My niece is having a baby in September.  I figure if I say it often enough I'll start to believe it, so far it's not working, I know she's grown, but even seeing her it's hard to believe! 

I left Friday morning to drive to Pittsburgh for the shower.  I really like driving and the car was loaded.  My husband went also and we had a nice picnic lunch in Virginia on the way up.  I like to stop, relax and enjoy a meal. 

We got to my sister's about 9:30 Friday night because we had to have dinner before I went to my sister's.  In fairness I did call her and ask if she wanted to join us at Carl's Tavern but they had already eaten.  I have to go to Carl's when I go to Monroeville to eat the fried fish, fried zucchini and onion rings.  Yes, everything is fried.  Lots and lots of fried. 

It has been ridiculously hot and even with the air conditioning in the car on the way up, I headed straight to my sister's pool when we arrived.  After eating.  So refreshing to be in the water.  We chatted and floated and all was well.  We made our Saturday plans which for me was cooking dinner Saturday night at my sister's.  Of course that meant a trip to the Strip! 

Saturday morning we picked up my nephew and headed downtown.  It's all about food in the Strip so we waited in the hot, hot sun at DeLuca's for breakfast.  Not as long a line as it was when we left.  I had to have the seafood omelet with Italian toast.  My husband had a breakfast burrito, my nephew French toast.  Once fortified with food, we shopped.

Yes, I made Scampi with Linguine again.  We needed Italian bread from Mancini's, produce, cheese from Pennsylvania Macaroni, a steak for my sister Cathy, shrimp from Wholey's.   We also needed to stop in at Penzey's Spices because we could.  We didn't do too much extra shopping, it was hot and after about 2 hours we were done.   And ready for the pool again.

Saturday afternoon my nephew made salsa for an afternoon snack.  He is growing peppers and wanted to use them.  I made a Caprese Salad, Romaine Salad, heated bread, made scampi for 12 even though we had 10 for dinner we like leftovers and my sister cooked her steak.  On the way home from the Strip we stopped for dessert at Moio's Italian Bakery and picked up a carrot cake, German Chocolate Cake and fruit tart, again planned leftovers.

Back to the pool after dinner. 

Sunday we had the baby shower.  I didn't have to do anything Sunday but attend.  I rode with  my sister Cathy and we headed back to the Strip to Lidia's restaurant for a brunch shower.  The grandmothers and my niece's best friends did a great job with the shower.  Lidia's did a great job with the food. 





We headed home bright and early Monday morning.  Just a quick visit since my gift to my niece is a personal chef service.  I'll go up in my car with all my cooking stuff early in September to stock the freezer before the baby gets here.  He's due September 17th.  My niece loves to eat and this will give her and her husband some easy to get to food when things are busy.  I have to take care of the people who are taking care of the new baby!

We left Monroeville about 6:30 am so we stopped for breakfast about 10:00 and had a real treat.  Breakfast was good but the parking lot was the best part of breakfast.  The Budweiser drivers also stopped for breakfast and gave the horses some air and let customers ask questions and take pictures.  They were headed to the Greenbrier for a golf tournament I think. 





Back to work now.  I have all my paperwork ready for my personal chef client tomorrow.  I have a first  meeting with my contact at a school in the area as part of Chefs Move to Schools and I have two library programs this week also.  Lots of fun, no boredom.

Another busy and fun week for me, this is the third session of cooking camp this summer.  This week there are 8 in class, 2 guys, 6 girls.  Also this week my sister and nephew are in camp.  My nephew is attending and my sister is assisting. 

I have trouble sometimes in the summer with my calendar.  Since I am doing the same thing everyday when I have camp, I occasionally don't look at the calendar and when I do I discover that I have a little too much fun scheduled.  This has happened this week!

I teach a cooking class at the senior center at the Y every second Monday of the month.  So yes, that was last night.  I mentioned to my sister and nephew that not only would there be no dinner but that we were going to the Y for a class after camp.  My nephew helped during the recipe preparation in class and my sister helped with dishes and serving.  We had a fun time and were home to watch The Closer.  I did stay awake until the end!

