My Penn Foster Career School Experience

Inflation Is Taking A Bite Out Of My Education Pt. 1

Cat — Mon, 12 May 2008 16:01:00 GMT

Let’s face it; we’ve all seen our cost of living increase a lot over the past year. My family’s grocery budget has more than doubled. Foods like steak, shrimp and bacon are a luxury these days. You wouldn’t think that this would effect my education, but when you’re studying to be a caterer, it not only effects my education, but my business as well. After pricing certain foods that I’d be needing to use in my upcoming text, I realized that I was going to have to do something to help keep the costs down or my education would have to come to a grueling halt.

As I was walking through the produce aisle of my local grocery store, I priced some of the fresh herbs and spices they had available. I realized that buying these fresh items were going to put a serious dent in my grocery budget. I wouldn’t mind spending the extra money if I knew that I would use all of products, but the fact is, when you buy something like fresh basil, you don’t use the whole package. You put a great deal of it back in the fridge and watch it go bad. This is not an option for me.

One of the other things I’ve noticed is how the cost of produce is skyrocketing, and the quality is diminishing. A year ago I could buy a few bunches of broccoli for a dollar or two and now I’m spending more than five on them. Needless to say throwing fresh produce away is killing me inside. You can plan out a menu and buy only what you need when you shop, but that doesn’t always work. Being disabled, I have good days and bad days. When I have a bad day my husband does the cooking. He usually asks me what I was planning on doing for dinner and when I tell him, his usual response is, “Yeah. I can’t cook that.” Since we don’t always follow my menu to the letter, we can throw out quite a bit of produce.

I have recently taken some steps to remedy this wasteful situation. If I’m going to be a caterer I will have to use fresh products more often than not and since the cost of these items have gotten out of hand, I’m taking steps that will help me to control costs now and in the future. In my next blog I will let you know what actions I am taking and how they are working out.

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Graduation Is Almost Here

Cat — Wed, 07 May 2008 19:04:00 GMT

Graduation season is upon us. It’s that time of year where childhood ends and life begins. Whether you’re 18 or 80, if you’re graduating you’re starting something new with your life and it can be quite an exciting time.

My son Tyler will be graduating from high school this month and has finally decided on what he’d like to do with his future…culinary arts. This made me smile because I know that dragging him into the kitchen at age 11 made an impact on him. He has also decided to help me with my catering business. This truly excites me because the boy is finally moving forward instead of just sitting still.

My friend Michelle will be graduating from nursing school this week as well. To tell you that Michelle has been an inspiration to me would be an understatement. She and I met years ago while in training for a call center job. We became so close that when one of us went to work for another call center the other quickly followed. We carpooled together almost everyday, and it was during those rides that she spoke of going to nursing school. For a couple of years all she did was talk about it, but one day she actually took steps and began going to school. Since then I have become disabled and Michelle has finished nursing school…at the top of her class might I add. She lost her husband shortly after her baby had been born so Michelle has done all of this while raising a toddler. Her parents have helped to take care of her son, but that also presented some challenges. When I finally decided to take catering courses, Michelle came to mind. If she could hold down a job, do clinicals, go to school and raise a toddler, then I could definitely take some classes from home.

So congratulations to my two graduates and thank you. To my son Tyler who makes me feel like a kid again, and the thought of working with him on this catering venture renews my desire to finish this course. And to my friend Michelle who showed me that even though we’re in our forties, that doesn’t mean life is over…it’s just begun.

I can’t wait to be a graduate too.

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My First Cooking Lab

Cat — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 02:23:00 GMT

There are several cooking labs that must be completed for this portion of my catering course. Tonight I completed the first one: seared beef on arugula.

I took some liberties with the cooking lab as I don’t care for a few of the ingredients. The recipe called for pine nuts and walnut oil. I’m not a fan of pine nuts and I have a reaction to oils made from nuts. I’m not sure why, but I break out in hives. Another change I made was the arugula. Since the cost of that particular green is so high right now, I used the greens I had on hand. I would’ve loved to use all of the ingredients the recipe called for but I can’t afford to pay $35 for one meal. It’s just not practical. In my mother’s words, I “made do.”

The picture of the completed recipe looked a bit different from my finished product, but it still looked beautiful. I seared my beef then sliced it very thin. I placed it on a bed of mixed greens then topped it with mandarin oranges and sesame ginger salad dressing. A quick garnish of crispy wanton noodles turned a very basic salad into something beautiful. The flavor of the beef mixed with the oranges, sesame dressing and wantons blended beautifully.

Though I didn’t follow the directions to a tee, I did do the basics and in the end I came up with something I’d be proud to put on any menu.

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How a trip to the vet helped me catch up on my studies.

Cat — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 05:20:00 GMT

Saturday was a typical busy day. It started early and didn’t end until 11:30am Sunday morning.

