and close the cover.  Cook until the salmon is just cooked through, about 20 minutes.  While the fish is cooking, place the remaining teriyaki sauce in a small saucepan and cook until it has thickened slightly and coats the back of a spoon, 1 to 2 minutes.  Remove the fish from the grill and serve, drizzled with the thickened sauce. 

Day fourteen

Monday, May 20^th

 

            Today marks that I have one week to finish my cookbook.  This realization was a little stressfull, but good because it has made me go in almost superdrive to get things in order.  I spent the whole day writing up recipes, and feel that got a lot of work done.  As of no I am have writing up my than half of the recipes for the cookbook and olnly have two more dishes to cook.  I finished the Rosemary Rack of Lamb, Country Fried Steak, Orange-Ginger Glazed Cornish Hens, Beef Stir-Fry, Perfect Spaghetti and Meatballs, 20 Minute Maple Glazed Pork Chops, Cedar Plank Salmon, and the Turkey Non Burger recipes.  I ended the day cooking a dish that I plan to use in the cookbook.  The dish was a 2-pound Cowboy Steak.  This thing was massive and took almost an hour to cook, but was delicious and worth he wait.  

Cedar Plank Salmon

I discovered the method of cooking on cedar planks in the fall of 2007 and was amazed on much flavor the wood gave of to the fish, thee taste of.  The smoky flavor the salmon packs in from the cedar couples nicely with the teriyaki marinade and the end result is unbelievable.

3/4 cup light soy sauce

2 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons peanut oil

1/2 teaspoon sesame oil

1 tablespoon minced garlic

1 tablespoon minced ginger

1 tablespoon minced green onion bottoms

4 (6-ounce) salmon fillets

4 untreated cedar planks

2 teaspoons vegetable oil

Put the soy sauce, sugar, peanut oil, sesame oil, garlic, ginger, and green onions, in a blender and process on low for 1 minute, or until the ingredients are well mixed together.  Transfer half of the sauce to a shallow dish and add the salmon fillets.  Turn to coat well, and refrigerate, turning occasionally, for at least 2 hours.  Transfer the remaining sauce to a non-reactive container and refrigerate until ready to cook the salmon.  Soak the cedar planks in water for 1 hour.

Preheat a grill to medium.  Remove the planks from the water and pat dry.  Place 1 salmon fillet on the top of each plank.  Place the planks directly on grill and close the cover.  Cook until the salmon is just cooked through, about 20 minutes.  While the fish is cooking, place the remaining teriyaki sauce in a small saucepan and cook until it has thickened slightly and coats the back of a spoon, 1 to 2 minutes.  Remove the fish from the grill and serve, drizzled with the thickened sauce. 

Week Two Reflection

Sunday, May 18^th

I was amazed with the amount of work I got done on my cookbook this week.  As of the weekend, I have sixteen dishes complete, but haven’t written up all the recipes yet.  I was cooking a lot this week.  I started off the week grilling some figure lickin’ good beef ribs, then changed directions a little bit and made stir fry, grilled pork chops, meatballs, crab cakes, and grilled lobster.  There so much going on both Ben’s and my kitchen at home, I felt like I was cleaning more than I was cooking.

I feel really good about were I am in the process of creating my own cookbook.  I am almost done cooking all of my dishes and predict that I will do cooking by Tuesday.  I would say the area that I need to devote most of time is writing up the recipes.  It’s not hard to write them, but the problem is that it takes a lot of time to complete a recipe.  I found the format I want to use for my cookbook, am exited to start putting it together.  I have taken so many pictures of each dish that I know that the cookbook will defiantly look good.

The coming week is the last week to on my senior project to finish everything up.  This means that even though it doesn’t seem that I have to do much, indeed I have a lot to get done. From now until Monday, I have to finish cooking all of my dishes, write up all of heir recipes, format the cookbook, and the publish it.  Every day is going to be extreamly busy, I am I just brassing myself for late nights.

