Funsies in Bloomington

I know I've been mostly posting about the work I've been doing and the things I've been learning during this food service internship but I figured I would stop and just chat about some non-food related things I've been able to do and see! After all...it is my first time to the Midwest!

Every day I try to take a little time exploring new parts of Bloomington. This town has so much to offer and I don't want to miss any of it! I'm very happy I brought my bike here with me. Bloomington is an extremely bike friendly town and it has enabled me to explore! This past Saturday I biked 10 miles without even trying! Here's a picture from Saturday I took near the B line trail. See if you can find the little baby deer I found hanging out near the trail.

IU is a top 10 school! I think I heard their basketball team was pretty good, but look at the size of their football stadium! 

There are also a lot of state forests and hiking opportunities in the area. Most people told me Indiana was flat, and the drive from Indianapolis to Bloomington was quite flat! However I found the hills by heading west toward Nashville (IN, not TN). Brown County is beautiful and I plan on going back this weekend when I have a 3 day weekend for the holiday. 3 days off in a row with no work, no obligations, and nothing holding me back! I wonder what I should do! Here's a picture of Brown County from Route 46:

I have to admit, it was very tough not posting something about all the food! It's not my fault though! Bloomington was voted in the Top 10 Best Foodie Cities in the country (#3 in 2013). There are so many restaurants, there's no way I'll get to them all! Bloomington had an event last weekend called "The Taste of Bloomington" Every year 40+ restaurants/food trucks/establishments shut down the streets and take over city hall with live music and a chance to give Bloomington residents a "taste" of all the different foods. It was an awesome event!

I'll leave you with a picture of my reading tree! This tree is right outside the apartment complex on campus where I'm living. A few times since arriving I've laid out a blanket under the tree and started reading books that I may have started but never finished due the semester starting :) Enjoy your day!

Week 3 at Illinois State University

This week was packed full of our favorite thing….MEETINGS!!! I’ll spare you the details and just let you know that they were super productive and educational. Dianne really has me focusing on the dynamic of the meeting and the team. Everyone contributes something else to the conversation and it’s great to see the problem solving and discussion progress. I tend to be surprised frequently when someone brings up a brand new factor that you wouldn’t even consider not being in the food service industry. My mind has been blown quite a bit this week. Brett is the individual that tends to surprise me most. Brett’s perspective focuses more on logistics and finances as opposed to customer service.

 Besides the excitement of meeting, Justine and I put some more time into Fresh Bites. We did some recipe touching up and maintenance. We wanted everything to be uniform such as, serving size and instruction format. We all spent time separating dressing from salad recipes, which included making new and separate recipes for the dressing. We are proud of the work we put into this project and I will continue to do touch ups on my own now that Justine has moved on to her next rotation. I have decided a project is never really done. There are always adjustments to be made.

Dianne, Justine, and I got to go on an adventure this week. We went out to US Foods’ Scoop food show. We got to try products from their Scoop line, which is trendier. The line had a focus on sustainable products. Our favorites were dessert; sea salt caramel ice cream and chocolate cake. I also really enjoyed the guacamole. Everything was delicious and, of course, I was stuffed again. Justine and I got to speak with a few incredible people from US Foods about their roles. Later in the week, Don sat down with us at John Green and continued to tell us all about what he does in US Foods and US Foods as a whole. Food distributors, such as US Foods, offer dietetic majors like me another interesting career path.

This week I also got the opportunity to experience the beast that is the interviewing process. ISU uses a style of interviewing that invites the candidate to discuss a situation in the past that reflects their skills or how the individual handled a situation. The purpose of questions that focus on the past is to get a good sense of how the candidate will act in a position. Past performance and actions is indicative of how the candidate will act the future. Watching interviews from the other side has given me a different and helpful perspective for when I go to interview.

Now for the fun stuff. The fun began on Friday when Dianne invited Justine and I to the local theater to watch ten-minute plays that had been submitted from all over with a shared theme of “art gallery”. Justine and I believe that we should have starred in these ten-minute plays after we perfected our art gallery acting for the ISU commercial. That night we  also got to meet Dianne’s friend who used to work at ISU CDS and one of Dianne’s previous dietetic interns. Every year the three of them go to these plays together and I am glad Justine and I got to join them.

