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Thoughts on Restaurant Life through the eyes of MJ
May 29th, 2011 Last night a former employee stopped by to say hi. He was one of the many teenage dishwasher that have come and gone through the corn doors the past 13 years. What is special about Patrick, is that he came by to say hi and had just graduated from West Point. Yes, West Point Military Academy. I would say that is pretty impressive. Especially with a lot of the younger employees who are in high school, I feel that the restaurant is a learning center about life and just one stop on the path too it. I hope that I motivate them and give them some sense of direction and at least teach them that Windex can''t be used to clean the entire restaurant. Him stopping by made me think of all the past employees who have come and gone from the restaurant. Over the years. One went on to become a nun (yes a nun but I would like to think she found her calling at the Corn exchange but I have a feeling that it goes back farther than us), one ended up having to go to jail, one left a note and never came back, one left a message for me on his answering machine explaining he was threw, one thought I was on the phone too much (ordering product?) and was angry that I wouldn''t make rice pilaf and mash potatoes and serve them from a steam table which would make the line easier. He lasted only a few months and it was after he left that my sister confessed that while I was away in Miami the very first night, he was reading off the specials and when one of them was a balsamic vinegar glaze with rice pilaf, my sister became suspicious and questioned him and tried to see the specials list but never got too. Of course, he had changed the specials and I never knew till he was out the door. One mumbled under his breath “Damn, Gypsy Restaurant,” and other cuss words under his breath during his meltdown and we both agreed on the phone it probably would be a good idea not to come back. Another went outside to smoke and never came back. Of Course, a lot have left for positive reasons like to move away to go to graduate school or to another city for more opportunities or to follow their husband in the military. When I look back on the unhappy departures, I can laugh but at the time it is pretty aggravating, especially when as the owner you pick up the slack. The funniest part of people leaving is that you find out all the things they did while they were employed and of course you never knew about any of it while they were working. Most of it is that they have been horribly rude, but the thing that angers me the most is vicious, misogynistic name calling under their breath and especially thinking that the restaurant is run unprofessionally. The restaurant industry definitely has its nut cases and I know that other industries do as well and I have worked in them but not like the restaurant industry. Who in their right mind would want to work up to14 hours a day, if necessary, in a fast paced environment with the public which at times can be rude, surrounded also by the temptations of alcohol and misfits from all walks of life. I admit that I enjoy all the mad paced, kooky challenges that I face daily. The key to it all coming together is discipline. That is where the majority of the unhappy people who have left lack that very important element. Discipline is also not just in one aspect like showing up on time, it is how you conduct your entire self in the restaurant from behavior to knife skills. Without discipline you do not have a well run restaurant. It is important that I set the example. Respect is also another important word. Respect is earned not given. Those are things that you really need to have mastered before you step into the door of the corn and at times I have tried to teach people over the years these skills. I have realized that in your upbringing if these were not even mentioned or were never a family goal, well than it is lost on me. These are also skill sets which I think you continue to work on over a lifetime. You should always want to make the people you employee better employees. First you have to surround yourself with good employees which is also important. It can take just one person to bring down the entire team. There is no I in team as one of my bosses use to tell us at our staff meetings and I like to think that is one of our more important mantra''s at the Corn.
January 30th, 2011 Since I last blogged, the much anticipated Potted Rabbit has finally opened. Can you imagine being pregnant for 3 years and even before that, planning over your second child for the last 12 years? That is what my life has been like. I certainly do not want my first born to feel neglected but I have hired a nanny, well a Mr. Poppins to oversee her. It is a hard transition to let go. When your life has been all consumed by one thing for over 13 years and that process involved a a fire that destroyed everything and a divorce, it adds even more sentimental baggage. The night and days where all you thought about was that child and also the years of financial strain staying one step ahead of the bank or the IRS. The other day I was sitting on the couch and it dawned on me that the reason I opened up The Potted Rabbit was so that I could be in the kitchen, like a mad scientist (please not doing spooge!) cooking and tasting and standing in front of the stove and because of city ordinances and money challenges I was not allowed a stove but a hood over my electric Mark V Blodgett for baking and I find myself running between the corn kitchen and the rabbit kitchen and doing more public relation work and ''baristaing” (my own invention word like “barista person” which my husband tells me is redundant) and ordering product which is a whole challenge in itself and I am back at trying to figure out how I can spend more time just pure cooking. Actually at The Corn Exchange I did cook a lot, especially this past summer when I was back on the line five nights. There is something that I find very magical and calming when I stand in front of the stove with just you and the food you are preparing for the guests out front as they sit with fork and knife in hand at their table waiting for their meal to appear and hopefully transport them to another place. Where you can take someone who is grumpy and just transform them through really good cooking. As I have said in the past, if you had told me in high school I would be back where I couldn''t wait to get away from I would of told you that you were insane. I went to college originally for theater and moved to new york city for theater and you could say that I am still involved in theater but somehow I found my way back to the Black Hills. James Beard was a fellow thespian. To me the restaurant is no different than a stage. The actors occasionally change but the playwright has been the same. I love to tell people that I am the Woody Allen of the restaurant, the auteur. I am not sure if everyone understands but for me every detail of the restaurant is important , especially when you have created them and along the way people come along and help shape and mold it to make it even better. I remember reading an article years back that Chez Pannise was possibly going to close. It had been open for 30 years and how can you keep sustaining something like that and not have it just become a cartoon character of itself. To sustain the same level of creativity and freshness takes a huge amount of discipline. The culinary restaurant world is very different in the Midwest from being involved in in a larger city or on the coasts. It isn''t held as a true profession and doesn''t get the respect it deserves. I am not trying to reinvent the wheel. I am just trying to create consistent, simple food through using what is available around me. That is where the challenge comes in with trying to find farm to table product which seems an oxymoron since I live in the farm to table belt? What happened? Do I blame Monsanto? With technology everyone wants things faster. Can you really bring food into the tech age? If I asked Grant Achatz I am sure he would say yes. Through Gastromolecular cooking you can give people the joy of eating bacon by creating a whisp of bacon air to be smelled in a second and a dollop of celery nog that you can slurp instead of wasting time by chewing on a celery stalk. Hooray!, I have saved 3 minutes. I personally would rather spend the 3 minutes eating the celery stalk. Yes I guess I am old fashioned. When I chat with young chefs on Elizabeth David or MFK Fisher or Edna Lewis a blank stare comes across their face. As much as I enjoy seeing what is going on around me in the culinary world I feel it is important to get a sense of food history and regional styles and basics which as you progress in your culinary life it really grounds you and brings depth to your cooking. When I first saw Boulette''s Larder in the ferry terminal in San Francisco a light went off in my head. That was my prototype for The Potted Rabbit. How I envied those women, standing around their Montague range with their simmering pots of a batch of magical jam or braising a daube to be sold to some San Franciscan who didn''t feel like cooking that evening. It will take time to get to that stage. Lately I feel like a tired octopus with my tentacles touching on various projects but not quite finishing one only to wake up again and start all over. Getting up in the morning early is also huge. I am a night owl, even from the age of 7. My poor mother, lying on the couch watching Joey Bishop and I next to her keeping her company. To create morning