A little glimpse into how I spend my days…

As a Personal Chef I cook for several families and individuals with menus ranging from family style comfort foods to special diets for those looking to lose weight or have something yummy with dietary restrictions.    My job as their personal chef is to plan their menu based on their food preferences, dietary needs and how they like heat their foods.  On their “cook-day” I shop and arrive at their home with everything needed to prepare their meals – you see my car and you would agree everything.   At the end of their “cook-day” their kitchen is cleaned, their meals are packed and placed in the refrigerator and freezer and their house smells like someone has been cooking all day!  Every Monday I cook for a family of four – their menu consists of light entrees for the parents and some good hearty comfort foods for their children.  On the menu this Monday (this menu was more comfort than light!) – Chicken parm calzone with homemade marinara sauce, Lamb and Red Wine Pot Pie with honey glazed carrots (this was amazing!!!), a lightly breaded chicken piccata with rice pilaf with peas and pistachios (minus the pistachios right now), balsamic and soy marinated flank steak with baked potato spears, penne pasta with five cheeses and for dessert  – peanut blossom cookies!

Tuesday’s client is someone who eats a healthy light diet – low carb/low fat and low glycemic.   It is balanced throughout the week with a couple of carbs such as brown rice and whole wheat pasta.  This week his menu consisted of – halibut with zucchini, tomatoes, corn and tarragon baked in parchment with a baby green salad with champagne vinaigrette, cinnamon and orange scented turkey cutlet with apple and sweet potato,  saute, pork chop with apple cider glaze with lightly steamed and seasoned green beans, turkey and spinach meatballs with homemade marinara sauce and whole wheat pasta and cashew chicken with brown basmati rice.   All in a days work!

Monday's family style client meals

Tuesday's Client Meals

Peanut Blossom Cookies

 

Italian Wedding Soup

Italian Wedding Soup

It was a rainy day in New England (actually two really crappy rainy days but I guess April showers bring May flowers?)  So, after baking the rosemary pine nut shortbreads and making some delicious chicken stock I made a batch of mini meatballs, stashed them in the fridge and ran off to the gym.  After I came home, dinner was easy.   Add some pasta, add the pre-cooked meatballs and some spinach – let it all simmer slowly make hubby’s martini,  shower and – dinner was ready!   This is the second time I have used this recipe, it is Ina Garten’s Italian Wedding Soup recipes and I think – it’s the best.  I will post on the recipe section of the blog…make it….enjoy it.  Bread would have really tasted great with this but I am determined to cut down on the bread.

 

On a rainy New England day the house smelled sooo good!

It has been raining all day and something comes over me on rainy days and I get the urge to bake or make soup – maybe today will be both!  I had some fresh rosemary left over from a dish I made for a client on Monday and I had a craving for shortbread – why not combine the two.  There are plenty of savory shortbreads that incorporate fresh herbs. 

Shortbread dough in the process

 

 

Colonial Wine and Spirits – Australian Wine Dinner

I had the great opportunity and pleasure to prepare a tasting dinner for the Colonial Wine and Spirits Australian Wine Dinner. Carol Larson, our wine educator, gave a great comprehensive overview of the wines regions of Australia. Guests sampled the wines along with a small tasting each dish. Following the tasting guests were invited to join together to enjoy their favorite wine of the evening along with full portions of the dishes they just tried. It was a great evening…just ask the Sassy Ladies!

Australian Wine Tasting Dinner

Entree 1

Salmon spiced with lemon myrtle with macadamia sauce and plum chutney paired with

d’Arenberg’s “The Hermit Crab” Viognier Marsanne and Tohu Pinot Noir.

Entree 2

Pepperberry spiced chicken with black truffle sauce paired with

Rutherglen Estates “Red”

Entree 3

Pepper Crusted Lamb Chops with mint macadamia pesto paired with

Torbeck’s “The Struie”a Wine Spectator Top 100 (91 pts).

Dessert

Pavolova with cream and fruit – choice of kiwi and passion fruit or fresh berry with Grand Marnier and served with fresh roasted coffee from Updike’s in North Kingstown.

Chicken with Spinach Truffle Sauce

Individual Pavolovas with Kiwi & Passion Fruit

Colonial Wine staff member - Lisa

 

Friday Night Dinner

My husband and I love Friday nights.  The two young adult children are at work (both work in local restaurants) and we have the house to ourselves.  We always have a night dinner in front of the fire, a bottle of wine and our favorite music.  We have something special for dinner – something fresh or a new recipe.  This past Friday night we had an amazing seafood dish with shrimp, mussels, little necks and scallops over pasta and some pesto bread.  We opened one of our Long Island wines – Wolffer Estates, 2005 Estate Selection Chardonnay. Yummy!

