"This is a pie shop, not a herbal crack den."

I am procrastinating.

I am doing work from home and its boring work. Looking over menus and tearing them apart then trying to understand why I did it in the first place. And it's dull only because we want to do all these cool things but its like we have to taser ourselves.

So now I have to make meatloaf look sexy and make it for like nothing. These aren't third world problems ,in fact they aren't even problems. More negotiations between me and my students . Bless the sous chefs but they didn't look at the menus hard enough when they redid them so I have to as you can see revamp the redo. It's not annoying just inconvenient....lol but what else am I going to do for three weeks. Well, that's a lie since it has to be done by Thursday of this week,ie tomorrow. No pressure .....

Ideally , it would be awesome to try all the recipes before but with school in shut down mode, and no budget money for it,that so not happening. But I can make pasta...lots of pasta. Time to perfect the ravioli that we haven't dare try since the first badly done batch. Do I dare immerse myself back into it..gasp. ... Shock .... The horror of it all. Meh probably be tasty.
One pasta I want to make is udon noodle which besides ramen ,are the only non filled pastas I like. Don't ask , I don't know why. Maybe it was all the crappy spaghetti my ex husband made or the over cooked pasta I have had in restaurants . But I am trying to " get over" it.....heehehe.
And thats a tip, DON'T OVER COOK the PASTA!!!!!!!!!!! When you think it's not quiet done, pull it!!!!
PULL IT now!!!!! And shock it with cold water....do IT!


So I guess I should return to my work...and stop watching the Chelsea / QPR game....

Or make dinner....I do have noodles and beef round that's been in the cock pot for over 24hours and smells sooooo gooooo. Smell it? Can ya?





FYI the pix is my little collection of cook books. I have another 30 at work and my sous have like another 6 books of mine. What is sad or what have you is that I am short like 40 books. I mean I threw out like 40 books a week ago along with all sorts of crappy kitchen stuff including my bread machine. I actually lied to my parents that it was broken because neither got it that my 14 year old machine was not used by me anymore and that I preferred to bake bread the old fashion way. God forbid they understand ( i love my knucklehead parents but there are times they still haven't a clue about me) my desire to simplify my kitchen, my house and etc.


Crap... I really need raw food ideas. Very least need someone to bounce these ideas off of...lol because they all sound a little off but that might be my lack of food and ....mmmmm beer.

Someone send over beers,it's going to be a long night !!!!!!!

2013 Smells like beer and snazzeberries

I can't sleep...which is good for you I suppose. So I figured I actually do a New Year's Resolution list thingy.

Now don't get in a panic....it's not some self indulgent " I'm going to lose 50 lbs by march"(though its a safe bet I will by May) or whatever blah blah people do! It's me for fucks sake...a bit of tongue and cheek , lads and lass , if you please.


Ok so here it is:

The Slight Off and Mostly Nerdy Chef's NY Resolution List 2013:

1)Eat more butter. Yeah,eat more of it. Of course not at one time but my kitchen is saying fuck off the margarine. Bugger off cause only the butter is welcomed.

2) Teach my staff how to sharpen their knives so I don't have to deal with badly cut food. It's agonizing sometimes.

3) Teach. Simply put...with two sous chefs I can finally teach my staff a tiny bit of what I know.

4) SET THE WORLD ON FIRE.....move along. You'll know it when ya see it.

5) Learn to make cheese. Why not!

6) Pickle and Preserve more. It's a lost art but yields such wonderful yummiest stuff.

7) Play with my food. Experiment more with ideas,recipes and favors. Not limiting myself but to what I can actually procure. In this contact the local farmers. Work with them more! Blow food up!!!!

8) Drink more beer....but different ones not just the same old stuff. Though no fruity beer....blah . So sacrilegious ...

9)Cook a random recipe a week from ALL my cookbooks....that's a lot ,FYI. And share with you the experience. Maybe with smell-a-vision!

10)Travel.....get out of this popsicle stand . Try out new cities and foods. Road trip as much as possible ....share with others or on my own ...though sharing is more fun. Document everything...talk to people and chefs or farmers at different markets. Maybe steal recipes or such. Maybe a chef or two;)



And above all,gain more knowledge. Not just of my craft ,but of everything. We forget sometimes to keep learning. Knowledge is powerful and brings people together .


So that's it..... That's my all powerful list.

Yeah...it's ok, I know. I amaze me too.