Culinary Chronicles #2

So a couple weeks have gone by in my classes and I've already learned a ton! Right now I'm in Culinary Foundations 1 and Food Safety & Sanitation. The classes alternate every day and it's a lot of info coming really fast. So far in my sanitation class we're learning about the proper handling of food along with proper holding temperatures, receiving and processing of food, and preparation.  It's a good time and I've learned some crazy facts about things like botulism and other food borne illness. Here's a link to a clip we watched in class about ice and how dirty it can be in restaurants. Just click the link Dirty Ice. In Culinary Foundations, we've learned basics like vinaigrette and homemade mayo, as well as how to make "mother sauces" and stocks. We've worked on knife skills with various vegetables and the specific cuts that can accompany a dish. I'll actually be posting recipes on Damnthelemonade if anyone is interested and they'll be stuff that I learn in school as well as random recipes that I try on my own. Well, that's it for this week but there will be much more to come! Here's a little comic that I thought was kinda funny courtesy of toothpastefordinner.com.

Holidays!

Well this post is a couple days late but thanksgiving is really a great holiday if it's done properly. I was worried this year that thanksgiving wouldn't be worth much because me and my wife moved to the opposite side of the country and away from our families. I was worried that I would be home sick and really miss everyone back at home but the truth is I had a wonderful thanksgiving here in Orlando Florida with just me my beautiful wife and our little dog. We went to Disney World for part of the day then went home and made dinner. We had ham, mashed potatoes with jalapeños,bacon, and cheddar cheese, stuffing, sweet potatoes, and gravy. Oh I can't forget pie!!! My wonderful wife made two pumpkin and one pear pie (one of my favorites). We chowed down then went and saw the movie "Tower Heist" with a friend. Later, I went home while my wife went "Black Friday" shopping while I went home and went to bed. What a day! Now it's the holidays and Christmas is coming up quick I'm super excited for all the holiday happenings and I'll Try to post what's going on in the river rats life. Happy holidays everybody!

Culinary chronicles #1

Those of you that read this blog on occasion and that know me personally already know that I just recently moved to sunny Florida with my beautiful wife and our little dog to go to culinary school. It's been a wild ride so far but school has started and it's turning out to be better than I expected! I rafted all summer and wrote about my river adventures. Now I would like to share some of my culinary adventures with all of my friends and family and other curious and more than welcome readers. As for exactly what I'm going to share here opposed to my other blog Damn the lemonade I'm still deciding. I think I'll post recipes on damn the lemonade and talk about things I've learned and what's going on with life at school and the stuff I'm gonna be doing there. This could possibly change based on mood and all the normal random stuff that could happen to change my mind. but either way I hope to share some cool stuff with anyone who reads.

River Chronicles #11



Well this is it. The last trip of the season. This post has taken forever to get done because I moved to Florida and had a little bit of a bumpy time. This last post will be a little different than my others. I'm gonna do the post the post journal style instead of just giving a brief summary at the end and see which one I like the best.



pretty picture

Tuesday September 20th 2011

Well it's day three of our trip already. We've pulled into Nankoweep for a half over because the hike is good, the beach is shady and we rowed a lot our first two days. It feels good to finally row the Grand Canyon. It's already given me a new perspectuve and a renewed respect and appreciation for the power of the river and a greater love for the canyon. I feel like I've done well so far but even as I write that I know I haven't done anything really difficult. There's a lot more to come. The people are great. They relax when it's time to relax and they play when it's time to play. The crew is great too! Kevin is TL with Butch and his wife, Nancy. Then there's Mark, my dad Bryan, Joe, and me. OH, I can't forget Ron my bailer. So far it's been great and I can't wait for whats next.

