Betzabroad…My personal recipe for tasting our big, fat, wonderful world

Today I faced the daunting task of outfitting a mostly barren kitchen with the pantry and food items required to cook two meals a day for my new clients. After re-examining the contents of the spice drawer, I moved on to searching out kitchen hardware. The brand new, extremely sharp Wusthof knife set brightened my spirits…temporarily. The kitchen I will occupy for the next 30 days has no food processor, KitchenAid mixer, mandolin, immersion blender , deep fryer or panini press. Alas, there are no nonstick fry pans, no large stock pots…
What have I gotten myself into?
This kitchen will test my culinary mettle. In fact, I have often commented ( mostly while living in houses that did not have gas cooktops) ” a good cook can cook well in any situation”….even just a campfire!

After returning from my hour long grocery shopping trip, I download all the goods and continue to organize my new work space the way that makes sense to me. I speak with the clients about lunch preferences and set in to make the lighter lunch they request. You can seldom go wrong with a grilled cheese sandwich and tomato soup. My version is Cream of Tomato Basil with a ham, cheddar, gruyere and smoked pepper Sandwich.

Following lunch and cleanup, I run several of my dinner entree ideas past my clients. It appears I have chosen wisely at the supermarket! All of the menus are approved. My clients have a friend in town who will be joining them for dinner this evening. However, they will be dining out…I guess the first rule of being a Personal Chef is being able to be flexible!
I offer to prepare hors d’oeuvres, a fruit and cheese plate and some of my favorite greek pastries, tiropitas . A double batch of the savory pastries will serve me well for Easter Day snacks. These buttery goodies have never disappointed!