FabulousFoodBabe

I've seen this more in behind-the-counter establishments -- bakeries, gourmets-to-go -- than in FOH. I don't understand how someone who is still a student worked hard to earn their whites. Shoot, half the home cooks around the country must have their own whites -- if people didn't buy them, Williams-Sonoma wouldn't have them in their catalog! CIA students wear their white jackets to wait tables ... with a shirt and tie under them. And yes, TK and his crew call each other 'chef.' Yanno what? Everyone knows who the boss is. And I said I would only blog this week ... (I worked in a 3-star kitchen where the stagers/trailers would come in droves, and grab all the white jackets. Cooks wound up wearing the dishwasher/porter's short-sleeved shirts, and one very tall person's pants came to about 6" above the ankle. Oh, I should have photographed that! )

After our trip to La Tulipe, Liz and I went down the road to Mt. Kisco Seafood. It used to be in a little house right next to La Tulipe, but they outgrew it long ago and now are in a newer building a few doors down. Not only do they have wonderful fish (and supply to and own a couple of other restaurants in the area), they have wonderful people with senses of humor. Every day, a new trivia question. They have some fruits and vegetables (usually locally grown), and some amazing cheeses, too. Any manner of rub, marinade, or sauce is there and they make some soups, sauces, etc., there. The case is full of whatever is good at the time, and when I first started buying softshells there -- and told them I'd kill/clean them myself, they didn't bat an eye or say, "honey, are you sure?" They have my undying gratitude for that as well. See Liz smile? She's getting ready to be smooched by the owner. I bought salmon, scallops, and some focaccia. And, some of what Liz calls "Lisa's Cheese." It's from Rainbeau Ridge farms in Bedford Hills (about 10 miles from here), and is THE best goat cheese I've ever had.

You have GOT to tell me what you thought the top two were! Just whisper it here and I won't tell anyone ... Nope, no lipstick for Fresser. Just pantyhose.

You are such a good sport! Katonah is beautiful, and there's a good reason our high-falutin' New York friends all have places up there; more than one is considering a year-round move. Angela, were your ears burning? Liz Johnson and I went to La Tulipe today for gelatos and pastries, and talked about how much you'd like it ..... mmmmmm. You really should have been there. Since I intend to go there every day, next time you have some time, let me know. La Tulipe Desserts is a pastry shop in Mt. Kisco, in a tiny building. that is Chef Steenman on the porch; the man is always smiling and neat. That's the first thing you notice when you walk in: it's a small, bright and spotless space. Cookies by the pound, desserts in individual servings and larger cakes, and gelatos are made there. Out of chocolate croissants But ... we each got lots of gelato. Mine is coconut and Nutella; Liz's is pear and chocolate. It was such a gorgeous day, that we sat outside and ate our sorbets. Then, we too pictures of one another. "Dueling Foodblogs" is what Liz calls it.

You are so, so sweet, Kimshook! Jean-Luc loves the pugs in the neighborhood. Otis is a good name for a dog. He's in a skillet? However, you may want to rethink the "cool boys" comment when you see this. You know how people have those sweet little "Swear Jars" sitting on their counter? Well, ours goes a couple of steps further: Some days, they change dollars into quarters, and stand there and burp and throw the quarters in,one at a time. Have I said, "sigh," lately?

Hi, chezcherie! They're Pure Komachi knives; I got some on Amazon.com, one at a store here, and a couple of them at Cooking.com or Chef's.com, on sale. They cost about $20-$25 when they're not on sale.

Hokay. This morning was just a bundle of fun: the usual breakfast of waffle with additive-free peanut butter, and a nice long workout while watching my Tivo'd shows (can't wait for Gilmore Girls to start again!). I have a rule: all the junk TV I want, as long as I'm on the treadmill or elliptical (purchased to rehab a badly broken ankle). So if anyone needs to know what's up with L&O (any of them), The Closer, Prison Break, Rescue Me, etc. etc., do let me know. President Clinton is out campaigning, "they" tell me, so I went to a couple of his favorite Chappaqua haunts. It's a little deli that focuses more on food than "etc." and has a seating area to the right. Remember Rocky's? This place is twice as big, and the kitchen here is in the back. Besides all the sandwiches you can imagine (including a Cuban that looks pretty good), Lange's does some hot foods as well. Broasted chicken!! Although our former President gets egg whites, I got the real deal. The yolks were juuuuust firm, the way I like it. Good bacon, too. Rumor is, that one day a stretch limo pulls up in front of Lange's, and a bespectacled man got out (without a guard) and ordered a tuna melt. He sat down and enjoyed it (didn't want to eat in the car) while people tried to figure out who he was. Apparently, when the former leader of the free world entertains billionaires, he makes them get their own lunch! At least he directed Mr. Gates to a cool little place around the corner. (story has been passed around many times, but neither confirmed nor denied by the Gates or Clinton camp.) Here's where most of the Clinton-sightings occur: The Starbucks in the center of our bustling town. You can tell when he's around; his dog is always with him, and the big black Suburban with DC plates is idling nearby. And, of course, there are about 100 women around him and they all have that glazed look in their eyes when they speak of the encounter. I've never, EVER seen him in person; I've always missed him by a few minutes. Honestly, I'm more interested in where he gets his dogs trained! To the right of Starbucks, down the alley, is the Chappaqua Village Market I showed you earlier. To the left is the Chappaqua Restaurant, a little diner that makes killer pancakes and eggs. We also have a restaurant row of sorts, behind where I'm standing to take this photo. Can't get a good shot of it; it goes up a hill and around a bend, but there is a good sushi restaurant, a bagel shop, a French restaurant with outside seating, and a little Italian place with outside seating, so we can have drinks in nice weather, watching the strollers go by.

