About me

Outspoken Podcasting Chef, Sustainability Advocate and Farmer.

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Wednesday, October 29, 2003

    I suppose compared to other blogs this must be tame and a little bit boring.  Not that I wouldn't love to bear all and get a little wild.  But that is not the goal of this particular venue.  At the time I started this blog I was hoping to be doing a bit more business traveling than it looks like I am going to at the moment.  I wanted to drive people to my website and get people from the site to read the blog.  Wishful thinking I know.  Neither has happened, and given the amount this blog has been visited the results are as depressing as everything else in my life right now.
    Given that my life is an actual soap-opera (unlike that of my best friend, whose life is an Amish soap-opera) there should be so much to write.  I should be continually at this.  But I will resist a while longer.  When I was in Ireland this past winter I kept quite a journal of everything I did and all that happened to me.  I had no regular internet access or it might have been a blog.  I wish it had been, now, because my laptop and everything else we had with us was stolen on our last day in Ireland before heading off to the UK for a week.  It put a damper on the rest of the trip, but after three months I wasn't sure I wanted to return home, even if we had nothing.  If it hadn't been for some wonderful friends in England the remaining stay would have been a nightmare, but it wasn't.
    This morning has dawned clear and beautiful.  A stark contrast to yesterday's wild winds and sporadic rains.  I still haven't come up with any menu plans but I might be closer with some elements.  You'd think it would be easy.  And it should.  Any other meal, almost no problem--too many ideas as a matter of fact.  The touble is narrowing them down.
    I think I keep forgetting to mention that I had the first chantarelles of the season this past week. They are late this year as it was so dry over the summer.  I don't as a rule eat many of them--they are expensive.  Usually thought I try to use them in cooking as much as I can during their brief apperance on the scene.  With no dinners at the moment, I have no need to get off the rock to the mainland and hit the markets, so I will probably miss buying them before the disappear for the year.
    The property is on the market, but no one is looking.  If it sells, then we're off to somewhere I can cook full time.

More later.

Monday, October 27, 2003

    The weekend flew by.  I couldn't believe it, the weather was actually nice.  We cleaned out the woodshed, and stacked it back neatly awaiting cords of new wood.  Where they're going to come from I haven't the ambition to think about right now.  The gardens also got some care.  Everything not actively growing got pulled and the soil turned.   Hopefully now they're ready some kelp will was up on the beach soon.
    The pressure is mounting to come up with a menu for New Year's Eve.  Oh, plenty of ideas are flooding through the old brain box, but very few are practicle.  Anywhere else on the planet people are willing to pay for a great time out.  Here on the island, they feel it is owed to them as some sort of right. $15 for a four course meal that takes 3 days to prepare is too much--I hear it a lot.  I have to raise the price this year, there is no getting around it.  I'll also have to hire dishes.  The hall where the dinner is held has 47 plates and about 43 knives, forks and spoons; no soup bowls, or salad plates.  Fine dinning, or at least a New Year's night out, cannot be had with this.
    My challenge is to feed 100 people top notch food out of a tiny, cramped home-style kitchen without counter space or facility to feed that number of people.  It is my third year doing it, and I vow to make it better than last year.  The first year was the best, menu, drive and excitement were all there.  Last year went well, but let's face it, the dessert was a flop.  And I had to get up 4 hours later to catch a flight to London.
    No, this year has got to be a topper.  It all has to end with a killer finale and the meal has to be able to be cooked and plated in groups of ten.  I can see I'll be wrangling with this the rest of the week, as well as trying recipes if I can.
    Wednesday I have to pay my sales taxes--I haven't a clue what I owe. It will take some time to dig up the info.  I just updated accounting software and I'm sure I'll have to spend time learning how to get the reports out of this new version.  I guess I have my work cut out for me--I'd better get going.
Until later. N

Friday, October 24, 2003

       The walls of the house have turned cold to warm, beige to plum, light to dark.  The ceiling has raised but it still feels close. I knew I shouldn't have started painting just the hall.  One wall at a time, spread out over days.  It has given me something to do, but I have draped a miserable job, for me, over the week instead of wrapping it up all at once.
    Some books I ordered last week arrived.  Mostly cookbooks--Rose Pistola and an Elegant Irish Meals tome.  Also in the box were two histories--one of how, why and on what we dine, and another on ettiquette through the ages.  It is actually fascinating. I have no dinners the rest of the month, so I might as well read.  I found out about the job, no such luck.  I won't be moving yet.  I'm still in the game if something else comes up, but waiting, always waiting.  While I wait here on this rock, the world passes by.  In the seven years I was trying to get into professional cooking while still working on a fulltime career cheffing has become the number one second career choice.  How can one compete when your only one step ahead of the mob?

