Food and Wine Pairing for the Holidays: Internship Hours

We are required to complete 22-24 hours a semester working at the Culinary School as our “internship”. I signed up to work at “Food and Wine Pairing for the Holidays”, an adult continuing education course offered at TCU (Texas Christian University) in conjunction with the Culinary School of Fort Worth on November 14, 2008. People enrolled in this class paid $75.00 for the four courses pictured above and five wines. I sure hoped we didn’t disappoint them. When we show up at the school we don’t know what to expect in terms of assignments for the day. My first assignment was to slice baguettes for crostini with a student I’ve never met, Becky. Becky was very quiet at first but opened up after a while. She is about the age of my youngest daughter and from a very small town, Van Horn. In a way, it was like working with my daughter in that she glanced at her cell phone every five minutes! She is attending the school on a full scholarship. Becky and I were then assigned to make appetizer frittatas in mini muffin pans. There is a photo of these mini frittatas piled up. They were really quite delicious and people kept coming up and trying to snag them for a taste because the smell was irresistable!

Roasted Tomato Frittata
Cut tomatoes in half, drizzle with olive oil and roast at 400 until skins are brown and crusty.
After they cool, chop and put tomatoes and juice in a large bowl.
Add crumbled feta cheese, approximately 1/2 of the amount of tomatoes in the bowl.
Add minced garlic, basil (chiffonade), salt and pepper.
Add several well beaten eggs and mix.
Spray mini muffin tins with non-stick spray. Bake in oven at 375 for 12-15 minutes, or until brown and crusty on top.

I helped set up the appetizer table, pictured above by plating the frittatas and the risotto balls.
I thought the appetizer table was beautiful with all the different colors of fruit, cheeses, and pastries.
Later I was assigned to help in the final plating by putting sauces on the foods. A long assembly line was set up in the kitchen where every item was placed in exactly the same place on all the plates and handed to the students who served it to the guests. Keeping everything hot, moving quickly to get it all out at the same time, and getting the right sauces on the various foods was not easy. When it was over we got to sample the food:

Seafood Cake with tropical fruit salsa and smoked shrimp
Turkey Tenderloin with herbed stuffing
Apricot glazed ham with cranberry chutney
Ancho Cocoa rubbed Pork tenderloin with pumpkin seed mushroom pesto and sour cherry and fig compote

Too bad the wine was off limits! I’m sure the guests were not disappointed because everything I tasted was very, very good. In fact, I plan to add the Apricot glazed ham to my Thanksgiving menu.