There will be no dinner for my guests again tonight because after class we are heading far away to a library to do a cooking class for teens.  This will be another fun class, I think there are 20 teens signed up.  We'll eat a good lunch at camp and then journey to the library. Today we have southern region foods at camp so we'll lunch on shrimp and grits, turnip greens and hummingbird cake.  Not bad before a long journey. 

After tonight  we're done with double days of classes.  I promised a good dinner for Wednesday - Scampi and Linguine.  This is one of the favorite meals in the family so we'll have a relaxing delicious dinner tomorrow.   

They arrived from Pittsburgh on Saturday and we just relaxed around the house.  I did feed them - grilled steelhead fillets that were delicious.  Sunday we had fun before the week started.  We went to the aquarium and had a good time.



No fish for dinner Sunday, we had macaroni and cheese with broccoli.  This was for planned leftovers so when we foraged for meals there was food for foraging. 

Have to get ready for camp now.  We leave the house around 7:20.  My husband gets to have fun while working at home today.  He will be ready to accept delivery of the new mattress!  I'll sleep well on it tonight. 

About two weeks ago I received an email from the executive director of Women Chefs and Restaurateurs (WCR).   I am a member of a couple committees in WCR and because of that, was one of the members chosen to be asked to go to the White House.  Yes, THE White House. 

I quickly filled out the required forms and mentioned to my husband that I was going to the White House.  Very exciting.  It was a pretty quick turn around with not a lot of details, but the invitation was for June 4th when the First Lady was kicking off a part of her child nutrition program (www.letsmove.gov) called Chefs Move to Schools.  I knew that it was June 4th, probably in the earlier part of the day and there would be a kickoff breakfast with Share Our Strength ( www.strength.org).

I packed up the car and headed to DC on Wednesday.  I like to drive and knew that I would stay overnight on the way up.  Stayed in Richmond, did some shopping and saw the Tiffany exhibit at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.  Wonderful!

I left Richmond Thursday afternoon so I could check into my hotel and meet up with fellow WCR members at Commonwealth Gastropub (www.commonwealthgastropub.com) in DC.  Jamie Leeds is the owner and she is also president of WCR.  She invited our group to be her guests for dinner.  Yes, a bunch of chefs in a private room, eating, and talking about going to the White House the next day.  Lots of fun. 

Friday morning was sunny and no rain was expected.  Yay!  I headed out of my hotel at 7:30 to stroll to the JW Marriott for breakfast.  Oh my!  I knew there were many chefs invited, but this was pretty amazing.  There were about 600 chefs for breakfast!  Imagine the chefs in the Marriott kitchen making the breakfast. 



We listened to a panel of chefs and principals already working together.  We got some tips on how to work with schools and how to start.  At about 10:15 we all headed to the White House.  It was quite a sight, 600 chefs from 37 states leaving the hotel and walking a couple of blocks to get in line.  There was security you know.

As we stood in line we met new people, chatted with our friends, wondered if the line would ever move and tried to cheer up the Colorado chefs who were really suffering in the heat and humidity.  We were in line about an hour before we got to the first check point.  One of the new people I met was Rochelle who is a member of WCR and owner of ChefWear (www.chefwear.com).  She brought chef jackets for the entire Obama family including the first dog.  Yes I took a picture of the cute gift bags and the chef line.



Once we reached the beginning of the line, we formed into 3 single lines where there was an official person checking our names off the list.  I was hoping I was on the list since we had received no confirmation.  I made it through, he crossed off my name.  Eight more feet and there was another official person with a list and he too was crossing off names.  Made it through that too!

Once through the name checkers we went through the little room with the xray machines.  We had been told what not to bring and that if we had any of the not approved items that we would not be going inside.  We were allowed to take cameras, purses and phones though.  I made it through again!

Once through there we headed up a driveway and there it was, the White House!  Lots of chefs taking lots of pictures.  The Marine band was also playing.



I was surprised that once inside it was very relaxed.  We were just roaming free.  I know there were boundaries and there were Secret Service police and Marines all around, but they were very unseen.  We mingled, went to the garden, chatted and had well needed water. 

The garden is beautiful and I took lots of pictures of the First Garden. 









