The Student Restaurant at KC Art Institute 10-10

I drove 3 hours to have lunch at The International Art Institute of Kansas City and let me tell you, it was well worth it!! This is where Phil goes to school and will be graduating in March, 2011. The senior class has a semester of running the restaurant that is open to the public for lunch. The student chef's rotate between the different positions of serving/clearing the tables, hostessing/greeting, and the many positions of chef that include soups/appetizers, main entrees, and bread/desserts. Phil just happened to be the dessert chef of the day! This was the table Phil reserved for me! Right in front of the picture window that allowed me to watch the chefs at work.

I got an up close and personal tour of the kitchen. It was so impressive and its so obvious Phil is happy and content in his choice of career. I'm soooo proud of him!! OK, so now I am sitting at my table watching Phil work and taking pictures until my heart is content. I think I took about 51 pics in an hours time : } Here he's preparing the soup of the day which was tomato soup with dill and a frothy cream of sorts dolloped on top. The presentation was beautiful! I would never had thought to put dill in tomato soup [usually its basil] and this was simply luscious!

Phil discussing something about food [I'm sure] with another chef : }

During my lunch, He would come out and just talk or see what I was thinking about "everything". Literally, I LOVED the entire experience and wish with all my heart I lived closer because I certainly would visit this restaurant often. I ordered homemade lemonade and Cioppini, which was a fish stew that had a slice of garlic toast on the side. Loved it! And it just happened to be my Chef's recommendation for the day!

As I'm eating and observing the business of the kitchen, I continued to take pictures. Below Phil is preparing my dessert. I ordered his pumpkin creme brulee' and I got to watch him create it.

Voila'!! He sent out 2 sugared shortbread cookies he had made that were literally to-die-for and a steaming cup of coffee. I could have licked the creme brulee' bowl clean! It is so surreal to think that my son is cooking like this.......I am so very proud of him! : }

So after eating ALL this, and I mean I didn't leave a crumb, I am sitting at the table sipping on the coffee and just was in heaven watching my son "cook" and discuss things with all the other chefs. The chef with the white hat that stands tall is the Instructor [on the left]. All the student chefs wear white hats that lean over.

He's now preparing chocolate souffle's.


And before I know it, the Instructor Chef comes out and serves me "another" dessert saying, "Compliments of the Dessert Chef". I look up and there is my Phil looking at me with this huge beautiful smile on his face! He made me a miniature chocolate souffle' with a vanilla cream poured into the center of it. Well, I just "had" to eat the whole thing! : }

I had a day a mother dreams about. Thank you my son for inviting me and sharing your love of cooking. You really are a "Foodie" and I absolutely love discussing recipes with you and being able to call you and ask cooking questions. God is so good and blesses those who have patience : }

Our visit to Ocala 10-10

Papa and I went down to Ocala to meet our new little grandson, Truman John Lusk. While there, here's a few pics of our activites.
This is the back corner of A&L's yard that needed more mulch laid around the garden boxes. Dad and Adam were hauling the mulch back and forth from the front driveway and Noah decided to fill his John Deer and help haul it back. Great idea Noey!! Your such a hard little worker, just like your daddy : }

This is in the opposite corner of the back yard where Adam built the play area for the boys. Look at all the thick green sod Adam laid!

Here we are picking up Will and Noey at school.

This is where all the kids play during school breaks. I love all the trees!

Look at ALL the Lusk's!! : }

One big happy family.....so Awesome!

Introducing Tru Lusk : }
While out fishing at the little lake on Adam's clinic property, I noticed this wonderful view of God's handy works and couldn't resist taking this picture.
Very proud fisherman! : }
While Papa was helping the boys put worms on their hooks, he stepped in a HUGE fire ant hill. Immediately he felt the bites and Adam ran to help unzip the bottom of his pants and they were all over the inside of them. Even in his shoes...OUCH!!!

"Every" time we visit, the Lusk Jr.'s attack papa and get him down on the ground. Noey LOVES it!!

Do they look related?? I think so!

Getting to know each other : }

Celebrity-Infinity Cruise Ship Galley Pics

Dad and I wanted to tour the Galley especially to take pics for Phil to see [our family chef]. There were 120 chefs on board that cooked 24/7 and made ~10,000 meals/week.

Note the different colored kerchiefs around the chefs necks. Each color represents the level of chef they are "and" the area they specialize in [desserts, meats, soups, etc].

Talk about bringing out the creative artist in the chef...WOW!!

Check out the size of the kitchen equipment : }

For the amount of work going on and the number of chefs working, we were surprised at how clean the galley was.

The chefs actually use guides to remind them how to plate the foods. Every dinner made is pictured as to how it "has" to be presented. This is just one close up view of the glassed wall cabinet that housed these pictures. There was an entire wall of these glass cabinets readily available to the chefs. Impressive!

They made all their own breads from scratch everyday. They even made their own ice creams!

The Encouragement Board that is on the wall as soon as you enter the galley for ALL to see [chefs, waiters/waitresses, table clearer's, etc].

The man on the left was our Galley guide and the main Host to the restaurant. This chef was carving some type of beef and offering us a taste with any of the different sauces that go with it. We were offered "many" samples as we made our way through out the galley - Excellent!

Look how clean! Note the drainage system on the floor at the bottom of the shelves on the right. They hose down the floors and "everything" goes into the drains and somehow gets separated into what goes into the trash and what can go out to the fish to eat.

So at the start of our Galley tour, we met in front of these gorgeous double doors in the restaurant. When everyone had arrived, the host, push a button and the doors slid open. These stainless steel walls, and escalators revealed how the chefs and waiters, etc carried our dinners up to us from down below in the Galley. Very convenient and much better that stairs!