Back to School, Back to School

I wanna go back to Ohio State,

To old Columbus town.

To the stadium to hear the band,

By far the finest in the land.

I wanna go back to Ohio State,

To old Columbus town.

I wanna go back,

I gotta go back,

To O-Hi-O!

Since I left culinary school to come back to Columbus in July, I have been trying to decide what I want to do with myself. I considered quite a few things and while a lot of them seemed like good ideas for the moment, nothing excited me for the future. That is, until I was lecturing Dad one night around the fire pit about the difference between a gibbous moon and a gibbon when Mom suggested I think about returning to my first love- Anthropology. I started looking into it and I realized that the idea of re-entering the field was very exciting to me.

I am now enrolled at Ohio State as an undergraduate where I will be working towards a Bachelor of Science degree in the (recently added) Anthropological Sciences program. Although I already hold a Bachelor of Arts degree in Anthropology, this new degree program focuses more on the physical side of the field (osteology, forensics, primatology, and human origins) and will better prepare me for graduate school. After about two years working on this undergraduate degree, I will apply to graduate school where my goal will be to earn both a Master's degree and a PhD... and eventually a teaching position at the university level.

So I start classes in January and if everything goes right I should be done in about 6 years. Right now I am working as a student employee in the same office- the same desk, in fact- I left two years ago. I started almost 10 years to the day after I started here the first time and it almost feels as if I never left. After all, you know what they say...

Once a Buckeye, always a Buckeye!

Lifestyles of the Poor and Unemployed

Since I've been looking for work, I've been doing a little bit more than painting rooms in various homes around the greater Columbus area. I've been learning to make a variety of dairy products at home such as butter, cheese, and yogurt. Today I was able to put together a meal with some of the homemade products I have been experimenting with. I made a lasagna in which the tomato sauce, mozzarella, and (some of the) ricotta was homemade. I know it looks kind of gross but I didn't think to take a picture when it was hot out of the oven and fresh looking :) But here it is:















I spent a day last week making the tomato sauce (along with a vat of applesauce) and the two cheeses were made yesterday. Our garlic toast was topped with homemade butter, as well, but I ran too short of time to make my own bread and lasagna noodles.

Before starting dinner, Dad and I made a batch a beer which should be ready to drink around the first of the year. I also had a batch of yogurt going all day long so the kitchen was a busy place today!
















I even managed to get my laundry done :) Now, if only I were getting paid to do all of this farmhouse cooking!

Getting settled

I'm mostly moved back to Ohio now and I'm getting settled in at Mom and Dad's house. I've painted my bedroom and bathroom so I thought I'd share them.

I'm still working on being employed again :) Otherwise, I'm just taking it one day at a time getting back on my feet.

Home again, home again

The time has come for another announcement...

My stay in Charlotte is coming to a close. I have decided to move back to Columbus in the next few weeks for a variety of reasons. I am very sad to leave Charlotte and I will have great memories of the time I have spent here. I am especially sad to be leaving Knickerbocker Drive. Tom and Kris have made this the best possible experience for me through both their generosity in offering me a place to live and by being wonderful surrogate parents while I was here. I can't even begin to thank them enough. Without their support and the support of my parents, I would not have been able to do any of this.

As sad as I am to leave, I am looking forward to spending more time with my family and friends in Columbus... especially all the nephews and niece(s) I will have by this time next year.

A la Carte Class

This quarter I am working in the restaurant kitchen at our school. It is hard work and long hours so this is going to be a rough quarter. I would tell you not to be surprised if I continue to take forever between posts on here but I'm sure that will surprise no one.
Today I was on the dessert station so I actually had time to take pictures of my plates before I sent them out.
Here is a Strawberry Tart:And here is a Chocolate Teardrop w/ Peanut Butter Mousse:

Hopefully the quarter will get easier but, as of now, I'm counting down the days until it ends!

Pastry Practical

Here is my work for my final practical in pastry class.

Charlotte filled with Bavarian Cream















Chocolate Mousse in a Tuille Cup















We made everything on these plates except for the raspberry coulis used to decorate them. We were graded on our ability to successfully: temper and pipe chocolate motifs, make anglaise sauce for the plate, bake and shape tuille cups, make and pipe chocolate mousse, make jaconde cake, make bavarian cream and fill jaconde cake molds, make whipped cream by hand, and plate two of each dessert in the specified time frame.
I thought mine turned out ok... I passed so that's all that matters to me :)

New Digs

I have decided to switch to using blogger to host my blog. Unfortunately, I haven't had any luck importing the archives from my old blog to this one. I try to figure it out but, for now, I'll just start posting on here.

If you want to access the old blog, its still up and running at http://jemailaduffy.wordpress.com/ but I will be posting to this site from now on...