Day twelve

Friday, May 16^th

Today was a productive day.  I met with my project mentor from 9:30 AM to around 11:30 AM.  The time was spent going over and editing my recipes, which is what we have been doing almost every time we have met.  This is extremely helpful for me to do because when we work on recipes, Kathy has the experience that she can pick up on the errors and mistake that make.  I finished my Cornish Hens recipe.  After this I went grocery shopping for a dorm BBQ that MLS was having, had lunch and by that time is was 1:00 Pm and I had to get back to make it on time at practice. 

Orange-Ginger Glazed Cornish Hens 

4 Cornish game hens

Vegetable oil, as needed

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

1/4 cup soy sauce

2 tablespoons sesame oil

2 tablespoons cider vinegar

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 tablespoon minced, peeled fresh ginger

1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

2/3 cup orange marmalade

Toasted sesame seeds, as needed

 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Arrange the hens skin-side up on a rack in a roasting pan. Brush the hens with oil and season with salt and pepper. Roast the hens until browned, about 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, whisk together the soy sauce, sesame oil, vinegar, garlic, ginger, and apricot jam to make a smooth glaze.

Remove the hens from the oven, and spoon the glaze over each hen half to coat well. Continue roasting the hens, basting with the glaze occasionally, until well browned, about 10 minutes, more.

Divide the hens among plates and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Serve immediately.

Day eleven

Thursday, May 15^th

            Today was a bit it of a hectic day, I spent most of the time today in the health center.  While I was there I was able to start to write up some more recopies, and I finished my Chicken Parmesan Recipe.  I ended the day at home, which was convenient in some ways because I was as able to grocery shopping at really nice market in Dover and tomorrow I will be able to meet Kathy, my mentor, to go over my dishes. 

CHICKEN PARMASAN

When I think comfort food, I think classic Italian and Chicken Parm always pop into my head.  The crispy breadcrumb coating pared with the moist chicken and the melted cheese on top of sweet tomato sauce gives your taste buds many different elements to enjoy and you always seem to leave the meal incredibly satisfied. 

4 skinless, boneless, chicken breasts (about 11/2 pounds)

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

1 tablespoon water

1 cup dried breadcrumbs

1 (26 ounce) jar prepared tomato sauce

4 slices mozzarella

1 pound spaghetti pasta, cooked al dente

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.

Get the ingredients together for the chicken so you have a little assembly line. Put the chicken breasts side by side on a cutting board and lay a piece of plastic wrap over them. Pound the chicken breasts with a flat meat mallet, until they are about 1/2-inch thick. Put the flour in a shallow platter and season with a fair amount of salt and pepper; mix with a fork to distribute evenly. In a wide bowl, combine the eggs and water, beat until frothy. Put the breadcrumbs on a plate, season with salt and pepper.

Heat 3 tablespoons of olive oil over medium-high flame in a large ovenproof skillet. Lightly dredge both sides of the chicken cutlets in the seasoned flour, and then dip them in the egg wash to coat completely, letting the excess drip off, then dredge in the bread crumbs. When the oil is nice and hot, add the cutlets and fry for 4 minutes on each side until golden and crusty, turning once.

Ladle the tomato-olive sauce over the chicken and place a sliced mozzarella on top. Bake the Chicken Parmesan for 15 minutes or until the cheese is bubbly. Serve hot over spaghetti.

Day ten

Wednesday, May 14^th

            I can tell that Wednesday is going to be short days in general.  I didn’t test any recipes for the cookbook today because there just wasn’t enough time.  Instead I worked on writing the recipes I have already cooked.  I needed a quite place to work with no distractions, my dorm was to loud, so I went up to Learning Center where I worked on and off with my learning specialist Ellen for about two hours.  I had to end around 12:00 PM because we had a lacrosse game that was away at Holderness.   

 BLT Risotto

 This recipes was shared with me from an old friend of my fathers, when I just getting real serious about cooking, at the age of fifteen.  At the time I had and knew what risotto was, but I had ever made it.  She showed me and was hooked or life.  There is a common misunderstanding that risotto is grueling hard dish to make.  This couldn’t be true in the least way.  Risotto is fun and easy to make.  This recipe is called BLT Risotto, the bacon is represented by the Italian pancetta, the tomato is self-spoken, and the lettuce is shown threw the basil.  These three flavors mixed with creamy rice gives of a sweet and salty combination that is out of this world. 