This weekend I also made the bold move to take a train to St. Louis for the weekend all by myself. St. Louis was absolutely wonderful! I had great BBQ, which was really the most important thing. The arch is absolutely majestic and it is an exciting trip to the top. The old courthouse is way cooler than you would expect, so definitely go on in. I took a trolley tour to get the feel for the city and see what it has to offer. The city garden was beautiful and has some wonderful art. I hope to one day return to St. Louis and explore some more. Another great week in the books and on to the next one!

Week 3 at Indiana University

Hello there! So if you're following along I'm a little behind but I promise to catch you up on everything! Week 3 at IU was spent mostly at HFS which stands for Halls Food Stores. Because IU serves over 45,000 students having a central facility to make the prepackaged foods, or convenience foods, makes so much sense! What people may not realize is a lot goes on in this warehouse than just making sandwiches! Here's a little insight on my week at HFS...but first an obligatory picture of Indiana:


So on Monday I worked with Vicki, the assistant manager of HFS who took me on a tour of the facility and walked me through the different operations. So there are 4 sections of HFS that make or work with food: Bakery, Donuts, Prepackaged, and Meat. Bakery makes all the fresh bread, muffins, cookies, and any desert you can think of for the ENTIRE CAMPUS! Prepackaged makes the convenience foods for the kiosks and cafes on campus who stock those items for students on-the-go. For example carrots with ranch dressing, pre-made salads, or pre-wrapped sandwiches. Donuts makes all the donuts for the campus (when school is in session they make over 1300 dozen every night!). And last but not least Meat slices all the deli meat for the campus for use in all the dining facilities and in prepackaged to make the sandwiches.

 Here are a few pictures of the bakery/donuts room. Look at the size of those mixers! I wish I had the equivalents on the wall in my kitchen...

In addition to the food prep area of HFS, there is also a separate section of the warehouse that primarily deals with receiving and delivery. Most food ordered for each of the dining facilities gets delivered to HFS in bulk and then broken down and delivered from HFS and their trucks. HFS is the central warehouse for all the facilities and any outgoing orders get checked through them as well.

On Tuesday I got to work with Doreen in the bakery! I helped weigh out ingredients for bread but most importantly I got to make over 600 cookies! Because it is a lot slower during the summer, Doreen was able to take the time to show me each of the steps but she says normally she makes thousands of cookies everyday!
 Here are the snickerdoodle cookies I made!

Wednesday was interesting because for me to be able to see how prepackaged area works and donuts are made, I had to work an overnight! Every night the crew makes all the food fresh, which then goes out on the delivery at 5am for service that day. Most of the food has a one day shelf life to keep the quality of the food at it's best. So my first area to kick off my night shift was in the bakery. I started off by baking and topping muffins!



After that I got to make donuts! From start to finish I was able to work on this awesome machine that stretches the dough before cutting out the donuts. Here's a link to the video of the machine at work:

Donut Dough at Work!

Let me also tell you- if you see donut twists for sale...they were a lot of work to make! Well maybe it was just me, but I struggled making them. Donut twists are made from the leftover dough from the donuts. Below is a collage of the whole process of making donuts! Those were decorated by yours truly! (Dipping donuts into frosting is a lot harder than it looks...) To say I made a mess is an understatement :)



After all the baking occurs we grabbed the picklist which showed what each dining facility ordered. So we went to each of the baked goods and "picked" what they wanted. The picture below shows us separating the cookie orders by facility.




After my time in the bakery I moved over to the prepackaged area. If I had worked in this room during the day I may have been too cold but it actually kept me awake till my shift was over (5:30am). Oh ya, I forgot to tell you that this room is set to 30 degrees. This is so we are able to package the food, or slice meat and not worry about putting the food into the danger zone.

 Here are Nutty Bird Sandwiches I made! It is cream cheese, turkey, tomato, alfalfa sprouts, and sunflower seeds on a croissant. Sounds interesting right?

 Just as we did with the baked goods, when we were done prepping the orders we grabbed the pick lists to see what prepackaged foods the facilities ordered.

So that was my week at HFS!

IU Week 2!

I am so behind on my blog!! In my defense, I was somewhat of a clutz and sprained my ankle 2 weeks ago and I'm (very) slowly healing. But I will catch you all up!

So week 2 at IU was working at Wright Food Court. Due to my untimely injury I actually spent two days at the administrative building working on a new training module for employees which I will explain later!

