Carlin's Home Cooking

Variety Week - Lots of Cooking, Lots of Work

Fri, 18 May 2012 10:07:00 -0700

What a quickly moving week this has been! As I've said, I love what I do because I do such a variety of things. This week was a pretty normal week.

It started Sunday when I volunteered at the Atlanta Food and Wine Festival. I did some kitchen work, some room management work and it all went well.

Behind the scenes in the kitchen, lots of people working and lots of trays labeled for lots of chefs.

Lots of chefs having fun. Virginia Willis warning me to not use the bad picture of her that I took. I deleted the bad picture!

Some paperwork Sunday evening to get ready for my client Monday morning. A very nice family with a lot going on now. The woman need some help with food for her family while she's taking care of some health issues her elderly father is having.

Monday evening I taught my monthly class with the seniors. That was in the last blog post along with a recipe.

Tuesday I was supposed to have a new client. We had met, agreed on a cook date, approved a menu and made arrangements for me to get into the apartment to cook. The client said he'd be there to let me in. Tuesday morning I shopped for the client's lowfat vegetarian meal, drove to the apartment, no one was there to let me in.

Called the client, an assistant said he got an early start and we'd need to reschedule. What?! I had the groceries and no open date for rescheduling the reserved date until May 30th. In 14 years of business this has never happened and it made me a little sad that this person had so little respect for me. We will not be rescheduling and I doubt he will honor his debt to me.

Wednesday I had a delightful cook date with a wonderful client. I've cooked for them for several years, Barbara told me before I left that they so enjoyed having me cook for them. Good antidote for Tuesday.

Thursday was the second cook date of the week for the Monday client. All went well. There is some pool work going on and exterior and interior painting but I was not trapped by any dump trucks or trucks.

Last night I finally cooked for us. I had several zucchinis from our weekly CSA and some red bell peppers from the Tuesday cook date that didn't happen. We had a buffet and will be having the same tonight.

We started with a roasted red pepper, fresh mozzarella and fresh oregano salad.

Then a zucchini gratin from a recipe I found on the Food Network from The Barefoot Contessa. Very good!

Also made zucchini ricotta lemon galettes from a recipe from Bon Appetit. Very, very good.

So now I need to go to the bank and deposit money. From working, always a good thing. And then some work for KitchenAid.

Senior Summer Cooking

Tue, 15 May 2012 17:53:00 -0700

I taught my monthly class last night at the Y for the seniors. I always have such a good time with the group and feel great after the class.

I ask for input from the class each month, may as well teach what they'd like to learn, and last month Charles asked for a class featuring fruit. Sounded good to me.

I have been extremely busy lately, need to get a slight grip on that, and it was Sunday before I printed out my Y materials. I teach in a kitchen, but need to bring ingredients, cooking equipment, serving pieces. Maybe someday there will be pots and pans onsite.

Last night's menu was:

Melon Salad with Champagne-Poppy Seed Vinaigrette from Cuisine at Home

Blueberry Cornmeal Cobbler from Taste of Home

Lemon Refresher

I would like to say that I was able to take pictures of the delicious food that everyone enjoyed but of course pictures didn't happen. People did enjoy the food even though some had to run as soon as they finished eating. The class runs from 7 to 8:15 but I am up against Dancing With the Stars and from what I understand from last night it is the semi-finals.

I was lucky anyone even came to class! So enjoy making this for the summer. It is pretty and delicious.

Melon Salad with Champagne-Poppy Seed Vinaigrette from Cuisine at Home

serves 6

For the Vinaigrette:

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup champagne vinegar or white wine vinegar

3/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon dry mustard

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 tablespoons plain yogurt

2 teaspoons poppy seeds, toasted

1 pinch white pepper

For the Salad:

2 cups watermelon, cubed

2 cups cantaloupe, cubed

2 cups honeydew, cubed

1 cup cucumber, diced

1/4 cup torn fresh mint leaves.

Heat sugar, vinegar, salt, and mustard for the vinaigrette in a small saucepan over medium heat. Cook until sugar is dissolved;remove from heat and transfer to a blender.
Drizzle oil into the blender with the machine running;process until vinaigrette is emulsified. Add yogurt, poppy seeds and pepper. Pulse to blend. Let stand at room temperature.
Combine melons, cucumber and mint in a large bowl. Just before serving, toss fruit with vinaigrette to coat. Chill remaining vinaigrette - great on a spinach salad.