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1 medium onion, cut into 1/4-inch dice

2 cups Arborio rice

2 cup pancetta chopped

1/2 cup white wine

3 1/2 cups chicken stock, hot

2 cups chopped tomato

4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter

1/2 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, plus more for sprinkling

3/4 cup julianed chopped fresh basil

The broth in the pot should be simmering.

In a large pot slowly simmer the onion and the garlic in the butter, when the onion starts to turn a gold color, remove from the heat and take out the garlic.

Add the chopped pancetta and mix very well with the onion. Put the pot on heat again, add the rice, and mix very well with the onions, pancetta. This is called toasting the rice because the broth has not been added.

Add the wine to the toasting rice. After a minute or so start add the broth. Add a 4 to 6-ounce ladle of stock and cook, stirring, until it is absorbed. Continue adding the stock a ladle at a time, waiting until the liquid is absorbed before adding more.

Just before adding the last 4 to 6-ounces of stock add the chopped tomato.  Cook until the rice is tender and creamy and yet still a little al dente, about 15 minutes.  Stir in the butter and cheese until well mixed. Portion risotto into 4 warmed serving bowls and top with basil, serving with extra cheese.

Day nine

Tuesday, May 13^th

            Today was a magical day.  Last week I had promised Patty that I would bring in some tasty treat for the last advisory of the year and was not going to break a promise with P Pond.  I woke up on the later side around 9:00 AM and had to get right to work.  I had planed out the menu for advisory last night and had gotten all of the essentials.  I made it simple, nothing complicated.  I was going to make scrambled eggs, cheesy biscuits, and bacon.  I was a little rushed, with only an hour to get everything done, but had to make it work.  Everything was going well, the biscuits were done, and scrambled eggs were almost there, when I started to smell something burning…I forgot about the bacon.  Feeling like an idiot I took out the blackened bacon and by that time it was 10:15 AM.  I packed everything up, including the burnt bacon and was off to advisory.  When I got there I didn’t matter, the crew loved the prepared breakfast and odd enough even enjoyed the bacon.  The highlight of the gathering was when Patty presented me with an early graduation present.  A hand crafted New West Knife Works chef knife.  I was in awe; it was one of the coolest knives I had ever seen. 

            After this I plane don cooing the ribs that I had been marinating overnight, but thought I would be rushed and save the task for tonight.

            After practice I hurried back to the dorm, exited to cook the ribs.  I quickly took them out of the refrigerator, put them in a heavy-duty alumni pan, covered them with foil and baked them for an hour and a half.  I quickly grilled them for about five minutes on each side after, lathering them with BBQ sauce.  Ben, Brooks, and my mouths were all water I we watched myself cut into them divisor bones.  The table was already set, and the ribs were accompanied with mashed potatoes and grilled onions.  We all raise a rib and said cheers as we dove into the ribs we had been waiting for.  It was magical.  Each bite was packed with so many flavors.  The room went silent and our faces and hand got extremely messy, but we loved it.  It was a real “man’s meal” we kept on saying as devoured the meal with out hand, we gave up on the forks after the first minute.  After the ribs were gone, we all had smiles the reached from one end of our face to the other.  We all agreed they were some of best ribs we ever had.  

Day eight

Monday, May 12^th

Today was the eighth day of my senior project.  My day was very predictive.  I stayed at home last night because I wanted to meet with my project mentor.  I got up around 9:00 AM and fortunately my project mentor only lives about ten minutes away from our house so I was there by 9:30 AM going over what I had been up over the past week and talking about my recipes/dishes I have cooked and plan on using in my cookbook. 

We worked for about an hour editing my recipes and talking about what worked and what didn’t go over so well, which was extreamlly helpful because even though I have had a lot experience cooking and reading/following recipes, I have not had a lot of experience writing them.  One thing that Kathy told me during the time we spent together today that really stuck with me was that she told me that this cookbook should always be in my own voice.  After I thought about it, it made so much sense and was so true.  This cookbook is needs to have my flavor in it and should resemble myself.   

