Rachel Khoo book signing.

Last Thursday I had the chance to meet the chef from The Little Paris Kitchen. She is everything I thought she would be and then some! She is so adorable and very friendly. I just love her take on french cuisine and I can't wait to start cooking some of her recipes from the book. She did a quick cooking demo before the book signing, allowing some young audience members to help her out. Rachel made a Cafe Gourmand, a trio of desserts, and then she did a quick Q & A. She is definitely the kind of person who could be one of your girlfriends. I mean, if I lived in Paris, if I knew her, I could see myself hanging with her on a regular basis. She just has that energy about her. This day was made possible due to one of my best friends, Renee. She has a great eye for catching these things that pop up. If it wasn't for her, I would have never met one of my top 10 Chef's. Thank you Renee!

I did get the chance to discuss school, cooking styles, my blog, social media, and food styling. She was super sweet, very much tuned into having our little conversation and giving sound advice. Something I am not used to experiencing at a book signing.

(A little back story, I was flipping channels one day and stumbled across her show, Little Paris Kitchen, on the Food Network. The show is no longer being filmed and has since closed. I fell in love with the recipes and with Rachel in just one episode.)

The book....

A personal message for yours truly... :)

Me with Rachel

Rachel giving a demonstration...

A Cafe Gourmand!

Other than food...is there such a thing?

I have been spending my summer off of school actually preparing for my Fall Semester. I know that sounds crazy but it is very true. I have recipe's that I have been saying I will organize for the last couple of years and they have multiplied in the last year since I got married. My husband's family has been gracious enough to share their Swedish recipe's with me. Imagine having over 1,000 recipes to organizing that you have been collecting or that have been handed down ever since you were 14. I am 38 now, you do the math...

So here I am, organizing all my recipes in one place as many as I can until Fall Semester approaches. I also had emails to catch up on, hundreds, and school work to organize and put away. I have 13 to 17 semester credits each semester and that can be anywhere from 4 to 6 classes each semester. (I don't want to be in school forever.) I am in school nearly 4 days a week for more than 8 hours a day. After school, I have dinner to make, a house to clean, email to check, homework to do. It really is a full time job and then some. I have no idea how some of my classmates work PT or FT jobs on top of going to culinary school. Perhaps they live at home? I just know it takes me 2 weeks to relax at the end of each semester.

I also spend time reading culinary books, researching other blog sites, reading about food photograph, reading culinary magazines; and then there is my personal Facebook and Email; Forkly Speaking's Facebook, Blog, Instagram, Email and Twitter; cooking for my blog and home; house work, laundry, and time with my husband when he is home. My summer is by no means boring. I don't remember a day where I did absolutely nothing except for the first 2 weeks of my summer break when I was very sick. (Not even since I started my journey in Culinary School.) My cell phone, laptop and tablet are my work horse and I would honestly be lost without them, or well, any one of them.

Food is my life. I write about food in hopes that when I graduate I can say to a potential employer, "Hey, I have kept a blog since starting Culinary School." Chef's spend a lot of their free time doing research, reading, taking continuing ed courses, and helping friends at their restaurants. So why not train myself now to live my life the same way? Nothing is worse than being in a room with people in your profession and not have something to donate to a conversation or understand the latest trend.

I do have a life and it involves...food! You guessed right. Spending time with friends and family always involves a good meal and I really do like it when I don't have to cook. Nothing beats getting to eat something you did not have to cook. Whether it be a great restaurant or someone else's dining room table. Food brings us all together. :)

Hope you all had a great weekend. I am still working on a new format just weeding through some things.

Bastille Day

On Sunday, July 14th  was Bastille Day. 

My friend Renee & I decided to celebrate the day with some bread pudding. 

Mon Ami Gabi

(Oak Brook, IL)

YUM!

My weekend...

Montana Charlie's Little America Flea Market

Pepper's 

(I bought a quarter pound each of Ancho and Pasilla peppers to make more mole.)

