​During all this virus stuff, I want to bring something sweet to the table. I want to talk about a local bakery I have fell in love with. The name of the bakery is Cupcake Dream and it is located off of Ward blvd in Wilson, NC. If you are familiar with the area, it is located near Brentwood Shopping Center. This is a local business and their hours of operation might differ because of the virus, my biggest suggestion is to call before going. This trip I got 4 cupcakes, several brownies. The 4 cupcake I decided on was a caramel, birthday, and coconut, and vanilla with chocolate icing. Two of the four were for my parents. My dad loved his coconut one and my mom loved her vanilla with chocolate icing. They really enjoyed the brownies. Our only complaint about the brownies were that the pecans weren’t throughout the whole brownie just on top.  Now my two are the caramel and the birthday. Out of the two my favorite was the birthday cake one, but I am a sucker for sprinkles. The caramel one was the perfect balance of bitter and sweet. I really think my only complaint is that either I got my icing on the caramel or that all four was bigger. This won’t be my last time visiting this bakery that is for sure! 

I want to speak out and say that all my restaurant people out there, I feel for you! I hope you are all well and I pray you can get back to work as soon as possible. I know right now it is tough for us all and I hope and pray that better times are around the corner. 

To all my non restaurant workers. I hope you all are doing well as well and that y'all are surviving this madness. I want to reach out and say that I know y'all are tight for money because you might not be working right now, but please if you can support local business's. They really need your help right now. 

What you need to know about what restaurants are doing to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 

• They are instructed by the government to only do take out or delivery orders. They are not allowed to do any dine in at this time and until further notice. Some places have a special menu up and are doing curbside as well. ( Just call the restaurant to see how they are doing things)
• They also have signs up to let their employees know what precautions they need to take to help prevent the spread. like how to wash their hands and what chemicals they need to be using to clean their work stations. 
• Some places might even be selling raw meat to their customers, so if you are looking quality meat, check out a restaurant that is doing that. I know in Wilson, NC Western Sizzling, The Creamery, and Pubs are all doing this. 
• They have asked employees to increase their hand washing, sanitizing, and glove use.

Ways you can support your local businesses 

• Buying Take Out / Delivery 
• Gift Cards 
• Buying restaurants products (ex: raw meat, beer, wine) 
• Some places are even accepting donations

Good luck to everyone during this time and I hope you all well. Stay Safe, Wash your hands, Stay home! 
 
Have a good week everyone! 

**Check out more Photographs at the Bottom of the post! 

I found my love of food by making Chicken Salad. Now I know that might sound a little strange, but that's exactly what happen. Growing up every Christmas and Thanksgiving I was in the Kitchen with my Grandma cook a mouthwatering meal. I was her second hand person when it came to the Chicken Salad. While we were fixing the delicious side we would always talk and joke around; she would also give me some of the best advice during this time. I thought we were always just messing around, I never thought that I would one day take over the job of fixing the chicken salad for holidays after she passed away. I can almost imagine the crinkle of her button nose, the I told you so look, and her contagious laugh, if she had been around too see that I put too much mustard. The recipe was always a little bit of salt and pepper. I touch of this, a spoon of that. There was never no actual measurements. I would always complain how scorching the chicken was to pick off the bone, but she was just smile and continue on. Never once complaining. I remember making it from scratch took forever, but now I miss every minute of it that I can't spend with her anymore. 

   Do you know why your favorite dish is your favorite dish? More than likely it is because of the memories and the emotions behind the dish. My first memories of being in a kitchen is with my mom and grandma. We were preparing thanksgiving. For my mom we were fixing, my favorite, Broccoli Casserole. I honestly think that is the first family recipe I learned how to make. I think the best memory was making my grandma’s chicken salad. It would always feel at peace when we made it. It was quite and most of the time it was just the two of us there. I would go the night before and we would talk and make chicken salad. Now every time I make chicken salad, I remember all the talks and feelings that I felt while learning how to make the recipe.  This reminds me of a movie I recently watched called the Hundred Foot Journey. The main character of the movie went on the be a really famous chef with two Michelin stars. If you looked in his eyes he looked dead, like all his passion went out the window. Then he sat down with one of his employees who was eating a traditional Indian cuisine. He started crying because it brought back all the memories of the reason he started cooking and all the memories of his mother. I would definitely suggest this movie to anyone who is interested in food films. 
     Food plays such an important part in our lives that it shapes our experiences every day. If you go to a restaurant and have a horrible experience, I am talking about from start to end bad, how likely are you to go back right away? Not very likely, right? The memory of the experience dictates how look at the establishment. Food works in the same way, it can bring back happy, sad, angry memories. I will always say the food creates memories and those memories can make or break your experience at an establishment. 