By the time we were done going over my cookbook it was 11:00 AM and a friend of hers from Seattle had arrived to help her have what she calls a “test kitchen” for her up coming cookbook which it center around fall holidays.  They invited me to stay and help them, which was awesome and fun to change tracks from my cookbook to Kathy’s.  I could only stay for about and hour because I had to get back to school for practice, so at 12:00 PM I left, had lunch with my mom and headed back to Proctor. 

I had brought beef ribs back to school that my mom had picked up over the weekend for me because she knew I wanted to add them to the cookbook.  The problem was that that all I had for the recipe and nothing else, so Ben and went to the trusty Hannaford’s in New London to pick up spices to make a dry rub the ribs.  We got there at 8:50 PM and only had ten minutes to shop before they closed.  We ran to spice isle and threw the great efforts of team work, I yelled the spices to Ben as ye pulled them off the racks as fast as he could, grabbed what we needed in only ten minutes and were out.  I ended the night making the dry rub and coating the ribs so they ca marinate over night to make even more delicious for tomorrow. 

Week One Reflection

Sunday, May 11^th

            Today ended the first week of my senor project.  I felt the week went great and I am really having a fun time with it.  Even though it has only been week, I can tell that this project will go by fast.  I say this because even though I got a lot done this week, I still fell that there is quit a ways to go writing my cookbook. 

            The week started out with the reality of moving into my test kitchen in Ben’s apartment.  This took time and patience to get used to.  The kitchen stated out with nothing, but more and more each day the kitchen stared to come together.  My mom was big help in the process of converting a bar kitchen into something that was suitable to cook in.  She found a cooking supply store in Tilton, which is good to have on hand in case I ever need anything last minute. 

            There was a lot of goof cooking that went on this week.  I started the week off with my steak supreme burritos that took a long time to make, but were worth the time and efforts.  A later in the week Patty came over and we made BLT risotto, which was fun and came out extremely tasty.  The weekend was very beneficial.  For mothers day I made fried chicken, sweat noodles, and cheesy biscuits.  All of these dishes are recipes that I plan on using in the cookbook, so I feel that I am off to a good start coming out with five recipes from the first week. 

            This week should the same as last week, more of cooking and writing up recipes.  I think I am going to cook on Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday.  I will write on wends day because it is a short day and meet with my mentor on Monday to edit the recipes that I have already written.

Day five

Friday, May 9

Today was the fifth day of my senior project.  I woke up at 8:00 AM.  Today was more a catch up day and gave me time to prepare for next week.  Patty Pond had taken lots of pictures of the BLT risotto yesterday when I cooked, so the first thing I did was went threw and edit all of the photographs.  I did this for about an hour and when I was done, I had a great picture a bowl of the risotto that captured all the elements of the dish.  When I was finished working with the photographs, it was around 9:00 AM and I switched directions and began writing up the BLT risotto recipe.  I focused of putting the recipe together for about an hour and at 10:00 AM took a break and treated my self to breakfast at Black Water with Ben.  From there we ventured off to Concord.  The task was to find beef ribs, which I will be cooking next week, but we had no luck.  Patty had told me that Shaws in Concord was the best market around, so I feeling like we might have luck, but it was not a success.  I went to two different Shaws and unfortuently neither of them had beef ribs.  A little disappointed by this time, we decided drive back to school threw Tilton because there a few more markets there.  To make a long story short, no butchers in this area carry beef ribs.  We went three more stores, Shaws, Market Basket, and Hannafords all in Tilton and still could find what we were looking for.  Feeling like or efforts were just for a lost cause; the ride back to school was not fun.  In my sulking state of mind, I called home to touch base and by the end of the conversation I had my mother assuring me that she would find beef ribs by the end of the day.  Sure enough fifteen minutes caller I get a call form mom telling me that the butcher at home would order beef ribs and I would be able to pick them up this weekend.  This was great.  My sudden feeling of wasted time was soon forgotten and the day ended well.

