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final week

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This month I planned to make a cookbook, develop my technical cooking skills and knowledge of flavor, and explore different culture’s foods. I am currently in the progress of assembling my cookbook, but once I finish that I will have successfully accomplished my goals. The first reason I chose this project was that I wanted to establish some cooking skills before I head off to college. Once I got into it though, the project became more about challenging myself and replicating the amazing flavor profiles I love so much. I made all sorts of food: chicken tikka masala, squid stir fry, gnocchi, baklava, and many others. I liked it so much I will definitely continue my senior project once or twice a week through the summer. I learned a lot of basic cooking techniques like how to properly dice an onion. I think the most valuable skill I got was the confidence and basic understanding of cooking I achieved from daily practice. Cooking is definitely a skill that you develop by doing over and ov...
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Week 3

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This week I am blogging from Omaha Nebraska at Olympic Trials. I am swimming two events at this meet, but so far I have only swum one. I did the 200 fly which is a brutal event. All swimming events pose their own physical and mental challenge. In my opinion, the 200 fly is unique in the way it can cause you to seize up and feel like you cannot finish. For this reason, swimming in this race at the level of the Olympic Trials was very intimidating for me. The dinner before I swam I could not finish my meal and I became very concerned with how the next morning would go. I have been swimming a long time and at big meets I always get nervous, but I have never been this nervous before. In the morning I tried to eat my granola bar, but I could barely get one bite down.  At Olympic Trials they walk each heat out and show each swimmer on a big screen. I could feel my hands buzzing from the adrenaline. During the race, I was a bit too tense and by the last 50, I was hurting more than I wante...
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Week 2

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This week I am learning my family recipes which have been a lot less stressful than last week. I knew little about the art of all the different Asian countries I cooked food from. This week I have been able to lean on my mom and grandfather for help. At the start of the week, I face-timed my grandparents in Flordia. This was a meaningful experience because I was able to share something with my grandfather and I have always wanted to learn the Lebanese food he cooks for our family. When he was a young man he immigrated to the United States from Egypt (he is Lebanese though) and the one thing he brought from his culture was the food. My grandmother grew up in New Jersey and she also has family recipes I learned.  I started out the week with fresh halibut my dad caught on the Oregon coast the day before. I made fish and chips with a fryer. Then on Tuesday, I made molokhia which is a Middle Eastern soup made from jute leaves. On Thursday I made my Grandmother's mac and cheese. On Frida...
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Week 1

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This week I have completed the first four days of my journey to challenge my cooking ability. I want to cook because it is a skill I can develop and take with me for the rest of my life. I am going to leave for college in a few months and becoming a better chef seems really valuable for college. To start this week off I have been exploring Asia. I wanted to make Asian food from a different country each week because I love all the Asian grocery stores and restaurants in the Portland area. I knew that this would be a good challenge because of the complex flavor profiles you get from all the Asian cuisines out there. I also figured doing one Asian country each day would provide some nice variety. Pulling together this project has been pretty simple. I try and plan two days in advance and go to the store to get ingredients each day. In a perfect world I would be able to go every other day, but I also seem to forget something. My goals are to m ake a cookbook, develop my technical cooking s...
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