So ready for it.

One thing I love about having leftover artisan bread is making a filling toast out of it.  Yesterday was egg whites with schredded zucchini and cheddar cheese (7) with hot and spicy link sausage (4) (that I tried to put on top of my toast, but miserably failed so that’s why it is on the side) and grapes and strawberries for dessert.

Hannah and Jacob, however, had a sweet jones going on, and my daughter made strawberry crepes for breakfast – such a proud Momma I was!   I had a bite of it and it was delicious, even though I am not the biggest fan sweet breakfasts.

Our weather was perfect.  I had plans of getting in some steps before work, but was gently reminded that I haven’t finished my Bassett certification (just a formality to get certified to serve alcohol in Illinois).  I had no idea how long it was going to take me – just the first section took me nearly an hour!   But the wind blowing in my window by my computer was glorious, I sipped on my coffee.  It’s all good.

I had time to make a chicken fried rice dish for lunch.  Not as good as Tony’s, but it got rid of some veggies that needed to be used up in the fridge.  And if you’ve not watched my husbands video on how he makes his fried rice, you can check it out here.  Gosh I miss his voice!  So happy that I have this video.

This came in at 9 points.  5 for the cup of white rice, 3 for the chicken and 1 for the sauce, which was just 1 tablespoon of teriyaki sauce mixed with 1 teaspoon of sriracha.  I packed this to go since I literally ate my breakfast a mere two hours before I made this.  But I planned ahead to that I could get to work early and eat this before my shift started.  Check out my lunch box!  It’s actually Hannah’s, but I stole it for the day.  My stir fry was on the bottom and my fruit was on top.  I think she bought this at Wal-mart.  Although I just did a quick search, and I think you can sometimes find this at Aldi, and you can definitely find it as BB&B.

I got a text when I was putting my lunch together from my trainer asking if I felt ready to run a cooking station by myself.  I was so ready for it!  We get the menu ahead of time and she asked me which dishes I would like to do.  Two dishes I didn’t want to do was risotto (my MIL makes the best by the way!) and the panna cotta, because I’ve never worked with gelatin sheets.  When I got to work I realized that by declining those two dishes, I got the other three – one of which was the main protein.  Whoop!

So I reread through my recipes while I ate lunch.  Made a game plan on the timing of everything, and then clocked in and got to work.   I had not one flicker of nerves.  Um, turns out I like to talk to people about food, so this job is perfect for me.  We had a new girl that was working her third shift and is a class assistant like me.  When we were in our pre-shift meeting and the head chef rattled off the dishes I’d be doing, she had a look of panic on her face.  When we got done I asked what was wrong, and she said “I didn’t know that they would give us so much responsibility!”  And then asked if I had been trained to do it by myself.  Well, yes and no.  I’ve been shadowing CA’s for nearly three weeks, so I’ve just picked up on stuff along the way.  I then told her that this isn’t brain surgery, no one is going to die, and it’s just food, so not to worry.

We were making a roasted red pepper and artichoke salad with fresh mozzarella, and I quickly realized that it made sense to sear off the red peppers since that was going to take some time.  The Chef did give me a tip.  I normally put my roasted peppers in a bowl covered in saran wrap.  She suggested putting them in large ziplock bags.  That way you can just message the peppers in the bag and the black char comes right off and there is less mess.  It worked!

Then I put all my ingredients together for the grilled antipasto platter:

And last but not least, I had to butterfly my chicken breasts so that they would cook faster.  The main protein dish?  Chicken marsala.  Tony’s favorite dish.  I knew it was a sign that he was with me. 

Although the recipe called for searing the chicken in both butter and olive oil, and I would have personally used just olive oil.  Maybe my pans weren’t hot enough, but I kept checking my timeline to make sure my three dishes were done at the same time the chef’s two dishes were done, and I didn’t get a good sear on the chicken, but it tasted good!  I explained my dilemma to the Chef after it was over, and she told me next time just go with my instincts.  Lesson learned.

I realized I never got a picture of the panna cotta, but it looked amazing too.    The GM was the closer last night, and as I was cleaning up my stove he came up to me and told me what an amazing job I did.  He said that I was calm, kept the class going, engaged them.  Um, duh – I am Biz!  Ha, I kid.  But I was really in my element.  And because it was a party vs. a cooking class – as a guest of a group event, typically your company is paying the bill, so you can just drink and not touch a knife, or be as involved as much as you want.  I quickly determined in my group of 10 which ones really wanted to learn some skills, and the others who just wanted to sip their wine.   In the end everyone had a great time, and well, that’s all that really matters.

I was pretty hungry when I got home, and made a quick taco dip with chips.  5 points for the beef with cheese and sour cream, and 4 points for the chips.

I am working another party at the Merchandise Mart today.  And I got a call that my car is done being fixed after my fender bender a few weeks ago.  My deductible is $500, so while painful to pay that amount, I look on the bright side.  No one was hurt, the damage was minimal and I get my beloved Nissan Juke back.  Although I have to say, I’ve enjoyed the Volkswagen Jetta this last week.

I hope you have a fabulous Friday and a great weekend.  See you on Monday!  In the meantime, you can always find me on Instagram