Tuesday, October 21, 2003

    I have been less than faithful to my plan of blogging every day.  Life just seems to get in the way.  I can't even use the excuse that I have been busy.  Well, busy enough.  I have been searching for full-time employment.  After two plus years of working for myself, I am trying to find a job to challenge me and give me hope and some experience in areas where I lack.  I had a great interview the other day.  Now I wait for results.
    I took some time to polish my resume.  I discovered through helping a friend write hers, that mine was a disgraceful shambles, and I sent out easily 1200 of them.  No wonder I got no response from any sector, anywhere in the world.  I am torn now though.  If the job I've applied to come through, then I must move.  Great--a change of scenery would be good.  If not, then I have 4 potential jobs lined up between now and New Years which would be great, and I'm sure that more work will fill in the gaps.  Oh, the waiting. . . .
    The weather on the island has turned vicious.  It has rained non-stop for days.  The mainland is flooding, with every river breaking banks.  At least we don't quite have that problem here.  We do have acres of mud and rock, and every hill side is sending down torrents to the sea.  After the summer's drought, though, all of this rain has greened up the garden, or what's left.  There are herbs that went to seed months ago, now springing to life.  Unless we get a really hard frost and deeply cold weather I think we will have herbs and greens like Chard through Thanksgiving.  Still, it is time to start clearing the beds and preparing them for spring.
    Winter storms blow tons of kelp up on the beach and instead of letting it rot and stink down there, we haul it ashore and bed the gardens in it.  Great stuff--organic and free.
    The grey sky is just cracking through the windows and the vast rain gauge of the bay is finally visible--high tide with a light drizzle.  Time to watch the news before breakfast and a day of study.  New recipies, correct serving techniques, proper formal table setting--good to keep on top of it all.

Wednesday, October 08, 2003

    I tried blogging yesterday afternoon, late but somehow I couldn't post.  Don't worry though, not much to miss--just some observations about the weather and dinner menu.  I thought it was clever, but perhaps not all people would share the same view.
    This morning's weather was quite a shock--Wind.  All summer it has been more or less calm.  This change is one for the worse.  Wind during the autumn is more or less a continuous thing on the island.  Still, it is a nice day.  The overcast sky is cut through in several places by an ever changing dapple of sun light, like some laser-light show. White-caped water crests and falls, churning up the bay bottom at low tide.  The heavy rains dampness is breathed away and a clean, salt smell prevades the wind.
    Soup is the order of the day.  I don't have any cooking jobs till next week so I can relax and catch up on paper work and watch ever episode of Changing Rooms and Marth's Kitchen.  Usually during wind like this, it was impossible to watch anything on tv--the reception was too bad.  I know this is something most people take for granted in this day of satellite and cable, but out here surrounded by trees, mountains and lots of water, even finding a satellite can be hard.  And now that winter is storming upon us, the almost weekly chance of power outages make a dull life that much more interesting.
    I have also been putting together plans for an Irish Culinary Tour for sometime in the Spring.  I have a booking for New Year's Eve--a large event--and so I couldn't possibly do one earlier.  Even if I had interest in such a tour, making the arrangements at this stage will take a while.  Still I dream.  It has been a little over six months since I returned from Ireland, and still I would love to go back; even tomorrow if I could.
    While in Ireland I was able to cook with such freedom and use amazing produce and ingredients that I just can't find locally, or even easily in a place like Seattle.  Perhaps it's because I'm so far away with no real connections, but for as expensive as most things are in Europe, ingredients are very reasonable in Ireland.  Dining out can can be dear, but very worth it if you find a great place to eat.  I think we have become calous by the amount of choices we are offered.  Our taste buds are deadened by the blah food most places serve up and most of us cannot afford to eat at a decent place on a regular basis.  My contention is that most places could and should serve good, tasty and quality food if we would demand it of them, but by and large we don't.  It is the same with poor service.  The more we accept rude or poor behavior the worse it seems to get.
    Okay, okay--enough soap box moments for now.  I do get side tracked.  Perhaps I should get on with my work for the day.  Or, there is that idea for the Food Network I have been thinking of developing--what if a chef just dropped in on you, wherever, took you shopping and then taught you to cook some things and then some guests dropped by to enjoy what you never knew you could cook.  Works for me.  I'll be typing the pilot as soon as I can. . . .

Tuesday, October 07, 2003

    Not much to report lately.  I have become a victim of the dish.  No, not some poorly cooked concoction I made, but Satellite TV.  I finally broke down and bought one--not with out some dificulty.  You can't just buy the units anymore and install them--a "technician" has to do it.  What  a joke. 
    Because I live on an island the technoids couldn't make it out, so I had to finagle a way to get the unit myseld and do it.  I had the job done, for two rooms with replaytv, in a short evening.  Way ahead of when the dish company said it could get it done.
    Now, I am a victim of the food network among other things.  I have to keep reminding myself I have other things to do, like try to run a business.  I had to write a big reminder on the white board that I have a cooking class coming up that I need to prep for.
There will be more on this all later, but I think Emeril is coming on. . . .

Wednesday, October 01, 2003

    Busy, Busy.  Of so I tell myself.  I  spent much of yesterday reworking my web site.  I need to get better Search Engine ranking and some of the pages just aren't working.  A big hassle.  It was my first major project and I thought, as all proud web designers do, it was perfect upon launch.  NOT SO.  Nevertheless, I'll get it corrected, bit by bit. 
    The weather here has been mild to warm for the season.  Yesterday was the usual mix of cloudless sunny skies changing rapidly to rain the moment an outdoor project is begun.  This morning is looking up, the sky is pink and gold above a light mist.  I have to go to the mainland tomorrow--I hope it isn't going to be raining.  I still have to track down the check for my work of a week ago.  I know this sounds petty or something, but I am used to getting paid the moment I finish my work.  You don't go out to eat at a restaurant and expect to pay a week later, do you?
    The local aid team saved a man's life here on the island a while ago.  This man and his wife have hired me to cook a dinner in their honor.  I waived all usual fees because they are on a fixed income, and have come up with a decent family style meal for $6.50 a head: