Happy Thanksgiving!

Everyone, let's play a game. Let's pretend we're not actually approaching the month of June. Let's pretend that we haven't seen any Spring tulips blooming and that we haven't yet left cookies and a carrot out for Santa and Rudolph. Let's pretend instead that we're approaching the month of December and that I just got back from celebrating Thanksgiving with my family. Everyone with me? Tremendous!

For the first time in nearly two decades, my family was all together for Thanksgiving this, er, last year. We decided to do something out of the ordinary and head west to Los Angeles instead of east to Georgia. Now that Asher is a busy little lady, Michael and Wynn didn't want to be those parents on a plane that you want to smack while their kid runs freely up and down the aisle. Personally, I'd rather watch that beauty run freely around the backyard anyway.

My family is awesome. It's taken years of healing hurts and moving past old wounds to get to a place where I can say that but I look at us all now and I'm proud. Asher being born (and now sweet Georgia whom we won't discuss yet because that will confuse you with my attempted time travel post here) has brought a depth to this fleeting life that has made us all appreciate one another just a little bit more. That's the good stuff, you know? That outlines the value of our time together over Thanksgiving.

Michael and Wynn live on a beautiful street lined with lemon and palm trees. It's as quintessentially LA as you can get but with an authenticity not often found in that city. They have a small garden in their backyard with herbs and flowers and a persimmon tree sits outside their kitchen. I'm a fan of their cozy, sweet home. My favorite time together is in the morning, mainly because Michael does his routine with Asher of "opening the house". They open all the blinds and say hello to the trees and birds and lemons… It's darling. Know what else is darling? Footie pajamas:

It's just not acceptable for a grown woman to be jealous of those. I could never look that cute.

Quick side note. My brother is the most incredible father I've ever seen. He personifies patience, unconditional love, tenderness and a whole slew of other killer qualities that I hope I find in a man one day. It about melted me down into a puddle of goo when he had to leave for work and say goodbye to Asher:

I can hardly handle the sweetness. He made sure to swing with her as soon as he got home though. If I were a betting man, I'd bet he had more fun than her:

Our visit overall was spent talking a lot about food and wine - especially since we all hadn't been together since Allison finished wine school and me culinary school - drinking great coffee, strolling up to Larchmont Village for scones at the farmers market and prepping our long awaited turkey day dinner. However, in the midst of all of that, Michael and Wynn arranged for a private VIP tour of Paramount which conveniently is a stone's throw from their house. I was straight up psyched:

Ain't even ashamed to be a tourist.

Due to both Michael and Wynn's connections, we were able to see rooms not open to the public and walk around areas that are normally closed off. It was badass and I loved every minute of it, particularly the archive room, Eddie Murphy's suit from 'Coming to America' and Forrest Gump's shoes:

Jen-naaaaaaay.

The NYC sets were incredible, too. They replicate several different areas of the city, be it seedy spots down near Bowery, fancy brownstones in Brooklyn or pristine sidewalks on Park Avenue:

Did you know they actually hire people to walk around certain patches of cement they ship in and chew gum, spit it out and step on it in order to replicate a real sidewalk? It's insane how meticulous these movie sets are. I'm pretty sure I'd be a stellar gum chewer and spitter outer but they weren't hiring. 

It was such a fun surprise and experience. 

Being in 70 degree weather didn't make it feel like it was Thanksgiving but our feast sure did:

I don't want to brag so I will. It was a damn fine dinner now that a chef and sommelier are handling things. I envision delicious holiday dinners from here on out. 

At that point, we were still anxiously awaiting the day that Georgia would join our family:

I guess it's a little embarrassing that she's now two months old and I'm just now posting this. 

What an awesome, rich weekend. I love belonging to a family of artists. I believe there's a part of us that just might relish in moments of meaning a little more deeply than others. The sun shines a little brighter, the hugs last a little longer and the mere presence of just being together leaves a deeper imprint on our hearts. I love my family. They're my favorites and I'm more thankful than ever for them this last holiday season.

Asher The Angel

Ok, I know what I'm about to say is so cliche and totally subjective but I'm gonna say it anyway. I have the most adorable niece in the entire world. This is a fact. Although I'd heard said fact from my entire family already, I had yet to meet sweet Asher myself until last weekend.