We mingled and took pictures until about 11:45 when there was some signal and we all moved close to the White House to the rows and rows of chairs set up.  We added some people after the breakfast so I would guess there were about 1000 chairs set up for 1000 chefs. 

The White House assistant chef Sam Kass spoke first and introduced the speakers - chefs from DC with their school principals.  They spoke on what they were doing, how things started, how things had grown.  After that Chef Kass introduced The First Lady and she spoke to us.  She is very invested in helping kids and families learn to eat better and have better choices available.  I got some pictures, a little difficult but I tried.



The program ended at 1:00 and we were told to remain seated until the First Lady was away from the lawn.  She was going to the garden to harvest and cook with kids.  We left and are ready for the next step.  I got a picture of one of the boundary keepers.  I asked first and he was very nice. 



I went back to the hotel, changed out of the chef uniform.  It was 90 degrees and sunny in Washington on Friday.  I went to the Renwick Gallery and then to Restaurant Nora (www.noras.com) for a delicious dinner.  Nora Pouillon is also a member of WCR and is very much dedicated to organic eating and sustainability.  This was a very nice dinner. 



Saturday was the long drive back to Georgia, about 11 hours and then dinner of chicken soup from the freezer.  Perfect comfort food.  Today is relaxing mostly and getting ready for my first week's session of kid's cooking camp at The Cook's Warehouse tomorrow. 

This week just flew by!  I did not cook for personal chef customer this week and that was good timing.  I have had some problems with my neck and back so I got to rest those muscles and I feel good today.

The first session of kid's cooking camp starts June 7th so I needed to get all of my camp materials ready so The Cook's Warehouse can make copies and make binders for everyone.  I spent a few hours gathering the recipes, making sure they made sense when scaled up or down and finding interesting extra info to include. 

This year I have 4 weeks of over age 10 cooking, 2 different sessions and one 4 day session with the 6 to 9 year olds.  I have Regional Cooking as the Theme for two sessions and Beach,City,Country Cooking as the theme for 1 session.  I got everything done, reviewed and delivered to Cook's Warehouse.  So glad that is done!

I also had to find judges since we do a competition for the older kids and sent that email out.  I had great response from chef friends and have almost all 4 weeks filled with judges.  So glad. 

I am leaving for Washington DC on Wednesday to attend the Chefs Move to Schools event at the White House!  Very exciting and a good time for a little break before summer camps.  I hope to get pictures at the White House and be able to use Facebook while there.  Without getting removed by Secret Service. 

Since I am leaving for the rest of the week, I am cooking for clients on Monday and Tuesday.  Not sure what I'll be making for my dinner on Memorial Day but my Monday clients will be set for meals when they get home Tuesday.  My Tuesday client is having a birthday so they asked for Beef Stroganoff for one of the meals. 

I need to menu plan for us today.  I am thinking about smoked salmon tomorrow, tonight we're having steaks on the grill and some bread that looks good.  Hopefully it will be and I'll get pictures.  Sunday we're invited to a friend's for dinner.  Not much planning to do! 

I might need to do 2 weeks of planning and check out my freezer meals since camp is fun but a little tiring.  I know I have chicken soup, stuffed pizza, chicken curry and spaghetti sauce.  Yes I do love my freezer.

Okay going to call my friend about Sunday and get my planning done.  Then maybe the pool? Or maybe knitting!

We had a great time at the picnic on Saturday and I found some other pictures I had taken, so I'm just putting everything on this entry.

We went to Cooper's Furnace for the picnic, I have never been there or even heard of it, and it is beautiful!  We arrived later than other people so some of the group had already left, but we enjoyed the time with the others.  We had on and off showers but nothing to ruin the day, we had a covered pavilion. 

After we ate our sandwiches and pizzelles, some rabbit stew and some lemonade, we went down to the river and looked at the furnace.  I have a hard time staying out of water, so had to wade some.  The water is pretty cold!  It was gorgeous and if you look in the one picture, you might be able to see the crane who was fishing.







When I was taking the pictures at the picnic I found a picture I had taken of dinner one night.  It was a beef and broccoli dish that was a good, basic dish.  It went together pretty easily and I used linguine noodles since I had no soba noodles and didn't remember that the store hadn't had any when I shopped for this recipe.  I also only had crunchy peanut butter so used that. 