pastries, one must get up when the moon is out. Thank God for my assistant Kara who is faithfully there at 6am every day. I try to be there at that time but lately it staggers to one hour to one and a half at times. My husband bought me an induction plate so I have been able to add a soup to the menu. Soup has been a passion of mine and I shudder at times when I think of how many my soups have been handled in the past. It isn''t a broth or it isn''t a porridge and at times when I have been running the front I have seen my soup transformed to something I wouldn''t eat.. Than I become, od forbid – Gordon Ramay!. I say, eat soup at a restaurant and if it is a sad array of nothing, than I wouldn''t bother on anything else. To me, soup is the easiest of thing to make and it gets better the next day. I think there in lies the problem, that people think it is easy and young chefs would rather be making splooge or tackling a whole pig instead of learning the art of making a good soup. With that thought still in my head, I think I will make soup for our dinner tonight but Walter will just think that is the appetizer. What is really for dinner? P.S. Check out Eater.com “The 50 places to eat before the Apocalypse” Next blog on my Thomas Keller ramblings November 24th I am looking forward to spending a few days with our friends from Atlanta and our good friends from Jersey at the Borgota this weekend. Maybe I will try my luck at craps? I am kind of over the elaborate restaurant scene but I have to say it is nice to never have to leave your hotel. I experienced this on my birthday a few years ago when we stayed at the renovated Fountainbleu in Miami. Every restaurant was exquisite and different and it was a treat to lay around the pool in my thong which one can wear one when you are in a place that nobody knows who you are and I figured if you don''t wear one before you are 50, when will you wear it? Jean-Louis Palladin was the true pioneer of reviving the big restaurants in hotels when he came to Las Vegas. Of course Jean George Vongerichten was the pioneer who made the hotel restaurant profitable and a place to want to be seen and eat when he was the executive chef at the Lafayette in his early years at the Drake Swiss Hotel. I am also excited to spend some time Sycamore tree in the fall. The fact that their house was built in the mid 1600''s makes it is even more magical. We have had so many calls for Thanksgiving dinner at the restaurant but I feel that it is nice to spend the holidays with your family. Next year you could pick up some side dishes from The Potted Rabbit to enjoy with your turkey which will be the best I can do. We are trudging along with the rabbit and December 3rd looks like it will turn into December 11th. Everything is coming together. Kara and I have been tasting a few treats to be served and one of them is a gluten free peanut butter cookie which we think our gluten free friends will enjoy. I also got some wonderful chocolate from my new chocolate friends and I think everyone will be pleased with some exciting stocking stuffers from Europe! Happy ThanksgivingNovember 17th It is hard to believe that next week is Thanksgiving. It seems as if I was just yesterday I was waiting to carve my pumpkin for Halloween. The Potted Rabbit coming right along. Tonight as I sat in front of the my lap top viewing hundreds of different types of cups, boxes, bags, Eco friendly ones, colored ones. After awhile my head begin to swim. Do you really need 3 different sizes for each drink? I am old fashioned, what happened to just one good cup of coffee. Do you really need a Slurpee size? Same with a cappuccino or a late. The reason why they are mostly horrid is that people are trying to make a cappuccino or a latte in a mega size me cup and it ends up being all milk. If I can''t live in NYC, I will bring NYC to me. November 5th Today The Potted Rabbit came to life. With the chandelier being hung and the lights being turned on, the realization of the specialty food store that was to come, was actually manifesting. It is both a dream and a nightmare but in hindsight this is the third business that I have opened since moving back to Rapid City in the fall of 1996. The time is much easier since I have some experience under my apron but also thanks to Walter my loving husband, it is a lost easier to build a house with two walls instead of just one. I am not worried about succeeding but of the long work days ahead but that is par for the course. That is a always a given in the beginning but down the road it all pays off. The farmers market closed last Saturday. I feel ashamed that I never made it to the last day. It was a gorgeous day, 53 degrees. I just felt rushed through my Saturday and decided to just skip it. I am the sadder for it. A few of those people may not be back next season. My friend Ev and her husband Stew who are in their 80''s, and can barely see over the steering wheel, manage to come to the market on Saturdays, and set up. Their jars of jellies and jams being displayed in the hot sun as they sit on the tailgate of their truck behind a card table which holds a small battery operated calculator and a cash box. After she tally''s up my goods of tomatoes, cucumbers, raspberries and some spinach the grand total comes to $7.50? That is too little I announce but she won''t hear of it and scoffs at me and will not budget from her calculation of $7.50. I wonder how some of these people stay in business? I did buy the 289 lb. Giant pumpkin from Carlton a few weeks ago so maybe that redeems me from not participating on the last day of the market. I missed out on a wonderful day of farmer fellowship. Shame on me. The restaurant has been beginning to pick up again. A few weeks ago I was feeling worried when the first few days of the week were quiet. We have been getting a lot of wonderful visitors from all over the states. This time of year we get a lot of hunters who like to shoot pheasants. We had a great group from Alabama who appreciate hospitality and food and bring the restaurant up a notch with their flattery. As my friend Jim says “flattery will get you everywhere.” I can''t believe that Thanksgiving will be upon us in less than three weeks. It is hard to notice, since the day after Halloween , when they snagged the candy off the shelves they threw up the Christmas decorations. Can''t we ever enjoy Thanksgiving or at least the fall holidays without the Christmas spirit being tossed upon us in September? Just once I would like to enjoy my turkey and than, the next day begin counting the hours left till Christmas. Why are we always in a rush. You have to sit back and take a few deep breaths. I suppose with the internet and our I phones and I pads and cell phones that it is impossible to actually relax for a moment. The world is rushing past us at an alarming speed and if you stand in the way, you will be run over by technology. OCTOBER 27th This morning on my way to pilates which is currently my only day of exercise, which thanks to my wonderful friend Tami who sets me up and is one of the main reasons why I get my ass of bed along with wanting to look somewhat attractive for my husband as well as being important for my own self esteem and mental outlook. Anyway when I drove my car up the hill with my left hand on the steering wheel and my right hand holding my coffee cup I came across 12 wild turkeys. Not the empty bottles which I have run across but real, live turkeys eating along the hillside. It made me think of thanksgiving and the fact of how lucky I am to be living in a place where there are actual wild life. At times I have ran across 1 herd of raccoons crossing the road, that was at midnight. Two bucks sparing on the lawn below our terrace, and many a flock of ducks and geese flying overhead. During my time in NYC, the only wild life I experienced was a squirrel foraging on the lawn for a nut or maybe passing it squished on the road and several rats rummaging thru a garbage can as I wandered thru a dark alley in china town thinking that maybe the rats were looking a little too intensely at me thinking that I might be a tasty snack. I was in Denver over the weekend and we purchased the chandelier which is of course the second go around with that (that involves another chapter). It is very whimsical, kind of something you would see in the ice queen''s palace but perfect for The Potted Rabbit. And the rest of the refrigeration-dry bakery case, deli case, ice machine and a smaller fridge for behind the espresso bar. The wall behind the black booth is gone and the sliding door is visible. It is exciting and nerve wracking all the same time. I am not sure if I am safe to say a month away but I will. We just want to get the door open and even if we only sell 8 items we will add more. Just like The Corn Exchange, The Potted Rabbit will take time to morph into itself. On another note, service charge. It really is the same as gratuity but we have noticed that other restaurants around the country say service charge. We ended up changing to service charge on our menu due to the fact of a disgruntled customer. I initiated this service charge for four customers or more over 12 years ago. It is on the bottom of the menu in the same print as our other items. I did this since it always seemed like a lot of people who were in groups of four ended up splitting their checks and in the end the waitress suffered. The service charge is 18%. A few always say “oh if you hadn''t of put that on there we would of left more.” To that I say bullshit! If you had wanted to, you would of just said, I would like to give a few more dollars, how