My youngest son is a boy scout and he goes on a campout at least once a month. This month it’s a hiking campout so they did a practice hike on Saturday morning. They were scheduled to leave at 10:00am and were suppose to return by noon however, they didn’t get back until 2:30 in the afternoon. This was a bit of a problem since we were going to a birthday party at 2pm…we were late. After the party my son and I headed to some stores to buy his equipment for his hiking trip. By the time I got home my oldest son needed me to drive him to Oklahoma City where he was to meet up with some friends. I did a little more shopping for my son’s camping trip then headed back home. At this point it was 9pm. Friday night my youngest son and I went to a local carnival but we left before he used up all of his ride tickets, so I took him back to the carnival and let him ride the rides. By the time we got home it was after 11:30. About an hour later I noticed my cat squatting in every corner of the house, trying to … do#1. I kept scolding him and cleaning up after him, but I noticed that there was blood in his urine. This took me back to Oklahoma City to the only 24 hour vet clinic around.

I arrived at the pet hospital and noticed that there were a lot of cars in the parking lot for 1:30 in the morning. When I got inside I found out that the doctor was performing surgery on a dog that had gotten into a fight. They took Charlie (our cat) into the back right away, but I had quite a long wait in the waiting room. By the time I told them what treatment plan I wanted them to use for Charlie it was around 4am. Since I had to pick him up by 8am and it was an hour drive round trip, I chose to get a cup of coffee and study at a Dunkin Donuts.

My books had been left in the car from the last time I had taken my son to his Boy Scout meeting, so I was able to read several chapters and do a few self checks. It’s the most studying I’ve been able to fit in all month long. When I got to a point in the book where I could go no further I decided to leave. It was getting pretty close to the time I was supposed to pick up our cat.

At 7am I called the vet’s office and was told that Charlie wouldn’t give them a urine sample so I needed to wait a few more hours. I called again at 8:30 just to find out they still hadn’t gotten a sample from him. At this point I could barely keep my eyes opened, so I parked my car in their lot and set my cell phone alarm to wake me in an hour. After a quick cat nap, pardon the pun, I went into the clinic and helped the staff get the sample they so desperately needed to send me and Charlie home.

At 11:30 Sunday morning I finally made it back home. Charlie was diagnosed with a UTI, my family got fresh bagels and donuts from Dunkin Donuts, and I got some sleep.

I never imagined that a trip to the vet would provide me with so much studying time, but in this case it did. The best part is that Charlie will be fine after a few weeks of antibiotics.

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Starting Over...Again

Cat — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 14:44:00 GMT

Baseball teams refer to this as a slump. Some people might think of it as being in a cocoon, but I call it “the funk.” The funk is when I find myself living under a rock, and not coming out to see what’s going on around me. Not caring about anything outside of the basic things going on inside of my house. I think everyone goes through something like this at some point. You have no desire to pick up your books and study. Taking a shower is a major chore and your house could use a good cleaning by the time you pull yourself up and shake off the funkiness.

The past two weeks have been a blur for me. Not because I’ve been so busy that I don’t remember what’s going on, but because I simply didn’t really care.

My life is a routine. I wake up and eat breakfast, check email, wake up my son, feed and water him, then we start school, my husband comes home for lunch, I take him back to work, when I come home I go back to the schoolwork with my son, at 2:30 I leave to pick up the other son from school (a 30 minute drive one way), then I bring him home, I wait around for him to get dressed for work, then I take him there. By this point it’s 4pm which means it’s almost time to pick up my husband from work. He should be off at 5pm, but most days I’m sitting outside of his office waiting for him. When we get home I have to make dinner, then it’s time to clean the mess, get my youngest ready for bed, and at this point I’m ready to pass out, but I can’t because the oldest will be calling for his ride home soon. Routine. Routine. Routine. There are days where life changes a bit, maybe my son won’t need a ride home or perhaps my husband will take us out for lunch/dinner, but for the most part things have become kind of stagnant for me lately, and it’s causing me to feel quite blah.

There are a few things you can do for the blahs: you can force yourself to do things whether or not you want to or you can just wait for them to dissipate. I usually try to force myself out of the funk. I figure it can’t be too healthy to sit around and wait for things to happen, you’ve got to make them happen. So today I begin again. I am making a promise to myself to study, to clean my house, and to smile as much as possible. Yes, it’s been raining here like crazy lately (probably why I’ve been feeling so blasé about everything) but I’m going to open the blinds and let the haze shine in. To start this off I’m writing my blog, something I haven’t done for almost two weeks. I’m also promising myself that I will finish my next assignment, which I’ve read over about three different times - it just hasn’t been sticking with me lately. I will put on make up today, even though I have nowhere special to go, but most of all I will come out from under the rock I’ve been living under.

This won’t be the last time I go through something like this. It just seems to be a part of life for people. I don’t know anyone that hasn’t gotten burned out on their daily routines, but for now, I will try my hardest to put an end to the blahs, and welcome the hoorahs.

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