Peanut Soba with Stir-Fried Beef and Broccoli from Fine Cooking Magazine April/May 2010 Kosher salt

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I've tried hard to get some routines in my life so things don't get overwhelming.  I want to have a balance with fun, work and exercise and usually that works.  Somehow I feel I've lost some of the balance and I need to get it back.

I do have a good laundry routine, menu planning is a must, I have a grocery day, I try to fit some housecleaning in, the birds need attention every 3 days, I'm usually good for Jazzercise 3 to 4 times a week and really my work is pretty much fun.

I started to miss my creative outlet piece.  I used to go to knitting classes and haven't been in a while, I also used to go to quilting and haven't done that in a while.  I need to bring that back in! 

I went to knitting class this morning and had such a good time.  I'll be able to go in May and will have to put it on hold for most of the summer, but maybe I can keep the feeling!  Besides there are lots of babies coming in our family and I need to get some baby things made!  Very quick 2 hours this morning.

Once home I started cooking.  I designated this day as "things that take long to cook day."  I have a cheesecake in the oven that was quick to put together but takes 2 1/2 to 3 hours to bake.  Once that comes out and is cooling, I can start on dinner which will be pizza. 

I don't think dinner is hard, just will take some time.  I need to make dough, sauce, filling but the recipe makes 2 pizzas so there will be one for the freezer!   Love the freezer.

I had some time to cook this week and try some new recipes and when menu planning I decided I needed to get familiar with Indian food.  I don't know much about it, haven't eaten much either so it's time.

I pulled out Indian Cooking by Madhur Jaffrey and started with an easy chicken dish.  It was delicious! 

Lemony Chicken with Cilantro by Madhur Jaffrey

Two 2.5 cm (1 inch) cubes fresh ginger, peeled and coarsely chopped
240 ml (1 cup) water
6 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 kg (2 1/2 lb) chicken pieces, skinned
5 cloves garlic, peeled and very finely chopped
200 g (3 cups) cilantro (weight without roots and lower stems) very finely chopped
1/2 - 1 fresh, hot green chili, very finely chopped
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 teaspoon salt or to taste
2 tablespoons lemon juice

1. Put the ginger and 4 tablespoons of water into the container of a blender.  Blend until you have a paste.
2. Put the oil in a wide, heavy, preferably nonstick, pot over medium-high heat. When hot, put in as many chicken pieces as the pot will hold in a single layer and brown on both sides.  Remove the chicken pieces with a slotted spoon and put them in a bowl.  Brown all the chicken pieces.
3. Put the garlic into the same hot oil.  As soon as the pieces turn a medium-brown color, turn the heat to medium and pour in the paste from the blender.  Stir and fry it for a minute. 
   
4. Now add the cilantro, green chili, cayenne, ground cumin, ground coriander, turmeric and salt.  Stir and cook for a minute.  Put in all the chicken pieces as well as any liquids that might have accumulated in the chicken bowl.
   
5. Also add 150 ml (2/3 cup) water and the lemon juice.  Stir and bring to a boil.  Cover tightly, turn heat to low, and cook for 15 minutes.  Turn the chicken pieces over.  Cover again and cook another 10 to 15 minutes or until the chicken is tender.
   
6. If the sauce is too thin, uncover the pan and boil some of it away over a slightly higher heat.
   

I used the mini bowl of my food processor for the ginger, easier for me than the blender.  I used a whole fingerhot pepper for the chili.  I served just plain basmati rice, the sauce was nice and flavorful, not hot, just a little tangy. 

I think my cheesecake is is done now.  Back to cooking!

I have not been at my desk to spend quality time and it looks like it!  I typically try and keep Monday as my office day but that hasn't worked the last two weeks.  I'm not complaining, I had fun the 2 Mondays that I worked outside the office, I just have felt slightly out of control.

Much better now.  Even though desk day coincided with tax day.  My taxes are done.  They were finished a couple weeks ago, filed online and we even have some refund back.  Of course it went to Steve yesterday for the deck staining, but at least we could get the deck stained! 

