Chef Debbie's Easter Hodgepodge Blog

Today's blog is full of chatty little blurbs.

This is finally the last weekend of tax season.

Sweet husband, Tim, has been working 7 days a week since mid~February and it'll be nice to see him for more than about 10 minutes a day before he falls into bed.

Yesterday, I drove over to Indiana to meet my dear foodie friend and personal chef extraordinaire, Liz Geeslin, of In Good Taste Personal Chef Service in Lebanon, IN.

We met in Shelbyville for lunch at a bookstore~cafe called Three Sisters Books & Gifts located in the public square circle.

It's a darling place ~ not a frilly, foufou place ~ that is actually owned by three sisters. They specialize in panini sandwiches and homemade desserts ~ I had the cherry~chocolate cake which was light and fluffy and oh, so good! If you're ever in the area, it's well worth slogging through the road construction to stop in for coffee and dessert.

The weather is finally going to be nice for the weekend ~ but next week it's going to rain almost every day! If you're boiling eggs to hide for the kiddies on Easter morning, boil a few more and try this client favorite:

Deviled Egg Salad with Dill
Makes 12 servings

Ingredients
12 large eggs
2T shallot, finely minced
1/4c mayonnaise
1/4c sour cream
1T Dijon mustard
2T flat leaf parsley, chopped
3T fresh dill, chopped
2T chives, chopped
kosher salt and cracked black pepper, to taste

Place eggs in single layer in large Dutch oven. Add enough cold water just to cover the eggs. Bring to a rapid boil over high heat ~ water will have large rapidly breaking bubbles. Remove from heat, cover and let stand 14 minutes. Drain and run cold water over eggs until cool enough to handle. Drain and peel eggs.

Grate eggs using large hole side of box grater. Add remaining ingredients and mix well. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

I've had several clients over the last week asking what a personal chef has for a holiday dinner. Well. That's an interesting question for this time of year.

I'm making Marinated Baby Lamb Chops for my clients' Easter dinner but with sweet husband working all day, and the small fact that he's not a huge fan of lamb, we're going non~traditional for Easter dinner.

Yep. About as non~traditional as you can get. Ham & Beans with homemade jalapeno cornbread. And lots of chopped onion on the side. It is difficult, though, to find a proper wine to go with Ham & Beans!

If you like Lamb Chops, this is what my clients are having for Easter Dinner:

Marinated Baby Lamb Chops with Cucumber~Mint Relish
Serves 4

8 baby lamb chops
1/2c olive oil
6 garlic cloves, minced
2t dried rosemary, chopped
1/4c fresh mint leaves, chopped
1T lemon juice
1t salt

Relish:
2 large cucumbers, peeled, seeded, small diced
1T salt
1/4c onion, minced
1/4c red bell pepper, chopped
1/4c fresh mint leaves, chopped
1/4c rice wine vinegar
1 garlic clove, finely minced
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and minced

Prepare relish: Place diced cucumber in fine mesh sieve set over a bowl. Sprinkle with salt and let drain for 1 hour. Pat dry with paper towels and place in a clean bowl. Add remaining relish ingredients and toss to combine. Cover and refrigerate up to 6 hours. Stir well to serve.

Place lamb chops in large zip~lock bag. In small bowl, combine olive oil, garlic, rosemary, mint, lemon juice and salt. Pour marinade over lamb chops, seal and refrigerate up to 8 hours.

Preheat broiler. Place lamb chops on broiler pan and cook until medium~rare, approximately 2~3 minutes per side depending upon thickness of the chops. Remove from oven and serve with cucumber~relish.

Chef Debbie's Dumped Strawberry Muffins

I found myself with a plethora of strawberries and an extra hour on a Sunday.

As many of you know, I hate to bake. No. Let me clarify that. I HATE to bake.

There. That's better.

In the past, I've called myself a dump cook. I dump it in and cook it!

So when I found this recipe online, with just a few tweaks here and there, I was able to dump together these super~simple, delicious muffins.

Chef Debbie's Dumped Strawberry Muffins
Makes 16 muffins

Ingredients:
2 1/2c all~purpose flour
1c whole wheat flour
1c sugar
1t salt
1T + 1t baking powder
1t cinnamon
3c chopped strawberries, fresh or frozen
1/2c canola oil
1c milk
2 eggs
1/2c brown sugar
1t vanilla
zest of 1 lemon

If you're using frozen strawberries, allow them to thaw a little and then chop.

