May The Stars Light Your Way
As you saw in yesterday’s blog post, here is the menu we served for Christmas Eve. Here, I’ve expanded it to include the wines we served. My mother & father joined us, along with Paul, and Deb, two close friends. After Wendy & I went shopping…
After cooking all day for the dinner we’re hosting tomorrow, Wendy & I met up with Dave for dinner and some last minute shopping (we needed to find plates for the ravioli course and the cheese course and maybe the dessert course, and some more…
This evening, Wendy and I attended the first-ever Junior American Culinary Federation Dinner at Cincinnati State. A group of students in the Federation prepared a very nice meal — Roasted Butternut Squash Soup; Marinated Pear and Gorgonzola Salad with Caramelized Walnuts and Balsamic Vinaigrette;Â Turkey Roulade with Sausage Stuffing; Green Beans Amandine; Duchess Potatoes; Cranberry Chutney; and an English Trifle for dessert.
We attended this event with Chef Lilly, her husband Eric, and Angel and we had a blast, chatting long after the rest of the guests cleared out. Thanks for inviting us, Lilly!
Wendy had a beauty treatment tonight after work so I spent the evening taking to the trash the MOUNTAIN of boxes we had accumulated from ordering most of our Christmas presents for everyone from the Internet (that took a while) and working on my preparation timeline for…
After not feeling well last night and most of the day, I started feeling better in the mid-afternoon. Wendy & I went shopping at Jungle Jim’s for ingredients for the 8-course meal we’re preparing for my parents and a couple friends on Sunday and stopped…
This evening, I went directly down to Cincinnati State after my workday to assist Chef Grace Yek with a Team Building Cooking Class for 18 people. Chef Yek, Shannon, and I put all the mise en place together for four menu items: Edamame and Corn Salad with Ginger Dressing; Red Potatoes with Chorizo; Chicken with Apple & Fennel Chutney; and Baklava. The three of us did most of the chopping, slicing, dicing, and par-cooking to make it painless for our guests. This allowed our guests to come right in and get cooking, and it allowed us (the staff) to manage the amount of mess that was made. Professionals simply work cleaner than non-pros.
The evening was a great success and the guests certainly had a good time. Chef Treome, who instructed me in my Basic 1 & 2 classes, was teaching an evening class and brought down a selection of appetizers (Swedish Meatballs, Beef Carpaccio, and more) and desserts (jelly roll, napoleon, and more) for us to share.
Wendy wisely pointed out that if we wanted to decorate our Christmas tree, it had to be tonight. As a result, we decided to order in LaRosa’s for dinner. She had a Deli Cibatta and I had a Steak Hoagie. We split a salad. Once…