Slice of Life: Chef Tech Cooking School

Recently, I had a chance to step out of the kitchen and away from my computer to take part in a networking event for food bloggers in my area.  Small Chicks Big Eats partnered with Chef Tech Cooking School here in Long Beach and held a Bloggers Networking and Cooking Workshop last month.

I found out about the event by chance after having a glass of wine one night with my friend Gina at the Willmore Wine Bar, which happens to be a few doors down. Chef Tech Cooking School's bright lights flooded the dark sidewalk and the smell of baked bread peaked our curiosity. We peered in through the storefront window and what a sight it was. It was about 8:30 at night and the baking class students were taking their glorious breads, muffins and rolls out of the oven. Perfect timing.
Chef Teri waved us in. She let us try some of the warm potato rolls with butter. Yum! As we talked, Gina mentioned that I had a food blog and Chef Teri asked if I was coming to their food bloggers event that coming Sunday. In short, I rushed home, signed up and cleared my Sunday plans so I could make the event. 

It was an amazing day filled with learning, eating, and meeting some amazing fellow food bloggers. We had bakers, home cooks, teachers, business owners, caterers, food editors and YouTube bloggers each demonstrating our love of food. 
 
Let's take a look at the wonderful food, Chef Teri prepared for us.

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Grilled Chicken Breasts

Shaved Fennel Parmesan Salad

Strawberry Rhubarb Quick Stir Cake

Homemade Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

Here are some the pictures from the event. Beginning with homemade Vanilla Ice Cream. What's the saying? "Life is short. Eat dessert first."
This was unbelievably smooth and decadent.

Next up, the Strawberry Rhubarb Quick Stir Cake. (I would of posted in process pics but the pics were blurry and all around not good...so let's jump to the finished product! Ta Da! Beautiful!)

Now it's time to get those Chicken Breasts in the brine and get them ready for grilling. I've only brined chicken a handful of times and usually it wasn't chicken breasts. It was legs and thighs that kind of thing. Well... I learned that you shouldn't brine legs and thighs of chicken because they have built in fat between the muscle fibers that naturally keep them moist. Brining meat serves to not just flavor the meat but seal in juices. I have yet to do this at home with chicken breasts but believe me, this will be my 'go to' way to prep chicken breasts because they were delicious. 
I didn't get any shots of these lovely ladies soaking in salt water but I did get a post-spa day picture of these hot chicks sunbathing on the grill. :)

AND NOW ON TO MY FAVORITE FOOD...SALAD!

Not only did I get to eat this delicious salad, I learned a few things along the way. I learned the difference between Vinaigrette and Dressing and I learned what that little hole at the bottom of the insert at the top of my Food Processor is used for. It was a full day of salad learning for me! :) 
I'll share what I learned when I blog this recipe in an upcoming blog.
 
Here's a picture of Chef Teri emulsifying by hand with a whisk. Later, she added the vinaigrette to the food processor and emulsified it further. Easy breezy.

Here's Chef Teri demonstrating her knife skills. I plan on taking Chef Tech's Knife Skills class!

(Stay tuned, I will be blogging this salad recipe in the very near future...As you know, I love salad and I love fennel. It's my new favorite ingredient...check out another great recipe with fennel with my Rustic Minestrone Soup with Butternut Squash and Fennel)

At the end of this amazing experience, the one thing I know for certain is that I need to take the Knife skills class. It's a given. I also want to take the Professional Chef 1:Foundation classes at Chef Tech Cooking School in September. Now I just have to save up for it and enroll. :) 

Thank you to Small Chicks Big Eats for organizing this wonderful event and to Chef Teri at Chef Tech Cooking School for opening your doors to this home cook with a blog.  

For more information about classes and workshops at Chef Tech Cooking School visit their website for their calendar of events. 

Check out these amazing ladies:
smallchicksbigeats.com 
figsontop.com
Tanayastable.com
FloriCooks.com
Lacooquette.com
Bakingwithmelissa.com
Instagram@juliegoeshealthy
Instagram@cremedelacroom
Instagram@Kel_Shiroma (thefoodcritique.com)

Slice of Life- SLO (Day 3)

Day three, our last day, got us up early to go for a hike. Although we had two busy days walking around and sightseeing, we didn't really get any real exercise so I was bound and determined to get the heart rate up. Plus, one of the things I miss most about living in this area is that I can very easily get away from people and have a little breathing room in the country.

