CookMatt

I have decided upon a career in the culinary arts, at the moment I work for a respectable restaurant and for a very talented Chef. However my education is woefully lacking and I am trying to learn as much as I can while working. (culinary school isn't an option at the moment, but I do plan to attend) I have picked up some very great knives and I have been working the knife skills for chefs, but I need more of a background. Can anyone recommend me a series of good books that I can use to supplement my education while I learn on the go?

I have recently decided upon a career in the Culinary Arts and I have achieved a great job at a respectable restaurant. With the increase in my knife skills I have noticed that the kitchen knives provided are not cutting the mustard and I need to purchase my own knives. (Plus I think the Sous Chef is getting tired of letting me barrow his!) I prefer French knives but I am at a loss for the better brands, best kind of steel and basically where to browse and buy. Another issue I am facing is that I work in a remote area and traveling to a store is out of the question for the time being so I am limited to online purchase.

So today I made a huge mistake, I boiled water on my stove top in a glass container. I was under the impression that the glass would be fine but unfortunately it wasn't. After I discovered the shattered glass and water all over the place I cleaned up, but now the burner that was used to boil the water won't lite. I can hear the gas coming out but the for some reason it won't lite, all the other burners work fine. What would have caused this one burner to stop working.

In The United States the word freedom is brought often by both parties, what does freedom mean to you and why does it mean that?

On either the Republican or Democrat ticket, how would you campaign? Would you try a grassroots approach, would you go on SNL or The View? How would you try to appeal to swing vote states? Also, if your campaign had one underlying theme, what would it be? Last but not least, what would your campaign slogan be?

Try and have some fun with this one!

I spent this last summer working at Yosemite, before I started I was very excited to meet new people especially the international guests we have in the park. However shortly after starting I couldn't help but notice the the general rudeness of many of our international tourist who show up to one of our finest national treasures. Because of this my attitude wasn't quite what it should be, I would see bus loads of internationals come in and I knew I would be dealing with hordes of guests that don't speak a word of english yet demand service in their native tounge and seem to feel that I was horrible as well. As many of you can see this is a lose lose situation here.

However last night I was going over a news articles that outlines the rudest tourist areas, Paris France was listed at the top. But after some time working in a tourist hot spot I started to understand where their reputation came from. I don't think they're naturally rude or everyone in Paris is rude it's simply that they're weary of hordes of tourist invading their beloved city and disrespecting everything culturally about the area. I deal with with it everyday in Yosemite and I can definitely say It's something I enjoy.

So what is the moral of this rant/narrative that really isn't a question? If you visit an area, make some sort of effort to understand the customs, learn the language enough to communicate and generally try and be respectful. Courtesy and respect are universal and not isolated to certain areas. It's because of this that I rescheduled my trip to Germany this year, I want to learn the language!

Mitt Romney has finally become the clear winner in the Republican Primary elections. It's clear that he and his running mate will square off again the Obama/Biden ticket.

Unless I am very much mistaken, there is nearly a dead even tie between the two candidates. What are the three top issues that will either put Romney in his first term as President or Obama in his second term?

1. Health care mandate

2. Gas prices

3. Economy/Job Creation

(I list number 3 together because I believe they are one in the same issue)

Thanks in advance for your answers.

I've decided to redecorate my apartment, in the past I had a ton of posters of various sports teams or video games ext. But frankly I'm starting to realize that it looks like a 14 year old kid lives here not an adult. See I'm still into a lot of the same things I have been into in the past but I don't feel the need to plaster them all over the wall. There are a few choice pieces that I am getting framed, I.E posters from important conventions and few cooler looking pictures. Here are a few things about me that might help.

1. I love football

2. I'm very active

3. I love going out to the bars/pubs but not clubs with my friends

4. I'm definitely a geek at heart

5. I love animals

6. I enjoy outdoor activities like fishing, hiking and hunting

7. Aviation (I've always wanted to be a pilot)

Also I'm mainly asking this of the ladies out there, I think my world of warcraft posters are scaring some of you away.

Thanks!

I recently have been discharged from my job and I filed for unemployment insurance, there were several disagreements regarding my production numbers with my boss and on a random day I was pulled into a conference room and discharged. I then filed for UI and received a notice saying I would received a phone interview. However before the interview I received a notice of award of UI. I still received the interview which just took place. I was told that I would hear back in 5 to 7 business days and that my UI could be terminated. What are my chances of this happening?

Was the S&P downgrade really accurate? The more I read about the company in general the more it sounds like they just downgraded The United States for marketing purposes. How can they downgrade The United States to an AA+ when countries like France carry a far great debt to income ratio and have far less ability to produce anything and reduce their debt when they have so much lent out to countries like Greece that have no way to pay them back, yet they still maintain an AAA credit rating?

and a continued drop in both European and U.S economies, should we consider a different approach to our current economic situation?

If so, what would you suggest? Do you think that government involvement at it's current level is helping or hurting our economy?

I heard other animals can't survive in captivity as well?

Will Islamic countries (as a whole) ever be able to bring their countries into the modern era? Will citizens of these countries ever be able to enjoy the basic freedoms and rights that The United States, EU and other countries enjoy? Is it even possible for them to do so?

Under the 14th amendment and the ERA?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110610/ap_on_re_eu/eu...

Do you think The United States is justified in telling European allies to start contributing more to NATO?

If we slashed our NATO budget how much would that save American tax payers every year?

When looking through the fossil record and dates of emerging species evolving from one to another is it possible to precisely pin point when homo sapiens evolved from homo erectus? If so could we accurately tell what kind of climate and conditions were going on during that point in time and if those factors helped the evolutionary process?

2nd part

If we can do that, could we make a reasonable guess as to how long it will be before we see the next stage of our own evolution and make a prediction as to what that could be?

P.S

This isn't homework or anything, i'm just curious about evolution and anthropology.

I've been thinking more and more about joining up these days, I'm not liking the business world much and being a part of the Army seems better and better. I was thinking either 19-D or 11-B, those are the only MOS that I'm really interested in.

I was wondering what the opinion of the other soldiers would be of me for not joining up earlier? It seems like I missed Iraq and Afghanistan is winding down, would I be considered a coward for not joining up back in 2003 when I graduated high school?

Palestinians stopped trying to draw Israel into and armed conflict and stopped their international terrorism?

They did a tribute to the rocky horror picture show, why not do one for a musical that really rocks?