The Perfect Day

6 AM, I am up and groggy from the night before, time to go for a run in a few hours. Its beautiful today, palm trees against a cloudless sky, nothing but blue. I hit the Santa Monica’s Farmer Market by 11 which is already bustling. I buy ingredients for tonight’s dinner, cauliflower, chives, bell peppers, leeks, roma green beans, chanterelle and baby shitake mushrooms. I meet up with Carly and cousin Caroline for lunch at Square One. There I devour my meal of an open face skirt steak sandwich with blue cheese hollandaise sauce. We chat with the gracious owner and interestingly enough, the bread we are eating is Eric Kayser from Paris, I am even more impressed.

Next I head to Whole Foods where I am happy to find calamari steaks and beautiful wild caught shrimp, along with cheeses of Tallegio, Casselnello, and Laurel Chenels Midnight Moon. I head straight to Redondo beach where my aunt lives, today is her birthday. Our family of 25 will be over in 3 hours.

I immediately put my cousin, Vanee to work and slowly but surely my others cousins arrive and I command them to chop, chop, and chop! By 5:00 all of the guests have arrived to watch as I slave away, I mean dictate my ‘sous’ chefs what to do. In all the chaos, I have time to breathe and watch what I have orchestrated. My aunt Hanh in the back corner diligently mixing the cauliflower puree, the other aunt/birthday girl, Thanh, brunoising the peppers and zucchini into 1/8” X 1/8” X 1/8” dice, cousin Ha, washing and tearing the swiss chard into rustic 1” pieces, cousin Caroline carefully brushing and slicing the exotic mushrooms, cousins Julien and Rachel peeling the skin off of the bosc pears, cousin Vanee washing endless dishes, and last but not least my best friend, Carly popping open bottles of wine.

I have to take time to dance with Ha and Caroline while searing racks of lamb and also to argue with my aunt about listening to Snoop vs. the Platters, not to mention sipping La Crema Pinot Noir. Finally dinner is ready, my menu; Shrimp poached in saffron broth with brunoise of vegetables and calamari, warm wild mushroom salad sautéed with haricot verts, parsley, shallots, and chives, Lamb ‘Tu’ Ways - charmoula crusted lamb loin and rack of lamb ‘cordon bleu style’ with puree of cauliflower, roasted lamb jus and lastly, a Cheese plate.

I must say it was one of the most gratifying meals I have cooked. There is something about cooking for loved ones. Always such an appreciation more than anyone else. My grandparents taught us well..love, live, and eat with family and that is also what inspires me to cook!

Jerry

On Wednesday, October 10th, 2007, Jerry passed away at the age of 7. Jerry, a beautiful and ‘handsome’ Beagle belonged to my cousin, Tina and was apart of her family. He lived a good life as he was rescued 2 years ago in April of 2005. I never will forget when Tina found him because it was only a week after that she visited me in Philly. She spoke about him highly and how there was an instant ‘connection’, almost like a love at first sight. I could not grasp what she meant and actually felt she was insane, but would come to understand when I moved to LA, 2 months later.

I would like to explain, my love for dogs has never been….well…vocal…I only loved one dog in my life, and that was my aunt’s beloved Ginger, when I was 8. When I met Jerry, I brushed him off like any other yappi dog. He was quite jumpy, lively and on one of my first encounters with him, he felt the need to search my backpack and scattered each piece of clothing all over the floor. This did not start us off on the right foot. It took me awhile (about a year) to forgive the fella.’ I decided to break the ice by taking him for a run around the neighborhood one day. Tina specifically warned me not to do this because he had bad legs, but I didn’t listen and we ran throughout the Pasadena ‘hood-- carefree, hate to say it but we bonded and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves!

Jerry always loved Tina, he followed her around constantly and unlike his brother, Jax, all eyes were on her. He was really in love with her and she loved him, and for this, I grew to love him too. I am not going to lie and say we agreed on the views of life….for instance, me yelling at him to get out of the kitchen when I cooked and how he never obeyed me, as I yelled, ‘come here’, but Jerry was who he was. In fact, I am quite envious of him, loyal, carefree, and at peace, things us humans strive for all our lives, he did it in 2 years with Tina.

Jerry, may you rest in peace, as you helped me remember how to love a dog again. I wish I could have given you more of my cooking. Please say hi to Tiffy for me and tell her I love her so much, she’s a great little cat! RIP, you are loved and will be missed.