So we got up, showered, dressed, and ate our free breakfast at the hotel and then set out on foot. Luckily, Laguna Lake was just down the street from our hotel so we walked the nature trails until they took us to the worn paths that led toward the hills. There were so many wild flowers blooming, I tried to get some decent shots but came up empty with mostly blurry photos. Anyway, here's the best of my blurry ones just so you can get a look-see.

This is a picture of an old barbed wire fence as we entered private land. The land owners allow walkers, hikers and joggers entrance with just a few simple rules.  I love the look of this old rustic fence.

Once beyond the fence, we started up the path where we were quickly greeted by a mare and her colt. I'll admit I was a little afraid to see her coming for us so quickly, I wasn't sure what she would do with her little one in tow. She was so friendly and just wanted a little attention so she let us pet her. The colt however wanted none of it and took cover behind it's mother. So awesome!

And then they continued on their way...Bye!
We came across many more horses with their colts, with the colts darting for safety near their mothers who continued to graze, completely unaffected by our presence.

After our little hike, it was time to pack up the car and head home. But like all good road trips, we took our time and stopped in Avila Beach.
Avila Beach had been completely rebuilt since I lived in SLO. Literally, it was leveled and rebuilt. There was a very large oil spill underneath the small, sleepy beach town and I remember the prolonged, embattled issue over how to clean it up. It took many years to decide and apparently they decided to completely unearth the town, removed the sand on the beaches and cleaned up the spill. Avila now is very tourist friendly with cool restaurants and bars, and wine tasting along the shoreline. Lots of things to look at and do. I like the improvements, but it was nice to see that some of the old restaurants and businesses were still there, only improved. 

Here's some shots of one of Avila's two piers. (We didn't make our way over to the other pier on this trip)

The pier was cool because it was all wood with nearly two inches of space between the boards. Enough for you to lose, say a cell phone while taking selfies. It didn't happen, but I was worried that I might drop my phone and lose all my photos from this awesome trip. 

I got a little vertigo looking down as I walked with water moving beneath me. It was very disorienting. :)

We had an early lunch at the Old Custom House Restaurant. A great restaurant that had great food, affordable prices and friendly service. I was glad to see that this restaurant remained after the city's reconstruction, especially when I saw this veggie sandwich on the menu. Why?
Because this sandwich was loaded with none other than, sunflower sprouts! I love Sunflower Sprouts! I grow my own at home and add them to my salads and sandwiches. Here's my Sunflower Sprout Salad from last year. They are not commonly used in restaurants so I was happy to see them as one of the main ingredients. 
The sandwich was so delicious. It had sundried tomato hummus, avocado, tomato, onion, cucumber and sunflower sprouts! I'm going to try my own version of this for the blog in the very near future. :)

This is a pic of my husband's Fish Tacos...yum.

After we finished our lunch, we said our goodbyes to this beautiful town and headed home to our two boys. What a great trip! Until next time...

Slice of Life- SLO (Day 2)

Day two took us to Morro Bay.

The cold wind that blew through Farmers Market the night before brought chilly, grey, cloud-filled skies on Friday morning. It was cold in SLO, but even colder in Morro Bay. In my experience, it's always cold in Morro Bay. My husband had never been there and to be honest when I lived up in SLO, I didn't go to Morro Bay all that often because it's too friggin cold. The few times I'd gone, I went for dinner because the seafood restaurants were amazing, or I went antiquing, because there are a lot of consignment and antique shops there. So when my husband and I went, we followed my track record of eating and antiquing when in Morro Bay. We spent the morning sightseeing, then grabbed a bite to eat and then hit up an antique shop. 

My shopping trip resulted in this Italian rectangular serving bowl and some pretty towels. You'll see both of these buys in future blogs.
I got a pretty good deal on the towels, 3 for 4 dollars and the Italian serving dish, cost me $15. I love my rectangular bowl!

Here are some of the random sights from our morning...

 Here's our selfie at Morro Bay...

