Today, I'll be working the closing shift, so I didn't have to go in until 10:30am! I was assigned by Tina to prepare Pork Green Chili. This was interesting as I have never cooked pork in my life. I do not remember ever eating pork either.
I was pretty excited about this assignment. I have done a lot of prep work which is necessary for the chefs to do their jobs but I have not had the opportunity to prepare the items myself.
I started off by cooking the 20lbs of pork in an industrial sized skillet. Once the pork was completely cooked throughout, I threw in the other ingredients - tomatoes, green chilies, jalepenos, onions, garlic, cumin, tomatoes and water. I allowed the mixture to simmer for about an hour and then I added the cornstarch and water mixture (a slurry) to thicken up the chili.
This process took a little longer than I expected. As I was preparing the chili, I received at least three different ways to go about completing a particular step of the recipe. It was interesting to hear the reason behind each variation. They all sounded valid to me, which made it a bit difficult to decide which option to use.
Once the mixture was properly cooked we panned it up and put it in the chili blaster for storage.
Due to the nature of the dinner shift, I had some down time which I used to work on various assignments until it was time to close.
When it was time for closing, I went into the dining hall and filled in as needed and also helped to close the dining hall and prepare for operations in the morning.
Day 48:
I started my morning off in Corbett. Sheryl had me make blueberry pancakes. This was the first time I had done any batch cooking. For most of the other meals, they are generally prepared before the shift. However, to ensure quality and to prevent waste, it is necessary that pancakes are prepared to order.
I spent the rest of the afternoon in Palmer and Durrell working on my assignments.
Day 49:
Today was spent mostly in the dorms. I started off at the gym and found myself using some of the warm-up exercises from the ballet classes I took at home as a part of my routine. I had the opportunity to share this exercise with one of the football players who has been helping me with my push-ups. I went from doing 10 (yes, sad, I know) to 25 in one set! He made it through the entire exercise and seemed to have enjoyed it. Some persons do not consider ballet a sport or take it seriously. It was refreshing to see someone, especially a guy being open to and participating in participating in the exercises.
Day 50:
I started off my morning with Megan and Sam with a hike it Horsetooth. Megan had advised that this hike would be much easier than Arthur's. I had a really hard time believing that at the beginning. It was extremely hot and I had to make frequent stops to drink water and catch my breath. At the beginning of the hike there wasn't much shade.
On the way up we ran into a couple who was walking their goats. This is definitely something I do not see everyday.
However, about halfway through we were blessed with a few trees that provided much needed shade. Once we made it to our destination, I was able to confirm that it was much easier than Arthur's Rock.
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| Horsetooth Rock |
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