Summer Cooking, Busy Times

Fri, 11 May 2012 05:28:00 -0700

I have been so fortunate to be so busy. I love what I do for work, I do a variety of things and that keeps life interesting. Some things I do are paid, some are volunteer. I don't think I have to say yes to everyone who asks me to donate time or services, but I do believe in giving back.

I have a relatively new client, a couple of weeks now, that has me coming in to cook for them 2 days a week. A little shorter time, fewer recipes each time. I've been personal cheffing for 14 years and this is a new service for me. So far, so good. More menu planning but I enjoy menu planning.

I've also been doing some work for KitchenAid in my role as product specialist. I've been doing some demos using the stand mixer and attachments and I love when people see what they can do with the products. Recently I've made pasta, salsa, and cocoa mousse. Lots of fun to educate people.

I'm also doing some volunteering this week. My friend Gena Berry put out a call for help on Facebook and I said yes. I'm not totally sure what I'll be doing but knowing Gena it will be interesting. Gena is a chef, food stylist, event planner and she is coordinating The Atlanta Food and Wine Festival. My first volunteer shift is today.

This is also CSA pickup day. This summer we decided to join a CSA in order to have good summer produce but also to help a local farmer. Last week was the first pickup and it consisted of lettuces, spinach, kale, swiss chard, rutabaga and zucchini.

The kale and swiss chard went into a stir fry, we had salad last night, still need to roast or mash the rutabaga and didn't want the zucchini to go to waste.

When I did my menu plan this week, the plan was to make zucchini bread on Wednesday. I thought I had time in the morning before heading to do the mousse demo. I decided to go to Jazzercise though and that changed the amount of time I had for baking. I do enjoy Jazzercise though and it makes me feel great.

So yesterday after cooking for my fairly new client, I pulled out the 3 chubby zucchinis, heated the oven, tossed a load of laundry in and started baking.

I pulled over my trusty KitchenAid food processor and shredded the 3 zucchini. I needed 2 cups for the recipe that made 2 loaves and I had plenty, so 4 loaves it was. I have 4 loaf pans so that made things much easier.

I didn't double the recipe, that sometimes doesn't work with baking, I just made the recipe twice. All the breads fit into the oven on one shelf, set two timers and let them bake for 75 minutes.

A long time but while waiting I did laundry, fed the birds, I created a menu for my client for Monday, I read a library book on the deck for a little while and thought about dinner. And actually made dinner a little later.

In the end I have 4 gorgeous zucchini breads. One was cut last night after dinner, one is going to the office with my husband and 2 are wrapped and in the freezer for later. Life is good!

Chefs Move To Schools - May Cooking

Wed, 02 May 2012 20:31:00 -0700

This afternoon was the last cooking club meeting of this school year. School is over in 12 days! We had a wonderful time cooking at the Publix Cooking School. The Publix chefs worked with the students to help them cook grilled balsamic vegetables, potato chip chicken and tofu and tangerines with sorbet.

We had a good group of hardworking students!

Such fun cooking with the kids! I went home after club to a fresh, flavorful meal of fish tacos.

Friday Menu Planning

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 07:21:00 -0700

I am fortunate that I have a job that I love and often have time to spend making wonderful dinners for us at home. Other times even though I love my job, I don't want to spend all my free time making dinner but I like to eat dinner at home.

I happen to enjoy grocery shopping which is good considering it's part of my job, but that doesn't mean I want to go every day to pick up something I need at home. I like to shop for my personal groceries once a week at the most.

I have other things that I have to do like many others, besides my out of the house job - laundry, cat nail cutting, cleaning, cooking dinner.

I have to do desk work for my job - menu planning, expenses, bank stuff, menu directions, class notes, blogging.

I have things that I want to do when I'm not working - reading, teaching myself to quilt, sitting on the porch watching birds, Jazzercise and more.

In order to have a family meal with little stress, I menu plan weekly. Friday is menu planning day. I talk to people who say they don't have time to plan but go to the store every day after work to see what they could make for dinner. That seems to take more time to me.

This morning I spent about 30 minutes putting my list together. Maybe 45 minutes.