So my first day at Wright started by shadowing Chef Amy who gave me a tour of the facility before we started making pizza dough for the day! Wright Food Court is one of the busiest food courts on campus along with being the most centrally located dining facility. With student orientations occurring every day (the incoming freshman class is over 9,000 students!) Wright is always busy!

 Here is a pizza I made for the 'Amore' concept at Wright. I made the pizza dough that morning :)

The next day I worked at Wright I was able to meet with a few different Asst. & General Managers to discuss ordering and maintaining inventory in a location that serves over 5,000 everyday. It is not an easy job, that's for sure. After shadowing managers I was able to work in the 'Pacific Rim' concept at Wright. At this concept customers are able to order stir fry dish with a protein and vegetables that is made to order. Working during the orientation (5-7pm) was hectic but in a good way! It kept me on my toes. Below you can see the egg rolls we made, the large batch of general's chicken for the orientation express line, and the area in the concept where we make the food fresh to order.

So I mentioned that I spent two days at the administrative offices working on a training module. Micah, the training coordinator for RPS Dining, is currently looking to expand training for all employees to help staff and any new students joining the team in the fall to have a good understanding of the job prior to starting hands-on training. Because of my management background Micah trusted me to establish a guide for managers to use to assign online training modules based on the employee's job title. It may sound boring, but it was a project I actually enjoyed doing!

Until next time!

Week Four at the University of New Hampshire!

Well another exciting week, full of adventure and learning has come and gone here at UNH. On Monday I was assigned to work with Deborah Scanlon, Manager of Holloway Commons, one of UNH's main dining halls. I had the pleasure of experiencing a middle school field trip, that came to tour Holloway Commons and learn about the operations. This was a great way for me to learn all of what goes on at Holloway as well. The middle-schoolers split up into four groups and rotated to learn about the kitchen/chefs, local farming, nutrition, and sustainability. Myself along with Deb, toured the loading dock of Holloway Commons with the students. Deb taught them all about the various sustainability efforts that Holloway has set in place to make dining there as efficient as possible. The have a pulper which breaks down all compostable items, which is then sent off to a farm to be mixed into soil, which is then used at the Campus's local farm to grow fresh foods, which are then used and consumed by students/ faculty at Holloway. It is an amazing recycling process, that really strives to avoid wasting. There are also various ways the hall conserves electrical energy. They have a great cardboard recycling process, and they use old oil as bio-fuel for machinery/vehicles. I learned a lot about Holloway Commons on Monday and really enjoyed working with the students.

 In the evening I spent time with my mother and her friend. We traveled to York, had dinner next to the beach, and even got to visit the very famous Nubble Light House!

Our view for dinner!

The very popular Nubble Light House in York, Maine.

We had to stop for some ice cream:)

I got to try a Lobster Roll for the very first time! They are very popular in the New England area. It's basically a lobster meat salad on a roll, and it is oh so good!

A beautiful view opposite of Nubble.

Tuesday, I spent more time with Deb in Holloway. I really got to experience her managerial roll as they prepared for a busy weekend. They would be hosting a lunch and cook-out for a group known as Up-ward Bound, which is here on campus during the summer. I learned that communication is key when supervising a large dining establishment. It is important that all your workers are on the same page and working well together for an operation to run smoothly. I was able to meet a lot of the supervisors at Holloway and even attend a meeting with Deb and her two assistant managers.

Tuesday evening I also took a spontaneous trip to the beach to relax and get some reading in!

Wednesday and Thursday I continued to help at the Dairy Bar. Because of some prior experience I've had with menu boards, Jane asked that I re-design one of  the ice cream menu boards that hangs in the Dairy Bar. I had a fun time writing out all the flavors and creating a new clean board for customers to read off of. I also have become closer with some of the girls working at the Dairy Bar. It is so nice to bond with students that attend UNH and learn from peers as well. In the evening, Rochelle had invited me to a local yoga session at a farm known as Wagon Hill. It was a wonderful experience to preform yoga outside, as well as bond with Rochelle one on one.

Working on the ice cream menu for the Dairy Bar!

Yoga on Wagon Hill with Rochelle and her amazing hair!