I had a busy couple of weekends with heading back to NYC for my formal culinary graduation (post on that coming soon!) and then following that with going to LA. Since Asher was born, my life has been all over the place so I was psyched to finally carve out time for a visit, especially given the fact that Michael and Wynn have been equally as busy.

The weekend definitely started off in style when I landed at LAX and was escorted out to my limo, courtesy of Michael. People, limos will never, ever go out of style in my book. Yes, I felt like I was in an 80's movie and yes, there's an element of cheesiness involved, but it's just awesome. I only wish I could've hung out the sunroof like Tom Hanks in 'Big' but, alas, there was no sunroof. Shouldn't every limo have one? I think so. When I pulled up to Michael and Wynn's, I just died over how lovely their place is. Even at night, I felt an immediate coziness before I even went inside. It was pretty late so, sadly, Asher was already asleep but that gave Michael, Wynn and I some quality time to catch up. They'd made a terrific spread with cheese, snacks and wine and we talked for a couple of hours before heading to bed.

When we got up on Saturday morning, Asher decided she wanted to sleep in! Didn't she realize I was chomping at the bit to meet her?! When Michael went to get her, I nearly fell off the couch when he walked in with her. 1) Michael is a DAD. 2) Asher is like sunshine, truly. I nearly bawled my eyes out seeing Michael with her and then just seeing them as a family. I think you can tell I'm pretty happy to meet that little lamb finally:

There aren't words for how precious this child is. I'm in love, head over heels. I got to watch Michael do his morning routine of "opening the house" with her where they walk around and open all the shades and windows and say good morning to the trees, the birds, the sun...I mean, it took everything in me not to lose it watching how sweet and precious these moments are. Michael said she smiles just as big every single morning when they do this! I just died, truly:

After that, Asher showed me her books and toys and guess what her favorite toys are? Yep, spatulas:

She's gonna be a chef like me, I just know it. ;) I could've watched Michael and Wynn with her forever. They are the sweetest family:

After a while, we decided to get a move on and head into Larchmont Village, the cute little town just a walk away from the house. We decided on breakfast at Larchmont Bungalow where we drank great coffee, shared a lovely strawberry muffin and my breakfast panini was bigger than me:

Drool.

Afterward, we walked around for a while enjoying the pretty morning before heading back to put Asher down for a nap:

I can't tell you how precious this time with the three of them was. Just roaming around, talking, laughing, celebrating the joy of Asher...it was so special. It was only just morning still but I was already feeling sad about leaving! 

When Asher woke up from her nap, we spent the rest of the day outside in Michael and Wynn's darling little garden. Wynn takes Asher out there nearly everyday and was telling me how fun it is to watch her feel the grass, dig up dirt and explore their garden. I absolutely loved being out there with them:

My favorite part of the day (and weekend, honestly!) was feeding Asher lunch! Michael and Wynn have been cooking and pureeing only fresh veggies from the farmer's market with olive oil and herbs from their garden and it makes my heart swell knowing the goodness they're feeding her. Not only that, she loves it all! I so loved being able to experience this time with her. It was just so fun to watch her decide if she liked things:

It's like hmmm, what is this?:

Yuck, I'm totally not into it:

 Wellllll, maybe it's not so bad after all:

I mean, how do you not want to squeeze those cheeks?

As evening approached, we decided on dinner at Le Petit Greek. We sat outside where Asher joined us at the table like the polite little lady she is:

The food was great, the wine was perfect and the company goes without saying. ;)

Sunday, we got up super early and headed to the farmer's market for fresh scones and coffee:

If there's one thing anyone should know about me, it's that I LOVE farmer's markets. Being surrounded by such goodness from the earth connects with my soul and I totally love it so that was a perfect way to start the morning. We picked up a bunch of bright, vibrant veggies and, after sitting outside with our coffee for a bit, we went back home and got to work making food for Asher for the week. We did zucchini with fresh mint from the garden, rosemary potatoes, lemon brussels sprouts, oats with cinnamon and plain broccoli since she hadn't tried it before. We all shared a terrific lunch of quiche and salad while we fed Asher her amazing treats for lunch. Far too soon, it was time for me to leave for the airport and my heart sank. I just did not want to leave this precious family. 

