Jake

She was right on IMHO about Dessert Trends last Saturday. Bland and blah! Have used them on a couple occasions, looked beautiful, tasted blah. Quite oily too.

Just came across this thread while taking a break from some work.......THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU! Your cabin's sound wonderful, but most of all it made me count the weeks until I can return to ours. It will be mid to late April, but on a freezing cold day like today, dreaming of lazy July days on the dock really does the trick. Oh how lucky we are!

As long as they bribe us with gourmet food.....

Dumpling -- do let me know if you require any judging help! I fully agree that we're always allowed to change our minds!

A competition of butts......????

I fell in love with food much earlier than with cooking. I was lucky enough as a child to travel a bit and we ate in higher end restaurants quite often. I had my first lobster at 6, my first oysters at 8 (steamed, didn't try raw until 10). This was unusual in your typical WASP family not living on the coast. My mother cooked the usual meat and veg, and the most daring ethnic dish was spaghetti! But I loved eating in restaurants. She began to teach me the basics of cooking when I was about 8 or so because I was interested in the food. I began to cook in my teens and that was when I realized that a recipe wasn't always right, that I could trust myself to recreate a taste. Very few complained, and it snowballed from there. I began to recreate dishes I had eaten elsewhere, usually without a recipe. There were some horrid errors until I learned some tricks about combining herbs and spices! I had my first "dinner party" (4 courses) at 17 and haven't stopped since. A friend of mine became a chef and tutored me at home, with friends and eventually in his restaurants. It became my creative outlet, a way to enjoy time with friends and family, and sure made my SO's happy over the years. Many times I thought people were just being kind about my abilities, until I received multiple requests for recipes, to cook, or to help them cook when in their homes! The highest compliment I have ever received was from the chef friend (on a couple different occasions) that he "couldn't have done it any better, and wouldn't have done anything different"! Perhaps he just likes someone cooking for him! My apologies if this story was longer than intended! Looking forward to the blog Al/Mike!

Having had to do a large amount of travelling over the past 10 years, mostly in the US and Canada I have learned NEVER to eat on the plane, with the exception of pretzels, chips etc. Some of the stuff is just frightening. Canadian airlines are the absolute worst.

Do NOT, under any circumstances add 30 extra people to a guest list of 100 3 hours before the appointed hour. If you plan on having an event including children, and those children are going to eat, (even buffet) you must include them in your count. Feel free to let us know they are children and may eat less, but we must know. And keep them out of the kitchen at ALL costs....pleeeeease! If the chef will be bringing staff, please treat them like the professionals they are -- they are not there to clean up your children's/pets/husband's mess before your guests arrive. (Ditto for the chef) I know these all seem self-evident, but believe me, I speak from personal experience!

Looking forward to the blog. You must have a lot of dinner invites if you bring the food! What do you do for a living?

Holy Sh*%!!!! That is truly the *best* of the worst! I gather every other little snafu along the way seemed mild by comparison??

So what did you end up doing? How did you resolve the problem -- inquiring minds want to know! Well, the tenderloin turned into individual steaks that were done stove top. I actually had a grill pan with me (no idea why, but what luck)Had the merlot jus done for the tenderloin, reduced it a bit more to compensate for the flavour of the grilled meat. All the veg had been prepped earlier and the ones I would normally have done in the oven were done stovetop too. Much juggling was required, admit to using the microwave on the veg to get the temperature up as needed. All in all, I don't think too many people noticed. The client remained completely unconcerned throughout. Quite possibly on large amounts of medication....

The traditional 4, or do you have a personal favourite?

Highly recommend the Macallan 18, but the 25 is to die for IMHO!!

Smoked duck breast, carmelized red onion, baby spinach leaves, asiago cheese. A light pesto on the bottom. My all-time favourite pizza, and one I serve at home all the time for a quick and easy meal.

Catering job in the middle of nowhere (country) on a Saturday night in the middle of winter. Sit down dinner for 30, tenderloin the main course. Spoke to client that morning, all fine. We had toured her kitchen when we took the job, were assured all was working properly. Arrived on time only to have her say........."Oh, I hope you don't need the oven, it hasn't worked in months, but we never use it anyway."

Family birthday dinner for 20 -- most of them VERY unadventurous eaters! Butterflied shrimp on cucumber slices with wasabi creme fraiche Smoked chicken on blini with chipotle mayo and chive garnish Wild mushroom agnolotti in gorgonzola cream sauce Chicken supreme stuffed with wild rice, apricot, cranberries and herbs with pan jus Veal tenderloin with merlot jus French beans with dijon herb butter Sauteed root vegetables with maple glaze White chocolate/Passionfruit birthday cake.

So much of it depends on the server, and how the establishment has trained them. More and more these days I will be out with 2 or more people where one or more do not drink. Rarely are they asked to provide a reason, even at the table. We were out just last week at a very fine restaurant with another couple. One of them declined wine and ordered mineral water. It was served in a crystal wine glass, at the same time our wine was corked with no different treatment at all. I guess we were lucky. I really believe it should NOT be an issue in a fine dining situation and hope you don't find it to be a problem.

Thanks for the blog, Jenny. I'm enjoying it, you are a really good writer, with an amusing way with words. Look forward to more.....

Monday dinner -- non-existant. Worked late. Came home, 2 glasses of wine, a couple pieces of baguette and cheese the SO had kindly purchased at the market. Out for dinner tomorrow night, so no cooking until Wednesday. A blessed relief with work so busy.

Thanks for the blog, hillvalley. I caught it late, but read it all. I really enjoyed hearing about your kids. You obviously give as much of yourself to them as you receive in return. They're lucky to have you.

Osso buco fresh pasta sauteed spinach Served with a 1993 Nipozzano Riserva Chianti Rufina

I guess I forgot to go "light" for the new year! Tonight: Spaghetti Carbonara with a lovely spicy pancetta, salad, bread and a bottle of Pinot Grigio (I blame my SO for the last addition)

Eclectic taste, to say the least! Sorry if this was a bit off the food topics, but thanks for replying. As an 80's child myself, the names bring back some memories!!! Not all good - must admit, if I never heard Celine Dion sing again, I would not be upset. Of course, the John Denver, Carpenters part was definitely 70's -- would fall asleep hearing those songs on the stereo, augmented by Cat Stevens, Harry Chapin and Joni Mitchell.

After living in Japan for so long, are you an American music fan, or Japanese, or other? What's the stand-by for those days when you really want to turn up the stereo?

What is Stove Top, please? edit: Oh. I see. So how did it go? Thanks Jinmyo -- glad to see I'm not the only one unfamiliar with it!