Preheat oven to 375 and line muffin tin with paper liners.

In large bowl combine flours, sugar, salt, baking powder and cinnamon. Stir together well.

Add chopped strawberries to flour mixture and toss well to coat all strawberries with flour.

In small bowl combine oil, milk, eggs, brown sugar, vanilla and lemon zest. Whisk together well. Pour wet mixture into flour mixture and stir until well blended.

Fill muffin cups almost to top. Bake 25~28 minutes or until the tops bounce back when touched and are golden brown. Remove from oven, cool 10 minutes. Remove from pans and cool on wire racks.

Chef Debbie's "Notes to Self"

I've got to quit answering my phone!

I know it's not April Fool's Day. Yet. Maybe I'm on an episode of Punk'd?

Yesterday's phone call:

Hi, this is Debbie.

Hi Debbie. I'm looking to hire a personal chef but have a very specific requirement.

No problem. I can handle your special dietary needs, medically restricted diets or picky children. Bring it on.

Note to self ~ NEVER say Bring it on again!

Well... we really don't have any special dietary requirements and the children will eat anything we put in front of them. No, this is more about our house rule.

Uh, OK. What is the house rule?

We never wear shoes in the house and we require everyone who enters to remove his shoes also.

Well, does the garage enter into the laundry room and/or kitchen so that I won't be walking on your carpet?

No, you don't understand. We do not allow shoes anywhere in the house.

Dead silence on my end.

Hello? Are you there?

OK. Let me get this straight. You want me to schlep in heavy boxes of equipment, work on a hard kitchen floor all day without any type of foot support and, let's not forget, work with razor sharp knives that I could drop onto MY unprotected feet and toes or carry heavy pots of boiling water that I could easily spill when I slip on something because I don't have my non~skid shoes on? That type of "we don't allow shoes anywhere in the house" rule?

Yes.

What I said: I'm sorry but I'm not the personal chef you're looking for. Good luck, though. I hope there's someone out there who can help you.

What I wanted to say: Have they let all the kooks out of Kookville today? Are you freaking nuts? How much insurance do you have because when I drop my chef's knife and chop off a few of MY toes, I intend to develop a very intimate relationship with your insurance adjuster!

Kooks in Kookville. That's a good one ~ I gotta remember that one!

Note to self ~DO NOT answer the phone on April Fool's Day!

I need another martini!

Chef Debbie is in Your Face!

You can't open the paper, drive down the highway or go to the grocery store without seeing my smiling face everywhere you look!

I received a phone call from Queen Janeen, the queenly half of the WGRR Married With Microphones morning team.

Seems that she saw one of the billboards while driving down to work one morning.

And, at 4:30 in the a.m., seeing my face 15' tall in 4~color with that screaming yellow background, well it's amazing there haven't been a few multi~car pileups!

If it were just a few billboards all over town, then you'd be able to avoid me.

But nooooo. In fact, everywhere you look, I'm right there looking back atcha!

In the front section of the Sunday Enquirer, in all that yellow 4~color glory. In the Door Store. Online on the bigg's website. In the store ads.

Is this my 15 minutes of fame? I'm ready for my closeup Mr. DeMille.

Chef Debbie Says Urrrgh!

What is it with people these days!

Do I have a sign on my forehead that proclaims "Yes! I LOVE spending hours planning your party so you can give my menu to your friend who's a fabulous cook."

This has happened twice in the last couple of weeks ~ and I'm not happy about it. In fact, I'm downright PO'd.

The first one was a small dinner party for 20. Black tie servers, beef tenderloin, scallops gratin, appetizers and the rest of the goodies.

Her phone call..

Uh Debbie? I have a friend who's a "fabulous cook" and said she could do my dinner with your menu for only $30 per person. You've quoted me a lot more and I wonder if you could match her price.

Yeah right. If I bought ground round at Costco and told you it was tenderloin. And used cheese in a can. And finished off the rest of the dinner with samples from McDonalds, Taco Bell and made snow ice cream.

I'm sorry if I gave you the impression my price is negotiable. I've spent years perfecting my trade and can guarantee that your meal would be of the quality of one of Cincinnati's finest dining establishments.
I also have a $1million liability insurance policy in the very small chance that I'd break something in your home or that one of your guests would become ill from something I cooked. If you have a price of $30 per person for my menu, then you should go with your friend.
I highly suggest you ask if she has liability insurance ~ just in case.

