hello, my lovelies!

How I've missed you!

Okay, actually I was having way too good of a time with Schwatts in York to miss anything. I didn't want to come home! First of all, it was just great to see my gal since I hadn't seen her since our beach trip. She's one of my very favorite people on earth, and I don't know anyone else like her. If there were any justice in this world I would be able to clone an extra to keep in my pocket at all times. Plus, even before she went to culinary school she was one of my favorite cooks ever--always beautiful and delicious food infused with love.

I arrived on Saturday afternoon, and we had some wine, ran some errands, and then came back home and made dinner. She made grilled pizzas--three varities! I was in charge of rolling out pizza dough, and she was in charge of making the magic happen. My favorite variety was arugula, pears, honey, olive oil and brie. Oh, dang. It was amazing! And, then we had a tomato-veggie version and a pepperoni-veggie version for her main man, Joe.






The next morning she let me in on her plan of attack (personal cheffing takes a LOT of organization), and we shopped, made sauces and then made ourselves a fabulous dinner. Firstly, I gotta say, I'd never made homemade mayo before. I've made vegan mayo, but never the real deal. It makes such a difference! We made a regular mayo and then an herbed aioli--which is one of the Best Things Ever To Touch My Taste Buds EVER! Seriously, rich, fragrant, gorgeously velvety. I'll never buy store-bought mayo again (unfortunately I *just* bought a jar of Hellman's). I could've eaten a bowl of it!

That evening we made ourselves a pasta dish with lots of veggies and a rich cream sauce (I've always been terrified of making cream sauces and gravies, but Schwatts let me do it with her guidance). It turned out so well that I forgot to take pictures! Suffice it to say, it was heaven with a side of garlic bread. For real. We ate it, and then both passed out on our respective couches moments after she said, "now, let's not fall asleep out here...".

The next morning we got up early and went to the local culinary school where she rents a kitchen (for her Jon & Kate clients since she can't cook there), and whipped up a Chicken and Veg Soba salad with peanut sauce, scalloped potatoes, roasted asparagus and crabcakes (with the glorious herbed aioli). And, I got to have her teach me to make a roux (for the potatoes), which is another one of those creamy things that I'm a-scared of. I meant, again, to snap some photos, but forgot until we'd already cooled and packaged everything. But, it looked gorgeous and delicious. It was so fun to get to work in a big kitchen like that, and so fun to cook with Katherine (aka Schwatts). I normally get all uptight if there are peeps in the kitchen with me while I'm cooking, but we worked like a well-oiled machine (well, I thought so, she might have been telling me to get offa her land! in her head). Then we stopped off for some giant and tasty burritos at a local spot.




That night for dinner she made a big salad (arugula, toasted pine nuts, parmesan, gorgonzola, red peppers, sugar snap peas, carrots, scallions) with a fantabulous pomegranate vinaigrette and I made some grilled cheese sandwiches on pumpernickel with triple cream brie and some hard farmers' goat cheese and, Schwatts' brilliant addition, herbs de Provence. It was heavenly. Really. The perfect meal.


I got to see all the ins and outs--the cooking, the scheduling, the writing menus, making grocery lists, cooling, packaging...I didn't get to do the delivery with her because they pushed it back a day, but it was all so much fun!

And, when we weren't cooking, we were hanging out with her fabulous fella, Joe, and their dog, Gus (The Gutmaster General, Baby Lambda--half lamb, half panda, Guttercup) and two cats--Natalie (who I dearly, dearly love and who has the sweetest cat face ever) and Goya (who is kind of a jerk, but has the cutest spotted back left foot and moments of pure sweetness).

I wish you could see her face straight-on because it is seriously gorgeous:


Goya, doing his every-two-minute ritual of being let in/out the door:


The Gutmaster General, and I don't know if you can tell in these pictures, but he is huge. Seriously, his head is at least twice the size of mine. He's a St. Bernard, and weighs almost 150 pounds. And, all those pounds are comprised of sweetness and love. He could be the K-Bear's long lost soul mate.
Here he is taking up almost a whole couch:


And, here's his glamour shot on the porch:


Speaking of the porch, it's beautiful. They have a beautiful home, and the back porch is very reminiscent of our porch at the beach, but even bigger and more beautiful!


All in all, it was a dream visit. Katherine and Joe are incredibly gracious hosts, have a lovely and comfortable home, anticipate the needs of their guest, and I learned a ton. I wish they would adopt me! Thank you, Schwattzie-Bear!

let the games begin!

I just had one good thing happen, one bad.

The bad is that I'm done with pet-sitting Emmett and crew for now. It was heartbreaking to leave my little love. All of them are sweeties, but EK + Emmett = TLA! For reals! For keeps!

But, the good thing is that when I went over to Emmett's house at lunch, Kramer met me over there with two hot vegan reubens! Like, two for me! And, they were pipin' hot! 'Cause I was supposed to get in on some reuben action last night, but I was exhausted from lack of sleep the night before and begged off to curl up on the couch with Emmett and watch a bunch of episodes of Weeds on demand. So, Kramer did a wonderful good deed by not letting me miss out on the reuben fun. These are the reubens she made last night for herself, Mags and E-dawg. That is a pile o' love right there if I ever saw one, son! Kramer is a reuben fairy.


