Let's give this another go, shall we?

I've been trying to live with the philosophy that if you sit back and observe, things will eventually just come together, one way or another. You should know that this sort of philosophy goes against my nature in a very very big way. I'm a list maker (capital "L" capital "M"). A goal-oriented, task-driven, order-loving list maker.

Years of kitchen management has made me this way - I work with order. If I'm thrown into any sort of unplanned chaos I simply don't know how to function. Being this organized certainly has some advantages, but I'm coming to realize just how debilitating it can be as well.

The funny thing is, when I am happiest in the kitchen, I'm cooking off the cuff, often free from recipes or of any real certainty of where I may go with what I'm making until the last ingredient is added. It's the duality of life in the kitchen - so much planning, so much number crunching, side by side with the art of it, the senses and self expression. In the end, it's all about balance. So I'm trying to even things out a bit; I'm figuring out how to bring out the best parts of this crazy business while minimizing all those things that fuel my need for crazy order.

I'm working on it. One deep breath at a time.

Spring!

I can't tell you how excited I am that Spring is almost here. The days of both going to and leaving work in darkness are over, mittens and scarves are banished to the back of the closet, and the appearance of tapped maple trees is just around the corner.

I have very fond memories of my grade one class tapping a maple tree in our schoolyard; one of us would be chosen to be in charge of collecting the sap, and at recess we would all congregate around the bucket to see if any more had been collected from the few hours we had been sitting in class. Once the required amount was collected, our teacher boiled the sap down to make us candy - I can still remember the smell, and can't think about it without smiling.

I often sneak maple into much of my cooking - using it as a substitution for vanilla in my cookies and pies, or to give a hint of sweetness to carrot or squash soups. Add a little balsamic vinegar, and you have an incredible salad dressing, or a quick glaze for salmon.

If and when I ever win the lottery, I picture myself buying and living on a farm with big old maple trees, making my own syrup, growing my own vegetables...I have yet to come to terms with whether I would have chickens and cows; hypocritical I know, but I'm a little squeamish thinking about where my meat comes from sometimes. I can't even kill spiders without feeling guilty. But the idea of being self sustaining, especially in this economy with the price of food rising by the day, is a great dream to have. For now, I'll have to be content with my small patio garden.

MAPLE LEAF BUTTER COOKIES

c/o Gourmet Magazine, February 1995

2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup Grade B maple syrup (or Grade A maple syrup flavored with 3 drops maple extract, or to taste)
1 large egg yolk
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups all-purpose flour

Preparation
In a standing electric mixer cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy and beat in maple syrup and egg yolk until mixture is combined well. Sift together salt and flour over mixture and fold in thoroughly. Chill dough, wrapped in plastic wrap, until firm, about 2 hours. Dough may be made 4 days ahead and chilled.
Preheat oven to 350°F.
Divide dough in half. Keeping one half chilled, lightly flour other half and on a lightly floured surface gently pound with a rolling pin to soften. Roll out dough 1/8 inch thick and with a 3-inch floured maple-leaf cookie cutter cut out cookies, chilling scraps. Arrange cookies on buttered baking sheets and if desired, with back of a knife, mark cookies decoratively. Make more cookies in same manner with remaining dough and with all the scraps pressed together.
Bake cookies in batches in middle of oven until edges are golden, about 12 minutes, and transfer to racks to cool. Cookies keep in airtight containers 1 week.

Crimes against Food

I'm a big fan of the show "Top Chef" on the food network - a reality show where they challenge professional chefs to top each other in various food related challenges. In this weeks' episode, the chefs were challenged to make a meal for a culinary legend - specifically, what they're pre-chosen legend would want for their last meal. All of the icons (including Jacques Pepin) chose classic dishes, with fairly simple flavours (eg. Pepin chose roast squab with fresh peas). This made me start thinking about two things:
1. What I would choose for my last meal, and
2. It made me think about all the ways people mess food up.

The answer to the first question is eggs benedict. The crunch of toast, the softness of the poached egg, the richness of the hollandaise...plus I'm lactose intolerant, so eating all that butter would definitely be a way to shake my fist one last time at the dairy gods.

As for the second, here is my list of crimes against food that drive me bananas:

1. Too. Much. Garlic.

2. Dishes that don't taste like their key ingredient. Carrot soup should, basically, taste like carrots.

3. Well done red meat. More specifically, beef tenderloin. Why don't you just take off your shoe, and chew away.

4. Kitchen sink pasta. Really good pasta. A little sauce. One or two really good ingredients. That's all you need.

5. Four words: Frozen, microwaveable grilled cheese. I didn't even know such a thing existed until recently, and I was frightened.

On that note, I'm going to go make myself some poached eggs (no hollandaise :P), and think about food crime #6: Eggs cooked over medium. What the hell IS that??

My First Post

I've been thinking about starting a blog for quite some time - to have a place to write and share my thoughts on food, life, and whatever else develops. I am a 30 year old chef who works in a small town cafe...a career move I made about a year ago after some life events made me realize that life is too short to not jump at every opportunity presented to you. For the first time in about a decade, I have a job that excites and challenges me, gives me time to spend with my friends and family, and to figure out what life outside of work is all about. Oddly enough, it almost always leads back to food, and all the things that drew me to making it my profession - history, travel, art, science, music, making others happy with something I've created, working with my hands; they're all connected.

I like to think that the food I make in the cafe is comforting, healthy, and fresh, with a little twist of the unexpected. Anyone who knows me can tell you when I'm scheming up new dishes, I get pretty excited and start talking with my hands, explaining my plans to anyone who will listen. I'm fairly obsessed with getting people to try new things - to look at new ingredients and pairings with an open mind - and with challenging myself to keep learning and creating.