The weekend spent with them was one of the best I've had in so long. The joy, happiness, positivity, love...I could go on and on...that you feel in their household and simply being around them is priceless. I felt uplifted in my spirit and I thought about how happy I was the whole flight home. 

Often in life, we lose perspective so quickly as to what really matters and what's really important. One of my biggest goals right now is to treasure and relish in the life I have and the blessings surrounding me. I've been fortunate enough to live a life full of richness that many others may never experience. It's so easy for any of us to sink into the mundane bogs of life sometimes without recognizing just how blessed we are. I'd already been working on changing that and, after spending the weekend surrounded by such wonder and love, I know for certain how truly incredible it is to choose to live like that. As Michael says, it's all about being intentional about your life and your path. Out of all the things in life that we can't control, we certainly can choose to view the world through eyes like Asher, full of wonder, amazement, excitement and joy. I want that in my daily life and you know what? It's right in front of me...of us...if we so choose to embrace it.

Thank you for a beautiful weekend, Michael and Wynn. I love and miss the three of you more than words!

Tournage? Boooo!

Yesterday was our third and final day of knife skills in the kitchen. We learned 'tournage' which is the technique used to make cuts resulting in faceted, oval shapes with seven sides. There are several cuts that can be done this way with different lengths but we focused on doing cocottes which are 5cm long. During the demo, Chef Jessica's cocottes were perfect and she made it look so easy...it's NOT. Let's hope I really do get better at this as time goes on because it ain't so pretty right now! I can tell you that it gives me a huge appreciation for when I've seen these lovely shapes of vegetables at various dinners I've been to. I understand much more what hard work is behind a lot of what I've had the pleasure of eating, that's for sure. We practiced tournage on patate (potatoes) for a while before getting into our recipe for the day, panzanella or bread salad. It's a lovely red wine vinegar based dish made with day old bread, fresh tomatoes, cucumber, bell pepper, scallion - it's a summer dish typically and great for picnics and so on. I really love it so I had fun learning how to make it!

The cool part of this panzanella is that we added anchovies. I was never an anchovy or sardine person until I went to Sicily last year. I had some of the most amazing dishes made with one or the other. It surprised me to no end that one of my very favorite dishes from the entire trip was fresh anchovies in lemon juice and olive oil, that's it. You wouldn't believe how delicious they were. Of course, they were basically pulled right out of the sea and put onto our plates so that certainly had something to do with it. We'll be working with anchovies a good bit in this program so yesterday was the day we learned to fillet them. I have never filleted anything in my life so, while an anchovy is quite a small fish, it still has a spine you have to pull out, eeeek. There are a ton of small pin bones in anchovies and it's impossible to get them all out. However, it was pretty cool to do something like that for the first time!

Unfortunately, there are no photos from today because I was slow as molasses in plating my final product. I needed to present to Chef Jessica and get my station cleaned up so you don't get to see the pretty panzanella, booo. She said my composition was really good overall and it was just lacking an extra bit of salt to make everything pop. I'll be quite excited to make it again when tomatoes are truly in season.

On an unrelated note, I have to share this awesome gift I got in the mail from Michael and Wynn when I got home. There was a cute little package in my mailbox and I opened it up to find the most beautiful leather luggage tags they'd had engraved for me. It's a congratulatory gift for basically having the balls to do this whole thing and I wasn't expecting it at all! The note said they were to help carry my new luggage (a lovely Christmas gift from Allison!) into my new life. How fitting! :) Aren't they awesome:

Such a thoughtful and special surprise!

Happy May, Happy Spring!

Spring was here in full bloom, no pun intended, this past weekend and it couldn't have been more appropriate to welcome in the month of May. I've decided to stop talking about how fast time passes and just do my best to make the most of each day even if they fly by. :P

I was thrilled over the weekend that my brother, Michael, came in town last minute for work. I'd originally had my long bike ride planned for Saturday and Hearth for Sunday but I was excited to postpone Hearth in order to spend the day with him. First off, Saturday could not have been more amazing for a ride. We did 60 miles and I enjoyed every minute of it. We actually stopped for lunch at this great park in a town called Pascack, NJ which was so pretty:

I'm just loving the vibrant colors of trees and flowers right now. We rode along the water a bit as well and I'm mad I didn't get a picture of one of the coral/pink trees I saw. It was stunning! Finally, Spring is sticking around for a bit for us to enjoy it!