can I do that? With any business, you will please people and than there are always those you never will. The restaurant industry is brutal and you have to be tough to keep your head above water. I am constantly thinking of ways to improve the restaurant and always concerned on maintaining a constant level of professionalism. We are always working with the staff and training them. This is one of the main reasons why we are going to be celebrating our 13th anniversary next March. For those who want to haggle over $11 they can enjoy a place where someone doesn''t bother to wash their hands, or is on work release to cook their food and where the management isn''t even there to oversee their dining experience. Bon Appetit! October 10th Fall has finally set in. We have been lucky with the weather being in the mid 80''s during the whole month of September. I honestly, can''t remember the last time a September was like that. Maybe when I made my sister''s wedding cake in ''93 when I was trying to make a butter cream in 90 degree weather. The Potted Rabbit is beginning to emerge. The back wall was knocked down to make an open door so you can come from the corn kitchen into the back of the Potted Rabbit where we will share a walk in. The walk in is arriving also on Monday. The back floor is being laid tomorrow by Flooring of America in the dishwasher area and a small convenience store that was only open for a year will be closing at the end of the month and Walter and I got a wonderful deal on refrigeration and freezers that we can use. It is coming along. The concrete is being laid for the bar. My dreams of the Bouchon Pewter bar will have to wait at $10,000. The chandelier will take us on another trip to Boulder in a week or so. I could kick myself when we saw one that was spectacular but knowing that we were going to get a free one which ended up costing us almost $3,000 which wasn''t free and we can''t even use in the store makes me a little sad but I should of known better. When someone tries to give you something for free it almost always never works out. We got a wonderful load of Black Hills Trout from Mike Clark the other day and we pan sauteed it at the restaurant and I will be preparing the rest of to be smoked next week. What a treat to have fresh trout. We also got a delivery of buffalo from 777 Ranch as well as lamb chops which I had them cut 1 ½ inches thick this time from Gourmet Lamb of Wyoming which we pan sauteed and did with a chimichurri sauce. We have been getting some organic pork from MT as well as some goat cheese. I just need to get them to cut the chops thicker. Mike and I have been working on the font and logo for The Potted Rabbit and we will have made a decision by next week. It is exciting to decide what we be on the stickers that will be placed on every pastry box and cookie sleeve that will be filled with tasty treats that Kara and I will make their. If only we had uncovered one rare coin during construction we could have more $$ to work with. That''s life! I hosted last night and met a lot of wonderful new and old customers and of course drank too much Cava (is a Spanish sparkling wine made in the traditional method of the French sparkling wine Champagne) by the end of the night. It is a nice way to end a restaurant week when you can at least sleep in till 10 the next morning and than have a delicious bloody mary. If I only lived in a town where you could get one! Actually Tally''s Silver Spoon has been trying to make one even thou they do not have a liquor license and have been doing it with a wine based mixture and I tasted it with Mike last week and it really was delicious. The girl developing it was very excited about it and wants to add more fun vegetables to it which we both agreed upon. You cannot run out of celery sticks! Make a not to myself to drop her off some fresh horseradish from the farmers market! The sun is finally coming out around 1pm. Better get my Sunday New York Times before they are all gone!
October 6th Hogen Beef will no longer be butchering meat which means no more of their wonderful ribeye, new york or tenderloin for the corn. I have been buying beef from them for the past 11 years. Sometimes I have also gotten ground beef or stew meat. I should really take more of the ground since it is a big portion of the cow when you have it processed. A lot of restaurants just want the better cuts of meat and don''t think about how to help the rancher by using up all the cow. When I happened upon this last ribeye in the freezer, I was thrilled to uncover this find. I thought a few weeks ago we had used up the last of the Hogen meat. Yes we do get it frozen but it would be impossible for them to deliver it fresh or for me to even want it fresh. There are times at the restaurant when you possibly do 20 covers in a night and it is easier to pull it the night before and let it sit in the fridge to thaw out. Sturgis Meats does a fabulous job of processing and each steak is individually cyrovacked and the tenderloin left whole & cryovacked. I even get my buffalo meat the same way. When you cook out in the middle of nowhere in the sense of the culinary world, you have to think outside of the box with all of your products you get at the restaurant. Federal Express if a big part of my restaurant expenses. I cooked the ribeye my favorite way, in a pan more medium rare plus since it is a 2 inch thick ribeye and I like a nice crust on the outside of my steak. Finished with blue cheese since I was too lazy to make my chimichurri sauce. I honestly do not see how people eat ribeyes rare? The best part of the ribeye is the fat and I certainly like to melt it somewhat and get a nice char on it. I guess if the cut is about ¼ of an inch thick but that isn''t really a steak. In order to get a nice temperature you need to have a nice thick cut of steak. That had been one of the problems I have dealt with in the past with butchering. I want to serve a really nice thick steak like you find in any nice steak house. SEPTEMBER 12th Today I awoke to the sound of a woodpecker pecking outside our bedroom window. He wasn''t pecking on a tree. No he was pecking on the side of our wood shingled townhouse. He does this often and I wonder if I will wake up one morning and see a hole through the wall and his head poking through? He has done this for the past 4 years that I have lived in this house. It is a nice treat to wake up to nature as opposed to the sound of the ambulance or a firetruck as use to be the case when I lived in Brooklyn. Sea Gate was a different story where I was spoiled to leave the door open onto the terrace of our one room apartment where the ocean breeze would lull you to sleep and the sound of a freighter coming into port would sound off every so often. During foggy times the light house would sound off its foghorn and and when I would walk out to the gate to catch a gypsy cab to the Stillwell Avenue subway station, one would feel as if Jack the Ripper would appear out of the fog to shank me. This was a wonderful, magical place to live but the subway ride to my job @ Woman''s Day Specials Magazine took exactly an hour from Stillwell Avenue to 42nd Second Street in Time Square. That was if you were lucky. In the mid 80''s the subway system was pretty sad and if a train didn''t break down you were lucky. The nice thing was I always had a seat being the first person on the train and by the time the F line pulled into the 4th avenue station, it would be packed and people were still trying to squish onto the car not wanting to be late for working knowing the next train would be equally filled. When I moved to Park Slope seven years later, I too got to experience the 4th avenue station which was where I would get on the train. Now that I have a 4 minute commute to the restaurant from my home in the Black Hills I don''t miss the aggravation but I do miss the time I had for reading and I never had to pay for car insurance or just the regular wear and tear of a vehicle. If you needed a car you just rented one and than returned it. I should be riding my bicycle but when you have to go to the farmers market and the grocery store it is a little hard to have enough baskets on your bicycle to hold all the stuff. Just yesterday I spent $120 at the market. I even ran into my sister and her husband there and he told me he could never understand the excitement of buying vegetables but being at the market with everyone bustling around and it in full swing, he could see why. I had a new respect for him. There were pineapple melons, peaches and pears from Colorado (it is a little hard to find them in abundance here even if you are lucky to grow any), heirloom tomatoes, raw milk, pumpkins, squash, corn, potatoes, eggplants, walla walla onions, bread, soap, goats milk (the poor goat lady still is getting shit from the state on trying to make cheese...can someone please talk with our agricultural/health department on this matter and set them straight!!!), raspberries, fresh lemonade, wild Alaskan salmon from someone who fishes for it with his family in Alaska who lives there (I buy this wonderful product for the restaurant..yes it is frozen but when you live in SD you make sacrifice on items but the quality of flash frozen has changed so much I have had customers tell me that is the best Salmon they ever had, of course I also cooked it!. I fed ex in swordfish and scallops and peeky toe crab meat which that is where I spend my money on the majority of seafood). I even got salsify which you never see , both white and black ones that the guys from Battle creek Gardens, who moved out here from Seattle and took over from