Breakfast of champions.

Cheeb, do you mind if I ask....are you a chef? You are very creative with food.

::cool::



Sorry for the back-to-back posts. Couldn't get the "multi" button to work.

Uh, not really? Kinda?

I mean myself and the wife both had an interest in cooking, borne from pretty much both of our collective sets of parents being pretty shit at it.
So we started cooking more, and I taught the wife (then gf) a few of the things I knew and likewise.
Watched a fair few shows together, started our collection of cook books (now at about 84 of them I think).

Then, we both enrolled in culinary college. Now, to be a chef you need a certain amount of "industry hours" and to complete absolutely everything, including the management side of things, staff training, stock and order control, nutrition, handling, storage, and a bunch of other HR type stuff.
Not to mention the hands-on actual learning how to cook and prepare/present recipes.

We did all the hands on stuff, all the cooking, prep, and presentation modules.
We did Proper hygeine/handling/refrigeration and storage.
We did a little bit of nutrition and "working in an ethnically diverse workplace" type stuff, conflict resolution and all that.

In terms of the theory/bookwork beyond the attached modules to the hands on stuff, we did about half, and I cooked a little bit for work.
Didn't really like it though, killed my passion/interest in cooking and sharing with friends and family, so I decided it wasn't for me career wise.

In terms of qualification, we both have certs 3&4 in commercial cookery - which I'd say realistically would qualify you to run your own catering operation, or to cook, but the actual "chef" title is not something either of us completed.
There's still an interest in cooking and creating though.
Bit harder now with the kid, though we're focussing on making healthy food that's actually good, and not too time consuming.
Of course, we still 6-8 hour slow cook and bake sometimes, that will never be gone.

We've visited the good food and wine show and local organic markets many times, trying what new things/foods/equipment we can find...and that's about it.

Apologies for the overly wordy answer.

Not overly wordy at all. I think a lot of us suspected you had more than just a passing interest when it came to food.

I had quite a nice salad today.

I didn't make it, but I ?created/wrote? it?

Mixed green leaves including kale.

Steamed chicken.

Grilled Capsicum (red)

Artichoke hearts

Fetta cheese.

Pumpkin.

I had it dressed with a little olive oil, lemon juice, cracked black pepper and some dried chilli flakes.

Took some walnuts for crunch as a free of charge suggestion of my salad guy.

Really, REALLY excellent salad right there, folks - I'd recommend throwing one together for yourselves.

Just one of those things that I thought about for a bit, got my mind set on (it's weird...does anybody else here do recipes in their mind to perfection before ever making them/having them made?) and it turned out exactly how I wanted it.
Gaddamn perfect lunch, with enough left for an afternoon snack to boot.

I skipped breakfast, but my dog ate a bunch of cat shit out of the litter pans. She eats shit and I actually worry about what FOOD I'm buying for her???

Dogs LOVE cat poop! Weird!

I had oatmeal for breakfast.

It's disgusting, but...dammit, I love that dog.