Tax day is writing those checks quarterly to the state and federal governments.  It's probably my least favorite part of being self-employed.  I know that I've always paid taxes, I just didn't have to actually write the check!

I need to follow up with some customers and see how they are doing.  I'm sure they'd call if they had questions or were confused but I like to make sure all is well especially with new customers until we are more comfortable with each other.

This week had lots of new things to celebrate.  Monday I cooked for a new client for the first time.  They needed me because they just had a new baby the Friday before.  We were set up to cook before the baby came so they'd have food.  I got to see new baby Ben and new big brother Sam on Monday.  A very happy day.

Tuesday I had long term clients but they have a new puppy!  She is 6 months old and very, very cute.  I got to cuddle with her in the morning.  No pictures yet, she's the sister of Beckie Sue and Charlie Brown the Shih-Tzus.  Apparently they are not convinced they needed a new sister dog in the family.  I'm sure they'll work it out.  I also gave the older dogs a little chicken from the chicken enchiladas.  Chicken never hurts.

Wednesday was a second time client and that's always a good thing.  They need to eat healthy food, they are dealing with health issues but weren't sure they would enjoy food from the freezer.  They are very happy with the meals they had so that means I could have another long term client!  They have Rosie the Rottweiler who gave me a nice big morning kiss on the cheek! 

That brings us to today.  I'm disappointed that the 7:15 Jazzercise class was canceled this morning.  I like to go early and have not been this week yet.  I'm going to try and remember to go at 4:45, but have doubts. 

I did get my banking done this morning, wrote the checks for taxes, got organized for a dinner party on Saturday and now  I think I need some breakfast.  I need to leave the house to go to the bank, post office and library to complete my organizing.

After all the organizing, I may still have time in the day and may have to start cleaning.  We'll see how that goes. 

Busy, busy week!  After the 3 day frosting fest last week, I had a new client on Thursday.  His daughter gave him a gift certificate of a personal chef service (me) for his birthday.  We met, decided on the menu, he likes pretty much everything and has a beautiful kitchen. 

I had a great day cooking last Thursday with my new best friend, a 13 year old Shar-Pei who slept behind me most of the day.  I never stepped on him and we got along fine.  He was disappointed that I'm pretty neat and didn't drop any chicken or anything.

I have little recollection of Friday, I think I had errands and a chiropractor appointment.  Have to keep in balance!

Saturday I cooked for a dinner party for a birthday at a very beautiful house, one small white dog, one 17 year old son who did not have dinner but did manage to eat the extra strawberry shortcake I had for him.

Sunday was church, groceries for us and we were invited to my friend Ahmed's house for dinner.  He said "come at 3 or 4, we're having couscous".  He is also a personal chef and ignored me when I asked what I could bring.  We got there about 4, got caught up, watched his sister making tons of couscous. 

When it was time for dinner, she put the couscous in a huge wooden bowl.  Huge.  She then topped it with falling off the bone beef, acorn squash pieces, Korean sweet potato pieces, zucchini, carrots, turnips, maybe a few more things.  The giant bowl was placed in the middle of the table and 6 adults gathered around.  We had napkins and spoons. 

The kids had their own large bowl of couscous and Ahmed's sister helped them.  We dug in.  It was wonderful!  Ahmed said it is a traditional Friday meal eaten with family.  We had a great time with several of his friends.  Ahmed and his friends are from Morocco.  If ever anyone invites you for Moroccan couscous, go, and really you need to bring nothing! 

I had a great birthday weekend with little to no time on the computer!  Friday I met a friend for tea and made cupcakes for my birthday.  I always like to get my cake done the day before so if I want, I can have cake for my birthday breakfast.

We went out to dinner Friday night, I closed the kitchen after the cupcakes were done.  We went to Greenwood's and I had trout, collard greens and cheese grits.  Delicious.  Once home we had Lemon Meringue Cupcakes for dessert.  No need to wait for breakfast!



Saturday morning I was awake early and off to Jazzercise at 7:15.  If you are going to eat lots of birthday cupcakes you have to be a little practical.  Once done with Jazzercise it was home for a quick breakfast and to get ready for the day.

