Yesterday was our mid-term practical exam (already!).  We had one partner and were to make ceasar salad, gazpacho, and some kind of chicken sandwich of our choice.  My partner made the gazpacho and he had a vision for the sandwich so he did that, too, leaving me to make the salad.  We had an hour and a half to present them to Chef.  Easy!  Our soup was too loose and needed a lot more seasoning and I very slightly over-dressed the salad but we didn't do too bad.  The soup knocked our grade down a lot.  The sandwich was awesome!

Today was supposed to be Pig Day for my class--the day we butcher whole pigs to be used to make all kinds of cured and smoked meats.  Our purveyor did not deliver for us.  A new source will bring us some on Monday but meanwhile we will start making all of that stuff with pork from the freezer that is leftover from previous class' Pig Days.  It was apparently a last-minute problem so there was no backup plan for today.  We made all of the cures and brines that we will use, made salmon roulades for later, and then just made lunch.  I should post recipes but everyone did something different and I'm not real sure what is in that pasta.  It has shrimp and chicken and maybe Sauce Mornay?  It was an easy and very relaxed day.  Several folks skipped school so they wouldn't have to cut up pigs.  Boy, do they get a surprise!  I think we shouldn't tell them anything until Monday.  Later today they are filming a commercial.  The bottom picture is Chef Calvert prepping for that.