This is such an old side-by-side that parts don't even exist. I'm hoping it holds out until the new one comes in. The downstairs freezer is tiny, and is full of bagged ice. It's one of those, "if I'm crazy, I'm not alone" moments, isn't it? I always buy whole birds and bone-in beef (fish when I can, too,), and practice breaking them down. Bones are for stock and fumet. with bated breath, dontchaknow.

hathor, I feel so bad for you! I can always tell the Ohioans at the grocery stores here; we're the ones standing around the corn, griping about it. La Tulipe, oh my. It's on my list with the fish shop and the smokehouse. I could eat those little opera cakes all day long.

OMG, I'm loving this blog! It's "buttah," our term for "butter." My handwriting is horrible! It'll be "buttock" on our lists from now on.

Good golly, I'm yappy today! Even though I won't go on and on about much more, I did want to say: Sandy: I did know that brownie story ... but you tell it really, really well. Yeah, I can see a book being squeezed from you, food or otherwise. Do you have a writing group? (I don't, but people always ask me if I do.) Smithy et al: Thank you for being so nice about what I said about Freaky Fresser. He's quite a character. My husband 'lost' his sherbet container today in the freezer, which is man-talk for "it's not in front of my face." I took a couple of shots for your viewing pleasure/ This is the top left of the freezer; see the little squares of fish food? Awwww. I'll show you the fishies tomorrow. Here's the rest of the freezer Note the chipwiches in the red box, and the bags of frozen chicken bones. I'm a little behind on stock production! And so ends another day chez Foodbabe. Dinner was salad with garden tomatoes and spaghetti with meat sauce, at the boys' request, because it was easy to hold (mealtime was in three shifts this evening and my husband just got in). Dessert was, for me, nothing. Everyone else had cake and chipwiches. I can't believe how fast this week is going! Good night, and have a good sleep. I'm going to re-watch "House" before I head to bed.

Hey, at least your kid cooks! Jean-Luc got a stick of butter off the counter today and I had to wrest it from his (very slobbery) jaws. It was pretty nasty. When I was on my Externship, I often wondered how many of my neighbor-ladies were standing on their feet for 14 hours on a Saturday night, up to their elbows in raw calves' liver or pulling meat from a pig's head.

Yes! I was hoping we'd get more questions-and-answers on our forum, but that seems to have died off. (Posts with no responses get deleted after about a month.) Maybe if we revive the story we can start over. OK it's a date. When's the fish market trip? ← Some of us have nothing to do but blog. But I was thinking, maybe tomorrow or Friday? You've still got my number? If not, I'll resend in a PM. They had some white salmon ... oh, crap. Externship backflash.

I will never tire of hearing that my doggie is adorable. He's asleep under my desk right now, snoring softly. Oh yeah, it's glamorama up here in the 'burbs. Who was it that sang of Westchester, "Private schools, and country club pools?" One of the Wainwrights? -Fabby, whose kids go to public. Hey: here's a shot from the Chappaqua Village Market! Set in the back of the store near a wall loaded with fancy vinegars and olive oils ...

Yeah! The contractor part was the challenging part, but I'm thrilled with who has agreed to do the work. Then, there are those cabinets ... It's going to be gorgeous. I am thinking about doing more nanawalls, too. I just love those. I can write you an excuse! Dear Mr. Peabody, Please excuse Angela from work today. She has a case of Fabbylizitis and needs to rest. No, really. Glad to help.

Ciao to you too, Hathor! We're neigbors. Lots of our friends in NY have houses in Katonah. It's really the sticks, but don't tell Angela Alaimo ! I told my son your squash theory -- he found it very amusing. Here's what he wore to school today: He's got his mamma's snark! Well, we cut into the squashes: This one has a sweeter smell and taste, and a spongier texture. The seeds darkened noticeably within a few minutes, too. This one was firm and had almost no taste or smell. There's another one just like this, growing bigger by the day. If the deer don't get it, who knows what we'll find! Seriously, these squash and some tomatoes just started growing from the Honeysuckle he was growing in the terraced part of the yard. These eat as good as they look, and I haven't done anything to the color or shape. They're TV tomatoes! Now that we might have some good weather, I can get some outdoor shots of his gardening efforts.

