Too much!

When you have a full house in the coop,

And you find a handful of these,

With these springing from the garden,

You should most definitely sauté them together in butter.

And fill an omelet with them. 

My overachieving garden jewels

It's Rhubarb season!  I've been waiting for these to pop in order to try this:

Rhubarb Mousse from Saveur

Tantre farm 2014!

Eight satisfied years of a Tantre farm CSA membership leaves me coming back for more. Today was the first pickup of the season; always a good excuse to visit the farmer's market at Kerrytown. 

I always feel like I've won the lottery when I walk away with this box chock full of the goodness of the earth. This definitely feeds my family on many levels, yes, physically, but definitely spiritually and emotionally.

Thank you, Tantre!

Ann Arbor finds: #349

The relationship with your town is a relationship like any other. You've got to nurture it. You can't ignore it or small dissatisfactions turn into larger faults. That's why I'm always exploring the alleys, finding little gems to add to my Treetown repertoire.

Case in point: The Lunch Room (http://thelunchrooma2.tumblr.com/) (blogger app won't let me embed a link). I had heard that the food cart, The Lunch Room, had opened a brick and mortar, but not being particularly passionate about vegan ways it's never been on the top of my list of places I had to visit.

On Friday before a class period of practical exams, I knew I'd need something unique to carry me through. I would need an inspirational muse. I was walking through Kerrytown and The Lunch Room seemed to call out to me, so I went inside.

The ambiance is really cool, fits the vibe of the food. You can take your meal into the sweet Kerrytown courtyard that often gets overlooked. 

This sandwich was amazing, a riff on the classic Bahn Mi. A house-made baguette with a perfect consistency for this sandwich, full of flavor but not tearing the roof of your mouth apart on the first bite. Marinated tofu layered with a carrot sesame slaw spicy mayo and a few hidden jalapeño slices.  

It was just so flavorful that I found myself looking at the menu to see if this was indeed the same vegan place that I thought it was.  No meat or dairy products on the menu.  At home we often eat vegetarian, but in my mind making the cross over to vegan feels too sacrificial.  But if I could fill the docket with items like this, I would never miss animal products again. 

They are open for breakfast, lunch and dinner, with a seemingly new rotation of evening specials, like tapas or taco night.  Not to mention that the dessert counter was full of beautiful desserts. I didn't try any, but I can imagine that they'd leave you wanting another.  I'll leave that for the next stop, which will come very very soon.

As I was driving away, so satisfied with myself I stumbled on this: 

Street music? I'd pay to listen to this. 

What's on the menu?

I stumbled upon an amazing resource:  New York Public Library's collection of historical restaurant menus. Explore this gem at What's on the menu? with images as well as text.

And a parallel find: a researching blogger 
@ Restaurant-ing through history

Pearls of wisdom from culinary school Day 6

Use chicken feet to make a stock with body--one of the characteristics of good stocks. The other four are color, clarity, flavor and aroma.

Not just in the kitchen my friends. My life motto.

The road to Chefdom

I meant to post this on Monday. Let the Culinary Arts Degree adventure begin!  

Happy Mother's day to me

             Morels in my backyard! 

And lunch at Central Provisions 

(a bar at Braun court pop-up exclusive)

smoked salmon tartine with golden beets

Mother's Day means kids stabbing at your greens

Korean chicken

Not being able to leave well enough alone, she sees this recipe 

Korean Fried Chicken  | SAVEUR.

And says "Yes. Yes. But how? What? For whom?"

Weighing her options, she brainstorms and creates: 

A ramen noodle nest topped with Korean chicken bites, carrot radish slaw, baby spinach, buttered corn, a poached egg and dashi broth.  Topped with garlic chives, the first 2014 garden harvest (if you don't count the asparagus she's eaten raw standing barefoot in the garden).

Just because it's work, doesn't mean its not fun

Deviled eggs at the Raven's club. 

Just one stop on the tour of Ann Arbor's trendy food circuit 

for the fine folks of Ventura Foods and Sysco.

• Secrets and tastings of Zingerman's Deli
• The wonders of Kerrytown: Monahan's Seafood, Sparrow Meats and Market, Fustini oils, Spice merchants
• Specialty cocktails and snacks while debriefing at Raven's Club 
• Dinner and inspiring introduction by Chef Duc of Pacific Rim by Kana

I'm wearing my birthday suit

Although she was a little slow this year, Mother Nature normally gives me tender green leaves for my birthday. 

This year the leaves are still embryonic, but they're visible. And so are these puppies:

A quick lunch break between job número uno (motherhood) and an exciting culinary consulting project: 

Shrimp buns at Tomokun- hit the spot!