Teaching Teenage Girls to Cook

Kids will be kids not matter what age. They live a care free life with no worries of money, jobs, paying taxes, and ‘settling down’ as my parents tell me. I watch my little nephews run about with the childlike giggle and am envious. Same as I observed my 13 year clients gab and joke amongst their friends. You heard me right….my clients/students were 4 -13 year old young ladies for an evening. For 3 hours, I taught them about various cheeses from France, Denmark, Italy, and Holland hoping to instill the importance of traveling. I also showed them 3 different ways to make pizza without using the old traditonal pizza dough. We used flour tortillas, corn tortillas (due to gluten allergens), and portabello mushrooms. I encouraged creativity by saying that cooking was like an art, just like using a brush and colors but only with vegetables, fruit, and proteins on a plate. My finale was mango sorbet, refreshing in the summer, another lesson, sweet but healthy.

In the end, it was nice teaching these kids, not sure if they will retained any information but as long as they were having fun...fitting for summer vacation! Here are witty 13 year old comments they shared with me:

“Absolutely amazing food Chef Tammy”
“This meal was fabulous and gorgeous”
“Why aren’t you fat since you a Chef…and why aren’t you anorexic?"

Going GREEN

I decided on trying a little experiment. I am going Green (food wise) in my own home and anytime I cook in other people's homes. Dinner parties are up for debate depending on my clients' budgets! This entails buying all local (within a 300 mile radius), mainly produce and proteins. I'll shoot for bread but know it could be a little tricky. I will allow myself to dine out as usual probably not at 'green' restaurants. I visited the SoPas farmer's market (only 3 blocks down the street) last night and bought a bunch of goodies. For all of you that have the luxury to buy at a farmer's market, please do so. There are many things you can do to help the environment, this is only a start! This will be a 2 month test. Anyways, check back later to see how I do.

If I weren’t a Chef, I’d be a ROCKSTAR.

I LOVE music and am constantly listening to it, waking up to the radio, in the car (my 80 minute commute- round trip) via radio, at work via I-Tunes, running via I-POD, and at home via CDs. My favorites….I am quite obsessed with the late 60s such as the Beatles, CCR, Paul Simon and then there’s the kind of alternative/rock/pop stuff, like Coldplay, Snow Patrol, any my CDs, one highly recommend the Last Kiss soundtrack, where I discovered Ray LaMontagne. I only wish the blogspot site had links to music, ugh.

I went to the Hollywood Bowl this weekend and had a blast with John Mayer. The whole time I kept thinking and wondering, is he singing his heart out for the loss of Jessica Simpson??? He’s such a talented singer and I can’t fathom the thought of singing AND playing guitar in front of thousands. The site at the Bowl is beautiful, Hollywood hills in the back drop, cool, crisp with your own food, wine and good friends, sunset. WOWsers. If you haven’t checked out his latest album, please do. Contiunuum.

a Hike?

When you think LA, I am sure you don’t think there would be places to hike. But just like everything else in LA, it is trendy. There is even a celebrity trail, where you could spot Lindsey Lohan or Britney Spears walking their dogs (if they had any). I remember the first time, my good old cousin took me hiking even though I was wearing jeans and flip-flops. She assured me the trail wouldn’t be too bad and I assumed it would be fairly flat. Nope, it was all uphill, elevating up to a couple hundred feet. I somehow climbed up a few hills okay but going down, of course, fell, tumbling and ripping my jeans. Okay, stop laughing now! Anyways, I’ll never forget that moment and vowed to finish the trail with appropriate attire. The next time, I was rewarded with a view of the Pacific ocean overlooking Malibu and coastline of LA. The beauty of LA is hiking in the morning, swimming by noontime, and skiing by evening. Unfortunately, I am not a skier (yet)!