Eek! Quick pre-dinner disclaimer: Fresser is NOT a freak in a bad way, a good way! He's an eGullet institution! How cool is a guy who asks you within a half-hour if your husband knows how lucky he is? How cool is a guy who gets you kicked out of Starbucks at Nieman-Marcus for making you (and himself) laugh too hard?? Or who reminds the cab driver to take good care of you ... No pantyhose were purchase, btw. He's a pretty tall guy. Anyway, I just wanted to add that bit.

Yeppers, they have! I'm going to get some photos of the current kitchen and post them first. Then, the plans. I'm so excited about this I can hardly breathe!

Had lots to do this morning, so that grilled cheese sandwich in duck fat that Sandy spoke of earlier was it for me. Yep, this is yellow cheddar (Land O'Lakes, I think!), and the tomatoes are from my neighbor's garden. It really was terrific and just what I needed. We keep a loaf of Pepperidge Farm white bread for such occasions I'm going to add shots of things I use often, just so you can see what I do and how I teach and learn. An example is this set of knives. Whenever I bring them out to a class, they oooh and aaaah ... I could probably sell them in class. Women love them because they're colorful and light and easy to handle. They hold their edges well, too. For me, they're not heavy-duty enough to use for production, but for teaching, they're perfect. They don't intimidate students like a big Shun! (Of course, every time I bring my 12-chef, someone picks it up and starts waving it around and trying to use it. Every single time. ) From the left: -Serrated knife. It's outstanding and so sharp that the thin blade doesn't matter. -Meat knife. It's 6" long, and okay. Just okay. -Veg knife: Again, okay. I like the depth of the heel, and the fact that there's no bolster makes it easier on my hands. Sometimes. -Granton-edge knife. Nothing will come near my granton Mac. But I have this anyway. -Fish knife., this has such a short blade that I can't use it for breaking down anything bigger than a rouget. The blade is very thin but not flexible, and it works well for dicing or cutting in batonnet, for sushi. -Tomato knife. I don't like this at all! I have a 5" serrated edge Global that does a really great job. This is too small; the handle is too short, and there's not enough serration on the edge to prep anything bigger than a roma. And I have a serrated paring knife that does a better job, too. If anyone has any comments about these or has worked with them, let me know. I also have what I think of as moderate knives, and knives that stay in the kitchen drawers, and then my favorites that no one touches. More on that later.

I'm sending this link to my husband right now!The Farm has everything but the dinner-to-go. A little sushi is it. It's really a treasure of a place.

How many kids did they have? My husband and I are polar opposites. I'd have killed someone like me, or at least gone insane. I don't put stuff in my profile because it harkens back to the old other-web-portal days when people would search them and then start sending me emails ... I know, no freaks on eGullet. Except for Fresser. Have I told you-all about meeting him for coffee and pantyhose shopping? Sandy, tell me more about this. Intriguing. Maybe it's time to Google again ...

You are correct, ma'am! It's one of my favorite places to shop; they used to be in a really small, old building and moved to a newer location up the street. It's a really great place, good people, and I get the most amazing goat cheese there, too. Are you including the Mt. Kisco Farm, too? Loved the tomato feature, and the apple one today, especially with the chill in the air, makes me happy Fall is here. Hmm. I have an awful lot to cram into the next few days!

Here's today's list -- with a little something for you, Racheld. We all thank you!

I'll join you on that plateau in about a month and a half. Several friends and most of my Pem-Day classmates insist I have a book in me. I suspect they're right, but I haven't figured out how to extract it from the depths of memory yet. I do know this: It will have food in it somewhere, no doubt, but it won't be a cookbook. I don't think I could pull off the neat feat Alice B. Toklas did back in the 1950s when she wrote her autobiography in the form of a collection of recipes. Edited to add: No, I'm not talking about The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas. That, as I assume you all know, was written by her soulmate Gertrude Stein. ← When, Sandy? I'm a November baby. No, really. MichaelB a Virgo? Nawwwww. I'd never have guessed! My life in recipes. Yeah, that's a good idea for the next one. And you just know I'm going to Amazon right now ....

Marinade Recipe: 1/2 cup Soy sauce 2 Tablespoons Worcestershire sauce Two garlic cloves, smooshed almost into a paste. Juice of half a lemon. Shake it all together. Refrigerate. If you want to use the marinade immediately, replace garlic cloves with granulated garlic (1/2 teaspoon, or to taste). I keep a bottle of this in the refrigerator; it just doesn't go bad. Strain before using, or be sure to pick garlic bits out before grilling or roasting. Enjoy!