On Sunday, I met Michael and Allison at Starbucks and we walked over to church. Tim Keller gave a great service, as usual, and afterward we took a nice walk along Park Avenue to show Michael the metal art that is just so beautiful:

We stopped a few times to look at other flowers and I'm just lucky that they plant my favorite tulips everywhere:

Tulips are such happy flowers. I love how they look like they're just reaching for the sun. They make me smile. :)

We had a lovely brunch at The National which I'd been wanting to try for a while and then we roamed all over Michael's old stomping grounds in the west village for the rest of the day:

There are so many memories there for Michael and it was really interesting seeing several places that had closed down even in just two years that he and Wynn have been in LA. One of his favorite bookstores had closed and turned into a trendy cafe which made him so sad. It's strange to re-visit something, either physically or emotionally, that you were once so tied to. It's a reminder that life keeps moving on whether you're a part of it or not. Then, you look at where you are now and there's joy in that, too. Life's a funny thing, isn't it? 

We stopped by Michael's two apartments and sat on one of his old stoops for a while watching people come and go:

Josh Brolin was one of those people and a) he's hot and 2) he's short. I was shocked. He's still smokin' in my book, though.

We rounded out the day back in our 'hood at Libertador for some caipirinhas and snacks, mmm: 

We talked for a long time there and it was just the perfect way to end such a great day together. Though the visit was short, it was quality. That's so special and I'm very thankful for that time together. Lucky for me, Vermont is less than two weeks away where I'll get yet another wonderful visit with Michael. :) I can't wait!

A White Christmas in Georgia!

Wow, another Christmas has come and gone. It's so very hard to believe. As usual, it was magnificent and I treasure spending that time with my family each year. It was rather bittersweet this time around though because Michael and Wynn stayed in LA and had Wynn's parents fly out to celebrate there. Christmas is the one time each year where we all fly in to be together so it felt very strange not to have them with us. I actually should be kinda pissed off at them because that just meant I ate their share of sausage balls and mini quiches Christmas morning. Thanks a lot, guys.

In all seriousness, we really had a wonderful day together. There were two huge surprises we encountered as well that made this Christmas one of the most memorable celebrations I've had. As a little back story, my family is extremely small. Both sets of grandparents passed away by the time I was 19 and I actually never knew one grandfather or grandmother. My mom's two brothers also passed away and my dad's two sisters I rarely get to see. We have family in St. Louis, some in Georgia, and the rest in New York so you can imagine my surprise when I got a Facebook friend request a couple of months ago from my first cousin, Paul. He's the son of my mom's younger brother who sadly passed away in 1997 and I hadn't been in contact with him for over half my life. It was a crazy feeling seeing that friend request but I accepted and boy, am I glad I did. We've communicated a lot recently and it turns out he's a farmer overseeing a multimillion dollar farm in south Georgia. He's had an incredibly hard life but he's turned so much around to become a hard working, successful man. He lives with his girlfriend, Sherri, who he raves about and they have such a sweet life together. He's told me all about farming peanuts, cotton, and watermelon and how the work is hard but fulfilling. He's such a neat guy and I was so excited when he asked if he and Sherri could stop by on Christmas day since they were driving up to visit her father. Nobody really knew what to expect when he arrived but it turned out to be such a fantastic visit. We all talked about his father and shared tough but necessary stories about some demons he faced. It was especially emotional for mom to see him again since he has essentially had no family for most of his life. It was a touching and deeply meaningful visit for all of us. They stayed and had Christmas dinner with us, too. It's amazing to me what restoration can happen when people open their hearts and lives to believe in and embrace one another. It was wonderful.

What else was wonderful was that we had a white Christmas!!! The news said something about it being 1882 or something nuts like that (sorry, didn't actually look it up) since the last white Christmas and I found that so amazing. It snowed all day, from 9:00am'ish until about 11:00pm. It was so pretty and I have no idea why I didn't think to take a bunch of photos. I snapped this with my phone around 9:00pm:

It really was beautiful and made the day seem even more special to all of us. I honestly can't believe it's come and gone but what a great celebration it was this year. It surely is the perfect way to say farewell to 2010. I hope everyone else out there had as meaningful a day as me!