Farmer's Market too!

Red Seedless Grapes...

I also met a friend near O'Hare airport for some Giordano's stuffed pizza and some rainbow sherbert.

What a wonderful weekend!!!

From My Bookshelf to Yours...

Some of you have asked for recommendations based on the books that I read. Every week I will post a new book. This week I am reading:

                                                  

Modern Sauces: More than 150 Recipes for Every Cook, Every Day 

by

 

Martha Holmberg, 

Ellen Silverman (Photographer)

This book is great for the beginner or the advanced cook. Easy to read and follow recipes. From the basics, to more modern sauces, and then on to advanced sauces. A great read!

Of all the recipes that I have read about so far, some of my favorites are:

• Tangerine-Brown Butter Vinaigrette
• Spicy Ginger-Lime Garlic Vinaigrette
• Balsamic Beurre Rouge (Balsamic-Red Wine Butter Sauce
• and Smokey Red Pepper Mayo

Lynfred Winery

I had the chance to spend my Sunday afternoon at Lynfred Winery, in Roselle, IL. My friend Renee 'twisted my arm' into submission. ;) We had a great time, and I had my first tour of the facility.  I cannot believe that I had never heard of the place. Lynfred is a quaint little B&B / Winery all in one. An unexpected happy find of some finely crafted wine in the suburbs of Chicago!

I brought home a bottle of Sangiovese 2009 Reserve and a bottle of Pomegranate. I have never been a fan of fruity wines until Renee gave me a bottle of the Pomegranate for my birthday. Just one sip turned me into a fan. I really love their Mango and Black Raspberry flavors as well. Next trip will involve trying more of the fruity flavors. Surprisingly enough, the Pomegranate pairs well with pasta. I am still a red wine girl at heart but I can definitely get used to the fruity flavored wine when I have a taste for something sweet.

Pasta alla Formiana and sauteed Green Beans

Sunday was a fun-day. Kim, one of my best male friends came over for dinner  and a movie. I enjoyed having the chance to cook a very hearty dish for him before he leaves for his new job that will take him over a thousand miles away. What made this meal even easier for me to make for this vegan-since-birth, was that he consumes dairy products. :)

Doesn't this look so yummy? You don't even miss the meat!

Pasta alla Formiana is a recipe from Giada De Laurentiis that I made a few changes to. I added a chipotle pepper to the sauce because in my house we like heat in our sauce. I used some extra garlic and instead of using beefsteak tomatoes, I went with a hearty tomato that still used the title beef/steak. It was cheaper than the Burpee beefsteak tomatoes and tasted just as succulent. 

What I love best about the dish is that you don't have to cook the pasta before hand. I used the food processor to blend my canned crush tomatoes for the sauce along with some garlic and veggie broth. After a few pulses, I added the sauce to a pot and brought it to a boil. I also added some herbs to the sauce. I sprayed my baking dish with a nonstick coating and lined it with tomatoes on the bottom and sides. Added the noodles to the boiling sauce and then poured everything over the tomatoes. Lastly I topped the pasta with more tomatoes, drizzled some oil over and then added a thin layer of mozzarella. Bake for 30 minutes at 450F.

(Make sure you buy a mezze penne or smaller pasta. Anything bigger and you will have to pre-cook the pasta until al diente. We wound up buying a penne instead of the smaller mezze penne so I had to pre-cook my pasta for 4 minutes. Half the time and no big deal because I had it cooking while the sauce was going.)

While in the oven...I blanched and sauteed some gorgeous green beans.

Then I couldn't resist mixing some brownie batter and popping it in the oven while we ate.

The men, my husband and Kim ate, and ate...until they were in a state of bliss! ;)

We threw in a movie - Django - and ate brownies.

Oh and I didn't forget about the wine! Kim and I shared the bottle, half for him and half for me. Now that is a great friendship. Don't you think?