Week 4 at MSU

My time here at Michigan State University is officially halfway done. I can't believe it! I feel like I just got here. Before I know it, I'll be on my way back to Brigham Young University for my final year of college. Talk about crazy! Week 4 was a good one! Jeanette and I got to do quite a few different things.

Monday

Monday was another day in The Gallery. Instead of being in the stations, Jeanette and I worked with the student supervisors, cashiers, and those hosting. We learned how to work their registers, what items to restock, and what responsibilities the student supervisors have. One of the student supervisors that I worked with is a senior dietetics student just like me! We had fun talking about our programs and upcoming internship applications. It was fun to talk to someone with all of the same concerns that I have about the next year of school.

Tuesday

Tuesday Jeanette and I got to see a lot of different things. We spent a couple hours in the morning in The Gallery doing what we did the day before. It was fun to meet some different student supervisors and learn some new things about the dining hall. After that, a woman named Carla picked us up and took us to the MSU recycling center and surplus store.

We toured the facility, which was a lot bigger than I expected! MSU does so much to be sustainable and help the environment. It never ceases to impress me. 

Some of the giant collection areas before the recyclables get compacted and sold. 

It was neat to see some machinery I had never seen before and get a glimpse of the volume of items that go through the facility. We also saw the surplus store, where items are resold to the university and the public. 

After touring the recycling center, Jeanette and I went to one of the dining halls on campus to see Betty, the health inspector, in action. She's employed through the university and has been working here for a few decades. She pretty much knows everyone and they were all so excited to see her when she came for the health inspection. Not quite the reaction I was expecting :) It was nice to be on the other side of a health inspection and see all the things she was looking for. One interesting thing about that dining hall was they are tray-less. I think it's a very good idea. It reduces food waste because customers can only carry so many things at once, and it's less time and work for the dishroom, which also saves money. 

Wednesday

MSU hosts a conference called Grandparents University every year. Grandparents, many of whom are alumni of MSU, bring their grandkids and attend classes and activities while living and eating on campus for a few days. Jeanette and I went to Holmes Hall where they were staying for one of the conference days. During lunch we mostly just observed how the dining hall accommodates such a high volume of participates in only a couple hours. We came back during the dinner hours and helped out. I was in charge of the softserve machine. It really was the perfect job for me. It combined a few of my favorite things: ice cream, talking to strangers, and children. It was seriously so much fun for me. I got pretty good at making a good looking ice cream cone if I do say so myself :) The kids were so nice and fun to talk to when they came up, and their grandparents were the sweetest! I really enjoyed working this particular conference.

Jeanette gives this conference 2 thumbs up!

Ready to serve some ice cream

The only down side to this conference was the lack of air conditioning. Jeanette and I thought we might die for little bit. We weren't being dramatic at all of course :)

Thursday

At the Student Organic Farm

Thursday was a really fun day! Jeanette and I spent all day at the Student Organic Farm. I was expecting a small, garden. Boy was I wrong! The farm was a lot bigger than I expected. They had tons of plants, some of which I had never heard of! They also had pigs and chickens. Thursday is the farm's big harvest day, so we started off the morning by picking peas. 

Just hanging out in the pea plants

Jeanette picking some peas

This made me want to grow my own peas

Hand painted map of the Student Organic Farm

 I took a lot of pictures this day, so be prepared to see pretty much everything we did :) After picking all of the peas, we washed some carrots that had been harvested and then bagged some garlic scapes for customers. The way it works is people can donate money to the farm at the beginning of the year and then receive boxes of produce each week from the farm. They had 71 different customers to package produce for!

Cute little round carrots being washed.

Student workers in action

 Earlier in the week, the students had weaned the piglets, but the piglets had escaped and gotten back into the pen that their mothers were in. That called for a re-weaning while we were there. Basically, that just meant that the piglets had to be carried to a different pen where they couldn't get milk from their mothers.

Don't be deceived, many of the piglets were anything but calm while being relocated.

 I really wanted to try carrying a pig, but being the girl from the suburbs that I am, it didn't work out for a few reasons. Once I saw some of the pigs being carried, I didn't know if I could physically do it. Those little piglets let out screams like I've never heard before and thrashed around like crazy trying to escape. I was worried that I'd accidentally drop it and cause more problems for the farm. Also, the idea of being covered in pig poop the rest of the day is less than ideal if you ask me :)

All of the piglets, happily weaned

We also found a chicken coop on the farm.

 Later in the afternoon, we took a break from bean picking to watch the potato plants being cultivated with their new tractor hook up. Pretty cool what machines can do these days!

Cultivating the potatoes

 The student organic farm also does their own composting. They use their own compost for their small beds of plants. Unfortunately they don't make enough to do all of their fields, so they buy that compost and spread it themselves.