 

Long Island Wine Dinner with Friends

After our trip to Long Island and touring many of the wineries we headed back to Newport. While on the ferry back I COULD NOT WAIT to get back and prepare a dinner that would pair with the beautiful wines we purchased.  We toured about 6 wineries and the Tasting Room which acts as broker for some of the smaller wineries that do not have their own tasting room.  If you find yourself on Long Island and not sure what wineries to try we found Lenn Thompson’s blog to be incredibly helpful.  Lenn blogs about New York wines and provides  reviews and information on the wines of NY.  Always helpful to know where to begin where there so many!  Our friends who own Colonial Wine and Spirits in Wickford, RI were our special guests. As they always are when wine and food are involved – I couldn’t ask for a better two people to cook for. Menu and wine served…

Amuse Bouche – Strawberry Tartar with Goat Cheese

Roasted Fennel Soup with Spiced Grilled Shrimp served with Comtesse Therese, 2006 – Russian Oak Chardonnay

Porcini Dusted Scallops with Rich Mushroom Broth garnished with Microgreens served with Brooklyn Oenology, 2005 Merlot (this wine was absoutely outstanding!)

Herb Stuffed Lamb with Roasted Plum Sauce, Maytag Blue Cheese Polenta Rounds and Steamed Asparagus served with Wolffer Estate, Claletto, 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon

Thank you Long Island for producing some great wines we did not even know about until our tour. We had an amazing time and met some great people along the way.

Strawberry Tartar with Goat Cheese

Roasted Fennel Soup with Grilled Shrimp

Porcini Dusted Scallops

 

Have a heart…potato shaped heart!

I love this potato!  A friend from BNI gave me this great potato.  This potato will not see itself in a scalloped potato dish.  It will sit on my counter until it sprouts multiple tentacles!

Not meant for scalloped potatoes!

 

Aerogarden – herbs at your fingertips

After just a couple weeks the plants are looking good!

Although I have only met my brother-in-laws one time (hint…hint you should come and visit in RI)
Dallas is way too hot anyhow! We have talked many times on the phone I have come to conclusion that my husband’s family is just a REALLY nice family. The men (dad and three sons) are kind, ethical full of character and integrity and I got to marry one these great guys. And their mom, Peg – well she has to be something special to have raised these amazing sons. So, brother in law Ken recalled that I like to garden and obviously cook and every gardener and chef knows the importance of having fresh herbs on hand. After the post holiday hoopla and doldrums of January set in this year a packaged arrived in the mail and – wow- it was an Aerogarden from brother-in-law Ken and his family. I seriously almost cried – this is something that I have always wanted and suppose it was one of those items that I placed in the “luxury” column of items that I wanted/needed. The Aerogarden is a very cool thing to have in your kitchen. The plants grow right before your eyes and very quickly. I do this with all seedlings – plant them and watch them everyday for the first signs of life. I often quietly cheer them on and give them a little silent round of applause each day that look at them. The Aerogarden came with a seed kit that contained – parsley, basil, purple basil, mint, thyme, dill and chives. It takes about 5-6 weeks for the plants to be at a stage where you can harvest some of them. After some research on the Aerogarden web site I discovered that AG makes a seedling starter insert that will allow 66 seedlings to started and transferred to the outdoors. YEAH! Bring on Spring!

 

Food Photo Shoot

Everything in its place for cooking

Alexandria Mauck in action

Fun…fun! What a great experience. Through my BNI group I have met and come to know Alexandria Mauck who is the Photographer in our group. She is EXTREMELY talented and on top of all that talent is one of the most positive people I have met. She is always upbeat and cheerful and full of great energy and ideas. Her photography specialty has been in weddings and family portraits but she is expanding her professional services to include product photography. The pairing was perfect…I had food and wanted food photos and she had the cameras and needed some food photos for her portfolio. In addition we know an interior designer who had been a food stylist in a previous career. Together we made the perfect team – I cooked the food and plated it, Ellen assisted in plating and then did her styling and arranging and Ali photographed the dishes and made them look even more amazing. I couldn’t believe this was MY food! We worked for about 5 hours total from set up to tear down and spent approximately one hour photographing each dish. Ali was amazing to watch as she set up each shot and Ellen was an artist with arranging food on the plates. A group of artists working together to come up with a great product!

 

Valentines Dinner

Valentines Dinner Menu – Cocoa Scallops with Vanilla Bean and Saffron Beurre Blanc on a bed of micro green

My husband and I had the best Valentine’s Day  – it started with a trip to the Providence Winter Farmer’s Market where we picked up some amazing scallops – Bomster Scallops from Stonington CT.   The scallops are harvested and flash frozen right on the boat shortly after being shucked, they are not rinsed with fresh water or treated in any way – to read more here is a link to an article that ran in RI Monthly.- Bomster Scallops.   These scallops are the best, about the size of a half dollar, fresh and dry packed.  Also on our trip I picked up micro greens from Ledge Farms and of course some cheese from Narragansett Creamery and Blue Corn Meal from Kenyon Mills (not sure what I will be making with this…I will keep you posted).    After our market trip we were off to Federal Hill for a little lunch at Zooma and I can’t go to Federal Hill without a stop in at Venda Ravioli.  The check out line wove through the store and I am not exaggerating when I say there must have been 40 people in line if not more.  We bypassed that line and went for a Cappucino and a almond cookie and headed back home with our treasures to prepare dinner.  On the Valentine’s Dinner menu….

Cocoa  Scallops with a Vanilla Bean and Saffron Beurre Blanc on a bed of micro greens with crispy and spicy sweet potato rounds served with a side of roasted asparagus.  We served it with a Kim Crawford Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc.  For dessert homemade truffles made by Chef Patti of Anastasia’s Table.   Thanks Patti!  Happy Valentines Day!