This is my process:

Check the freezer, see I have whole chickens, a chuck roast, fish.
Grab a few cookbooks. This is optional, you can also use websites online.
Grab my calendar. I can't plan if I don't know my week.
Write the days of the week on my sheet of notebook paper.
Start planning.
Sunday - roast chicken, potatoes, green vegetable (whatever is nice at the store)
Monday - chicken soup from the freezer. I have a very busy day and will not feel like cooking.
Tuesday - whatever, my husband has a meeting and I can find something for myself, eggs are always good, I might make a cheesecake
Wednesday - fish tacos, cooking club night, not working so I can make the slaw earlier and just cook fish when I get home
Thursday - I have a personal chef client and then some KitchenAid work so it's forage for yourself, there will be leftover chicken
Friday - not working, think I'll try a new Indian recipe of chicken and rice
Saturday - classes all day, forage in the freezer or pick up pizza late

That's the week. Now I have to fold my load of laundry, have some breakfast and get ready to do some work for KitchenAid. I've already done some desk work for clients. Life is good!

Sunday Supper

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 06:51:00 -0700

As I have mentioned, I am blessed to have work and that I enjoy that work. Sunday was a pretty full day. We went to church, home for breakfast and husband went to a woodworking class.

I was scheduled for work with KitchenAid and I knew I wouldn't be home until 5:30 or so and when I got home might not feel like cooking much. Not a problem since I plan my menus.

I planned on chicken tabbouleh salad for dinner which is easy but does require cooked chicken. I usually like to roast my chicken breasts when I need cooked chicken, and that takes about 45 minutes. I started dinner prep before I left for work.

I rubbed the chicken with olive oil and sprinkled it with Penzey's Greek seasoning and into the oven it went. Once out it cooled, I covered it and into the fridge for later.

I used recipe from The Barefoot Contessa.

Chicken with Tabbouleh

serves 6 to 8

1 1/2 cups boiling water

1 cup bulgur wheat

1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

olive oil

kosher salt

2 split chicken breasts, bone in, skin on

freshly ground black pepper

1 cup minced scallions, white and green parts

1 cup chopped fresh mint leaves

1 cup chopped fresh flat leaf parsley

1 cucumber, seeded, medium diced

2 cups halved cherry tomatoes

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
In a heat-proof bowl, pour the boiling water over the bulgur wheat. Add the lemon juice, 1/4 cup olive oil, and 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt. Stir. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and allow the bulgur to stand at room temperature for about 1 hour.
Place the chicken breast on a baking sheet and rub it with olive oil. Sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper. Roast for 35 to 40 minutes, until just cooked. Set aside until cool enough to handle.
Remove the chicken meat from the bones and discard the skin. Cut the chicken into medium dice and add to the tabbouleh. Add the scallions, mint, parsley, cucumber, tomatoes, 2 teaspoons salt, and 1 teaspoon pepper. Season, to taste, and serve immediately or cover and refrigerate. The flavors will improve as it sits.

While the bulgur was sitting, it usually only takes about 30 minutes, I cut some red bell peppers in quarters and put them under the broiler to get black.

Once black I covered them with plastic wrap to steam, then peeled, cut in wide strips and put them on a platter. I added some buffalo mozzarella, fresh oregano from the garden, drizzled on olive oil and balsamic and had another salad.

We were eating a fresh, delicious, fast food meal in about 40 minutes. So worth the planning. Also dinner all ready for Monday for my husband while I met girlfriends for dinner out.

Chefs Move to Schools - Cooking Club April 2012

Sun, 22 Apr 2012 10:28:00 -0700

Such a busy, wonderful week! I got to cook for personal chef customers, I got to volunteer at the middle school, I attended a cooking class and we got our plants in the garden.

Today is a beautiful spring day and in a little while I will be heading off to do some work for KitchenAid. I'll be cooking and talking to people about KitchenAid products, pretty good.

This past Thursday was cooking club at the middle school. I can't believe it's been two years already! I checked with my teacher volunteers and we are going to continue the club next year. So glad!

This month I decided to try some Asian inspired recipes for the club. I have to take into account some dietary needs so need to watch dairy, seafood, peanuts, Kosher and vegetarian. I love Thai, but fish sauce makes that a bad idea.

I decided on two recipes from Nancie McDermott's cookbook 300 Best Stir Fry Recipes which is a great book for quick weeknight meals. I've used it many times with delicious results.

I chose a chicken and cherry tomato stir fry with a corn and edamame fried rice. I also adapted the stir fry to use tofu so we'd have food for everyone.

We only had about 17 students at club since some are in drama club also and they are in rehearsals. The students were a little excited because they had just finished several days of standardized testing. They were ready for fun.

I brought burners, pots, cutting boards, knives, serving pieces and they got to work.

