Its the final countdown..

So, I have highly slacked off on this blogging stuff. I think it is now known that my weakness is journaling. The last several days have gone by really fast, ok, maybe it has been three weeks since the last time I posted. We have been putting some finishing touches on our banquet that will take place on Monday. I got to test make flan! That was my first time ever. Besides the fact that we left it in the refrigerator at a very low temp causing it to freeze, it was very good. We have shadowed and worked with some of the management personell for the retail operations here. We have learned the differences in the dining halls and retail operations and have found out that they are separate identities and require different management skills. Their operations use more marketing since they are targeting students with and without meal plans as well as faculty. We got the opportunity to visit the Zaxbys Corporate office. We learned about their Quality Assurance and then they gave us a tour of a nearby Zaxbys. And of course, we got to eat their for lunch, their treat! This past weekend was a lot of fun. As you can see in the pics, Marcia and I along with a friend went kayaking down the Broad River. So much fun. Sunday we went to the Braves game with some people that we have met from work, which was a lot of fun as well. Right now we are focusing on finishing up our projects and getting this banquet started! Wish us luck!

1 Week to go!! :-(

Last Thursday I went on two mock health inspection with Beth, she showed me what she looks for and explained how everything is scored. Then on Friday we toured Zaxby's a chicken chain down here and it was actually very interesting, we got to see their quality assurance standards for the chicken they purchase and sample some items. Saturday morning Liza and I went Kayaking on the Broad river with a friend it was so much fun and very beautiful, we kayaked about 6 miles and it took us 3 hours I really enjoyed myself. On Sunday she and I drove down to Atlanta and went to an Atlanta Braves game, even though they lost horribly to the Washington Nationals I still enjoyed the experience this was my first baseball game!!
This past Monday and Tuesday I spent more time shadowing managers for a day but instead of in the dining halls they were the managers of the retail restaurants on campus so it was nice to compare and contrast the two. Today I worked with Pat the dietary specialist on campus and helped pick out the menu for a new restaurant they will have on campus soon, and go with her as she talked with a sales men and sampled new product. I enjoyed watching how they market their products to her and taste testing them as well; they were selling sausage links, sausage patties, Canadian bacon and more all made out of turkey many of these products were very good. To finish off my day I spent some time with Catherine the dietitian on campus and she went over some of the things that she talks about in her nutrition class that she teaches on campus, its offered for free to any student on the meal plan. The rest of this week will be office hours and prep time to work on our projects I can't believe next Wednesday is my last day!!!
I'm really excited because I will be going paint ball shooting on Saturday!!
Cia

The past week or so has been pretty busy, we spent the rest of last week taste testing recipes which were amazing!!! Then we got a lot of much needed office time to work on our projects, Liza and I were able to finally make some pretty good progress on redoing the customer service training modules but have yet to get to the mystery shopper evaluation forms. This week I shadowed chef's Paul and Bryan learning about inventory and how they use food pro to assist them with daily task. Tomorrow I will be shadowing another chef in the commissary and Friday visiting a restaurant.
Cia

Hey! So The fourth of July break threw me off. Last week, the first part of the week, Marcia and I shadowed the closing managers for one of the dining halls here. We learned how to shut everything down and the procedures for closing the lines. Last week was a short work week because we were off for the fourth, which was a lot of fun. My mom came to visit and we went to Asheville, North Carolina. We saw the Biltmore estate and the winery, and then we just hung around Asheville for a little while. They break was nice. I got to enjoy and see more things of Athens. This week has been fun too. We helped with the opening Banquet for the freshman college, and Marcia and I got to make our own flower arrangements!! We also got a chance to work on our flower arrangements for our closing banquet. This week has been filled with a lot of test tasting of the recipes that we will be having at our banquet. It has been very yummy! The recipes are great and authentic!

Busy Busy Busy

My 4th of July weekend was great I went to Chattanooga, Tennessee and visited one of my old roommates from last year at MSU. We got a chance to catch up and she showed me around town so even though I wasn't at home in Michigan I still enjoyed myself.
Now that the 4th of July has come and gone it's really starting to sink in how little time I have left here, before i know it it will be time to pack up and leave. Liza and I still have a ton of work to do on our projects and have been spending a lot of time as of late working on the banquet that we are putting together for later on this month. Yesterday we got to see what the opening banquet looked like and that helped out a lot with putting some of the ideas we had together. Today will be spent working on recipes and helping cook and taste test some of the food that will be presented at our banquet.
Cia

Field Trips!

Here are some pictures from our field trips last week:

These are from Roots Farm...



It wasn't very convenient to take pictures on our tours of Sutherland's and Southeast Processing, but here's a few:

Where to start? Ok, last week I was given the opportunity to work out at Roots Farm. It is a small organic farm that sells produce to a community group once a week for a yearly fee. I had so much fun! I got to help support some tomato plants, but mostly I weeded, which was pretty interesting because they informed me of specific weeds to get because of the damage that they do to the crops. I learned so much information about how to grow and to take care of different vegetables. At 12, Marcia and Kris came out along with some other employees that wanted to tour the farm. Sara, one of the farm workers, gave us a tour. Roots farm has a lot to offer. They grow tomatos, squash, beans, berries, carrots, cucumber, along with a lot of others too. It was a great experience. The next day we were invited to tour Sutherlands in Atlanta, which is a distribution center. It was really nice to see the background work and where and how things were packaged and shipped out. We also got to visit a produce processing plant. That was interesting. Marcia was touched so deeply that she cried twice. It was a beautiful experience. We spent the rest of the week picking out 5 star recipes for UGA's 5 star dinner in the fall. Marcia and I are helping go through boxes and books of recipes to contribute to the menu. It was a great week!