Best career choice EVER!

As I sit here eating devouring a bowl of vanilla ice cream topped with left over rocky road fudge (yes) from last night's event, I am recapping the night in my head and can't think of a single thing that went wrong.  Of course, I am speaking of my VERY FIRST CATERING JOB! 

My new friend and fellow personal chef, Mandy, graciously asked me to co-chef this party with her, of course I accepted and after talking shop with her I knew this would be a great experience.  She did not disappoint.  Mandy also brought along two other wonderful, talented women to help prepare the twelve apps (including dessert) for a party of about 60.  The four of us were Team Awesome.  I can't help but cheer about it, it was just such a great experience which totally reinforced my decision to get into a food-related career.

Mandy blogged about it today and included all of our pics so I won't write too much - you can take a look at her blog here to find the list of appetizers, more about the catering love fest and great pics from the day. I'll just say that all the food came out great (including my bbq beef and chicken kabobs).  I was nominated to be the grill chef and I felt fantastic about it. It must be in my genes because my aunt Jo is a fabulous grill master. 

A couple of pics below... I look forward to working again with these talented ladies.  I also cannot wait to get my personal chef business going.  Tick tock - the time is now!

Who wants to hire me?  Come on, don't be shy!

Chow for Now! :)

Breadman - my new favorite appliance!

Hey friends,

I've taken a little over a week off from the blog to visit my dad in the mountains and had a lovely trip.  How was your fourth?  I ate more BBQ than I'd care to admit... Oh, who am I kidding, I LOVE food - I'll admit it!  Dad and I ate bbq brats, ribs and london broil, roasted zucchini, lots of white summer corn, delicious salads and even threw some Mexican food in for good measure.  All was good and so was the company.

After a big drive home yesterday and a brief stop at the grocery store, I decided to eat light but still want to cook something.  So I decided to make a fresh loaf of french bread with my new Breadman  to bring along with meatballs for dinner at my friend M's tonight!  I've had some great luck with the bread I've made so far... a loaf of feta and herb bread, a cinnamon almond sweet bread and pesto bread (made with fresh basil from my garden)...  I started it at 7 last night and it wasn't done until 10:30.  You better believe I tried a slice even if it was a little late to be carbo-loading...

I have to say - this bread came out awesome!  Crunchy exterior, light and fluffy interior just like a loaf of french bread from any bakery...

The Breadman is really easy to use, especially for someone like me who isn't a fan of measuring. You basically decide what size loaf to make, throw in a bunch of ingredients into the loaf pan and hit start. The machine kneads, rises and cooks the dough! It came with a bunch of recipes but now that I've tried a handful from the book, I'm thinking about venturing out and trying some new recipes


One of the the best things about this machine is that you can use it to just make dough (for instance if you want to make a braided challah *yes!* or dinner rolls). You just take the dough out after the kneading/rising process and continue preparing as you would have if you kneaded the dough yourself! One of the biggest issues for me when making bread from scratch is I'm never sure if the dough is the right consistency and I don't want to over-knead it.  This machine eliminates that problem for me.


Do you enjoy baking bread from scratch?  Tell me your favorite kinds - maybe I'll make them next time!

Chow for now! :)