the previous owner, are growing some exciting things. I made for the very first time a salsify and rainbow Swiss chard soup last night. I have to say the color wasn''t as attractive as I would of like it, kind of a green sludgy color but with a touch of cream and a nob of butter it transformed into a more softer, creamy green. My husband decided to carry a piece of salsify in his pocket while hosting last night and when someone would ask “what is salsify” he would happily whip it out of his pocket and show them. The farmers market usually runs through the last Saturday in October if we don''t get any snow. It was a wonderful feeling walking through the market and seeing it filled with so many vendors. I only wished I could of stayed all day and chatted with my farmer friend Dale on the last episode of The Fabulous Beekman boys we watched. It is my new favorite show and I am excited to say that we should be serving the Beekman Blak cheese on our cheese plate along with carrying it at The Potted Rabbit. As I sit out on my deck, under the Beringer Umbrella I got from my wine sales rep, I ponder on where the summer went. In between line cooks in the kitchen, I never imagined I would be the main person cooking every night the whole summer. I am glad it is over since Daniel our new Sous Chef who will be not only line cooking 5 nights a week but running the entire kitchen, I was able to learn a few things that I would of never have known had I not been standing in front of the Vulcan 5 nights a week. A few of those are: You can''t drink Cava every night, when the staff fires their entrees and the salad person marks the time on the tickets I also had the wait staff let us know when the first course was cleared so I could see the actual time of waiting on entrees which really made the kitchen more efficient, changing the way I do the pasta on the buffalo bolognese, redoing the way we go over the Open Table (we were the first in South Dakota to ever do open table!!) sheets that spit out every night with the staff., you can''t drink Cava every night. In general, even thou it took a toll on my body which I wonder what is the lifespan of a line cook in restaurants really? I am 49 and have been line cooking these past 21 years and it is very different in a two person kitchen as opposed to working in a brigade. I am sure Anthony Bordain has the answers as I often here how grateful he is to be in the position he is now instead of slugging it out behind the stove every night. What a great gig he has. I am looking forward to the fall and to creating the new recipes and reworking some old ones for next door. The colors turned out great – chocolate, chartreuse and a Tiffany blue. The Chandelier was a sad mistake but we will find a new one. The summer was also a busy one with lots of out of towners who found us on the internet. A few unhappy people but they will always be unhappy no matter where they eat at and also made some new fun friends. I am also very excited that my old friends moved back to Boulder which is only a 5 ½ hour trip by car and I can be culinarily revived by a car ride on a Sunday which is a huge plus for me. I so look forward to my Sundays when the restaurant and bank is also closed and can''t wait to do nothing and than end up not being able to relax and create all types of projects for myself. I am trying to be better at relaxing but decided I have to create the apple jelly pectin from my recently purchased “Mes Confitures” book so that I can tackle the pear & vanilla or yellow peach and orange jam or maybe start the loaf of carrot raisin bread from Jim Lahey''s book! So much for doing nothing. SEPTEMBER 11th Getting ready to head to the farmers market on this fall saturday, I reflect on that September 11th when I woke up to a phone call to turn on the television. What a sad day. I remember later heading to the farmers market and just walking around as if I was in a trance. It was a Tuesday night so the restaurant was open and I think we might of done 8 people. Most everyone was home watching television, waiting for something else to possibly happen. Four months later I was back in NYC. I stood looking out off the platform onto the hole where the twin towers use to stand. There were thousands of people there. By this time, you had to go to the South Street Seaport to wait in line to get a ticket to allow you entrance onto the platform. When I first attended FCI, we had a class trip to enjoy lunch at Windows on the World, which was the restaurant at the top of one of the towers. I remember the first time I took the escalator which lead you to the top of the roof on one of the tower and staring out over the vast view of NYC and looking out to the Statue of Liberty. What a view! When I wandered around NYC that cold January during my two week hiatus from the restaurant, I felt a sense of being lost as well as a sense of loss. No matter where you were in in the city or even living in Brooklyn, you could always see the towers, standing tall as they loomed over the financial district. Who could imagine that these two, huge pillars of cement and concrete could ever come tumbling down? It is hard to believe that is is nine years later. I have had the opportunity of visiting New York City many times since this horrible tragedy and it is a tough city. New Yorkians are a group of people who know how to survive. The restaurant scene that saw so many places go under after 9/11 has certainly sprung back and is better than ever. Staying at my friends apartment this past feburary, which overlooks the Manhattan Bridge, it still was odd to look over the Manhattan landscape and not see the twin towers. New York City has a wonderful energy about it and I feel so lucky to have been able to live and work there. It really shaped my life and if it wasn''t for my culinary experiences there, the Corn Exchange would be a very different place. POTTED RABBIT NOTE: Yes, we are planning on opening. It is impossible to open another business when you are chained to the stove everynight. The New Sous Chef Daniel Parker Starts September 16th which we have been waiting almost 2 months for this and after Daniel feels comfortable (within a week or so) The potted rabbit details can begin again. We are hoping for a mid October opening. Trust me, I am as much awaiting the opening as you are. Nobody feels more exasperated than myself and Walter! Got that Ray Graham! JUNE 27th Today I swam in our pool for the first time this summer. No I don''t have a private swimming pool butone of the reasons we bought our home was that we look out over the swimming pool that we share with our townhouse association. It was a big draw for me. There is nothing more relaxing than waking up early in the morning and trudging down the hill to take a quick swim. Especially when no one is there and the screaming children don''t arrive till 10am or actually are not suppose to swim till 10am. If I were 6 again, I too would be screaming at the thought of going swimming. Growing up on Vashon Island, my summers were spent sitting in the back of my grandfathers yellow, ford station wagon (which was also used to haul trash), headed to the beach. My mom loved to lay in the sun and my sister and I would explore the rocky beach for treasures that were washed ashore.Whenever I get in mussels for the restaurant I immediately dump them into a bucket of water and let them soak and the first thing I do is stick my nose as close as possible to the edge of the water and inhale as deep as possible. I immediately am transported back to my Vashon Island summers. Kind of like the moment in Ratatouille when the food critic takes the first bite of his dish and you see him going through a portal in his mind to his childhood. I so treasure the days the restaurant is closed. It is really the only way that I can relax. Of course my husband may not agree but when the five days a week the restaurant is open, I wake up thinking about what needs to be done and when I got to bed and my head hits the pillow it is the last thing I think of. During stressful times it is the thing I dream of. Usually with nightmares of staff changing things and I am always in the weeds. Yesterday was an exceptionally long day but the fact that today is Sunday, means the weeks is over and you can put everything behind you, enjoy the day and think about tomorrow when your head hits the pillow. I am going to enjoy a day of going through papers and magazines that I know my husband will be thrilled to see removed from every level surface in our home and by cooking something wonderful for dinner. One of the reasons I enjoy cooking at home so much is in the corn kitchen, which is a natural restaurant occurrence, the day is always filled with interruptions. I love being at home in front of the stove without all the disturbances. JUNE 24TH A few disappointments this month. I haven''t figured out if I like the customers who stalk us for Rachel Ray or not. I am grateful for the $40 a day, television spot that has run over and over but it seems that the people that come are high maintenance and don''t want to spend a nicke,l plus don''t even tip. You can''t experience Rapid City and eat in 24 minutes! Take for example the couple last night. They told us they took two planes just to get here. Of course, everyone does. We live in a two plane town unless you have a jet. Second they came 15 minutes early. Stupid us for seating them which caused a little back up in the kitchen. A 25 minute wait for their half of cheese plate which we comped them (gave them for free) and than another 25 minutes on top of for their Spaghetti Carbonara and their