Day four

Thursday, May 8^th

This was the fourth day of my senior project.  Today was a cooking day.  I woke up around 8:00 AM and went over everything that I needed to make the risotto.  I decided to make a BLT risotto, with pancetta acting as the bacon, basil acting as the lettuce, and tomato.  I had gotten most of my ingredients yesterday, but I still needed to pick up a few things.  I made my list, and all I needed was a loaf of bread and stuff to make an easy green salad to serve with the risotto.  As it has been the routine, I made my way over to Hannafords for the third day in a row picked up what was needed.  I returned to Proctor around 10:15 and had an hour and a half until my project sponsor, Patty was coming over to help me cook.  I got right to work.  I prepped all the ingredients for the dish.  I chopped the onion, minced the garlic, julianed the basil, and measured out the rice.  I took my time, so by the time I fished Patty was rolling up on her bike.  When Patty arrived at MLS, I thought it was only polite to give her tour of my test kitchen, which only took .5 seconds.  After the grand tour we started to make the risotto.  This was new for Patty so I was learning experience.  Forty-five minutes later, both Patty and my arms were tired of string, but the risotto was finished and looked delicious.  I had made a fresh greed salad with radishes, which are extremely fresh and in season now, and toasted almonds tossed in a balsamic vinaigrette dressing.  Add a nice loaf of bread of crusty French bread and we had ourselves a feast.  As Patty, Ben, Brooks, and I sat down at Bens lavish dinning table, apparent the silence of voices that the risotto came out great.  And it was, the BLT risotto was delicious,  all the flavors blended well with each the other and I as very happy with the end product.  The day ended as usual…cleaning dishes on a full stomach.

Day three

Wednesday, May 7^th

This was my third day of my project.  I knew it was going to be short because I only had until 11:45 AM to work because we had an away game at Gould.  Because of this I got up at 8:00 AM to start my day.  I decided that it would be most logical to not cook today since I had so little time, but rather to prep for tomorrow.  I chose to make risotto tomorrow, so the first thing I did was make a grocery list for what I would to cook.  Risotto is easy, so the list wasn’t that long.  All I really needed was arborio rice, pancetta, asiago go and romano cheese, and olive oil.  I already had tomatoes and onions at the test kitchen so all the bases were covered, except for a couple.  It seems that Hannafords in New London has a hard time carrying fresh herbs, and for this recipe basil plays a big role.  My other issue was that you need a little wine in this recipe.  Thankfully I have the best project sponsor and assured me that she would take care of the problems.  Along with bringing me basil, wine, and pot to cook the risotto in, she also told me she would keep me company when I cook so there is no time spent worrying about myself cooking with alcohol.  After I had communicated with Patty, it was about 10:30 AM.  I had some time before we had to leave for the game so I decided to edit and write the burrito recipe from yesterday.  This took more time then I thought and finally finished right before we had to go.

STEAK SUPREME BURRITOS

Ingredients

2 pounds sirloin

1 ½ ounce Mexican spice blend

3 cups cook white rice

2/3 cup of chopped fresh cilantro

1 can black beans

2 cups chopped green leaf lettuce

1 8-ounce package grated Mexican 4-cheese blend (about 2 cups)

¾ cup purchased corn salsa

¾ cup guacamole

¾ cup sour cream (optional)

6 burrito-size flour tortillas

Direction

     Trim of any fat on sirloin, and pound meat until it is about ¼ of an inch in thickness.  Transfer tenderized meat to a dish, then coat and rub it with Mexican spice blend. Let marinate for ½ to 1 hour.  Grill sirloin over medium-high heat for about 6 minutes on each side.  Let meat sit for about 10 minutes and cut into little piece, about the size of a fingernail.  

While meat is marinating, prepared the rest of the ingredients.  Mix white rice with chopped cilantro.  Transfer black beans into a pot and heat over medium heat for 10 to 15 minutes.  Chop lettuce into 2-inch strips.

     Working with 1 tortilla at a time, heat tortilla directly over medium-high gas flame (or in dry skillet over medium-high heat) until warm, softened, and browned in spots, about 30 seconds per side.

     Place tortilla on work surface and spoon ¼ cup black beans, ½ cup rice, ¼ cup steak, ½ tablespoon sour cream, 1 tablespoon corn salsa, 1 tablespoon guacamole, 1/8 cup chopped lettuce, and ¼ cup cheese long center of tortilla; fold sides in over filling, then roll up tortilla to enclose filling.

     Place burrito seam side down and serve.  Repeat with remaining tortillas and filling.