Just off the main street where you find all types gift shops, surf shops, galleries and restaurants, right smack in the center of it all you can watch a rousing game of chess on this life-sized chess board. The local chess club meets every Saturday. I think this is a pretty neat community feature. My kids love to play chess, so I took a few shots to show them. Unfortunatley, they weren't as impressed with the pictures as I had hoped. Their response, "Umm." :(

This was a really cool metal sculpture of an old bench seat from an old Ford truck. It doubles as a park bench.  Everything was metal. It's a very cool illusion especially the torn seat with the pocked foam...it's all metal. I had to touch it to believe it was not a real bench seat. Pretty neat-o.

Here's a picture of a Fish Market sign that I thought was so funny...Look at how unhappy the Crab looks?? ..."I'm delicious!"    Cracks me up. 

Some pretty flowers near the ocean.

After we walked around a bit we stopped for a bite to eat...and for me to thaw out, I was freezing! My haven of warmth and awesome seafood...The Galley Seafood Grill & Bar.

Of course, there's the famous Morro Rock in the background. It was also in the background shots of the old movie, The Goonies" and another movie, which I can't think of the name of with Steve Martin. I'm terrible with remembering movies... (random thought alert)

On to lunch...We started with some calamari strips. Not at all like the deep fried rubbery rings and tentacles most of us are used to at sports bars. These are fantastic because they are tender, light and strangely meaty but without any muscle fiber feel. It's hard to describe but they have such a cool texture and they are delicious. Anyway, they're cut from the calamari steak. The steaks come from larger squid where the bodies are split and laid flat and cut into strips. Much different than the tiny ones used to make the traditional calamari. It's the only way I want calamari from now on, it is so delicious. In fact, I'm going to look for some calamari steaks and experiment here at home. Next course...

My husband had the Catch of the day lunch with veggies and I had the Catch of the day salad. I didn't get a shot of my husband's dish, his looked alot like mine but on a bed of mixed veggies. Anyway, the catch of the day was Swordfish which I had blackened and it was served over mixed greens and romaine with tomatoes, cucumbers, and almonds with the most delicious Mango Vinaigrette. I'm going to have to try and reproduce this dressing at home, it was amazing!The whole salad was delcious.

Heading back toward San Luis, we took our time and took the scenic route. I took my husband past my old school and showed him the back roads I took home everyday. One of the things I miss about living there is the utter solitude I felt everyday when I drove on a country road. I was alone with amazing beauty all around me. Here's a few shots of the hills, green with spring. The grey skies actually enhance the beauty I think. Makes me smile and tear up just by looking at it.  Anyway, it was one of the best times of my life, living up there. 

I drove past this red barn every day going to and from school, I love this bright red barn. It was a little too far away to get a good shot with my camera, but you can still see how beautiful it is. I love barns! I feel safe and at home, at peace when I look at them. :) I know, kinda weird...but that's okay.  We're all weird in our own ways.

Now onward to wine tasting...we had some serious wine to drink in Edna Valley. Last time we wine tasted in Paso Robles which has over a hundred wineries, but this time we kept it local and easy by staying near SLO and Arroyo Grande. 

Our first stop was this cute converted School House which housed 6 wineries: Baileyana, Tangent, True Myth, Trenza, Zocker, and Cadre. Beautiful!

Second Stop was Talley Winery. They specialize in white wine, particularly Chardonnay. I was a happy camper for this one, so happy in fact, that I forgot to take any photos here, except this one as we were leaving...and yes we bought two bottles of Chardonnay from here. Yay!

 
The dark, high hanging clouds hinted at rain all day and by our last stop, Kynsi Winery, the sky opened up. The heavy, dark clouds transformed into sheets of pale grey that blurred the countryside as rain fell in soft gentle drops. Beautiful, light country drizzle came down around us as we sipped wine. It was so lovely. 

But if you were to ask me what the best part of Kynsi Winery was, I would have to say, it was the barn that sat next to the tasting room.  
Check out this incredible barn.  Isn't it gorgeous?  I love it. The picture doesn't give you enough though. A light dusting of rain coated the ground and the smell of wet earth and green grass permeated the damp air. The gentle breeze blew through the large tree behind the barn, causing its boughs to wave back and forth against the barn, like it was waving at me. It was a feast for the senses with the sights, sounds and smells of the weather acting on the aged grey wood. It was so picturesque and peaceful, despite the near closing time crowd of wine tasting revelers behind me... I could have sat in the rain all day looking at that barn.

