Apologies, Appreciations, Aspirations

I suppose the proper way to start this would be by quoting Mignon McLaughlin and saying, "True remorse is never just a regret over consequence; it is a regret over motive."

I'm truly sorry to my faithful readers who care about my life, because it's been months since I've updated any of you. I can't honestly say how much I appreciate and hope you are still faithful while I have not been faithful to you. I hope you will pick back up in my life with me and let me take you on my journey again.

I'm watching Gordon Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmare's while my rice is cooking. Tonight's dinner is going to be sticky rice with lumpia. I'm really excited about this because lumpia is a dish originally from Indonesia and the Philippines. It's a chinese savory pastry that is filled with various vegetables and morsels of meet, these lumpia filled with turkey. The main reason I'm so excited with these rolls is I helped with the making. The prep and the execution are very simple.

I've just finished eating the rice and lumpia; magnificent. The rolls were dark gold and when i bit into them the flaky crunchy rap melted in my mouth, then inside of the roll was hot and juicy the flavor was superb. I'm really excited to have friends that have family recipes and techniques from other countries.

A recent accomplishment that I'm very proud of is my on campus organization's effort to answer First Lady Obama's call to get chefs into schools. It's a very exciting day when students, chefs, and schools can partner together in order to make a healthier and more fun lunch period for students! My role in this is even more exciting. I get to work one on one with school faculty in order to learn about the school, it's needs, and it's students. The next part of the program we are conducting is a regular occurrence of  demonstrations for the students and staff of the school. The first demo 150 people showed up from students to the Director of the private school system. The students were amazing, their energy was very high and their questions were awesome! The persuasion to get the group of high school freshman to answer questions was throwing bread rolls to them from the stage. They loved it. The final role in this program is the partnership of the Culinary Department Dean, our Department Chairman, another fellow student, and myself with the high school's executive staff and wellness committee; this partnership has a common goal. We are designing a menu and a new kitchen for the school!

Lots to write about, I can say that personally life is changing a lot, as I hope your's is too! Recently my friendships are getting stronger, while others are growing weaker. Passions are becoming clearer while others are growing becoming foggier. Purpose is showing itself while reason is hiding from me.

Friends and I made 2 kinds of fondue the other night, it was so much fun to be able to go to the store and pick out cheeses, salamis, vegetables, fruits, and breads with friends. We journeyed off the beaten path a bit and into the toy store, that brought many attempts to be stupid into the night. Walking around the cheese and meat counter at Dean & Deluca talking with Corey behind the counter while he, being bored, allowed us to taste every type of salami we desired. We then made our way to another market and walked through the produce section. As we looked at the seasonal vegetables and fruits we picked up and felt the softness of the mangoes, then firmness of the tomatoes, and smelled the ripeness of the prickly pairs. We then moved to the bakery and smelled the breads heard the crunch and saw the outsides of the loaves break apart beautifully. At the end of our journey we ended up back in the kitchen where friends get to work together.

We made a game plan, and executed it. The game plan was something like we'll sip some white wine and decide who cuts what as Danny cuts the cheese. For our cheese fondue we didn't have a box grater so i sliced the blocks of cheese into paper thin pieces, that was challenging without a sharp knife on hand, but i was victorious over the aged dairy. As each cut their respectable items and it was all displayed on our trays we laughed and talked about the past and the future. Finally we had our fondue made and we put it into the fondue pot, the room smelled of white wine, garlic, and gruyere. We didn't let that hinder our plan, we continued on. Heating cream and chocolate in the sauce pan we decided we needed more chocolate to add to the flavor, so we opened and stirred in Hershey's Kisses.
Then to finish the night we played an incredibly long game of "UNO" and enjoyed the fruits of our labor! It was grand! We laughed, we talked, we hatted on each other when they made us draw 12 cards at one time.

I have this recent feeling, an inkling, or a guttural hinting of something; I can't tell what it is, but I know that while passions are becoming foggier I will somehow find my way through this. I have no idea what this is, but it's kind of like a metal down period. I want to be alone most of the time and when I am I feel like I should be with people. I love myself enough to love spending time alone, but i don't why recently I just feel anti-social, like because I live alone and drive alone, and eat alone that someone here needs me in their life, but I can't find who it is. Or, maybe, it could be that I need someone in my life. I think I should reclaim a goal, that goal is to meet at least one new person every day! I believe I shall. I think that this is enough it's 1 in the morning, so I'm going to go to sleep now.