Actually, I ate pretty well all day yesterday. For lunch I got some take-out from a little spot near my work called the Orient Express (that link is actually to a not-so-good review, but what I had was excellent). I got the General Tso's Tofu, and it was outstanding. Not the overly sweet goopy sauce I usually see, but a bright sauce that was sweet and spicy. The tofu was lightly fried and was the texture of little clouds. The rice was great. The veggie eggroll was great. Yuh-um. I'll be back (and yes, I did say that in an Arnold voice. so?).

Guess what I'm gonna do this weekend (actually Sat-Tues)? I'm going to visit my friend Schwattzie-Bear in York, PA. She has a personal chef business there, and so I'm going to be her volunteer sous chef (we're actually cooking for a reality show--"Jon & Kate...Plus 8!", so that pretty much means I'm famous by association. For real. No, really. For real, as in reality show. Feel me?). It's gonna be so fun!

So, you're probably wondering where the games come into this post since the title is "let the games begin!", right? Well, when I was parting ways with Kramer this afternoon she said, "This is gonna get a mention in the blog, right?". And, it gave me an idea. You, dear readers, can now compete to do wonderful things for me so I'll mention you/it in the blog. I know you're probably really, really, really excited right now, and may not be thinking straight in the moment so here are some ideas. Please feel free to mix-n-match and make up your own. Please also feel free to do as many as you can. Because, through the wonders of the internets and this-here blog, you Could.Be.Famous!!!

--foot rubs!
--neck and shoulder rubs!
--cupcakes!
--mashed potatoes!
--pretending to be me and going to work in my place!
--being my personal driver!
--buttermilk biscuits!
--your own perfected and healthy version of java fried rice!
--a lifetime subscription to Spice Island!
--items from my amazon wishlist!

Have a good weekend, loves. See you on Wednesday!

housekeeping light

First things first, I got some spammy-ass comment the other day, so I changed things up so that you have to enter some code to prove you're not a bot. Hopefully you're not actually a bot, and won't mind this minor inconvenience. (But, if you are a bot, I'm sort of jealous--not that you spend your days spamming, but just 'cause being a [ro]bot sounds like fun. For one, you could dance like a mo-fo. Personally, I enjoy dancing like a mo-fo).

Can someone give me the definitive answer on a grammar question I constantly struggle with since I'm quite addicted to parentheticals? So, when you're ending a sentence--especially in a series of sentences--inside a set of parentheses, where does the punctuation go? What if the parenthetical is a question, but the sentence as a whole is a statement, of vice versa?

Okay, anyway. I'll wait for your answer while I continue about my blog post, and, will, abuse, commas, as, is, my, custom, and, will, not, care.

I was planning on posting yesterday, but took off at lunch to go to Pitt to attend the PA HB1400 hearing, and decided to stay and take the rest of the afternoon off. It was really interesting. The gist of the bill is that it will include sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression in the language to prohibit discrimination for employment and housing. Luckily, in the 'Burgh, we already have that language, but most of the rest of the state does not. The committee requested more personal stories (of instance where discrimination has occurred based on these factors), so if you have a story, please share. Rep. Dan Frankel is sponsoring this bill, so I'm guessing his office would be a great place to send that, as well as to your very own personal legislator. Take action, peeps! It's important! Even if you don't have a personal story, please express your support!

In other news, I just was able to catch up with one of my favorite ladies on the planet, via the telephone, a couple days ago. Schwatts is one of my dearest friends, if not the nearest. She currently resides in York, PA, and recently started a personal chef business there: Dish! And, she's already super-busy and pretty much taking York by storm. So, I'm going to visit and volunteer as a sous chef for a couple days next month to get a taste of the Day In The Life of a Personal Chef! And, I get to have some Schwattzie-time. I can't wait!

Oh, and here is a pic of the Squash Spice Bread that I made the other day. It was very, very moist (like, puddin') and not very sweet, but good. But, I think it was especially wet because I used some water in baking the squash, and then didn't drain it after. I liked it, but next time I'd remove more of the moisture from the squash (or, um, just cook the squash like the recipe says to), add a little more sugar and a little dash of cloves. Or, mix it up entirely, and use some Indian spicing. Hmmm...


Guess where Mags and I are going to lunch today! Guess! Okay, here's a hint. It rhymes with Brice Bisland Bea Bouse. Say that three times fast. Again! Again! Okay. You can access the menu here, 'cause they don't have their own site. Hello, Brava Bried Brice.

Also, TGIF, my peeps! That is what I'm talkin' about! I'm headed to Gist Street and then a drag king show at the Eagle. And, I'm dog-sitting my special little guy, Zeke, this weekend! And, Sunday is the return of the epic battle: EK vs The Gooch in: Scrabble Smackdown! Weeeeeeeeekkkkkkkeeeeeeennnnnnnnddddd!!!!!!!!!!!!!!