Urrrgh!

About that same time, I received a phone call from a local organization who needed a very large, black tie, super elegant event. Servers, valet service, sous chefs, you name it. I was going to need about 20 people, not including the valet service. And elegant, gourmet, sophisticated, eye~popping food and decor for 175.

So I put together a killer menu. More than 20 passed canapes, raw seafood bar, dessert and chocolate fondue bar, sushi bar, blini bar, and don't forget the cocktail bar.

They loved the menu. And. Then. Nothing.

Until the phone call.

Hi. This is Debbie.

Hi Deb. I'm calling about the event.
I could probably lose my job over this but I felt you needed to know what was going on here.

Uh oh. That's never good when somebody starts the conversation with I could lose my job over this, but...

OK. Tell me. Did you change the date, decide to change the menu, what?

No, we love the menu. I mean we really LOVE the menu. But my boss has a friend who...

Here it comes. I know what's going to fall out of her mouth now.

...is a caterer and said she'd take your menu and beat your quote by 15% automatically.

Visions of my good 12" chef's knife sticking out of the caterer's back dance through my head. Oh wait. The caterer wouldn't know what my menu was unless somebody gave it to her.

Thank you so much for calling ~ I know it must have been a difficult decision for you but I truly appreciate it. I have spent over 8 hours pricing this out already and could have easily spent another day or more working on it. Not to mention the time it takes my vendors to give me their prices.

So what would you have done? Sweet devious husband said I should give a quote of around $2000 for the entire event. And then back out.

While I would never never never do anything like that, I must admit that in the far back reaches of my once~in~a~while mean streak, that did sound like good fun!

But. I've decided, the old idiom is true. What goes around, comes around.

I just hope I'm around to see it!

Chef Debbie Has Gas Issues!

So. I really don't endorse products or services.

Unless it's a family owned small business grocer, butcher or farm market. Like my buddy, De Stewart, at Herbs & Spice located in historic Findlay Market.

But.

bigg's has introduced a new customer incentive program called bigg's Pump Perks®.

The incentive program has only been in effect for two weeks. And, this is THE BEST customer incentive program they could have ever devised for ME.

For every $10 you spend, you receive .01 (one cent) off of 20 gallons of gas at Sunoco. And, then there are the incentive items. Purchase certain items and receive an additional .01~.15 cents off PER GALLON of gas.

Last week, the first week of the program, I bought my normal weekly client groceries on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Had to fill up on Thursday morning.

Gas was $1.77/gallon. I paid $1.02/gallon for 20 gallons.

Not bad. In fact, after the last couple of years, paying just $1.02/gallon for gas is down right freaking great.

Today gas was $1.95/gallon. I paid $0.019 ~ yes, less then 2 cents per gallon ~ for 20 gallons.

In other words, I paid a mere 38 cents for 20 gallons of gas today.

Finally, it's more than a job going to the grocery store.

And when you drive something as big as the Yummy~mobile, paying less than 2 cents per gallon of gas is a really really good thing!

The down side of this program? I can't ever travel again. Imagine paying full price for a gallon of gas!

Yes. Spoiled brat is back.

Oh, by the way.

Look for a familiar smiling Chef face in this weekend's bigg's Pump Perks® weekly newspaper ads.

Personal Chef to the "Jock Chef"

My buddy, Shayne Graham, and I spent a lot of time together in the days before this taping:

Shayne the Jock Chef

Before you get the wrong idea ~ Shayne really CAN cook.

In fact, he's quite competent in the kitchen. And, not too bad on the eyes either.

But that's neither here nor there.

Shayne called me in late September and said that ESPN The Magazine wanted to shoot a video of him cooking for Jock Chef. He needed to do something "different" from what the other athletes had done ~ dishes they learned from mom like fried chicken and greens, roasted chicken and veggies, or pretty much anything with shrimp.

We decided his menu needed to be upscale, but healthy and flavorful. And it needed to be easy to prep, finishing and putting one course in the oven and naturally flowing into working on the next without it being too complicated to follow on video. And it had to be something he'd naturally cook if he had the time and didn't have moi as his personal chef.

Bison was the answer.

