Friday, September 30, 2011

The last day of September! We had thunderstorms with rain today, very unlike Reno. Well, Thursday was not as quiet as I had hoped it would be. PT at noon, then errands, culinating in a wait at the VW dealership while I took Jordan's car into be serviced. I'm wondering if I'll ever catch up on sleep! Between the Farm to Table, knee surgery and another out-patient procedure, I always seem to feel tired, lol. That should pass. Friday was quiet, me and the new cat (minus Ah Choo who is still at "Aunt Janell's house"), who we have decided to call "Crazy Cat". She'll come up so you can pet her, then suddenly starts growling or hissing and walks away. She almost bit me, then jumped up on the couch to sit next to me. Crazy! I stopped by PT and had them blow up by exercise ball (their idea), so I can do exercises over the weekend to try and strengthen my core muscles. I also tried to take care of some billing and banking issues. I have a consulting job with Jordan and his USC students who are doing a project with LA county. It has something to do with hospitals and I'll be a "technical advisor". I think I can do that, lol! Otherwise, not much new.....

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Tuesday morning was spent doing errands (delivering cookies to Karen at Hillbilly Hotdogs, picking up my serving dishes from SCOR, paying bills). I also finished my Mascarpone Cheesecake with a Roasted Cashew Crust and made Passion Fruit Caramel Sauce (yum!). I headed over to my personal chef job in the afternoon. I made Soft Summer Spring Rolls with a dipping sauce, Pork Loin with Pomegranate Orange glaze, Parsley Rice, Carmelized Shrimp, Grilled Chicken with Spinach and Pine Nut Pesto (no basil), Warm Chickpea and Grilled Zucchini Salad and Green Giant Soup (made with leeks, potatoes and petit peas). All yummy stuff!

I stayed and had dinner with Michael (Cumin Crusted Tuna with rice and sautéed zucchini). He shared some his Mascarpone Cheesecake with me-talk about creamy! Then home. Jordan got home about 9am. A long two days in LA, but it sounds like it was productive.

Wednesday (today), I had an appointment with Laurie at Standards of Excellence. Seems like I always had the job, it just took a while for Laurie to call me. My first cooking demo will be October 26. I'll be making dinner for 30 people, cooking with the featured Miele appliances. Should be fun. I get a food budget AND get paid my going hourly rate. Very nice! The next dinner will be December 7.

While I went to my appointment, Jordan took Ah Choo back to Janell's. The new cat, "Tigger" seems terrified of Ah Choo. I hate to say this, but I think "Tigger" needs a one cat household. Makes me sad to think this adoption is not going to work out. And who knows what "Tigger" has been through of late that makes her so afraid.

I had a doctor's appointment in the afternoon, came home and took a nap and read some. I did make cookies in the Morning to take to the doctor (they seem to get all excited that someone would bake for them, lol). Chocolate Chip Cookies with a secret ingredient (crushed potato chips-adds crunch and a little salt). We'll see what kind of response I get on those.

A quiet evening, otherwise, and the promise of another quiet day tomorrow (one hopes anyway......).

Monday, September 26, 2011

Sunday was not the relaxing day I thought it was going to be, lol. We had over night company (a friend of Jordan's), I had baking to do for Monday and Tuesday, Jordan left for LA Sunday afternoon. Jan stopped by to return some of my pans from Saturday. She was very pleased at the way things turned out Saturday and even more pleased there was not one complaint from our visitors. She and Jim are already talking about next year, lol!

"Tigger", the new calico cat we adopted, seems to be settling in, with only a scant hiss or two. We'll see what happens when I bring Ah Choo home Monday.

Today was filled with more baking and cooking. I have a catering job at 6pm for the partnership meeting. I'm making Hangar Steak with a Shallot Cherry Sauce, Mashed Potatoes, Herbed Summer Squash Medley, Dinner Rolls and an Apple Cranberry Galette. I baked cookies for Karen for her Hillbilly Hotdog business-White Chocolate Cranberry, 2 dozen.