Colorful tomatoes and onions for the stir fry:

Working on the tofu stir fry:

Corn and edamame for fried rice:

Noodles for the stir fry:

Everyone cooking and having fun:

Spring 2012 Weekend Cooking

Sun, 15 Apr 2012 19:41:00 -0700

Friday was a vacation day for me. I have been happily working a lot, but had scheduled lunch with my very good friend Cathy. We schedule in advance, we're both very busy, and we treasure our lunches.

We met at 12:30, went to Cakes and Ale, the bakery part, and had sandwiches and salads which were very good. We then went back to her house and continued chatting until 4. We had lots to talk about.

I plan my menu on Fridays and that's the day my friend Nancy Waldeck sends out her Friday 4 email. The recipe on Friday was Spicy Corn Cakes, Sweet Shrimp and Lime-y Drizzle. It looked so good that I had to put it on the plan.

Today we went grocery shopping, I bought fresh Florida corn, Georgia shrimp, beautiful jalapenos and cilantro and made dinner. Thanks Nancy! Sign up for her Friday 4 at Taste and Savor.

I made the sauce first so it was done. I fired up the Big Green Egg, grilled the corn and cut it off the cob.

I made the pancakes, they were so pretty!

I grilled the shrimp, they don't take long, and sprinkled them over the pancakes.

Drizzled on the sauce and enjoyed dinner. Great summer meal, try it yourself!

Macarons and Macaroons

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 18:36:00 -0700

I am blessed to be so busy! I got home from my conference late on April 2 and was able to get pretty organized on April 3. I taught cooking classes on April 4,5, and 6. Saturday I did some work for KitchenAid.

And then it was Easter! I managed to plan a menu and shop on Thursday and Friday. I decided to do nothing difficult, just good. I also decided that I needed to not volunteer at church on Easter Sunday.

We woke at 5 on Easter and got ready for church. We like the 6:33 sunrise service and this year the weather was beautiful. We got home about 7:30, relaxed for a minute and my husband left to volunteer for parking lot duty.

While he was gone I made brownies to take to Jazzercise on Monday. I know that sounds wrong but it was a 40th birthday celebration for our instructor. Almost everyone loves brownies.

I also made macaroons. I'm not sure why, but coconut is a good spring treat. This is a macaroon, I used the recipe from The Barefoot Contessa - coconut, sweetened condensed milk, vanilla and egg whites.

Not to be confused with macarons which are egg whites, almond flour usually and colors. I will make these, I took a class in New York and am ready to try.

After I finished my baking I started on breakfast. Almond crusted French toast with raspberries. And a little bacon. Not on my plate though, no sweet with bacon!

And then some relaxing, reading on the deck, crab cake appetizers, roast leg of lamb and potatoes, arugula salad for dinner. Simple but good.

And now I am pretty much back to a normal schedule. KitchenAid work on Monday, dentist, laundry and quilting today, customers tomorrow and Thursday, haircut and lunch with a friend Friday. I am blessed to have such a wonderful life.

Spring Cupcakes 2012

Fri, 06 Apr 2012 14:21:00 -0700

More icing and cake today! I taught cupcake decorating with people ages 6 to 9. First they made cupcakes, then frosting, then they got to decorate 4 cupcakes. They got 3 to take home and 1 to eat.

We had 9 people in the class, 5 boys and 4 girls. Everyone had their favorite colors and designs and I have to say, zombies were pretty popular with some of the people.

I had sprinkles, fun toppings, frosting and fondant. So much fun! I hadn't specifically considered zombies but we had what we needed for decorations.

Spring Cakes 2012

Thu, 05 Apr 2012 13:32:00 -0700

Yesterday and today I got to work (play) with others using cake, icing and color. How much fun is that? Yesterday was practice with color, piping and baking a cake. Today the students used their designs and what they learned to bring their cakes to life. Lots of work.

And the beautiful, finished cakes that the students get to share with friends and family:

IACP 2012 - The Last Couple Days

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 16:10:00 -0700

I'm home and glad to be home, ready to be back with the husband and the cats, sleep in my bed, do laundry and get back to work. I had an amazing time at the conference and am very glad that I spent the time and money to attend.

I decided to walk to my ramen class on whatever day it was. I hadn't moved enough, I'm not used to sitting and listening for all the hours that I did. I didn't get lost and arrived at The French Culinary Institute with enough time to relax and chat with another attendee.