blackened salmon dish. As I mentioned, we had some walk ins plus we also took a four top to go order. We didn''t know that it was four people when we said yes on the phone but it turns out that their friend Michael Pollan who they are meeting in Martha''s Vineyard (I am soooooo jealous) recommended they eat at the Corn.They wanted to see Mt. Rushmore also so the only was to take food to go. Of course, we realized we had 3 to go containers so ended up making a jumbled array of containers with food in them (sorry) and of course this to go order also caused the jam up. I would rather please friends of Michael Pollan than some people who really do not understand food and are not foodies but Rachel Ray stalkers. I can count on my hand how many times I have gotten free food and waited an hour for one course instead of 25 minutes (we put the time on every ticket so I know exactly how long plus when the plate is cleared). The Corn Exchange is about relaxing, having a glass of wine, enjoying your surroundings and taking time out of your hectic schedule to sit and unwind. What made me disappointed was they saw it as the waitresses fault and left no tip. YES NO TIP! We cook every potato and every green bean and every entree that goes out to order on my 5 burner oven (one is out and I haven''t had the time to fix it). Most restaurants to not do that. We do not have a fryolater nor a microwave. Please, if you want your food in a half an hour I would suggest FAST FOOD! Go thru the drive thru and gobble it down. Hiring. That is always a scary thought. I have been lucky over the years and out of 20 people you interview you get 1 good one. I have fortunate to have a wonderful staff who cares and if they don''t they get booted out which they have done. Walter and I have also been probably too kind and have been taken advantage of but those people will learn the life lessons on their own and in the end the restaurant or as I think of it (my baby) is way better off because we always get someone a million times better who is more caring and gets it. The thing I don''t get is people not calling. People who blow all their credentials up your ass and than when you take the time to meet with them and extend a hand, do not have the professional courtesy to call back. There are a tremendous amount of unprofessional restaurant people out there and of course there are a tremendous amount of Professional people too. It just seems in South Dakota because a lot of people had not have the opportunity to leave the state or don''t want too and yes I understand that you do have that prerogative and maybe do not want too but isn''t it nice to see what is on the other side of the fence? You can always come back. (I know I am one of them that did) I feel it is nice to see what the industry has to offer and constantly has to offer. I am glad I did and that is why the corn exchange gets so many complements and people feel like they are in a big city when dining at the restaurant. Gypsy Dancer has seemed to disappear. I am sad but in his/her place Mata Hari has appeared. Between the bird food and the cat food and at a time the chipmunk food (I think he has also gone way side) you could go broke. I feel like an urban Snow White feeding the animals of the alley. The Potted Rabbit is coming along nicely. I wish I could enjoy the birth of it a little more but when you open your own restaurant you sign up for better or worse and at times it may mean that you have to wor keven longer hours. So be it and even cook every night. My friend Guy in NYC who has a great bar called No Parking, has found us a fabulous chandelier from Harlem that is Art Deco which will be placed in the center of the retail shop. Mike Stanley, who has been laboring over the design and who is also running our front of house part time, adds a huge professional touch to the corn team. He is picking our hardware for the sliding door between the corn and the potted rabbit. Hmm-mm $1600 hardware or $400. The farmers market opened a few weeks ago on Saturday with some lettuces and mostly jams and jellies and of course some sausages and some local meat. The weather has been like Seattle (I love it) but doesn''t make for a great growing season. I am looking forward to a lot of wonderful local produce. I do not think people realize the extent that you have to go to get good produce. We do not have a walk in at the restaurant but will have one at the Potted Rabbit. This will allow me to have a wonderful truck from Denver come up with organic produce but I have to spend $500 at least. I do not have room for 40 lbs of carrots at the moment and just have two fridges, one is a coke fridge. I shop at Safeway, pretty much every day and they have a great organic section and I have been doing it for the past 14 years, 5 days a week! Plus anyone of the food service companies make it a special order which you need a week to place an organic order and I''m not cooking for next week...I''m cooking for tomorrow! In NYC, I would pick up the phone at night and place the produce order and it arrived on a truck the next day (even if it was one pepper and 2 onions ...you did have to spend a limit thou) and you would check it in and begin cooking. How luxurious when I think back on it! I have planted some strawberries on my front porch in my strawberry pot and they look great.I am hoping to figure out how to put a few photos on my blog (in my spare time) so you can see them.It won''t be like my experience on Vashon Island, picking strawberries for Augi Takasuka when I was 12 but I think I can get at least 9 berries. May 16th Today it is raining. It hasn''t been raining all day but since 1pm it has. There is nothing better to sit on your couch and enjoy the rain. It isn''t fun when you have to drive in it and work in it but it certainly is a treat to be able to do nothing and just enjoy it. Mr. skikkels also is as pokes his head out onto the balcony door and lifts his nose up to take in the smell. I have always enjoyed the rain. A lot of people I know find it depressing but maybe since I grew up with rain it makes me think of my childhood. I find the rain to be cleansing and a time of reflection and it makes things stand still. Nobody plans anything outside in the rain so you can enjoy nature at its best, minus the people. May 15th I think I am getting too old to stand in front of the Vulcan and stick my head in it night after night. Don''t get me wrong, I enjoy cooking immensely but standing in front of the stove at 32 and 48 is a long stretch. The repetitive moves is what gets you. But for me, there is no other way to cook. I don''t like standing over a grill and turning things unless it is over a wood burning grill or pushing a button to a microwave or scooping things out of a steam table. Cooking is all in the technique and you have to be able to master the technique of knowing when something is done and not over or under cooking it and creating a wonderful taste sensation of flavors and textures. Flavors and textures are all where it is at. That is one of the things I noticed when eating at Charlie Trotters restaurant, the flavor was superb but the texture of everything was all the same. Soft or in a broth. I certainly would like help in my kitchen but the thought of needing at least 10 people plus to execute my food turns me off. Simplicity is where it is at. If I see a dish with more than 5 ingredients I wonder why and I guarantee you 80% of the time it is horrid and there is no rhythm or reason to them. May 9th, 2010 Mother''s day. I am not open on Sundays which I find is a wonderful relaxing thing. Of course, it isnice to go out on a lazy Sunday and have brunch somewhere and maybe visit a flea market or two (these were my Sunday rituals when I lived in New York City) which means that someone must work on Sundays to make this happen. I have worked my fair share of Sundays in the past. A stint as a brunch chef on Sundays at a little place in Prospect Park where I lived in Brooklyn that was a long 4 block walk to after my Saturday night line cooking gig at Henry''s End which of course afterward you would go out and have a drink and I had to be at Tartine by 7:30 am since I was the one who pushed up the gate and unlocked the door and begin to prepare for brunch. It was a cute little place that had a small intimate bistro charm to it and was actually ahead of its time located on 7th avenue between 14th and 15th street. Fran was the owner and the restaurant ended up closing a year later after I no longer could get up at 7 :30 am anymore. I made Christmas Cookies for Cleaver and Company one Xmas season, made muffins and specialty breads for The Leaf and Bean, special occasions as a private chef, filed papers and odd errands and of course the restaurant industry where in new york City the restaurants are open seven days a week to pay your rent. I had off Tuesdays and Wednesdays or a Monday and a Thursday, all sorts of wacky days and worked many Sundays. I lucked out at Home restaurants where two months into my night sous chef job and Wednesdays and Thursdays off the morning sous chef quit and I transferred to that schedule which was Monday through Friday from 7:30 to 5pm which was unheard of. I dread coming in on Monday thou which meant opening the small walk in door to sardines in my veal stock, eggs broken, just a total mess that was the morning ritual of a Monday work day. I have often thought about opening on a Sunday with the corn but one of the reasons you live in a place like Rapid City and own your own business is that you can set your own schedule. That is one of the luxuries of the entrepreneurial sacrifice. So instead of opening up so ten tops and 12 tops and 14 tops and 8 tops (tops are people) which is what Mother''s Day Brunch is all about, going out with 14 people which to me is a nightmare. I want you to bring your mother in with only 4 people or six at tops and celebrate on Friday and Saturday. 