We like beets in our house. I realize that most people have a strong opinion of them. I’ve never met anyone who was on the fence about them. You either love them, or you hate them. I happen to love them. Aya never liked them until I made my homemade pickled beets. She liked them so much she let me make a four course beet meal. Yes, beets! And it was beet-tastically delicious, and even ended with a chocolate beet cake!
I’m no stranger to the kitchen. Before we had a kid, my wife and I both cooked. I’d say she did the majority of it, but I still did a couple times a week. When I cooked, I rarely followed recipes. For some reason, I don’t like following directions. I prefer to fumble, trip and fall, and figure it out on my own instead of reading instructions. Not always, but most often.
I decided to do something a little different for my mom this past Christmas. She’s someone who really doesn’t “want” things, or “need” things. “I don’t need that… the one I have is fine,” she’d say. “I’m sure whatever you get me I’ll like because it’s from you.” Spoken like a true mom, right? So instead of something, I thought I’d get her an experience. I decided on a cooking class at a fancy restaurant. It just so happened that she had the same gift idea for me… at the same restaurant! Awww… how about that? My mom and I are going to cooking class together. We haven’t done that since I was nine years old. I guess Aya knew the whole time, but she didn’t let on. The restaurant we ended up at was Pronto in Royal Oak. The class we decided to take was scheduled in March and was called, “Island Fever – A tour of the Greek Islands – Mediterranean Flair -Simple but never plain!”
When it came to celebrating Ellie’s birthday, we really didn’t want to do anything big. We just wanted to have my folks and my brother and sister-in-law over for dinner. It’s pretty rare that just the six of us get together, so we thought it’d be nice to do for Ellie’s birthday. We decided to have tacos, and cupcakes. And since it was here first birthday, I wanted to make the cupcakes from scratch. Not like she would know the difference, but I still wanted to. Continue reading “YEAR ONE: THE PARTY”
I was on a mission to find the perfect spice jars. Since I’m the head chef these days, I have to look at the disorganized spice rack all the time and it’s not very user friendly. They are all from different stores and brands with different labels. Some have black caps, green caps, red caps, it’s awful. So with the New Year here, I decided it was time to get a fresh start in my cabinets hopefully making my cooking experience more enjoyable and efficient. Continue reading “OPERATION SPICE”