Loading up to spread some compost

 After we finished picking green and yellow beans (and getting eaten alive by mosquitoes), Jeanette and I did some weeding. We stayed until the rain started pouring.

Jeanette weeding

Weeding the plants

Overall, it was a really enjoyable day. It was a new experience for me, and I really enjoyed it!

Friday

Friday was another field trip day. We went to Paramount Coffee, a local roaster/brewery in Lansing. We toured the facility and go to see all kinds of stuff. I went into this tour knowing nothing about coffee and how it's made, so I learned a lot. 

Green coffee from Honduras

 They had coffee from all over the world! They receive it as green coffee. It's a much easier was to store the coffee, and has a longer shelf life than already roasted coffee.

They had quite a few different roasters in their facility. This was one of their smaller roasters making some different kinds of coffee.

One of the roasters making a pretty dark blend

 They also had some cool machinery that packaged the coffee into the kinds of bags that you see on the shelf  at the store.

Lots of moving parts to this machine

They also had some huge roasters!

These heated up the room quite a bit.

We also did a cupping. This was a lot more involved of a process than I expected. I don't drink coffee, so I just got to observe this part of the experience. Basically, they put very finely ground coffee in the cups, pouring boiling/hot water in, and let is sit. Then we broke the surface, smelled it, and skimmed the foam off. Then the tasting began. During a cupping, the procedure is to slurp the coffee into your mouth so that you get it in all parts of your mouth, see how it tastes, then you spit it out into a cup or the lovely spittoon.

Action shot of Jeanette using the spittoon.

 Coffee apparently comes from cherry-like plants, which are mostly in the tropics/equator regions.

Outside of Paramount

After this tour, I pretty much know everything about coffee except how it tastes! :) 

Overall, it was a great week, with lots of exciting new experiences. Looking forward to the field trip and happenings in this coming week!

Week Four at Montana State aka Halfway Done! eeekkk

It's hard to believe we're in our fourth week already!  Each week has been an experience of its own - so excited to share challenges and accomplishments I encountered this week. 

CHANGE OF PLANS

rescheduled just about every mtg planned for this week, couldn't have been more hectic! but all worked out at the end

met with more food brokers, still working on finalizing our orders for fall

did some pho tasting downtown (Callie and Rose's first time having it)

met with sales reps for kitchen equipment and sanitation products

toured a cook-chill facility (Bozeman School District)

toured a ranch (Pioneer Meats in Big Timber, MT)

*they produce between 500-1800 lbs of sausage a week

*no MSG usage

*some popular and unique flavors: mozzarella, jalapeno cheese, Hawaiian, green onion and cheddar, green onion and wildrice, blue cheese

*slaughtering, processing and packing all happen in Montana - MT Made product

did some cutting and sampling (more fries, some ravioli, ground dark chix meat)

prep'd for R&D new sandwich, pho noodles, cole slaw, lemonade, sauerkraut, and apple cider reduction recipes to test during upcoming weeks

Personal Note:

• went horseback riding and zip lining by Gallatin River last weekend; first time zip lining and I already want to go back!!!

Callie and Ranger

Gallatin River

Blizzard and I

• going camping at Hyalite Reservoir this weekend!

Next Week:

• another tour of ranch (Meat Montana)
• SO fortunate to have the opportunity to sit in on an interview
• MSU Bozeman is hiring a new head baker for the lovely Fat Cat Bakery
• Callie and I are officially part of the search committee and will be participating in the entire interview process Monday!

MSU Week 2

It was another great week here at Michigan State University. Our schedule was a little more varied than last week, so there's lots to talk about!

Monday

Jeanette and I were in The Gallery again working with the staff. This was my favorite day in the dining hall so far though because I got to work at the station called Latitudes. This station serves a lot of international cuisine, mostly Asian dishes. Monday was the infamous pasta bar that I had heard is a big hit during the school year. I worked with one of the full time employees named Marie. She was really nice and fun to work with. She and I got the station all ready to go before lunch started. The customers would come up and choose all of the vegetables and meats that they wanted in their pasta, we would then cook it all in a pan of heated olive oil, put it over pasta noodles, and top it all of with the sauce of their choice. It was a pretty efficient system and everyone seemed to love it. It was a fun way to serve and cook the food right in front of the customers.

 Here I am over the stove, ready to cook up some pasta orders.

After lunch was almost over, Jeanette and I went back into the kitchen to help out. One of the dinner meals was going to be sushi, and the staff were really behind getting it ready for that night. That's where Jeanette and I come in! I had never rolled sushi before. I mean, I tried eating it for the first time 2 1/2 weeks ago, so sushi in general is a new experience for me. It was a lot of fun though. 

Jeanette and I with Chef Eric who taught us the art of sushi rolling

Tuesday

This day was possibly my favorite day of the internship so far. On MSU's campus, they have the president's house, called the Cowles House. In the past, presidents have lived here with their families. They also host events here. The current president already had a house in East Lansing, so she chooses not to live here. 