We had decided to go to DeSoto Falls since it was such a beautiful day and I packed a picnic.  I am not a cold sandwich person so my cooler had shrimp, cocktail sauce, guacamole, cheese, oranges, salad, crackers, Perrier and cupcakes. 

We did the walk of 1/4 mile first to the lower falls and then the 3/4 mile walk to the upper falls.  What a perfect first day of spring !







After the walk we had our lunch.  We're taking a class at church on Wednesday evenings and have homework to do for that every week, so we did that sitting by the stream in the sun. 

I had a very nice birthday.  Today we woke up to cooler weather and rain.  No outside stuff today.  I have a roast planned for dinner and I'll post the recipe if we like it.  This will be the first time I've cooked a tri tip cut of beef. 

Now I'm going to read the paper and maybe knit a little.  It's still my birthday weekend!

We have had beautiful weather.  Sunny with blue skies.  I love it!  Had a great weekend even though I really didn't get to be outside much.

I made a good, basic dinner Friday night of Chicken Francese, mashed potatoes and spinach.  I am happy to say that my frozen spinach stash in the freezer is gone!  I am also down to only 1 kind of potatoes.  When I shop for clients, sometimes it's less expensive to buy a bag of potatoes instead of 4 or 6 or what I need, so I have potatoes left over.  I love potatoes but it was getting kind of ridiculous at my house.  I now only have some yukon gold.

Saturday morning I cooked with the over 10 year olds and we made Breads of All Kinds.  The class was fun and tasty and the breads were gorgeous.  I'd would like to have taken some pictures but we were pretty busy and then were hungry.

We made Asiago Cheese Bread, Apple Ginger Bread, Almond Chip Scones and Bacon Cheddar Pinwheels.  In the process of all of this we got to make a yeast bread, a quick bread, and two different biscuit type breads.  I don't know which was my favorite, they were all pretty good. 

Asiago Cheese Bread from Family Circle magazine February 2003

3 1/2 cups bread flour (3 1/2 to 3 3/4)
1 envelope yeast
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 1/4 cups milk
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut up
5 ounces asiago Cheese, shredded
1 large egg

1.    In large bowl, combine 1 1/2 cups of the bread flour, the yeast, salt and pepper.
2.    In small saucepan, heat milk and butter over medium-high heat until butter is melted and temperature is 120° to 130°.
3.    Stir the milk mixture into the flour mixture until smooth. Stir in 1 cup of the Asiago cheese. Gradually stir in about 2 cups of the flour to make a soft dough.
4.    Turn dough out onto lightly floured surface. Knead until smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes, adding more flour as needed to prevent sticking.
5.    Oil large bowl; add dough and turn to coat. Cover with clean kitchen towel. Let rise in warm place 1 hour or until doubled in volume.
6.    Coat an 8 x 2-inch round cake pan with nonstick vegetable-oil cooking spray. Punch down dough. Form dough into a 6-inch round; place in prepared cake pan. Cover with towel. Let rise in a warm place, away from drafts, about 45 minutes or until doubled in volume.
7.    Heat oven to 425°.
8.    In a small bowl, lightly beat the egg with a fork. Brush top of dough with beaten egg. Sprinkle top with the remaining 1/4 cup of the Asiago cheese.
9.    Bake in 425° oven for 35 minutes or until the crust is golden and bread sounds hollow when tapped with fingertips. Transfer the bread from the pan to a wire rack; let cool. Serve warm or completely cooled.

Sunday we slept in a little too long and missed church.  I made a Southwestern kind of breakfast using some sausage, half a red bell pepper, 4 green onions, some green salsa, some cheddar and some eggs.  Once that was all scrambled I wrapped it in flour tortillas and had some roasted red potatoes with the wraps.  Great breakfast!   I also used up some things in the vegetable drawer. 

We had errands to run - new cat scratching post, bird food, new towels, groceries and then home to relax, knit, read, just a generally peaceful day. 

Now it's back to work.  I have a Y class tonight, have to take The Bad Cat to the vet, need to do some laundry, need to get some menus done.  The day is sunny, I've been to Jazzercise and I'm ready to go!