Horseback Riding

Andi's cousin is in town for a couple of weeks and she loves horses. Yesterday was her birthday so we got her a gift of horseback riding up in Bodega Bay. For those of you that remember, Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds was filled in Bodega Bay.

Andi in her......helmet!

Andi's cousin getting some riding lessons on Sweet Pea before we go. 

Andi trying out her saddle on DJ.

Now she's ready!! 

Me on the back of Rocky riding along the trail. It's really beautiful up there. All the land is protected, lot's of wild life. Can't wait to go again!! 

Butcher and Baker

So I haven't had much time to write anything as work as been quite crazy again. I have the worst time finding good employees that pass a social security test. Also, company wide we have to make sure all employees work under 30 hours a week. Any that average over 30 hours a week at the end of the year costs the company $10000 a person. Not easy finding a bunch of part time employees. Also, I seem to have horrible luck with the current ones I have: gunshot wound(out 3-7 days), going back to her home country to get married(and taking her friend who I hired at the same time with her to be her bridesmaid), can't start the first day of work because I have food poisoning(then never heard from him again). Sucks!

Anyway, on a more interesting note I discovered a pretty cool website for Chefs. It's called Butcher and Baker and has everything from aprons to hats to cool T-shirts.

This is one of my favorites! If you've ever worked in a kitchen, you'll know how true this is!!

Sysco's Deceit

Apparently not. Here in San Francisco we use Sysco, a major food corporation that delivers to over 400000 restaurants in the Bay Area. News broke yesterday that Sysco had been using unapproved storage sheds to store food in before sending it to it's proper location. Most of this food needed to be refrigerated(chicken, meat, dairy, etc) but was left in the shed for hours before being moved again. It also looks like it has been going on for years and has been hidden from the health department. Once the health department got involved, they found rat droppings, bugs, and other major violations inside of these storage sheds. Here is the link with the video uncovering everything. I know some of my chef friends in Boston use Sysco as well. What's going on in your neck of the woods???

Our New Car(and Portland!)

So a couple of weeks back, Andi and I bought a 2004 mini cooper. It's perfect for her because it's small and she is still learning how to drive. It's in really good condition with only some minor cosmetic things that can be fixed later.

She loves it!! :D

We decided to give it a test run for a small vacation we took this past weekend up to Portland Oregon. It ran great with no issues. It's quite fun to drive and doesn't seem as small once your inside. 

As for the coast, it's beautiful. We drove around Seaside and Astoria.

This is called Haystack Rock and it's home to some really cool tidal pools.

Cool looking star fish

Some sea anemones.

Portland Oregon is a great city for food. One of the cool things they have are food trucks that circle entire blocks. We ate at this stand which had food from Georgia, a small country in between Turkey and Russia. I forgot to take photo's of the food because we were starving and scarfed it up fast. However, if you zoom in on the sign to the left, we had all five of those dishes: cheese bread, onion and bean bread, eggplant rolls, a tomato and cucumber salad, and the best was the stuffed dumplings with black pepper. Everything was amazing!! I've already found a couple of Georgian restaurants in SF that I'm going to try!

We also ate at a great restaurant called Gruner. It's a mix of German, Swiss, France, and some Middle Europe. The above photo is a shaved radish salad with pumpkin seed oil, toasted pumpkin seeds, cider vinegar and fresh herbs. Tasty and pretty to look at!

I got a charcuterie plate with several great meats, the best one being a house-made rabbit mortadella. I also loved the pickled fiddlehead ferns in the back!

This appetizer was called Maultaschen: a traditional German dumpling similar to ravioli. These where filled with pork, beef, onion, and spinach in a meat broth. Both the broth and dumplings had great flavor.

Beet pickled deviled eggs.....amazing!!

Spatzle with black forest ham, sugar snap peas, leeks, and asiago cheese. A super tasty kicked up mac and cheese!

Grilled golden trout with spring onions and yukon potatoes.

Coq Au Riesling-morels, fava beans, crispy shallots, and yukon potato puree.

And last but not least dessert. Berliners: small sugar coated donuts with marionberry jam inside. These reminded me of eating zeppoles at the New Jersey shore as a kid!

All in all a great meal and a great trip. Portland was a very cool city and I can't wait to go back with more time and explore!

My Garden This Year

Haven't had much time to write since I got back from LA. We let go of my sous chef and had a new one start as soon as I got back. This put me on some 7 day work weeks, then 6 days, now down to 5 again for now. However, me not having much free time hasn't stopped my garden from growing.

 It's actually gotten quite wild! I ended up with a bunch of tomato plants that I never expected. I didn't have any in there last year but somehow they migrated from the pots I had into the garden. 

I've pulled some out and put them in pots but there are still more coming up.  

I even ended up with 3 small pepper plants from last year as well. Hopefully they will provide peppers unlike last year. Behind them is a strawberry plant and I have another to the right. 

Not expecting all the tomato plants, I planted cucumbers. Now it's taking over also, climbing right over the side. If all goes well, I'm going to have a lot of fruits and vegetables within the next couple of months! I'll keep ya posted! :)

Rookie Of The Year

So it's been awhile since I've had anytime to get on here and post something. Work has been keeping me pretty busy and I'm only getting busier. We have some major in house changes coming up which will be good in the long run but it will take some long days to get there.

In the meantime, I just got back from LA where we had our annual Chef's/GM conference. Every year awards are given out and I got Rookie Of The Year. All those long hours/days/weeks pay off in the long run. Not that I've ever done this for awards or recognition but it's nice to have. You never really think about that kinda stuff, it just what you do on a day to day basis, kinda like breathing! I'll try to post more when I can. Thanks for reading!

My New Tattoo

So I finally had time last week to get one of my new tattoo's.

I took it from this photo which I found on line. I love the creepiness to it!

The outlining. I put it on the backside of my right arm.

I wanted the picture to somewhat stand out with the guys looking at you so we designed it with them inside of a fish eye lens. It looks like they are trying to get out of a portal, with a couple of hands coming out the side. It came out pretty good however I want to go back and add a little more of the collarbones which gives them a creepier, anemic look.