Reporting from the culinary trenches…

I’ve very sorry, I have no recipe to share today.  I’ve been working 6 day weeks with random split days off and have been surviving on green smoothies, B12 vitamins, jalapeño-flavored potato chips, and sushi deliveries to stay conscious.   Smart Water is my new best friend.  I sleep on the couch half the time so as not to wake up my husband at 2:30 in the morning. [Read more →]

Ok, last week was the most stressful week of my professional life.  I had to do a practical cooking test for a restaurant position, which is something I’ve never done before.  Interviews and applications don’t remotely faze me, but cooking in an unfamiliar kitchen under the scrutinizing eyes of an executive chef has a way of hurling my confidence right out the window.  I’m the type of person who thrives under pressure, but not when I don’t know what to expect, no matter how much experience I have.  If I ever went onto Top Chef I’d probably pass out in the first episode, haha.  “Connie, please pack your knives and go.“

Needless to say I completely psyched myself out, losing sleep, losing all appetite, keeping my nose stuck in professional cookbooks for 7 days straight.  I was a zombie by the time I took the test, its amazing I could even see straight.  I must’ve scratched out every other line on my application with all the mistakes I printed out, sheesh. [Read more →]

Please, someone take this cake away from me before there’s nothing left but crumbs.  This one’s gonna go quickly.  I think I need to move next door to an orchard, fast.

[Read more →]

If you ask me, fennel just doesn’t get the love and attention it deserves.  I mean, I see it in grocery stores and farmers’ markets all the time, but I never see anyone buying it except for myself.  People will swoon over the likes of honeycrisp apples or ramps (myself included), but never fennel.  Fennel on restaurant menus isn’t exactly ubiquitous, let alone in cookbooks.  What’s up with that?!  I don’t know, maybe its just me.

[Read more →]

So I woke up this morning to find that my website was once again, acting up. [Read more →]

I can’t don’t want to believe it, I actually had to put on a sweater, jacket and scarf the other night for the first time in months.  I will dearly miss you summer produce.  But now its time for some hot soup! [Read more →]

I love a good cheeseburger.  I will seek out restaurants/diners/holes-in-the-wall just to find the perfect burger.  I am, for the most part, a hamburger purist.  Just the basics are fine.  I don’t need the foie gras or bacon in there, just regular good-quality sirloin is sufficient.  Just give me a crispy bun a baker can be proud of, a portion of cheese (I don’t care what kind), lettuce, tomato and/or onion and definitely pickles.  As long as the patty is cooked properly, that’s all that matters.   [Read more →]

“America is a chicken country.  I have never seen so many people eating chicken.  Back home we have tastier birds to choose from.  Chicken is so boring, how can you like it?  I don’t understand!” – My European husband who has of late changed his mind…

The menu at Mustards Grill is one of those which makes making a decision monumentally difficult because every single item induces unstoppable drool.  Not to mention the daily blackboard specials which confuse the eager diner’s mind even more (in the best way possible, of course).  While waiting for our table a couple months ago, my party of three had no idea what to order.   [Read more →]

Yay!  Finally.  I pickled cucumbers. [Read more →]