4/13/10 Happy Birthday Edna Lewis! From the moment I read your story in an old issue of Food and Wine, long before I ever attended Culinary School, I knew that I wanted to meet you some day. I kept my promise. Years later, I applied for a job at Gage & Tollner in Brooklyn in the fall of 1989 (upon graduating from The French Culinary Institute in July) where Edna was working. What a joy and delight. Here was the same woman whose warm smile lighted up the page of a magazine and here I was sitting in front of her, telling her why I wanted to cook with her. I will always relish the stories of Cafe Nicholson where Edna cooked for the likes of Tennessee Williams and William Faulkner. She would relay these tales tell while she peeled a case of tomatoes for her gumbo in the kitchen as she sat on a chair or while we cleaned soft shell crabs. After working a long day, she would sometimes enjoy a little nip of Jack Daniels in a coffee mug and I felt special to hold court in her kitchen along with her sous chef Tommy who would also chime in with a story or two on their days at Middleton Plantation. Here was someone who was in her 70''s and still line cooking. I always get a chuckle when I think how we chatted about lazy people in the kitchen and her comment would be that they were just “sashaying about.” After I left Gage & Tollner, I kept in touch with Edna and would meet her at her apartment she still had on the west side in the 40''s or at the Union Square market where she made such an impression in her brilliant colored cloth draped over her 6 foot frame. She looked like an African Queen as she picked up each farmers ware, bringing it to her nose and inhaling its aroma. When she left NYC we kept in touch through letters and when I moved out to South Dakota I chatted with her a few times on the phone where it took a few minutes to jog her brain on who I was (she was living in Atlanta by this time and was under the care of Scott Peacock.) and her memory was slowly failing her. At WCR conventions I would run into people who knew her and would ask of her health and at the James Beard Awards I would run into Scott and he would update me on Edna. When she passed I felt as if a candle had been diminished. Last year, when I read Judith Jones book “The Tenth Muse.” I felt as if I was back in the kitchen again with Edna. When I cook quail, I still feel connected to her. Gage and Tollner was the first place that I learned to cook or even work with quail and Edna always got a kick out of crossing their legs and putting a glass pie pan on top of them so they would stay put when we browned them on top of the stove. They looked so elegant on the plate with their crossed legs. Life is full of wonderful people who cross your path. I am so glad that Edna crossed mine. 4/12/2010 Just when you think you have experienced it all from customers, something catches you off guard. This experience was on Saturday. I had already put in my 60 hours for the week due to a missing employee which means the owner takes up the slack which I am happy to do because the restaurant is your baby and when you don''t want to take care of you baby anymore you need to find someone to adopt it! Anyway the customer had ordered a cheese plate for dessert and stated that he had wanted the olives instead of the fresh fruit which we add extra fruit for the dessert cheese plate since we leave off the olives. The waitress brought it to the table and I just happened to be next to her when she placed it down the gentleman snapped. I have seen a lot of people fly off the handle but to have someone turn from Dr. Hyde into Mr. Jekyll before your eyes in a split second is spell binding. All I could do was just sit there and let him rant and rave about where was the cheese, there was no cheese, it was all fruit and crackers and nuts, etc. He only wanted cheese. In my earlier days at the restaurant I would of picked up the plate, told him to get the F*** Out and ripped up his check. I would of eaten his tab and tipped out the waitress myself and said just get the hell out of my establishment. I would like to say that I have matured over the years and have learned to deal with customers in a more professional manner. It could also have been that I was so drained from my prior drama of finding out my unemployment rate went from 1.16 to 5.50 due to the fact that a former employee felt that they needed seven months of vacation and couldn''t find a job so they put The Corn Exchange into the hole and I had to make up for it with $1900 being deducted from my checking account, had drained any other responses of drama from the restaurant in me so the customer may have been lucky. I did explain about how I have to federal express/overnight cheese in due to its fragile nature but that was not his problem as he told me. I take pride in my cheese plate and I can tell you that I have eaten cheese plates everywhere I go at high end restaurants and I don''t know if he was expecting us to push out a cheese cart and let him choose his cheese as I lay a slab on his plate at probably a price that he would have created another scene. I remember my $25 cheese plate at Gramercy Tavern where we got 3 little, teeny, tiny squares of cheese with a slab of quince paste and and a side of nut bread. In Philadelphia, my husband and I had the cheese plate at Fork. There it was a strawberry, we choose two cheeses and had a side of bread and another blob of jam and that was also in the $23 or around there range. Our cheese plate has a side dish of marinated olives that we marinate ourselves, we are adding clementine segments and Marcona Almonds which are an additional treat not listed on the menu along with a bunch of fresh grapes and Carr''s whole wheat crackers and their water crackers, an organic Medjool date, dried apricots, two cheeses that I get from a cheese monger in the east coast and from the Midwest and some of those cheese have to clear customs. All this for $20. I don''t think that is bad at all. Midwest Living wrote about our cheese plate in last May''s issue they enjoyed it so much. The cheese plate is a reflection of what I would like in a cheese plate. The cheese would go bad if we paraded it around on a cart putting it back in the fridge each night and taking it out before service to let it come to room temperature. It is a challenge to bring certain things that are not readily available in your area. Cooking in New York City, you could call up the Cheese monger or just visit the shop and have cheese dropped off the next day to your restaurant. Here in the Midwest I have to make a phone call or chat via email and preorder specialty cheeses that take a few weeks to come from over seas and in the warmer months it must be expressed overnight which at times my federal express shipping is around $145. In the winter I can get away with having it shipped in two days. This is just one of many little things that require extra work when you run a restaurant that is 6 hours from the nearest big city (Denver). The customer did apologize later for his sudden outburst of cheese unhappiness ( I did bring him more cheese ) which I was happy about. We sell anywhere from 10-20 cheese plates a week so we must be doing something right. As a restauranteur ,I do my best and try and hit the mark every single time. I care about the attention to detail and my staff also cares about attention to detail. P.S. On Tuesday, when I hosted, a gentleman told me it was the best cheese plate he had ever had. He ordered the half cheese plate at our restaurant and for $1 more he got the whole works as opposed to a Denver Airport cheese plate ($9) that had one big strawberry and a sad melon slice and a blob of cold cheese. He loved the whole flavor combination of everything! Imagine that! April 4, 2010 @ 10 am Growing up, Easter was a day where I would finally get to wear my new patent leather shoes that were sitting on my dresser for the past week which killed me to look at and not be able to wear. And the dress that my Godmother, Mae Judson had purchased for me in Seattle at Bonwit Teller a few days prior. Usually it rained but a few Easters we were lucky to find eggs hidden outside among the daffodils and lush grass that surrounded my grandfather''s house on Vashon Island. When I lived with my grandmother in Mitchell, South Dakota, the Easter ritual was pretty much the same but what awaited us after church was an Easter feast that my grandmother was making at home upon our arrival from church. Also the four blocks that was the distance from my grandmothers house to home was a treat as opposed to the mile that we would often walk from our home on rural route 1, box 666 on Vashon to the Episcopal Church at the end of the road. Now at 48, I am known as the C&E Christian which is the Christmas and Easter person who attends church on those two days (when I can). Or as Father Mark told me in Safeway the other day as we were chatting, that I was also the P&L christian – Poinsettia''s and Lilly''s. It seems that somehow from 10th grade on, I just kind of vanished from church. When I moved in with my father and step mother in the sixth grade, we were sent to church and by the time I reached eighth grade the battle of trying to get us to go on Sunday was lost. The fact that they didn''t go and wanted us to go never made sense to me. I can''t blame them