A new year! Looking back, as we often do on this day, I can't believe every thing that has happened in 2010! My dad died in April, I quit my rather well paying job to go back to school to learn Culinary Arts, moved to a new city to actually go to school, spent three weeks in Italy and France and finished the year by moving to St Thomas for an internship. If you had told me a year or two ago that I would have done all these things, I would not have believed you! And in between school and Europe and St Thomas, were trips back and forth between Reno, Denver and Washington, DC (to spend time with Jordan and Betty, respectively). Jordan has been reminding me how lucky I am to be in such a beautiful place, with a warm tropical climate and little responsibility. I have to agree with him. I was thinking of cutting my stay here short because there didn't seem to be much happening, but Paul (one of the owners) took over (not sure if this is good or bad) scheduling and has me working what looks to be part time on days at the Lobster Grille, what looks like Saturday days at Iggie's, with some evenings at the Lobster Grille thrown in there. I am learning and that's what I came here to do, so I guess I'll stick it out til March, as scheduled. I am signed up and confirmed for a Personal Chef class in Denver the first weekend in April so will need to be gone from here before then. Now I just need to decide what to do when I grow up! There are many options, and this seems to be the best place to think some of this out. I have finally realized that no one expects anything out of me other than to show up for work when I am suppose to. This was a hard concept to grasp for the oldest child of six, a nurse, and for the last four years, OR manager! I think I'm finally "getting" it, lol.
It was hard getting up this morning for work! When I got to Iggie's, I found out I was working regular staff! It was just me and Mary and a young dishwasher. Wow! I set up and worked Pantry. Here at Iggie's that means you make all the salads and cold sandwiches and plate whatever desserts people want. It also means you do most of the prep for evenings and whatever special there is the next day. Mary gets there about 7:30-8am so she already had ribs, pork roasts, fish and three cuts of chicken thawing in the sink. I took the chicken wings and made a marinade of Paul Prudhomme's blackened seasonings, Old Bay Spices and EVOO. Those were stored in the freezer for another day. I put a marinade of half EVOO and half bottled teriyaki sauce along with a lot of black pepper on chicken tenders, then skewered them on bamboo so they could be served as Chicken Satay. Half the tenders were put in the walk-in for use over the next day or so, the other
half were placed in the freezer. Next came the chicken breasts, done in the same marinade after I butterflied them (so they would cook on the grill faster) then these were also placed in the freezer. Lots of prep! The ribs were placed in a hotel pan, then seasoned with salt and
pepper and garlic, wrapped, and will be cooked tomorrow for a rib and chicken special. The pork shoulder roasts (4 huge roasts) were placed in a hotel pan and roasted at 350 in the oven. I made BLTs, turkey club sandwiches-all using "Texas toast" (thick sliced white bread). I made garden salads, ceasar salads, grilled chicken salads, taco salads, mahi-mahi salads, and chicken wraps filled with lettuce, diced tomatoes, chicken of your choice (grilled or fried) covered with ranch drawing. Mary got swamped at one point so asked me to come help her on hot line, which I did. Deep fried oysters, chicken tenders, French fries, wing platters, crab cakes, plating and trying to remember which sauce goes with what dish. Nthe other thing I did today, speaking of deep fried oysters, was to take 1& 1/2 buckets of raw oysters, rinse them off, then bread them. Dredge them in flour first, dip them in an egg/milk mixture (a LOT of milk compared to egg) then roll them in a special seasoned coating of Panko or bread crumbs. Not sure who makes that or if they buy it ready made. Mary wanted me to keep the seasoned breading after I finished with it. I refused, saying it was contaminated and could not be reused. She didn't argue with me, which surprised me!
When I got off at 4pm, I found Jordan reading. We both read a while, then had an early dinner at Iggie's-spinach artichoke dip with tortilla chips and pita, then shared a steak ceasar salad. They have live music at Iggie's every night. They had a guy there that reminded me of Marc Cohen in style. Nice voice, I'll have to ask if he's there every week, I enjoyed his singing. Jordan thought all his songs sounded the same, lol. I was asleep in bed by 9, I was so tired!
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