Would Jus Eat It?: February 2010

For the last month, I've spent most of my non-working time at a nearby bar/pizza sports bar the staff hangs out at. Pretty, friendly bartenders. Cheap drinks. Tasty pizza. This stop every night kept me from getting home before 2 am every morning... but that all changed last Tuesday night.

After a massive snowstorm two Wednesdays ago (Feb 10th), the Wed before Valentine's day, I worked 5 days in a row straight. Minimum of 12 hours a day and Valentine's day Sunday was about 14 hours. Finally on Tuesday I thought it would be a good idea to relax with all the staff and grab a few drinks and shots at the bar. Drinking went on as usual, but I was riding off of 4 hours of sleep every night for the past 3 - 4 nights... and I guess that is what really fucked me up. I stopped drinking around 1:15, but we stopped elsewhere. Didn't start driving until 2:00... but I wish I had never gotten into my car.

After driving 25 minutes, I eventually reached one of the only places on the side of the road that wasn't lined with mailboxes, trees, or guardrails. That's just the moment when I passed out for 10 seconds. I remember a faster car behind me and for some reason I blinked when I looked through my rear view mirror... and when my eyes opened, I went 40 yards into the snow and 20 yards away from the road.

Immediately got out of my car into the snow and for the next 15 minutes I dug with my frisbee around my front wheels... There was no way I was getting out of this one. So I called my parents at 2:45 in the morning, they rushed out of bed with shovels and triple A on the way... however, around that time, a police officer happened to drive by my scene... FML.

Was arrested, sat in a short sleeve shirt in a holding room and was interrogated and processed for 3 hours. Got home around 6:15 in the morning, slept for 3 hours and went back to work the next day. Car was towed/impounded. 400 bucks.

Court date is around march 2nd. great. Looking at a total of 4000+ including lawyer and all feeds and everything and maybe 1000 for car repairs.

Funny thing is, my parents weren't really mad. They were just glad I was alive... and hopefully that I learned a lot from the "Experience". I have. It just sucks now that I can't have more than a beer or two at a bar without my BAC going above the legal limit... oh well. That's permanent.

I was only about 10 minutes away from my house... but the road there followed the course of a river and is really dark and full of deer. If I hadn't gotten "caught" and passed out at the point I was at, I coulda went flying into a tree or the river. I guess that's kinda crazy. I was also lucky that the hill was UPhill and not DOWNhill... don't know where I would be if I were going down.

On a more positive note, I've been allowed to cook on the hot side of the kitchen some more. On a non-busy Tuesday or Wednesday I popped out like 15 orders of Gnocci and an order or two of scallops. Quite fun to make. On the cold side... Veggies I use for my salads are turning out really well every time now. Mostly sous vide beets and stuff for salad that are turning out perfectly cooked--tender, not mushy or have any crunch to it at all, but then again, beets have a lot of leeway... parsnips, on the other hand, don't but my parsnips aren't getting mushy.

and I've been attempting to take over more of the baking / pastry side for the sake of the Sous Chef. My souffles are rising higher and are more "uniform"... making brownie batters... made my first carrot cake batter. Oil/Egg base... Mine didn't turn out quite as well as the Sous Chef's... but hey, it was my first time and I thought I was at the right point at each step. Ho well.

Fully completed making a Foie Gras torchon today. 3 step process. woo... Good times.

Glad to have a day off tomorrow and that I got home before 4 in the morning on a Sat night for the first time in 3 months. Now maybe I can cook for my family for once...

Pictures!
soon?

Valentine's Day Steak Tartare! (well, this was the day after. Just a little first course)