now, when I look back, they both worked six days a week and their one day of rest was Sunday. I feel that way now with my own business after putting so many hours into a week I so look forward to Sunday and relish that I can lie in bed and relax. I especially love my Sundays since the bank is closed and it is my one day of mental peace in not thinking about cash flow until I put my head down on my pillow on Sunday night and than it all flows back into my brain. When a holiday falls on Monday, wow it is like two Sundays in row, a double bonus! Growing up my Uncle was a preacher and when we would visit and stay with him for a time in Harrah, Washington, population 50. Church was a lifestyle. If you even wanted dessert, you would have to remember a Bible verse just to eat it. My mother was very religious and I believe she found solace in her loneliness through church. She would go to the Wednesday prayer meetings the Monday meetings, the Tuesday meetings and Friday meetings, and two services on Sunday. We even had the women from our church come over and clean our house when my grandfather was in town (he thought our house didn''t need cleaning) towards the end when my mother was too ill to clean. We would visit other church ladies and have tea and cookies with them. We were surrounded by the church. It felt comforting and good when I was little. I find as I grow older and cross peoples path in life, I can tell whether they went to church as a youngster by their manners. I found that church gave me moral structure. The base to treat others as you wanted to be treated. Of course there are those that do go to church and the the rest of the week are horrible people and than on Sunday, everything is absolved and they are good people once again till Monday arrives. I never understood that. I hope that I am the same person Monday through Sunday and work at being a good person starting from the inside out. I have found so many people to only care about being attractive on the outside and never think about developing the inside. I kind of feel like a preacher through my food. I have tried to build a flock through my restaurant and through the food that I cook I try and make it honest and true. You can cover up your food with all types of gimmicks and pretense but in the end it is either a chicken or a lamb shank and when you get to that, if it isn''t prepared properly, no amount of sauce can cover the fact that it is bad. Maybe that is why I take everything to heart. Cooking is so personal and the fact that you are putting it out their and asking people to pay money for it, at times is scary. Throw in all the other elements of just running a restaurant with the whole cleanliness and freshness aspect and employees and you can be driven insane. Especially if you really care about quality and a level of excellence. This Easter I am not going to church. In the last five Easters, I have been in New Jersey with my Mother in law and my husband enjoying the service and an Easter dinner in her home. This year I am preparing it for my sister and her family and my husband and his daughter as I drink my “just arrived” Blue Bottle coffee beans that are roasted for Chez Panisse which was an Easter present to my husband. We won''t be hiding eggs, but we will be eating peeps and I will enjoy my lovely flowers that were bought for me, until I grow tired and give in to my cat London who insists on eating every last rose. I will reflect on next year''s holiday since The Potted Rabbit will have been open for at least eight months and I will be up to my ears in icing rabbit and egg cookies and making Easter baskets for others to enjoy from my heart! Oh and not to forget, Mr. Skikkels (my friend from the alley whom I tamed through my ability as a cat whisperer) will also be enjoying Easter dinner with us. 3/29/10 @ 8pm After spending a few hours on a favorite website of one of my food mentors, I felt like being lazy and since the farmers market wasn''t open yet and I felt like some roasted vegetables, Walter and I settled on pizza from our favorite place in town, Picasso Pizza Barn. I decided that we would try the new wine we got in the other day, 2004 Clarendon Hills Bakers Gully Syrah from South Australia. Upon opening has a bouquet of tobacco and tones of black cherry and prune, my cost $43 dollars. It wasn''t what I expected, I thought it would be more fruity and intense jam but it was more of aged cherries and prunes. I thought of Robert Parker''s review and wondered how one''s person tongue could change the demand of a wine. What power. I think it may need to age a little longer. I will have to try the 03 and compare the difference.
3/29/10 Where has the time gone. I say this a lot when I go back to blog. When you live the life of a restauranteur you put your head down and the next time you look up it could be four days later, two weeks or even a month. Spring is in the air here until we get a sudden blizzard which could happen these next few months. I went to the store the other day and found rhubarb. I decided to make our Rhubarb-Almond brown sugar cake with the rhubarb strawberry compote which always cheers everyone up when we have the winter when is spring coming blahs! When I went back for more rhubarb the next day, it was all gone. I guess everyone had the same idea. Soon I will have people clamoring to bring me rhubarb and will be up to my ears in the next month with it. Growing up for a time in Mitchell, South Dakota, with my Grandmother my sister Lisa and I were treated to wonderful rhubarb compote that was made to accompany a spice cake or ice cream that Anna pulled from her back yard. When I make the compote at the restaurant I always imagine my grandmother back in her kitchen. I am back to running the front of the house full time. This always allows me to hire better and reconnect with our customers and the staff. The restaurant is always taken up a notch when this happens and it is a good thing. People have been asking about the potted rabbit and when are we opening it. Walter and I are on top of it. We both certainly want it opened but last years economy just wasn''t the perfect setting. We have put the date June 15th out there and we both decided if we only are selling coffee/espresso and a few morning breakfast items, that is a good thing. Kara Murner who has been under my corn tutelage these past seven years going on eight will be our early bird person who will be making the morning pastries along with other delectable s. I will follow in with other pastry items and making prepared salads and Walter will be overseeing our soups. We will have an espresso bar. We are all excited. The Potted Rabbit will be all take out with a few soups, a sandwich of the day, some prepared vegetarian grain salads, specialty cheeses and other items. A few of those will be my curried turkey salad and cranberry turkey salad that I will sell by the pound and people have been telling me they have been missing it since we closed for lunch in September of 2001 along with our chutneys and compound butters. Down the road I will be teaching cooking classes as well as having some food friends coming out to teach a class or too. Walter and I plan on making it a culinary center and a hangout for foodies. We will keep you posted over the next few months. I am looking forward to the arrival of Black Hills Morel mushrooms (hopefully) and wild asparagus. A wonderful purveyor who has no middle man and sells Maine Lobsters, sweet shrimp and Peeky toe crab meat contacted me a few weeks ago which is exciting and at times we will be selling items like these at The Potted Rabbit. I felt honored since he also sells to Dan Barber of Blue Hill in NYC. Not that I want our customers to be wearing lobster bibs but I can see some nice lobster pasta dishes and a salad for Friday and Saturday of Easter/Passover week. I am meeting a new Argentinian winemaker this week and look forward to tasting some of them with Kara and having them on as specials. 03/02/10 There''s is nothing better than waking up and looking out the window to a view of the East River and the Manhattan Bridge. Equally fabulous is Walter''s and my view from our home in Rapid City, looking out over the city and beyond that the wide open prairie. Met my friend Jean at The Standard Grill. Funny how she lives in Interior, SD and we can''t seem to get together for lunch in Rapid City but can in NYC. It was relaxing to sit and chat for a few hours and catch up on our lives. We both are always on the go and never seem to have a chance to chat unless it is midnight and Jean has ranching hours and I have restaurant hours. Dan Silverman is the chef and use to be a former chef at Alison on Dominick Street where I was also employed once. I spent 6 weeks of hell as a small stint out at Alison on the Beach the summer before I moved back to South Dakota. The prior chef had quit and the sous chef took over but was really in over his head. When you are cooking for 400 people a night, why in the hell would you want to be making tomato water? Since the new chef was inept, Alison had Dan Come out from Alison on Dominick to expedite on the weekends. Thank god. If it wasn''t for him, I don''t think I would of even lasted a week. The promise of helping them out and swimming at the beach in the hamptons and working a 9-10 hour shift turned into 15 hour days, the only water was the stuff dripping off my body from my sweat, sleeping on the floor at times of waitstaffs home, shooing away seagulls that were swooping down on me as I wrapped caul fat over a chicken breast on a make shift prep table outside. I could go on but won''t. We started out with an array of oysters and moved on to an iceberg lettuce, Kentucky bacon and blue cheese salad which seems that everyone is doing that now across the country. Next was a swordfish with tabouleh and a chermoula sauce but unfortunately the toasted cumin in the chermoula was so intense that it overpowered everything. The waitstaff garb was a little bizarre. Everyone is dressed in plaid flannel pants and vests or jackets. I guess they are going for a dandy look? From their, I took my friend up to Bouchon Bakery where I enjoyed a glass of champagne while my friend had their classic chocolate bouchons. If you haven''t been to Bouchon Bakery, it is a must on anyone''s NYC visit. You can just stare for hours into the pastry cases and see an array of exquisite desserts and savory items. Chef Marcus Samuelson was also in the area, busy chatting on his cell phone probably preparing for another spot on a show to push his new cookbook. Later that evening my friend Christopher and I enjoyed a superb dinner at Vinegar Hill. What another Brooklyn treasure. The whole meal was outstanding from start to finish. We had a 1998 Rose and the soup with sheep''s cheese and prunes and a chicken liver mousse along with a roasted chicken in a cast iron skillet and a pumpkin ravioli that tasted like it was made in heaven. This was a great end to my last night in NYC. I feel rejuvinated to come back to middle america and save it from chain restaurants! 