I've been roasted before...

Ok, so I know that I am a little late in getting this out there but please give me a break this week. So this week was our roasting lab which means in reality that the semester is winding down which will leave a big gaping whole in my culinary heart. Especially since I have no clue what will happen in the fall. If I am going to enter the baking/pastry program or if I am just going to bite the big one and take on the chef apprenticeship program. Even with those two decisions I still have multiple decisions to make within each program. I can study in Italy or here for the chef apprenticeship program. I can chose to add to the pastry/baking program courses that will help me build my own bakery or I can just study baking/pastry. I know this must seem silly to most people reading this blog but I am finding the options irritating! What makes this even worse is I feel so, not lost but at a stand-still and I don't know which way to go...this was my fear at the beginning of the semester that I would not be able to decide and now that I am here I felt like I should have given more time to contemplate my next move. Who am I kidding here?!?! Me CONTEMPLATE??? Let's face the facts I do everything spur of the moment and I just pray that in the end I make the better choice. Back to class and helpful tips, knowledge, and whatever... Like I said above, we did roasting this week. We made scalloped potatoes, oven roasted potatoes, roasted winter vegetables, and roasted chicken thighs. Here is a question for you...Do you know the difference between roasting and baking? dwell on this question for the rest of this little blog of mine and then I will rock your world! Ok, so I have never honestly eaten a turnip...I was nervous about having to eat turnips in my roasted winter vegetables. However, with Chef Todd's phrase of "Be an adventurous eater" Reverberating through my brain I hesitantly ate them along with the celery root, butternut squash, potatoes, parsnips, carrots, roasted garlic, and shallots it was a fantastic side dish! Sorry to everyone who now will have to endure my praise of this dish in real life. If you want the recipe just ask me for it, it will knock your socks off!!! So I learned a finishing technique for roasted root vegetables (potatoes) After they are nice and roasted put them in a bowl and toss them with a little bit of butter and then sprinkle them with salt and then cover the bowl with plastic wrap. The heat in the bowl will help you if any of your vegetables are not quite done and the butter gives them a nice shiny coat that adds a little professionalism to the plate. Okay, now we are near the end...I am going to tell you the difference between roasting and baking...are you ready? Can you handle the TRUTH??? I think you can! Baking is what you do to breads and pastries. Roasting is everything else, meat/poultry are roasted not baked (So in reality shake 'n bake needs to change to shake 'n roast) vegetables are not baked they are roasted...Did I rock your world? Let's hope not too much, I do want people to still talk to me when they see me and not avoid me like the plague because I told them the truth. Food Network likes to give us this false information so they can keep the real truth from people that roasting is actually pretty darn easy because we do it more than we think. Also, another world shocking moment...You know those 'baked' potatoes you make that you cover with foil? STOP DOING THAT!!! I have been telling people not to do that and now I will give the reason why. So this is your usual process for baked potatoes. Scrub the potato, poke the potato, rub them down with some oil or butter maybe, place in foil, and then put them in the oven and cook them till they are soft...am I right? Ok number one most people do that because they are afraid of how dirty their oven is. Come on!!! Your oven goes hotter than your water heater, your oven is more clean than you. Ok so what really happens to your spud when it is wrapped in foil, well this little event called steam happens and steam is not your spuds best friend. In matter of fact if you ever wonder why your potato doesn't fluff when you cut it open you can thank your foil for that. What happens is that the steam makes your potato dense and gummy so no matter how much rolling you do to your potato it will never be fluffy...sadness, unless you like gummy dense potatoes...then you are doing the right thing. You can still rub your potatoes down with butter or oil you just have to put them on a half sheet (aka jelly roll pan or cookie sheet) and that added step of rubbing them down gives the skin a nice crispiness to it which is always awesome. So try this once just once, skip the foil. See if you like it better that way. Also, if you haven't tried a turnip give them a chance! Well this is it folks, next week is frying...I am one very excited girl! Until next week!