We practiced. And practiced. And practiced. The final menu? Bison Tenderloin rubbed with kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper roasted medium rare; Roasted Asparagus; Scalloped Swiss Potatoes; and, a medley of mixed berries with fresh whipped cream.

Was it a success? According to ESPN, "Dude can Cook."

A Perfect Christmas Gift for Chef Debbie

Sweet husband, Tim, and I don't buy Christmas gifts for each other.

Let's face it. We have absolutely everything we need ~ our health, fluffy butt Rusty, a house we love, jobs we love, each other.

With all that, we certainly don't need presents!

But. I was given the most amazing Christmas gift.

7:30 p.m. Christmas Eve. Finished cooking for the day. Wine. Cheese. Sweet husband and I are enjoying a snack together. By ourselves.

Then my cell phone rings.

BIG SIGH

Hi. This is Debbie.

Hi Deb. This is Diane. We just finished dinner and wanted to say THANK YOU! It was amazing. Hold on. Everyone wants to talk to you.

Group yelling in the background

THANK YOU DEBBIE!

Back to Diane.

Dinner was amazing. The beef wellingtons were perfect. The roasted asparagus was perfect. The shrimp was perfect. The crème brulé was light and fluffy. It was perfect. I didn't want to bother you on Christmas Eve but just HAD to tell you how perfect everything was for dinner.

Internal BIG SIGH of relief.

Diane, you've made my day. This is the nicest present anyone could have given me. Thanks so much!

Sometimes the best present is the simplest present.

Thank you, my friends, for your love and support throughout the year. For putting up with my (occasional) grumpybuttness. For offering to help chop, sauté, grocery shop or anything else when I'm absolutely swamped. For visiting Bacchus with me occasionally.

Merry Christmas. I hope your day was filled with love, good food and great wine.

Christmas Roses for Chef Debbie

The holidays are almost over.

Very loud singing chorus of Hallelujah!

Don't get me wrong. It's been a long, hard and profitable year with the last couple of months bringing 7~day work weeks and sometimes 2 clients a day. That can mean 18 hours, or more, at a time on these old legs.

Old being the key word.

Knowing how hard I've been working ~ and trying to not be a grumpybutt (which I've been told can "occasionally" occur when I'm overworked and to my mind under appreciated) ~ sweet husband did something he's never done before in our 20+ years together.

Surprise roses.

For no reason.

At least, I think, for no reason.

Or maybe it's because after he hurt his leg helping me at Thanksgiving, I've tried to not ask him to do so much.

I've tried not to ask him to load and unload the Yummy~mobile, haul and tote everything in and out of every client's home every day or ask him to come load me up "just a few minutes early to help me finish cleaning up."

Just a few minutes cleaning up in Yummy~world that means 2 hours scraping plates, cleaning and reboxing chafing dishes, washing or drying said plates, reloading the crates to reload in Yummy~mobile, yada yada blah de blah)

Thinking about it, the surprise roses were for no reason.

Except that sweet husband really is a sweet husband.

Chef Debbie's "Christmas With The Crazies"

What is it about this time of year that brings out the crazies?

This time last year, I swore I was going to turn my cell phone off this year. But I haven't.

Yet.

Today's phone call:

Hi, this is Debbie

Hi. I want to buy my boss a gift certificate for Christmas. He's a single guy and I was thinking about a meal or two for him.

I have a small package that would be perfect for him. It's just 3 entrées, 2 servings of each, with the appropriate side dishes and it's just $xxx.

What! For that kind of money, I'd expect 3 or 4 weeks worth of meals! I just want a couple of meals and it shouldn't cost any more than $30 or $40. After all, it's just a couple of meals and I can't believe it would take you that much time.

I appreciate what you're saying. Let me tell you how a personal chef service works so that...

Interrupting me with a big, very audible and prolonged SIGH from her...
OK I get that I have to pay for your time also. I can go as high as $45 but that's as much as I'm going to pay. After all, in today's economy, you can't be that busy.

I'm sorry if I gave you the impression that my price is negotiable. The price for the service I just told you about is $xxx. Perhaps you should consider a gift certificate to...

wanted to say McDonalds, Taco Bell or Burger King but instead...

a nice family style restaurant like Friday's, Chili's or Applebee's.

Geesh! You always sound so nice on the radio. Guess I'll just have to call the station and let them know you aren't very accommodating to their listeners.

Why me?