I just loved the shockingly vivid colors of these flowers against the grey rain filled sky. It's like they are on fire. Beautiful.

By the time we got back to the hotel to get ready for dinner, the soft drizzle became a luscious rain.  We got dressed for dinner knowing we would have to hurry through the rain to get to the restaurant because we left our umbrellas at home. I didn't mind at all because walking through puddles and rain reminded me of those old romantic movies where the couple darts into a cafe to escape the rain and then they would sit smiling at each other, thankful for the reprieve. Some might have thought rain would ruin a trip like this when we've planned everything outdoors, but for me the rain acted as theme music, a perfect end to a beautiful, calm, relaxing day; as if the raindrops were the notes that flowed and soothed, and resonated the ease of the day.


Day 3 takes us on an early morning hike and breakfast in Avila Beach.

Slice of Life- SLO (Day 1)

For Spring Break, my husband and I got a chance to take a small trip up north to San Luis Obispo for a little R&R, sans kids. We were about two years overdue for a vacation so the little excursion was a tremendous event.  For me going to SLO was a homecoming because I used to live there twenty years ago.  It's a gem of a small town that has grown quite a bit since I lived there, but to me it will always be this small, quiet country town with an amazing Farmers Market. I've been to many Farmers Markets and this one hands down, blows away any in the state of California. For the last ten years or so my husband has heard me talk up this Farmers Market so we finally arranged our plans to go up on a Thursday so that we could make it to Farmers Market. San Luis Obispo's Farmers Market is every Thursday night. So if you'll indulge me, this is my photo scrapbook of our trip to SLO. 

After three hours on the road, we stopped just outside the city limits of SLO, for a little wine tasting at Laetitia Winery in Arroyo Grande. Beautiful. And with it being spring, everything was green and lush and as you can see new grapes were just starting in the photo above. 

Because it was a Thursday afternoon, there wasn't a lot of people around so we were forced to take our own pics. Here's our selfie. :)

One thing you don't see much of when you live in Los Angeles in the springtime, is all the beautiful wild flowers that grow on the sides of the highways and in open fields. Once outside the county limits of Los Angeles though, you are quickly reminded that California is mostly farmland and open space. The hills are painted with bursts of color with big fields of wild flowers. Here's just a small cluster of wild flowers at the winery. Gorgeous!

Once in we got to SLO, we checked in to our hotel and got ready to head down to the Farmer's Market. It was dinner time and I was hungry after our wine tasting. But there's no need to go out to eat at a restaurant beforehand because the food is just one of the reasons to go to Farmers Market. There are dozens of food vendors,restaurants and open pit BBQ's with tri-tip, ribs etc. One whole city block is set aside just for the BBQ's. You can see the smoke from the BBQ pits in the pic below. My husband and I shared a tri-tip sandwich, well it started out as his, but I ended up eating half of it. He didn't mind.

The Farmer's Market also has entertainment, dance groups, musicians, and bands spread throughout.

 I  took this shot to show the lights that line the trees. As night falls, the trees light the way. I love trees. :)

Now on the to the amazing gorgeous vegetables...

Our hotel had a small refrigerator so I was all set to buy some beautiful produce. I bought some Kale, Rainbow Swiss Chard, Golden Beets, Strawberries, Red leaf lettuce, avocados, leeks and quinoa seeds.  :)

Rainbow Swiss Chard

The picture above is Rainbow Quinoa that's ready for harvest. I bought these seeds to try to grow some quinoa myself. Apparently, quinoa is a weed and characteristic of all weeds, grows pretty readily without much tending. Right up my alley!

One thing you have to see in person if you go to Downtown San Luis Obispo is Bubble Gum Alley. I took a few shots but to really appreciate it you've got to see it in person. It is an actual landmark and considered an art installation. It's a walkway between two businesses that has been transformed into a living, ever-changing piece of art with chewed gum. It is amazing to see to what lengths some had gone to, to add their gum to the wall. See how high the gum goes up the wall. I've added a few pieces over the years. Amazing!

As night fell over Farmers Market, the wind got real cold so we ducked into Mother's Tavern for drink to end our day.  Perfect Day!

Day 2 takes us to Morro Bay and then Wine tasting in Edna Valley and Arroyo Grande.