Week 13: Salads and Sandwiches | Hors D'Oeuvre and Appetizers

Day 1 was EGG-CELENT! That's the only egg joke I'll say I promise. I just like to crack up at my own jokes.

**As a side note, we got best presentation for our last event! We were so excited, and the exact opposite of humble. Eh. It happens.

This was our first award, and the first of the table for ALL classes as well! We were so happy to get it, since we put so much work into the decorations! We also might have intimidated them into giving it to us.

We spent today's class learning a multitude of ways to cook eggs! Chef started by creating an omelet.

Here is the omelet that Chef made. I had no idea that the middle was actually not fully cooked egg! That's why it is the way it is; the inside is like scrambled eggs while the outside is folded and smooth.

Although easier than I had imagined, there were still a fair amount of steps involved in this dish. My aha! moment happened however when we switched to our own stations.


Caption: To the right, chef shows us the best way to crack an egg. When you crack it on the table, less shell gets into the yolk. Cracking it on the bowl causes shell to go inside! Who knew?

I was put in charge of the poached egg because I LOVE eggs benedict. I had no idea that you actually dropped an egg in water to do this. This seems sacrilegious to me... but it worked!

 Caption (Picture 1): An egg, sunny side up! He wanted it not overly cooked, just perfectly heated on both sides. Mikki took care of this, and after the second try it was perfection!

Caption (Picture 2): My beautiful poached egg. You have to slowly pour the egg from a bowl into the water, so that the white and yolk don't mix or break. They float around the water like aliens...


Day 2 revolved around the infamous Waldorf Salad! This salad is very simple, made from lettuce, apple, celery, and mayonnaise.

It ended up being delicious, however my aha moment was that the salad is only made of these four ingredients. Some chefs and restaurants add other tastes and foods, however the original had these simple ones!

Our perfect requisition (almost). We ended up changing some of our theme/ideas, but I think it will turn out great! The chocolate will be a fun touch too.

 Caption: Chef laid out all of the ingredients to make mayonnaise AND the salad! It is important to have everything ready so that you do not make the mayonnaise wrong and screw everything up. Mayonnaise is apparently very temperamental.

Here, chef is making the mayonnaise! He is describing how the oil is essential to add slowly, so that the whole dish is slowly mixed well.

 Caption: Slowly adding the oil to the mayo. When our group did this, we added it at the right speed as well and it helped to create a good consistency in the dip. It was also VERY tiring for Mikki to stir for so long!

Finally, here is the creation of the salad! It is important to chop the ingredients rather thinly so that every flavor can come through!

One connection this week was with our poached eggs. I realized that I am now able to make my very own eggs benedict (if I found the time during school.... so never)! I now have the skills and knowledge of how to make poached eggs as well as Hollaindaise sauce! I will have to try this out during finals week.