I agree!

I LOVE Jamie Oliver (aka The Naked Chef)!! I love his enthusiasm for what he creates. I love the simplicity. I love his encouragement. On top of all this I love how he is trying to improve everyone's lives with this: Jamie's Food Revolution

He has been working on this for the last 7 years and now he comes to the US to help out. I don't expect tsunami-like waves, but a few ripples would be amazing!

This gives you even more of an idea:

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/jamie_oliver.html

I have been cooking! I just keep forgetting to get the camera together with my memory card reader. It will happen...I promise!

Thing I have been making:

• Tofu Tacos - really, really good!
• Apple Pie - thank you Alton Brown!
• Vegan Chocolate Cake - surprisingly easy and quite good.
• Sherried Sardines with Avocado on toasted Sourdough - all hale Alton Brown!
• Spaghetti Squash with homemade tomato sauce

Not to mention the wonderful things that I have been eating that others have made! I will be back soon with pics!

Vegetarian Delights

I go through phases where all I want to eat is vegetarian. Meat just isn't appealing and its all about the veg. I have been following a couple other blogs that have fueled my inspiration and set my mouth a' watering. The result was this beet, goat cheese, pine nut tart. Amazing!!

My Valentine's Day Gift

For Valentine's Day I got an espresso machine! Yep. That is one of the competition machines from this last weekend. I am so excited!

The grinder was a present to myself. I am really still learning to use it, but I love it as well!

This will still be the machine for competition next year. So I will be able to practice on the proper machine and take next year's competition by storm!! I am also contemplating going to Anaheim and competing in the Nationals in April. We will see.

By the way, I did not get in to the final round. I went overtime by 47 seconds, which is a point off per second. I wouldn't have made finals even if I had been on time, but I would have scored a personal best. I am happy and I came away with great advice and feedback. Watch out Mountain Region, Susan will be back!!

A bit of a hiatus

I won't be posting much in the next few weeks. I am busy getting ready for the Mountain Regional Barista Competition, which takes quite I bit of my creative juices and doesn't leave much for the kitchen. We have been eating a lot of burritos lately and they aren't all that exciting.

I will try to keep posts about the competition. This week we are finalizing signature drinks and espressos, as well as practicing the pouring of cappuccinos.

Next week I will probably open up to allowing spectators to come the the roasting facility to act as judges, or just to be spectators.

C is for Cookie

What can I say! I have been spoiled...I don't think I have ever made cookies without a mixer. So I was a little intimidated to make cookies in the Tiny Kitchen, since I don't have a mixer on hand. But things went smoothly and the cookies disappeared very quickly! I do need to find real cookie sheets that fit the toaster oven. I used a glass Pyrex pan, and it worked okay, but I could only bake 4 cookies at a time.

Its in the bag...

I went to the market to get another whole chicken to roas

t, mostly to get some pictures this time! And they were out!! I had to settle for thighs. I say "settle" though in reality the thigh is one of my favorite parts of a bird. I am a sucker for dark meat...what can I say.

Now...what to do with them? I was telling my mother-in-law, Joan, about my blog and my cooking endeavors and she told me one of hers. She had roasted chicken in a brown bag, simply putting a little butter under the skin, some salt and peppe

r and poof! The best chicken she had had in awhile! "I can do this too!" I thought. So I did...

I added some red potatoes, sweet onion, carrots and fresh herbs. I was also thinking gravy. A nice traditional roast. And boy did it turn out good!!

My gosh I'm cooking a lot of chicken lately!! I have got to do something else!