putting LOVE into our food

this is just as important as the other ingredients, don't EVER forget the LOVE or the food will not be as satisfying as it could be.  

this morning we had lessons in the energy that goes into putting our recipes together, the importance of colors, balancing all the flavors, having a "relief" in a dish, basics to developing a recipe, rounding out flavors, contrasting flavors, flavors that compliment each other, all of this reminding me of an artist with paint or any other medium, Chef's use food as their art form.  we are the artists learning our medium and all the possibilities.  with food we have all the colors and 6 different tastes, sweet, salty, sour, spicy, bitter and fat.  

this afternoon we had a few labs and a few demos.....one of the labs we played in was to take different foods from each category and put them with combinations we have never had together before and find some new foods that work well together.

here are some of my favorite new combinations i found today:

mango, avocado & basil

coconut, cayenne & apple

olives & basil

dark miso & apple

today they served us green smoothies in the morning with E3 Live then green juices at morning break.  for lunch we had another vibrant salad bar.  our snack this afternoon was a slice of the yummy apple pies we made in on of the labs we did.

i am walking every morning for over an hour before school, then i walk to school which is only about 7 or 8 blocks from the inn.  at lunch when i am not eating our practicing my knife skills i will take a quick walk around the town.  the fresh air feels really good after being inside so much.  after school i walk back to the inn and take the long round about way, to get some more walk in the dark.

it has been VERY cold and wet up here.  the full moon tonight is so beautiful and strong.

i love being around the students here.  living light is an amazing place to be and i am so grateful every single moment to be experiencing this opportunity.

i have to get to the homework assignment for tonight.  i will leave a picture from today with me and my team and our completed apple pie.