Itching to get back to it..

I've been out of school for a week now (Christmas break)and I'm really itching to get back to it. It may sound a tad crazy, but man do I ever want to get back to school and continue the learning process. Maybe I'm a tad weird that way, but hey one week is good enough for me - recharged the batteries, been spending time with my son. But there's a part of me that wants back into school.

I've spent a lot of time in the kitchen during this long break. I've made stock, and yesterday I worked on a recipe from Chef Michael Symon's "Lola". It's the BBQ sauce recipe you find in the back of Ruhlman's "The reach of a Chef". It turned out pretty darn good, though I didn't have veal stock or espresso beans. So I used some remouillage in place of veal. Not the same, I know but I used what I had on hand and I figured using the beef stock itself would lend to much of a "beefy" flavor to the sauce. I had regular coffee beans and that seemed to work well, though I will have to try and get some espresso beans. And at some point, I'll hunt down some Veal bones and do a proper veal stock.

Headed out to the mall today, need to stop by Kitchen Kaboodle (got a gift card for Christmas and I need some knife guards) and I'll make a swing by the book store, as I'm in need of more reading material. I've blown through all 3 Ruhlman books, I've been reading the section on sauces in McGee and even started "Letters To A Young Chef" by Daniel Bould. I'm sure I'll be posting again before the start of the New Year.

But man, can I just go back to school???