3/01/10 You couldn''t have asked for nicer weather. Started my day with a decaf espresso and a soft gruyere omelette at the bar at Balthazar. It''s been there for ever and I never seem to tire of eating there. With the old mirrors and the yellow decor, you feel like you are in Paris which is the idea. Moved on up through Soho hitting Balthazar''s bakery first than on to Birdbath which is Maury Rubins new place inside the old Vesuvio Bakery than up through the village and visited my former place of employment, Home restaurant. I was happy to see it still was there and fondly remembered the steps into the basement where the walkin in was located and how many times a day I would trudge up and down the steps carrying product. No wonder why my knees hurt 16 years later! I wandered up through the west village stopping at The Spotted Pig where I enjoyed a glass of Olivier leFlaive and 6 Hog Island Oysters and a great smoked haddock chowder. The look of it was a little too cooked for me for me, I like my chowder to look chunky so you can tell what everything is, but the taste of the chowder was over the top plus they even made their own crackers. Nobody makes their own oyster crackers. From their I wandered up to the hipster meatpacking district. What a change. Stella McCartney store, Coach handbags. It is quite a change from 15 years ago. I reached my destination, Chelsea Market which I have been to often in the past but what an amazing transformation of a space. Inside an old warehouse is a whole world of food shops and a flower shop and also kitchen wares plus dining spots. It also houses the Food Network headquarters. From there I wandered up 9th avenue and Ethan Hawke casually was walking down the street and passed by me. As I was thinking about the first movie I saw him in (Dead Poet''s Society..i think) I looked into the window of a butcher store and saw black garlic. I immediately went inside. I couldn''t believe my eyes. I have never seen it sold anywhere. I patiently waited for 15 minutes while the butcher was grinding hamburger and slicing swiss cheese for a customer. $2.95 for a head which I thought was fair. If you have never eaten it, it has a wonderful sweetness to it like molasses. Great warmed up and eaten smeared on bread. It is almost like a texture of a gummy bear. From there I made my final trek to 23rd street to wear Madeleine is. It is a little cafe that I was told, makes the best macaroons ever. Since I took the class at The French Culinary Institute and will be making them at The Potted Rabbit and The Corn Exchange, I figured I must taste what everyone says is the best in nyc. I have eaten the best in Paris where I waited in line behind 30 people at Pierre Hermes shop. They were exceptional. The ones at Madeleine were equally delicious but it is nice to eat one staring up at the Eiffel tower. They had flavors like Peach and Saffron and Cassis. The colors are exquisite. I took my bundle of goodies home, and cooked a veal roast for my friend. Can''t wait to see what Tuesday will bring. I know I am having lunch at The Standard Grill. 2/27/10 What a great day. I am lucky to stay with a wonderful friend who has just moved into his new condo which overlooks the entrance to the Manhattan Bridge and you can see the empire state building and the Williamburg Bridge along with the east river. What a view. Makes me miss the city and all it has to offer. Begin the day with a Donut class where we made Apple Fritters and a yeast donut which we glazed and also rolled in cinnamon sugar. I think these would both be a hit at The Potted Rabbit. Went on to another four hour class of Cream Puffs and Eclairs. This was also another great class. I learned I could use bread flour instead of regular flour which has more gluten for my pate chouxs''. By the end of the day I felt like I couldn''t eat one more bite of sugar. I ended it with taking my friend out to Dressler''s in Williamsburg which I highly recommend to everyone. The chef is also a former FCI graduate. What a meal. Starting out with a Holland Rose cocktail, my friend with a Brooklyn. Martha Vineyard Oysters, their beet salad and the St. Louis Ribs. I have never tasted such finger lickn ribs that the meat has fallen off the bones (oh, ok I did have some fabulous short ribs at the bar of Osteria Vin Santo in Chicago but they were richer with Barolo wine). My friend had the Striped Bass and I had their Braised Oxtail with pasta. Again another oustanding dish. I have eaten at Vetri''s in Philadelphia and this dish was equal if not better than a Vetri pasta dish. I could feel the "love" when I was eating every last bite. We were treated to three wonderful desserts and I have to say they have the best Panna Cotta I have ever eaten! I have had Panna Cotta at the River Cafe in London and even at St. John''s but everyone seems to use skim milk. The Panna Cotta at Dressler''s was so rich and lush with a layer of Vanilla Bean seeds covering the entire top. The passion fruit puree was a touch of heaven. Along with the whole ambience of the room, I felt like I was transformed to Paris. This was a perfect ending to a perfect day and one which I will remember for a long time when I am standing in front of my stove in Rapid City, South Dakota, and start to feel sad and I will just remember this evening and a smile will come to my face 2/26/10 A miracle. I made the last flight out of Minneapolis to LaGuardia today. The plane from rapid city started out 40 minutes late which didn''t help, but Delta was kind enough to hold the plane while I raced thru the airport to leap onto the plane take the last seat left, which was mine. Thank god. It would have ruined my whole weekend. I had paid to take three pastry classes at The French Culinary Institute and would have missed everyone had I been rebooked on sunday which was what would of happened if I had not caught the flight. I truly feel lucky! 2/25/10 Wow, how exciting to be able to cook local Oxtail. I obtained some from 34 Ranch, which is one of my new purveyors for local beef besides my friends at Hogen Beef. They were wonderful. I slow roasted them for 4 hours with curry and vegetables, chicken stock and gewurtrazminer. I have also been making a new dessert for the restaurant but not a new recipe by any means, banana cream pie. I have been looking at the recipe in Tartine''s cookbook but have been using Bouluds'' creme patissiere recipe minus 1 T of flour and cornstarch and Maury Rubin''s tart dough from his "Tart" book. I would love to try and do a few different desserts at the corn but I don''t think people realize that it can take 2-3 hours out of a day to just create 8 portions of something new which at times it seems like there is barely enough time in a day to just get the other things done that is needed to open the door. I need to go home and pack for my flight out tomorrow. 02/23/10 How exciting. I have been working on tweaking my website for the past four years and finally it has unfolded. For those of you have been eagerly awaiting news of "The Potted Rabbit," Walter and I are happy to announce that we have put the date June 15th out there. With last years economy, it just wasn''t a good time to unleash the bunny. We both feel good about 2010. I will be taking some pastry classes at The French Culinary Institue here shortly and look forward to re-creating them at the specialty store with Kara. I am a little mentally drained from the snow and cold weather here in the Black Hills but once I stand in front of the stove, it all melts away when I begin cook. The soup I made today was Red Pepper and Fennel and I have to say it was outstanding. This comment is from someone who has been standing in front of the stove for the past 21 years. Why can''t recent culinary graduates learn to be a sponge and let some of the air out of their heads? Is it just me or is this a common trait of graduates? If you know everything in your 20''s, than I can''t imagine what lies ahead for you in your 30''s or or 40''s? I think of how lucky I was to have a lot of great people mentor me and had I thought that they had nothing to teach me I would of been wasting both their time and mine. You are never to old to keep learning. |