I went shopping for my personal chef job today, then baked a Mascarpone Cheesecake with a Roasted Cashew Crust. It also has a Passion Fruit Caramel Sauce that goes with it.

As I dropped off the partnership meeting dinner, I found out two things-the State was there for an inspection and two, that the consensus of the MEC meeting was that my forte was dessert. I have to say, I'm happy I am not the OR manager there!

I picked up Ah Choo after I dropped off dinner, and came home. Oh, oh, much hissing and growling (Tigger). I guess this is just going to take time.....

Saturday, September 24, 2011

We did it!!!! Our Farm to Table Dinner was a success! Yes!!

I had two helpers today, My sister Janell and Diane, a friend who wants to get I to the food business. Janell and I arrived at Jan and Jim's house about 10am. Diane was there by 11am. Other than a very short lunch break, we worked pretty much right up until guests arrived preparing food. We continued to work right up until dessert.

I assigned tasks. Poor Diane cut and juiced the watermelon for the watermelon cooler. It took a long time to make 23 cups of juice! I took the juice and made it into our watermelon cooler. Janell went out into the garden with Jan and picked vegetables for one of our side dishes. She also cut up our fingerling potatoes (which by the way were not very fingerling! They looked like full sized potatoes some of them!). Diane also made our "sandwich" of ciabatta, tomatoes, mozzarella, pesto and basil. I worked on the chicken dish, the tomato soup with mint pesto, baked the savory Palmiers, and got the grilled beef going.

I worked hard, Janell and Diane worked hard, Jan and Jim worked hard and Jordan and his friend John worked hard. A lot of planning went into this so it was nice to hear everyone say how much they enjoyed the evening. Jordan dragged me out of the kitchen because everyone wanted to meet the chef. I got a long applause from the entire group. Amazing! I think we all did a great job!

Now it's time for bed, but I'm hungry, lol. I didn't eat dinner, too much to do. Plus, once you've worked on food long enough, you end up not being very hungry. So maybe I'll go see what's in the fridge!

Friday, September 23, 2011

Well, the night before the big event.... Wish us luck!

The past two days I've been shopping for food and alcohol, baking up a storm and lying awake at night going through all my lists of things to do. I think we have everything covered! Jan is also a little nervous. I believe we are at 58 people right now. Amazing how things sold out so quickly!

Diane Momberg and Janell will be acting as my "sous" chefs, although all the responsibility is mine. I think we have all the food covered! For appetizers we have: Roasted Tomato Soup with a dollop of Mint Pesto, Caprese-style sandwiches (open face) and Savory Palmiers. The entrees are Seared Steak on a bed of Arugula and Herbed Goat Cheese Stuffed Chicken Breast with Warm Grape and Pine Nut Salad. The sides are Roasted Rosemary Fingerling Potatoes and Herbed Summer Squash. And for dessert we have a trio of selections: Chocolate Mousse, Italian Almond Cake with a Berry Compote and a Streusel -topped Plum Tart. Al the desserts will be small individual portions so as not to overwhelm the diners after a large meal.

But for right now, I am exhausticated! So I'm going to bed cause I need to get up early to make one more plum tart. :-).

I still need to post pictures! It's on my to do list.

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

The Farm to Table dinner is coming down to the wire (it's September 24th) and it seems that is the most consume g task I have. Monday was spent shopping for the catering job I had on Tuesday (MEC meeting at SCOR), doing some shopping for my personal chef client (I usually shop the day of but with so many things to do, I did a part of it early) and making phone calls. I ordered the wine for the Farm to Table-18 bottles each of Chardonnay and Cabernet. It had to be paid for before Fine Vines would place the order and I certainly understand that. I also had PT in the midst of all this. And I baked a Coconut Layer Cake for my personal chef client (pick of the week!). It tur Ed out well and I did take pictures but as I write most often on my iPad, I can't seem to get my pictures uploaded from my phone.

Monday evening was dinner with Jan and Jim as part of a final planning stages for the Farm to Table. We went to Los Compadres on 4th Street. Ok, but I doubt I will write it up on Examiner.com, lol. I think we have almost everything ordered, etc.