Day two

Tuesday, May 6^th

This was my second day of the project.  I started my day at 8:30 AM at the Hannafords Market in New London.  I had made a grocery list the nigh before, so I wouldn’t have to waist time thinking of I needed.  I grabbed a cart and jumped to it, searching for my ingredients to make burritos.  I had only been that Hannafords a couple times before, so it took a while to myself familiar with the store, I was there for about an hour.  I started with the vegetables.  I needed green leaf lettuce, a couple Spanish yellow onions, a couple jalapenos, a tomatoes, and cilantro.  I found everything easily, but there was no sing on cilantro.  I bought some dried cilantro instead because I couldn’t find anything else, but fresh herbs really make difference.  The moved along to meats, I was looking for a lean cut that would be easy to grill, so picked four pounds of sirloin.  This turned out to a lot of meat.  Then came the rest of the ingredients, I got a couple cans of black beans, some sour cream, a chipolte rub for steaks, a great corn salsa that they had made fresh, rice, cheese, but the important was missing…they didn’t have any giant tortillas, which a little important when it comes to making a burrito.  I must have looked up and down every row about three times before I called it quits and checker out.  On my drive back to proctor I was on a mission to find burrito wraps.  The only possibility I could think of was the Blue Canoe, but unfortunately the let me down as well.  I thought I was doomed, I mean a tortilla-less burrito would be a little messy.  A had one more idea.  I remembered that Jake’s Market has the tortillas because that’s what they make their wraps out of.  When I asked the girls at the deli if there was any way could just buy some wraps, they gave me a funny look, but then said, “how many?”  This was great, I had all of my ingredients and I was ready to start cooking. At this time it was about 10:30 AM and I made my way up to Ben’s apartment to put all my groceries away, to find that he was still asleep.  I tried to work quietly not to wake the gentle giant, but there something about pounding steak with a meat tenderizer that you just cant do quietly.  Little to say, Ben woke up.  After I tenderized and season the steaks it was about 11:00 AM.  I went to work on the guacamole, mashing the avocados and a chopped tomato, chopped onion, and minced jalapenos.  After that was done I put Ben to work, he was in charge of cooking the rice.  I chopped the lettuce and grated the cheese, and when I was about to warm up the beans I noted that didn’t have a can opener.  Not a problem, I ran over to dinning hall opened my cans of beans, ran back and by the time the rice was done.  It was 12:30 PM and had everything ready to go in a big assembly line with cheese, rice, the black beans, lettuce, salsa, sour cream, and the guacamole.  The only thing that needed to be done was grill the meat.  I started out grilling alone, but as I was done it felt a class had taken a field trip over the MLS to eat all my steak.  When I was finished, it was time to DO WORK.  I made the burritos and they payoff was delicious.  As Ben, Tyler Swartfager, and I sat on the third floor of MSL devouring these burritos we, it was like we had died and gone to Chipolte heaven.  The experience didn’t last the long, as there was many dished that needed to be cleaned before I had to leave for my game.  Luckily I cleaned the last at plate at 2:35 PM as was off to play some lax.  Later tonight my parents took me out dinner and after went to a cooking supply store at the Tilton outlets, to pick up some things that I still needed.  Fifteen minutes later and a can opener, dish rack, spice rack, two mixing bowls, and a spatula later we were finished, and was spent for the day.

Day one

Monaday, May 5th

This was the first day of my project.  I knew that there was a lot to get together, so I woke up early.  I worked with my mom to plan out what I needed to bring from our kitchen at home to my test kitchen at Proctor.  It was clear that I would need almost everything, pots, pans, and dishes, ect.  It took about two hours to get all of my cooking supplies packed up and ready to go.  I was planed to meet with my project sponsor, Kathy Gunst, today, but unfortunately she had to cancel at the last minute.  Instead I used that time to create a grocery list for my next dish I’m going to make, burritos.  After this I drove back to school.  When I got to Proctor, it was time to do some work.  Since Ben doesn’t own anything to put in his kitchen, it was pretty easy to find room for all of my things, but for some reason it still took a while. Today was basically a maintenance day, getting my cooing supplies all organized and setting up my test kitchen so it will be ready to cook in.