The class was about making ramen and while I thought I had eaten it, I had no idea how to make it. The class was excellent but I need to have about 3 days to be able to make ramen.

The class was taught by Hiroko Shimbo. She is tiny but must be very strong to be able to make the process look so easy.

The stock preparation takes 2 days, there are eggs to make, pork belly to prepare, noodles to make. It is a wonder to see.

Yes, I am a giant. Also the chef tip was to let us know that when eating ramen at a Japanese restaurant, you do not want to consume all of the broth due to the high salt content - miso and soy. It's just not the correct way to eat ramen.

After the class I headed over to the exhibitor fair and book fair. I stopped at several tables and chatted with many exhibitors.

I then went down to the book fair where I did not buy a cookbook! I was pretty surprised. I did buy a book related to one of my sessions. The book is Building a Great Business by Ari Weinzweig, he signed it, we chatted and I headed back to the hotel.

I had heard a lot about Eatly and luckily had some time to go and explore Sunday evening. Three of us headed out and all I can say is wow! It is a huge space that sells ingredients from Italy and also has restaurant areas, a bread area, a wine bar, gelato, desserts and so much more. We ate at the pasta/pizza restaurant and my ravioli filled with spinach/ricotta with a lemon sauce and pistachios was delicious.

A few pictures, but it's hard to capture Eatly.

Yes, I did taste the gelato and I am happy to report that the salted caramel and chocolate are delicious.

Yesterday I had a few more excellent sessions before heading to the airport to come home. I'll need to report on macarons and Grant Achatz sometime later. Need to make my dinner now. As much as I enjoyed the food and eating out, I am happy to be able to cook at home tonight.

IACP Day 2 and 3

Sun, 01 Apr 2012 05:19:00 -0700

I think I'm on Day 3, so much happens in a day that it's hard to keep up. I also am not sure what day it is, it's hard to keep up when your days are so different from normal.

The conference hotel is right at Times Square, The Broadway Millennium and is a nice hotel. My room is on the 49th floor and I have a great view of the city.

There are some interesting logistics to deal with when getting to classes and networking breaks. First there are about 1000 people at the conference, many are staying in the hotel, most of the classes are in the hotel.

There are elevators to take you to floors 16 to 52 where the guest rooms are. There are elevators (4) to take you to floors 2 through 7 where the classes are, breakfast is on 8. I have no idea what happens with 9 through 16.

You can walk up steps to get to floors 2 through 5 but not 6, 7 or 8. To get to 6,7 and 8 the 1000 people need to use the 4 elevators that hold 8 to 10 people at a time. As I said it's been interesting.

We go out for lunch, have 1 1/2 hours to get down the elevators, find a place to eat, eat and get back up to classes. I found a deli close to the hotel, had breakfast there one day and went back with a couple friends for lunch. A good lunch of real, roasted turkey.

My classes have been very good overall. I always come back from conferences with a list of things I need to do, whether it is working on my website or learning more about something like Instagram.

We had an opening reception party on Friday night I think. My days get confused. I'm not sure where the party was, a cab took me and I'm good with that. There was some very good food, the braised lamb was especially tasty, but a good number of the 1000 people were there, so after mingling a little and almost melting, some friends had the brilliant idea to go get pizza.

Yesterday morning my first class was Killer Cooking Demos taught by Sara Moulton. It was on the lobby floor in the theater so pretty easy to get to after making it to breakfast.

I was maybe not close enough but had to try to take pictures anyway since it was Sara Moulton. Live! And it was an excellent class. While she was doing an actual demo with 3 recipes, she talked about how and why she did things.

After the final class session I met up with my friend Suzanne who lives here and wanted to show me a little of her city. We picked up 2 other people and off we went to China Town for dinner. It had been raining and colder at lunch time but last night it was perfectly clear and dry.

Suzanne ordered for us and thought she had ordered too much food. How silly for her to think that, she's a culinary professional too, an editor, and she knows we'd be up for the job. It was a small place and delicious. We sat back in the corner.

My battery is running low and I think I have to unplug the lamp or the clock to use the battery so I'm going to end. Okay, I could get out of bed and use the desk, but that's just crazy on Sunday morning at almost 7 am.

Today I have one cooking class and I have no idea where it is. Have to find out if it's a cab ride or a walk. There is no breakfast so I don't have to get to the 8th floor. After class there is a vendor expo, brunch and book fair. Not at the hotel, not where my class is. Thank goodness for maps on phones!