On Friday, I spent time in Foodpro working on an inventory project. Dahlia had me re-sequencing inventory for Union Court and then updating menu prices for all of the concepts in Union Court. In the afternoon, I also got to attained a taste testing for UNH concessions. I met David May, Associate Vice President of Business Affairs, and experienced some collaboration between retail and business affairs. The taste testing was held to make decisions on what types of food will be sold at the university's concessions stands during sports events. It was a great experience.

Concessions taste testing! 

Over the weekend Sierra (another summer intern, and UNH student) and I spent the day at Wallis Sands beach, got dinner at the Beach Plum, and spent the evening hammocking in our residence. On Sunday, I re-visited Wagon Hill, did a little hammocking and sun bathing.

Wallis-Sands beach with Sierra!

The Beach Plum was an amazing place to eat. Set up much like a boardwalk inside, customers even dine at picnic tables!

Our fresh haddock sandwiches and I had to get Sierra to try fried pickles for the first time!

Hammocking outside at the Woodsides.

And my Sunday adventure back at wagon hill, hammocking and exploring!

Stay tuned for more adventures!

Week Three at the University of New Hampshire!

As my journey continues here at UNH, I continue to build professional relationships and experience great learning opportunities. I was given the day off Monday, to make up for my long weekend working with catering. I decided to take a nice long walk/jog and see a little more of Durham.

The view during my long walk on Monday!

 Tuesday and Wednesday I spent time at the Dairy Bar on campus. The Dairy Bar is one of UNH's retail operations. It was recently rated a three star sustainable operations, which is the highest rating that can be earned. Many of the students, faculty and locals love the Dairy Bar for their fresh foods and amazing ice cream. I had the pleasure of working with Jane and Diana, the two supervisors of the Dairy Bar. I got to experience how Jane handles inventory as well as ordering ice cream. I experienced how the Dairy Bar operates, helping and serving customers. I was glad I got to meet Jane and Diana, seeing as I will be spending more time working with them for this internship. They and all the student workers are so nice and really run a great operation.

On Thursday,  I spent the morning with UNH's on site dietitian, Rochelle L'Italien M.S., R.D., L.D. She began to show me her role on campus and typical cases she deals with during the summer. Rochelle is an amazing woman, who I have really started to bond with. She is a great connection to the Dietetics world for me, and I am so grateful I get to spend time with her. She explained the new Menu's of Change initiative that UNH dining has joined in pursuit of sustaining a Healthy UNH. She also explained her role in a wonderful program here called Guiding Stars. It is a nutritional program that rates food according to the nutritional value which is based off of the FDA and USDA recommendations. It is a great way to help students understand and visually see which foods can provide them better nutrients and overall end up being a healthier choice.

A summary of the Menus of Change initiative here at UNH!

After spending some time with Rochelle, I then was able to join Richard, Dahlia, and Amy Toussaint (of Marketing) to tour the newly acquired Pita Pit Trailer. Pita Pit is a franchise that sells meat and vegetarian pitas. The Philbrook Cafe, another retail location on campus, houses a Pita Pit which is popular with the students. This summer, the retail operations brought on a Pita Pit trailer, that will be a mobilized version of the oh so popular Philbrook Cafe Pita Pit. Richard as well as all the retail workers, are very excited about this new opportunity. We spent some time touring the new trailer and taking pictures for marketing. The goal is to really sell the trailer to students/customers including over social media.
We all had lunch together at the Dairy Bar, and I spent the afternoon working on updating recipes for the Dairy Bar in Foodpro.

On Friday, I spent the whole day with Rochelle. We attended one of the several Resource Fairs, that UNH hosts for orientations over the summer. I was able to experience Jon Plodzik, director of dining hall operations, introduce UNH dining to incoming freshman parents. They also played an awesome video that captures dining and retail at UNH perfectly. After the parent's orientation, we attended the resource fair where I was able to experience Rochelle help orient incoming freshman and their parents with nutritional concerns. There were several students who were concerned about having allergy or nutritional needs, and Rochelle was able to help them know and understand their many options. Here at UNH, there are many options for Allergen friendly food, as well as gluten-free zones in all of the dining hall locations. UNH dining does their very best at accommodating students with food allergies and Rochelle plays a large part in that.

The dining video shown for parents at orientation!

UNH Dining prepared delicious finger food for students and parents attending the resource fair. Things like small pastries, yogurt parfaits, and even chocolate covered strawberries! It was a great way to introduce dining and interact with incoming freshman.

The resource fair!

