mangia mondays 60: culinary school

hey there, friends!

welcome to

a blog hop i co-host each week with

one of my favorite bloggers

lisa from shine your light!

this week, i thought i'd share a few pictures

from this past semester... since it just ended!

{yay!!}

i'm happy to say that i got a 96% in this lab

& all i have left to get my degree is 2 semesters

of baking labs

{which i'm ecstatic for!}.

culinary school

{sorry for the quality - they're all cellphone pictures!}

one of the first things we made - fondue!

that's me with my made-from-scratch mozzarella!
so much fun - & really hot on your hands.. but delicious!

this is 2 plates worth of midterm food.
on one plate, i had pork stuffed with spinach & mushrooms with a pan gravy, a sweet potato & apple hash, & sauteed broccoli with roasted julienne bell peppers.
on the second plate, i had grilled steak with an onion sauce & crispy onion strings, duchesse potatoes {a really fun, easy & different way to serve mashed potatoes!}, & grilled asparagus.

this was my favorite appetizer that i made.
a crostini topped with an avocado & pineapple chutney & grilled shrimp.
oh man, it was delicious.

we decided that cornish game hens look a lot like frogs...
& that it's fun to make them dance.

grilled cornish game hen with lemon risotto & squash with sauteed onions, mornay sauce & breadcrumbs.

sometimes, i kiss red snappers.

grilled oyster with a lemon butter sauce.

pan seared red snapper with an orange hollandaise & candied orange slices, orzo pasta & broccoli.

i had such a great time in that class...

met a lot of great people & learned a bunch of new techniques.

buuuutttt... i'm glad the semester is over & i can focus on

little baby charlotte.

i've gotta tell you, it got a bit tough to maneuver around the

kitchen toward the end.

& my chef pants were really tight. ;)

now it's your turn -

link up those recipes & food posts!

how mangia mondays work:

. add a link to your recipe or food post & visit some others who have linked up before you .

. link back to mangia mondays anywhere on your blog .

. thanks for not linking up to giveaways or items you're selling .

. help spread the word about mangia mondays by sharing this post with others .

until next time,

dowlings out!