What Summer Brings...

My wife's parents called in May to say "We are coming to see the boys and we want you to leave." What? What! Uh, ok! We then started to plan a few days at the beach, just the two of us...Let me say that again for all you parents out there, A FEW DAYS AT THE BEACH JUST THE TWO OF US! Yes!

Moving on...Our itinerary went a little something like this: get up stretch, open door smell ocean, off to coffee and breakfast, beach, lunch, beach, dinner, cool ocean breeze while on balcony looking at beach. Repeat. 

Now back to my current reality, Sigh! Since my job at the academy is only 10 months (a school year) I am working at a prior job but only for the summer. In these days of high unemployment numbers it's best to have a good work ethic, integrity, and NOT burning those bridges behind you when you leave one job for another! I still work for the academy but I am off during June and July. People in the school system will immediately understand.

Posting may slow down because of the hours I work and my summer job is at a beverage company, so not much cooking going on for me. But fortunately for the rest of our family my wife can really "THROW-DOWN" when it comes to cooking. She is no beginner!

 

VFCA SR Graduation Reception

Last Friday I helped Debbie put out a reception for the Valley Fellowship Christian Academy graduates. Debbie does food events and knows her way around the kitchen! One of her specialties is cake. And I am fully agreeable to let people work in their element and this is one of her's! Actually sometimes it's easiest to sit back and 'be' the help or sous chef...you can learn from seeing things from another angle (besides your own) when someone else does it. 

Plenty of people commented on her food and the cake BUT I can tell she will give you the recipe for the cheese-ball, NOT the cake!!! LOL

Diet Trends

I have noticed either consciously or without realizing it America has started scrolling back their intake on carbs, glutens, and desserts. Is this because of the nations obsession on how overweight we are getting?

Steve, over at Roundthechuckbox.blogspot.com recently wrote on one of his posts:

"Beginning with pasta carbanara Friday evening, five cooks labored to set our best on the mobile serving line. We quickly learned that this East Bay group loved the sausages, roasted vegetables and salad bar. Though good, fresh baked dinner rolls, rich pasta and desserts fell by the wayside."

I have noticed that trend even with myself. I hate diets, but I started scrolling back my calories and increasing my garage elliptical workouts! LOL And the things that fall by the wayside first and foremost are the things listed above.

Really, I am just getting back to eating like I did in California, a lot of fresh veggies, cooked veggies, fruits, cheese, meats (lots of smoked and grilled meats)and usually only breads, pastas, and desserts if they are homemade and delicious! (As I am sure Steve and his cooks food are delicious!)

My advice has always been to ONLY eat food that is delicious AND eat it in moderation. As someone once said: 

"Life is to short to eat bad food!" ~ Amen!

May Highlights

We had another visit from the health department and if you follow me on twitter @tyronebcookin or Facebook you saw my humorous posting: Stick THAT in your dishwasher and sanitize it!

Things are wrapping up here in the kitchen as school winds down. We grilled a few meals outside in front of the kitchen just to kick things up a level. Chicken for fajitas!

Burgers for cheeseburgers and fries!

When I am not in the kitchen or out in the parking lot playing with fire, you can try to catch up with me at my mobile office:

Ice coffee, nothing fancy here...keeps me moving. 

Sign of the times...

Everyone is getting cheap nowadays. Foodservice is no exception. Prices and packages are getting changed with no forewarning...and probably in hopes that YOU TOO will not catch it right away!

Take for instance last week. Last Friday I was calculating costs on a particular meal and realized HEY! I am losing some money on this! How did that happen? Well I guess it's my own fault for not seeing it on my invoice but a particular item went up by $.50 and I didn't even realize it! Or did I? The delivery person said the price changed 2 months ago...REALLY? I am going to pull some invoices!!! But in the meantime I had no professional courtesy of even being told about the increase!

NEXT. Last food order I received plastic spoons like I usually order and no, the price didn't change, product number was the same, but the product was made much cheaper and smaller than before?!?!? Again, no warning or explanation. Did they think I wasn't going to catch this!!!

SIGH!