The Cowles House

Events are still hosted here, however. The only events that take place at the Cowles House are strictly those of MSU and the president. You can't call and schedule a booking; you have to be invited to host the event here. We met the manager of the Cowles House, Peter. He is a really cool, friendly guy. 

Jeanette and I with Peter

He introduced us to Corina. She's worked at the house for decades, even when previous presidents lived on site. She gave us a tour of the house and let us explore a little bit. 

Here I am sitting at the president's desk

Most of the mingling took place in this room during the event. I love the tree in the middle of the room.

Then we met with Peter and he told us a little history of the house as well as about planning and preparing for events to take place. He gave each of us a set of the menus that they've used for previous events. We observed the staff for a bit to see how they set up and get ready for an event to take place. Then Corina got Jeanette and I in uniforms so that we looked like we fit in with the staff. 

I look like I belong right?

The event that we were there for was a thank you reception for deans and administrators on campus. Jeanette an I spent most of our time at the front table with the name tags. We got to meet and welcome everyone to the Cowles House. It was really fun to observe and be a part of the event. We also got to taste all of the yummy food that was served after the event was over. It sure was delicious!

All of the desserts

All of the yummy food to try

Wednesday

On campus, there is the Kellogg Center. It's a really nice hotel and conference center. That is where Jeanette and I spent our Wednesday. When we arrived the sous chef gave us a brief tour and showed us the beautiful conference rooms. 

One of the big conference rooms

We spent the morning working with one of the full time staff named Bernard. We helped him with some of his tasks and helped make some lunch for the employees. They feed their employees all 3 meals if they're working. I thought that was really cool.

Jeanette and I rockin our hairnets

After lunch, we worked with another man named Matthew. He was a lot of fun to work with and seemed really excited to test our skills and teach us. Our first task was skinning salmon. 

Bernard showing me how to skin it with my bare hands

We also helped Matthew prepare a test meal for a couple that was planning their rehearsal dinner. He let us taste the food and showed us how he plated it to look really nice. 

That gnocchi was delicious!

Thursday

Jeanette and I were back in The Gallery this day. We were at some of the less busy, easier stations. 

I got to scoop a lot of ice cream

Jeanette worked at Ciao, the sandwich/wrap/pizza station

Friday

This day is tied with the Cowles House for my favorite so far. Jeanette and I spent the day with Chef Kurt. He was excited to work with us and had lots of good stuff planned for us to do. He started by testing some of our kitchen skills. Luckily I passed with flying colors :) He also showed us a really cool vacuum sealer machine. I thought it was just used for storage purposes, but it actually changes the flavor of some foods, so it can be used for that purpose too. We tested it with some spinach leaves. Basically you put food in a bag and into the machine. The machine then sucks all of the oxygen out of the chamber and seals the bag.

Spinach after the oxygen was sucked out

 Then, Chef Kurt cooked up the spinach from the machine and some fresh spinach in the same way so that we could see if we could taste a difference. We did! The spinach that had its oxygen removed had a stronger spinach taste and looked nicer for plating purposes. It was really cool!

We also took a trip to the local Asian market so Chef could pick up a few things that they needed that day. I had never been to one before, but it was awesome! There were so many products I had never even heard of before. Too bad I couldn't read most of the labels.

It was fun to explore the market

Then, Chef Kurt dropped us off at the food truck. MSU has a food truck that parks in different locations and sells really delicious lunches. It was cool to see what the inside was like and how cramped the space was. That definitely requires organization. The employees were the best. They were all so passionate about their job and I could tell that they all honestly loved working there. That really makes a difference for a foodservice operation.

Me and the food truck

Hanging out with the employees and watching them do their thing for lunch

The food truck recently won an award for their burger, which features meat from the MSU cows, cheese from the MSU dairy, vegetables from the MSU student organic farm, and bread from a local baker down the road. Obviously Jeanette and I had to try it.

It's no wonder that burger's award winning

I loved seeing the food truck

After a few hours at the food truck, Jeanette and I went back to the test kitchen with Chef Kurt. Our next job was recipe testing for a recipe that Chef Kurt is thinking of serving. We got to make a few batches of cheddar biscuits to test scoop size and tweak the proportions of ingredients a little bit. It was a lot of fun!

Jeanette and I baking our hearts out

Chef Kurt said he wanted us to work with him again and do some more recipe testing, so we're really excited for that. Overall it was a great week and I'm excited to see what's next!

Saturday afternoon Jeanette and I decided to check out the Dairy Store ice cream for ourselves. I have a high standard for ice cream since I come from Blue Bell country, but the MSU ice cream was really creamy and delicious. They had lots of fun flavors.

 Until Next Week,

Megan