International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP) Day 1

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 05:41:00 -0700

I'm in New York for the IACP conference, it's my time to learn some new things, meet some new people, reconnect with people that I've met before. Since the majority of my job revolves around food, there is some eating involved with the whole learning process.

I came a day early so I could participate in an optional tour yesterday. The tour was Mediterranean Along the East River. The tour started at 11:30 and since I've been on some tours before, I knew we'd eat, but I was hungry at 8:30. Found a place that sounded good Cafe Edison and headed out into the street.

My hotel is right in Times Square and I'm on the 49th floor, I have a nice view. This morning when I woke up I heard a noise that sounded familiar but weird. I kept listening and then figured it out, it's Elmo. I saw him last night on the street and apparently he is a morning puppet because he was happy and able to be heard in my room. I also hear cheering every so often, I think that's probably for Good Morning America.

I didn't want to go too far because I wanted to find the hotel again but I still saw a few things. The restaurant itself was tiny, old and interesting to look at. I had the lox platter and it was perfect. I know I maybe should have taken a picture of the meal, but I went for the ceiling instead.

Back on the street and there is a lot to see.

The tour group gathered at 11:15, there were 24 of us and tour leader Dan handed us a bottle of water and a subway pass. I don't know how many tours you've been on and how many might have been with culinary people, but we can get distracted easily and Dan had quite a job keeping us all together. Once on the subway a count was taken and Dan admitted that the hardest part of the tour was over. He was slightly terrified of getting a large group, on the subway, in the same car, at Times Square all at once and make it to Queens.

The is Dan and beside him is Maria Speck the author of one of my favorite new cookbooks Ancient Grains, for Modern Meals.

Our first stop was a food cart on the corner and we were having falafel, pickles, shawarma and Dan brought forks!

After we devoured the platters of food here, we moved on to the Greek grocery store. Luckily a walking tour so we could feel better about the devouring.

Since it had been about 20 minutes since we had last eaten, the owner of the store had snacks for us - two kinds of feta, olives, house made yogurt, cheese spread, bread, crackers, house made sausage, two kinds of Greek cheese. We snacked, did a little shopping and then back to the streets. It was almost time for lunch!

Lunch was provided by a private, Spanish social club that exists to keep the culture of the country alive. We felt fortunate to be invited and they provided a huge lunch. We had potato tortilla, shrimp, octopus, sausage, ham and cheese, wine, bread.

I took a little peek into the kitchen and here is the octopus before the above picture.

We thanked our hosts and headed back to the streets. Of course we should have been done by now but no, we are culinary professionals and needed to complete the meal with dessert and coffee at the Greek bakery.

Now we were done and it was back on the subway and back to the hotel to relax. I'd like to be able to say that I relaxed and didn't eat anything the rest of the evening but that would be a lie. I planned to do that but peer pressure is bad and this is after all work, so I agreed to go to a cocktail party with a friend. I am here to learn and network.

We went to Meadow, did not walk, cabs are great. This is a store owned by Mark Bitterman who wrote a book about salt. He won a James Beard award for the book and he's opened a shop that sells salt, chocolate, bitters and flowers.

Chocolate on one side, salt on one side, bitters in the back, flowers in the front. It's a nice store, I chatted with Mark Bitterman and a few other people and had one cocktail, a Manhattan of course. And then back to the hotel. Well, after a stop for a snack of fried artichokes, crab cakes and gnocchi. Peer pressure and work, just have to fight against both. I lost this fight.

Today should be a light day of eating. I have business classes today about writing, demos, social media. I do have to get ready to go and network at breakfast.

Culinary Conference 2012

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 05:08:00 -0700

Just a quick post today before I leave for New York. I am attending the International Association of Culinary Professionals 2012 conference and am very excited, #IACPNYC.

Tomorrow I have a tour: Mediterranean on the East River. Looking forward to that. Also looking forward to seeing old friends and meeting some new people. I can't wait to see people that I only see once a year at conferences. Since we share many of the same passions, we just pick up where we left off, never seems like it's been a year.

I'm taking some business classes about writing, social media, cooking demos, versatility, real ramen, macarons and more. There will also be networking, food and maybe even a party.

Yes, I do love my job and the continuing education aspect of it. So much fun.

The husband is in charge of taking care of the cats and himself. He has to pour dry cat food and decide what he might want from the freezer. I'm trying not to be too excited about leaving.