Thursday September 22nd 2011 

It's day five. I've already cooked for the second time cause we're doing cook crews and switching off. I have the night off and we're camped at Rattlesnake Camp and we only came a few miles today. We hiked to Hill Top Ruin, wandered around the Unkar Delta and saw Ancestral Puebloan foundations and pottery shards. We got to camp early and Mark and Kevin took a few people on a hike to a large mesa called the tabernacle, while my dad, joe and ron cooked lasagna  : ).....as for me....I'm just hanging out. That's another thing that is amazing about this place, the sound of the river, the usually perfect temperature in the evening, and the scenery make Grand Canyon a great place to just enjoy life. There's no cell phones or other distractions, it's just relax. I love this place! It's a great place to just think and love life. As for enjoying life, we go into the gorge tomorrow.. BIG WATER!!!! AHHHHHHHH!!!!!

Saturday 24th 2011

Wow! Today we ran granite, hermit, crystal and the gems. Granite was interesting. I had a good line but I felt out of control. I went through and hit the big stuff head on and made it through with no real issue other than my boat was FULL of water. Hermit was a different story. I've never screamed in excitement so much in my entire life. The waves were HUGE in a row boat! I always thought the ride was big in a motor boat, but it's just nuts in a row boat. I liked my run. I hit everything straight on and we made it through safe and sound. That last ride in was definitely a highlight of the summer! Crystal.....my run pretty much sucked and I feel like I got pretty lucky. It all started with me going sideways through the right shoulder of the hole....I'm happy I didn't flip. Then, as I think I'm out of the through, I'm heading down the right channel and end up going over a rock sideways.....I'm stuck, we high side, and start bouncing on the boat to shake it loose and I'm screaming every four letter word in the book.....not one of my proudest moments. We came off a few seconds later and I scream "GET ME OUTTA HERE" as I grab the oars and start to push out of the rapid. We made it through alive and upright so that's a big plus. It wasn't pretty getting through there but it could have been a lot worse. Me and Mark cooked some sweet salmon for the folks and life is good. The trip is going great and everyone seems happy. We still have a long way to go but oh boy am I glad crystal is behind me!

Ron punching through a killer wave in Hermit, what a ride!!

Thursday 29th 2011

Today was CRAZY! It started like any other river day. Wake up, eat breakfast, load the boats, stop at Fern Glen for a hike, row to Lava Falls, stop and scout.....we get set to run. Kevin Jo is the first in line with me next, then my dad, Butch, Joe, and Mark running sweep. We all scouted together and we all knew the run that we wanted. There was tension in the air but everyone was confident...I personally thought I was gonna have a heart attack and die, but I kept my cool : ) We got in the boats, and pulled away from the shore. Kevin Jo was first with me second, my dad third followed by Butch, Joe, and Mark Jo. Kevin got set up, went down the slot and dissapeared out of sight. Three seconds later I saw kevins boat upside down spinning in the ledge hole, I yelled "KEVIN IS OVER! KEVIN IS OVER!" to the other boats and I panicked a little, completely forgetting what was going on and started to freak out I yelled "WHAT SHOULD I DO!!" Which looking back is ridiculous cause I was literally just about to enter the rapid at this point. I couldn't hear it, but my dad was screaming "JUST GO!!!" but what snapped me out of it was my bailer Ron, He yelled "PICK A SPOT AND GO!" I snapped out of it and hit the slot, went past the hole and made it through ok!! We were soaked and full of water but we were freaking upright!!! Now that we were through it was time to start looking for people and keep the trip going. We were headed down stream and we heard that Butch got thrown out of his boat, and that his wife Nancy came floating by by herself with their boat. Then Joe came floating by on top his boat with both of his frames hanging off either side of the boat with no people in it.....We headed down stream and began helping Joe put his boat back together while Mark got Kevin's boat back together. We had a bunch of help from two other companies A.Z.R.A, and C.R.A.T.E they picked up one of our passengers, and helped get Kevin and Joe's boats over to shore. The rest of the group came down a little after, and we had lunch on the beach. We made it through without anything serious, Kevin and Butch were cut up a bit but nothing too serious, and others had some bumps and bruises. We didn't lose anything that we couldn't really stand to lose and some straps and oars broke. It was by far the most carnage that I've seen on the river and I hope I don't see that much again! But that was it! My last trip for the season!! We made it through ok, and it was a trip to remember! To finish up, I just wanna say to anyone who went on the trip that has read this, that if anyone has more info about any of what went on during the trip feel free to add it in the comment section. : ) So that's it for this season I loved every minute of it and I can't wait till the next season!



