About Me

Wake Forest, NC, United States
My life has had its normal ups and downs. I cooked professionally for years and was a breakfast, lunch, and a dinner cook. I was a saucier, a sous chef and a chef. I was an actor in a made for TV movie entitled "The Secret Life of John Chapman". For years I pit crewed on an A Production Corvette and traveled to races all over the Northwest. I ran computers at Boeing to test 737 and 747 development. I was responsible for and ran computers at Cape Canaveral for the early Apollo flights and on an atoll in the South Pacific (Kwajalein) for early star wars testing. I've developed and maintained computer applications for years and was part of a team of 9 or so tasked with developing and maintaining the processes used across EDS to manage projects and develop software. I developed and maintain a website for people who are caregivers of people with Parkinson's Disease. For fun I exercise regularly, read, and play with new programming languages. My wife blesses me tremendously. She is truly my Beloved. The progeny are source of pride and wonderment.

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

The word "Sh*t"

Ahhhh, the Sure Happy It's Today acronym.  It should be used when nothing else works.

The only post high school formal schooling I managed to sit through was for commercial cooking.  I knew that the University of Washington wasn't for me, even though I had both academic and athletic scholarships, when I had a teaching assistant in English suggest I write a paper on why Little Annis Fannie had big boobs.

For the final commercial cooking test, to declare victory with the course, one had to cook a meal that was graded by the class after they ate.

My menu was unusual in that it was a classic French menu with table service.  No one else have ever had table service.  The menu was Consomme of Beef Royale, whole baked salmon Normand, hearts of celery vinaigrette, braised stuffed romaine, and rice pilaf.  

The salmon was set upright, covered with parchment paper, and baked till done.  When ready, the dorsal fin and skin was removed.  Poached prawns and turned mushrooms (spirals cut on the top of the mushroom) were alternately placed along the spine for the length of the fish.  The fish was to be served with a rich White Wine Sauce.  The last step was to spoon a royal glaze over the fish and flash it (brown the glaze) under a salamander or broiler.

The royal glaze was a combination of the White Wine Sauce and Hollandaise Sauce.  I spooned the glaze onto the fish, prawns and mushrooms and it rolled right off.  It was too thin.  I had ever made the glaze before so didn't know that I should have thickened the White Wine Sauce for the glaze a LOT more before adding the Hollandaise.  At that point, it's far too late to do anything so I flashed the fish and went with it.  

When the meal had been eaten, I sat down next to the chef (instructor) and immediately said "The glaze was too thin."  The chef agreed and asked what I did.  I responded with "I said Shit!!!"  He burst into laughter saying that the same thing had happened to him at St. Morita Hotel.  He went on to say "There's nothing else in the world to fit the situation but the word "Shit!!!"." 

Oh, the grade I got was an "A".
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