A good joke

I read this today and couldn't stop laughing:

"Once, during prohibition, I was forced to live on nothing but food and water."
-W.C. Fields

Another one bites the dust

We just finished another cooking class at Different Drummer's Kitchen. I really enjoy doing these classes. I can't quite put my finger on it but I want to say it's because of the intimacy. At the restaurant I am in the kitchen all the time, only occasionally do I make it out to the dinning room and the conversation is usually forced. I used to be in the front of house and sometimes I think I miss that. People are fun, especially when you can relate about something. Teaching these classes is a perfect mix of both. If only I could design a restaurant concept around this...

Romanticizing the Seasons

We were at the farmer's market today hanging out with the farmers and picking up some goods for the restaurant and the home, when I found myself in an interesting conversation with Russell from Park Hill Orchard about berries.  We were sad to find out that the summer berry season is quickly coming to a close.  It was very interesting to find out he was as surprised as I was. 

I think that we often romanticize growing seasons, we like to remember them being longer than they actually are.  Berries are a perfect example.  We all seem to remember entire summers of eating strawberries, raspberries and blueberries.  The unfortunate truth is that we only get to enjoy them for a matter of weeks.  We can probably attribute a lot of this nostalgia to the fact that we are fairly young into the farm to table movement and most of this memory is associated with eating what the supermarkets told us was "in season."  I don't think this is a bad thing.  There is something to be said for the excitement of the season and the joy of berry gluttony.

It doesn't matter how short the season is, I always want to remember the summer as fishing, eating berries, grilling and swimming...

Pan Bagnat

We had some tuna scraps left over from our Sustainable Seafood Dinner (which went very well) and that means Nicoise tuna sandwiches, or Pan Bagnats for the next few days.  My second favorite summer sandwich...right behind a BLT.  I like to use seared albacore tuna, tropea onions, confit tomatoes, black olives, anchovy, capers, hard-boiled egg, and fresh lettuce.  Now the trick is to gently fold everything together with some aioli and red wine vinaigrette, stuff it into a day old baguette, wrap it well, and let it sit overnight.  Then have it for lunch, or better yet, plan a picnic with someone special.  Be sure to pack a chilled bottle of rose and life is perfect....

Sunday Recap

What did I learn this week...

that I need to call my family more often.

that I really enjoy putting on wine dinners.

that those boring surveys sometimes make differences.

that focus can easily be lost and sometimes the best way to get it back is to relax.

that good food always comes from a staff that cares.

that my wife is more than my wife now and when she is sick and can't come to work, life sucks.

that when my mind is on other things my blog suffers...that will change this week...

Surveys and Polls

Today we put out a few surveys regarding how often we change our menu.  I am interested to see how the results stack up and to see if we might have to reformat our concept a bit.  We would never stray from our ideals as a restaurant, but we may change how often or in what manner we change the menu each month.  It is a little nerve racking and I am not sure why.  Chances are that nothing will happen, I think the nerves are in the chance that it might...

Finally

Finally, July's menu is complete.  Kinks are worked out and the menu "feels" like us.  Now I just have to get my act together for the Sustainable Seafood Wine Dinner.  This should be a wonderful dinner as long as we cross our t's and dot our i's.  We are a little short handed in both the kitchen and the front of house and this is one of our larger dinners at eight courses, one small problem can snowball into a a major one very quickly.  I have nothing but the utmost confidence in being able to pull off this dinner.  When it's all said and done, these dinners are fun for us and when we are having fun work is easy...