All my passengers after the flips in Lava



River Chronicles #10

Trip number ten down!! This was a really fun one. It helped that it was a fun trip because I'm kind of beat after ten trips. The trip was with twenty really great guys from Sweden. The trip was organized and brought all together by two extremely talented and adventure loving gentleman. Let me just say that this was probably the most rowdy group I've had all summer. These guys knew how to party and you couldn't help but to join them. Two ukulele's were brought on the trip and they added a musical feature that I've never had before. Great songs were sung before and after dinner from both Sweden and the U.S. and it was a really fun time to hang out and to get to know everyone. The weather was pretty good but it threatened to rain almost everyday. The little Colorado was muddy but we swam anyway. I mean, I only have so many times I can swim there, right?! The food turned out great and the guests were really happy with it. A couple of the nights there were more than a few bottles of whiskey opened and drained before bedtime as the whole group sang songs and told stories. I really believe that this was one of my most memorable trips. The people were great, the crew was great and the work was easy. This was my last motor trip for a while. I have another trip coming up on Sunday but it will be in row boats and that will sadly be my last trip for a couple years. I love the river and I love the opportunity to work for the greatest company down there. I'm so stoked I have one more trip left and that it's slow and long so I can enjoy the canyon for as long as I can. Another adventure awaits and there are more rapids to be run! Wish me luck! Sorry I don't have any pictures yet, I'm hoping to get some from the swedes. When I get them I'll post them up for you all to take a look.

River Chronicles #9

Another trip down, and it was a pretty important trip for me. After years of training, I finally got my own boat for a trip!!!! It felt great to be on a trip where I had control of what went on on my boat. Jake Skeen was our fearless trip leader, Kevin Honeycutt was our trainee, Jake's friend, Tyson, was one swamper, and I got to bring my wife!!!!! I was so excited! I've had to leave her alone all summer so it was nice to finally be able to bring her with me. We also had my aunt Lorie with us too. She helped a ton and was there to take pictures for the company. The trip went well, the people were really nice and the weather was great. We still had high water, and the side canyons, Little Colorado and Havasu, were clear and blue. There really wasn't anything too crazy to report. It was a great trip and I was sad to see it end. BUT, before I finish, I have to tell you about the 9 year old spawn of Satan that was on the lower end of the trip. I've never seen a more horrible little kid in my life! He screamed at his parents, and would not stop asking to do things that he already knew he couldn't, like asking to get on the boat before he was supposed to and asking for lunch before it was done. The last night, he had a full blown melt down and what did his parents do??.....NOTHING!! Their friend who was on the trip finally did something and took the kid away from the group. I'm not going to go into detail about all the stuff the kid screamed at his parents, but I was blown away when the next day his mom asked me if anyone else on the trip had noticed and was annoyed by the kids behavior......HELLO!!!! WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN!!! No one wanted to even ride on the same boat as the little demon!! Well, the trip ended and it ended up being a sweet trip. Here's a few pictures Enjoy!

Brooke and Lorie

 

Cover up from the sun

Elves Chasm

Havasu

Me and Brooke at the top of Deer Creek

Brooke hanging out in the middle of the prickly pear

Floating through the Little Colorado

The crew in the AWESOME suburban Jake is taking the picture

River Chronicles #8

The whole crew in hangin at Havasu

Back in the grand canyon!!! It felt great to be back in the Grand Canyon after being on the Cataract! Rafting there was great, but there's something that hits me hard to be in the Grand Canyon. I got to run with Joe one more time as our fearless trip leader, and my main man Russ as second boatman. I also had my brother in-law, Cory, on the trip to help out, and one of Joe's friends, Ramsay. With this crazy crew, we had a great trip with no real issues. We hiked, sang, told stories, ate, rafted, and laughed our way through the trip and I was sad to see it end. I honestly finished the trip happy but super sore...I think the season is finally catching up to me physically. Ugh!! But I have a week off so I'll be ready for the next trip no worries.