Tuesday I met Jan at 9am at Top Hat Party Rentals to finalize everything. $714 for all the supplies we need! Amazing! At 10am I met Karen and took her a box of cookies for her hot dog cart. Peanut butter cookies. Hope she likes them. I took the leftover cookies to PT and they raved about them (always good to know when you have a successful product!). Then I went shopping at Whole Foods to finsh off my shopping. I finished fairly early but did not get everything done-for whatever reason, I forgot he didn't have an oven so had to make a Ratatouille Tart at home. And I forgot to buy lamb for the Koftas (lamb stuffed pita bread), so had to make the meatballs for that! Yikes!

I did make it to the MEC meeting in plenty of time. I made couscous topped with sautéed spinach, topped with sautéed chicken with a balsamic tomato sauce. Very good! I made Eton Mess for dessert. Yum!

Today (Wednesday), I had an appoint,net with my orthopedic doctor who is very pleased with my progress. I made him giggle again-so funny! I am ahead of the curve, which makes me happy. Just need to not over due things. He says no impact sports, no running, etc, otherwise the prosthesis wears out more quickly. I can live with that.

Then home to bake before going to PT again. After today I'll just need to go once a week. Yeah! $25 a visit adds up! I ran some errands, met Janell at Backstube for a quick bite, then bake to more baking.

I did get a job offer from Hey Chef-the place in Truckee. Just need to fill out my paperwork. I talked with Laurie from Standards of Excellence and will meet with her next Wednesday to talk about a job (about once a month). I also got a call from the Director at GI Consultants about a per diem job. I still need to call her back. Things seem to be picking up! And my friend gave me a card from one of the people I used to do business with at SCOR. They want me to cater a dinner party, lol. Guess I'll call them tomorrow.

So that's the skinny on my life. You know as much as I do, lol. Now it's time for bed......

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Saturday we were up at 6am and out of the house by about 7:15am, driving to Truckee. The interview for Hey Chef! was at the Truckee Airport. Apparently the Verbecks (who own and operate Hey Chef out of their home) also own the cafe in the airport and attached to that cafe is a conference room. Who'd have thought?

There were four of us, three of which were looking for a position as wait staff or bartenders. I was the only chef. We were met by Holly Verbeck, wife of Chef Grog Verbeck, who spent an hour going over the company and it's policies and mission, then had us set up an actual table for a luncheon. She also had each of us fold napkins in as many shapes as we could, then took a picture. Kind of funny! After that, she told us we would hear from her in about a week as to whether or not we were hired (although she says we won't actually be working for Hey Chef until we actually do a job). Seems like everything went well so we'll see.....

After Truckee, we drove on to St Helena, CA to the CIA (Culinary Institute of America). I took a class on the flavors of Tuscany from 2:30-4:30pm. It was kind of nice being back in a big kitchen. They really have everything outfitted nicely (with the help of Viking Corp). We made about a dozen dishes, divided up between 15 people. I ended up working by myself because everyone else came in pairs. Chef Sandy felt sorry for me I guess because she sent over her student assistant to help me. The student's name is Rebecca and she moved to California from Wisconsin! Small world!

After class, Jordan and I ate at the CIA's restaurant, Greystone. We sat out on the terrace. What a gorgeous view! That was a nice surprise! All in all a lovely, relaxing day. We drove home after we finished dinner.

Today (Sunday), I spent experimenting with peaches and plums and crusts. I was hoping to use wonton wrappers brushed with butter, then sprinkled with cinnamon sugar, but they turned out almost too crunchy. I tried phyllo dough-better, but no. Guess I'm going to have to just make my own crust. As for the fruit, ugh! Even though Jan and Jim brought back peaches from a farm in Benicia, they were not very good. And they were starting to go bad, so I made jam with them. The plums they bought in Bencia, however, were quite good, so that's what I'm going with. Plum tarts in addition to chocolate mousse and little Italian Almond Cakes. Time to buckle down and get to work! I also had to make cookies for Thunderbird Lodge (chocolate chip, no nuts) and Karen of Hillbilly Hotdogs (peanut butter). A busy day spent baking.