Two quick shots of the UNH Dining and Retail table at the resource fair!

I spent the rest of the afternoon working on recipes for the Dairy Bar and learning how to create new recipes in Foodpro.

Build sheets for the Dairy Bar highlighting how to prepare each menu item. This was in conjunction with me created new recipes for the Dairy Bar in Foodpro.

On the weekend my mother and a friend came to visit. I took them to Dover for breakfast, then Portsmouth, and in the evening we visited other friends for dinner in Epping!

Our breakfast at Two Brothers Cafe in Dover!

Hanging out in Portsmouth!

Amazing mediterranian chicken wrap

Lemon Square for dessert!

We ate dinner at Popovers in Epping. It is a very popluar and delicious restaurant, with a location in Portsmouth as well!

Such a wonderful week, filled with lots of learning opportunities. I'm looking forward to sharing next week's experiences!

Purdue University: Week Three

Hello world! It feels like we're finally hitting our stride in the best Lafayette, West Lafayette! 

After a week of adjustment to the dining hall/retail dining life, all four of us went to work at Ford Dining Hall Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday mornings while working on our nutrition education programs in the afternoon. Ford is known as the "guys' dining hall", known for its fried food, burgers, and chili, so we had a blast learning how to operate flat top grills and fryers to make the best tater tots, French toast sticks, and bacon-cheddar scrambled eggs on campus. After three days of catering to the needs of almost 1000 4-H kids, we went on our merry way to McCutcheon, where we crafted, cut, and pasted to our little hearts' content in order to explain Fruit and Veggies Month (September) and Spiritual Wellness Month (November) to students in the dining halls. Given a few extra hours in the day, we were able to finish two boards of four! Very exciting stuff.

Fruit & Veggie Month!

#MindfulnessMatters

On Thursday, we returned to our home away from home, the Purdue Memorial Union kitchen. In the morning we assisted in providing snazzy boxed lunches featuring BBQ chicken wraps and roast beef wraps and later spent the afternoon doing inventory for recipe testing. After three and a half days of being on our feet, it was a relief to sit down and do some old fashioned pencil pushing- painstakingly combing through the electronic inventory and actual inventory in order to make note of any discrepancies.

Friday was a much anticipated day off, and we decided (of course!) to be the true 90s kids we are and see Finding Dory with Mary Frances' Mom (hi Mom!) It was a fantastic movie and surprisingly deep for children- highly recommended, of course. We then went to this awesome upscale restaurant in downtown Lafayette, Restauration, a restaurant that prides itself on sourcing local ingredients and unique dishes, such as yuca fries and lamb burgers. The food was delicious and certainly much appreciated... To cap off a fun night, we went bowling and played three frames, finally signing off at around midnight.

We may need some more practice before we start our own league

Saturday afternoon we were back to the grind; 3 pm rolled around quick, and we were back to the Memorial Union for another catering event. Last weekend, we were introduced to the wedding world by being thrown into catering 2 weddings at the same time. This weekend seemed to be a breeze with only one wedding to take care of. We all had an enjoyable experience during our last wedding event getting to work with a great catering staff. Through our wedding experiences we learned that organization and communication are key. Also, that plans are meant to be altered in the catering world; there may be a series of situations that are out of your control, but there is always room for problem solving.

Beautiful cake for a beautiful couple!

Koozies all around!

On Sunday (another well-deserved day off), we decided to visit Mary Frances' sister (Hi Amy and Austin!) in Indianapolis and visit the Indy zoo. Despite it feeling like 110, we trekked all over and took on the lions, tigers, and bears, Oh my! (Well, not the tiger... he wasn't feeling up to visitors!) Afterwards, we toured the canal and took in the sights of the historic southwest quadrant, including the monument to fallen Civil War soldiers. Unfortunately, we couldn't take a ride to the top to see the city due to extreme weather, but we did finish off at Yard House, a restaurant in the heart of Indy. Great food, great hosts... it was definitely an experience, and we're so grateful to have had such an awesome experience! We even got a nice treat for the ride home with a beautiful sunset. Needless to say it was a picture perfect ending to week three here in Boiler town.

Hello, Mr. Giraffe!

Not even Usian Bolt can outrun this fella...

Quality pic in-front of some zebra going to their watering hole

City Center

We found the Indy sign by the beautiful canal!

Sunset Sundayyys

Till next week, XOXO K-JAM