Hello to all my foodies out there. I am here to basically describe what my day to day life is as a culinary student at Johnson and Wales University. All the people who are in k-12 right now thinks is hard waking up to go to class in the morning, yeah I promise you its not that bad. I wake up Monday through Thursday at 5:50 am, to get up and put the same uniform on for four days straight. I know you are thinking its not that bad, but try this. I go to class before 7 in the morning, even though my class don't start till 7. Now let me guess you are thinking that it was my fault for picking a morning class. Thinking like I do, I am in that class for 6 hours a day, for 4 days now, do I want my nights taken up by classes just so I can sleep a few extra hours or do I want my nights free. For me personally I still might would have to wake up pretty early to go to my work study job. This is why I chose morning labs. We rotate labs every 9 days. So we move pretty fast pace. Now remember all those time you played hooky. NOPE! Can't do it here. Remember we are in a lab segment for 9 days. If you miss a day, you miss a lot of important information. You could miss the one big product you have to make on your practical day. For those who don't know what a practical is. It is where we make the product, or do the method of cooking and present it to the chef who is teaching the lab. We are only allowed to miss one day of class. If you are late multiple times or missed your second day of class, you will be dropped from that segment. No if, ands, or buts about it.
​          Now having morning labs I am in class from 7am-1pm. Most of the time I get out of class and go straight to work study. It is my job, it puts money in my pocket to pay for food and what little supplies I might need. Normally I am there till 5. I don't know if I can stress this enough, but going from a FAST pace production kitchen to a SIT down desk job, you will get sleepy. Heck one day I almost fell asleep at the front desk. If I am lucky I will have all my homework done by the time I get off, if not I have to go back to my dorm and do my homework. That most of the time consists of a study guide packet, quiz, math conversion worksheet, and discussion board. The second thing I don't think I could stress enough is, if you go in this major/field then make sure you are REALLY GOOD AT MATH! We use math everyday. I don't know if you have notice, but I normally have a very busy four days. By the time I am done with everything, ate and shower included, I am exhausted. There are nights that I have crashed early and some nights I just can't sleep. I have learned a few things that aren't dealing with culinary while being here though. 
        1. Listen to your body, it will tell you if your too tired, not eating enough, or even if you just need a break. 
        2. Your body can take a lot. The things you put yourself through, yes I have crashed and it sucks, but I have learned my limits. Being a culinary student you can cut yourself, burn yourself, or hurt yourself in any way possible. You can take that. I personally was more worried about burning myself, because I have don it in the past and couldn't take the pain. Day 6 of my lab I burn myself and guess what, I worked right through it after seeing the nurse in hope that it wouldn't blister. 
           3. YOU NEED TO KNOW CONVERSIONS!!!! I never payed much attention to the gallon man and how to convert weights, but now seeing how much I actually use it, I highly regret not trying to actually learn it. I really can't stress this enough. 
          4. You will get stressed out. I think every college student can agree to this. It's going to happen one way or another. If you have bad day or a bad week set a day to relax. For me I set aside a Saturday or Friday. I normally find something to do with a friend or just lay in bed and do absolutely nothing. 
          5. Life moves on, you and the people that you might have been friends with grow up. I go to school four hours away from my hometown and honestly I don't talk to half the people I was friends with back home. I changed and some people even said I look happier. I sum it up to this, I grew up. 
              6. Drama don't go away. Some of the things I have seen here is still the high school drama I saw back home. I have just learned not to associate myself with it. It really doesn't matter where you go, there are going to be people that are immature and don't want to be there. You just got to suck it up really. 
               7. Dont be scared. You will have to try new things and you won't like it all, but its ok. You have to branch out and do things that you aren't comfortable with, but don't be scared to do it.
                8. Don't loose your motivation.  It is easy to look at all the things that could go wrong, or get caught up on the things that don't work your way. Just don't loose that drive you have. You are going to have people that put you down and tell you that you shouldn't be here. Prove them wrong. 

I might seem like at first that I was complaining about the way my day to day seems to run. I just want to say that I wouldn't change it for the world. I love what I am going to school for and this school is just toughing me up for the real world. 


sign, 
Jamie <3
​

For a scholarship I am writing a essay how social media could help you get a job. Well it acutally can. employers look on social media to see how good of a employee you could be. For examply one of my futrue employers could find this blog and see my work and it could really help me get the job. Putting your accomplishments and your intrests could really help. It could show who you are as a person or how people look at you as a person. I would say social media has a lot of impact in your future and present. There are a lot of down falls with employers using and looking you up on social media. Your past for one. Nothing dies on the internet, including something you posted four years ago. that doesnt mean you are the same person, but it could look bad too. For me I was younge at that time I wasn't really thinking about my future or a career, so what I posted then could possibly harm me in the future. This essay has got me really thinking, could social media become our resume in the future. A resume that could haunt you forever. You never know who is watching, that person creeping on your page could be your next job opportunity.  Let me know what you think. Does Social media really impact you opportunity on a job? 

​                             Jamie <3 

This is the drink I created in my Beverage class. I had a strawberry infused vodka mixed with orange juice then i gave it a good shake. A little tip is if you are not a fan of tart drinks then add a little simple syrup to balance everything out. If you do like a little tart then leave it the way it is. I used a pint glass and we could only use 1.5 ounces of alcohol. of course you can add more if you want. I am really sorry I haven't been posting lately. It is really hard when you are not in any cooking classes or have a kitchen to do the recipe, and sadly it will be even more harder next term for me, when I am in academics. I will try to figure something even if it is posting just some of my favorite recipes that is from restaurants. I hope y'all enjoy this drink :) 

Simple Syrup normally consists of half sugar half hot water. You actually can do a lot with simple syrup. In my beverage class we did something a little different we got to create our own simple syrup. I have milk chocolate and vanilla extract in mine. When you have unsweet tea this is a great way to sweeten the tea and the sugar will be dissolved. I personally still prefer good ole sweet tea over this, but if I had to I would use it. My personal creation could be use in coffee to add a different flavor to the drink. I am hoping to find more ways to use the syrup in my beverage class. Just to let everyone know I am trying to post a post about poaching eggs and the difference in using acidic water and unacidic water. I sadly can't figure out how to post the video I have, but if all else fails you will at least get a post about it. If anyone has any suggestions please feel free to contact me.