the quaint kitchen

Hi!!

I’ve been a crazy person flying all over this past month or so… Breckenridge.. Chicago.. Puerto Rico.. woah girl slow your roll.. you’re poor. Yea, I was thinking that too. But, the best part about it all was that I was able to see the people I love the most in some of the most incredible places in the world. And, I got to distract myself during the yucky cold transition into spring, so that the next thing I knew flowers were blooming and bam! now the warm weather is definitely on the horizon (hello 61 degrees in NYC today!).

As much as I loved traveling around, there comes a point where you start to just get exhausted. There are really only so many weekends you can miss catching up on your sleep from the week before it takes a toll on you, and traveling adds to the exhaustion anyway. There’s nothing in the books for travel any time soon though, so don’t you worry I’ve been catching up… kinda.

Anyway, as much as I know you love reading about all this jazz we all know you’re here for the pictures.. so here it goes.. in order of trips taken! (ps. for sake of fluidity, I’m adding a picture from Breck.. don’t worry I remember sharing them with you before)

Breck…

Chicago…

Puerto Rico…

Enjoy!!

Hi all!

I know that I told you I would post a little bit about my recent travels.. but something slightly more relevant appeared at my mailbox today…

Just another little “victory” to remind myself that even in what feels like the worst of times (these past two weeks at work have been rocky to say the least…) I am working towards a greater goal, and I am only at the beginning of my journey. I have worked really hard to get to this place, and as you know there have been some literal blood, sweat, and tears.. but I am being rewarded slowly but surely.. and as all my clients know “slow and steady wins the race”.

Also, I am starting to appreciate my mini “failures” and mistakes. Something really crappy happened at work last week and the repercussions are still hitting today, but it isn’t creating a feeling of impending doom which would normally be the case. I am taking it as a lesson learned and will literally move on from here. It’s still affecting me because I feel like I didn’t do my job the best I could have, but I know I wont make the mistake again and I am literally getting better and better every day. It’s becoming apparent that the best lessons learned in this industry are through trial and error….

But hey, I’m a board certified holistic health professional.. so I’ll do what I want!

Enjoy!

Hi All!

I hope you had a wonderful weekend! I am writing this post at the airport in the beautiful island of Puerto Rico. I made an impromptu trip down here this weekend to visit my sister while she’s here on business. More on that later this week, and a little update on all my travels this past month!

I recently had the chance to visit some of my best friends back in Chicago, and with that came tons of discussion surrounding my new ventures, and lots of talk about cooking! A few questions came up, and the number one concern I hear from people is that they try to prepare healthful fish-centric meals, but are often intimidated by the process of actually cooking the fish. The funny thing about it is that it couldn’t be any easier! I’ve decided to make an effort to post more fish dishes on here to hopefully help you all get a little more comfortable with cooking fish… so let’s start now!

Inspired by the fresh coconuts of Puerto Rico, this recipe is simple, healthy, and flavorful—all the while seemingly complicated… sure to impress anyone. Also, there are a number of ways to prepare fish and my favorite two are poaching and baking, in this recipe I’ve included how to do both in order to help extend your fish-cooking repertoire.

Enjoy!

Last Friday.

The day came and went, and despite my worst fears and extreme anxieties, it couldn’t have gone any better. I have a tendency to be rather self-deprecating when I get stressed out, and let me tell you the millions of negative thoughts that when through my mind before Friday.

Luckily, and as it usually goes, none of it came true. I got raving reviews, and could actually see the positive influence I had on the children and adults.

If you don’t know exactly what I’m talking about, let me fill you in. I was asked to host a nutritional education workshop at a school in the South Bronx school about a month or so ago. I had the opportunity to teach kindergartners and their parents easy, healthy recipes, basic introductory knife skills (plastic knives), and even introduce the kids to new fruit. After the cooking session, I was able to have a sit down forum with the parents. I taught them how to read nutrition labels, ingredient lists, and how to navigate the grocery store. I worked to put together (thank you so much Avery, for all your help designing!) about 7 different hand outs with all the information I covered, and 1 or 2 reference sheets for the parents to keep in their wallets.

I was pleasantly surprised by how engaged the children and parents were with my information. At one point a student exclaimed “I am a good chef! I love to cook now!”… and well, cooking with the kids was the easiest part for me. I was definitely the most nervous about the parent forum. I think my main concerns stemmed from the fact that I was not sure how receptive they would be to me and my information.  I have visions of them yawning, disengaged, and just falt out uninterested. But, when I had the chance to sit down with them without the kids, my confidence really soared…the information just flowed, and all of my concerns melted away. I could see in their facial expressions that the knowledge I was sharing was not being received lightly, which was a good thing. Eyes widened and mouths dropped. We laughed, shared personal antidotes, got mad, and enlightened.. as a group. There were gasps, “wows”, and plenty of people in awe consistently throughout the session. It’s just further proof to what I truly believe, that education is the key to eradicating our nation’s health epidemic.

I can say that without a doubt these parents will never look at a packaged food, let alone the label, the same ever again. They all left thanking my furiously, and with the intention to contact me with questions that they may think of, and for additional information that I had promised.

Apparently, my presence was felt far beyond the classroom I was in because there was quite a buzz going around school. Before I left, the principal contacted the teacher of the classroom I was invited to. She wanted my availability for future visits because she would like to fund my little project and get me into “every classroom” in the school.

I can’t explain the pure joy I felt that day, and in these proceeding days really. I’ve had the opportunity to actually act on the dreams that I have been working towards, and this is the first step of many in becoming a nutritional educator. I have had the opportunity to actually test out the knowledge I have been accumulating, and I couldn’t have dreamt a better response. If my first shot at spearheading this expenditure was so successful, I can’t wait to see what’s in store.

If you have any questions, or would like more information about the information I discussed that day, please feel free to contact me! I would love to share!

Enjoy!

I’m back. From Colorado! I returned back to my cozy new apartment this afternoon after an impromptu trip out to Breckenridge to visit Ethan. Although I’ve only ever been to Denver a few times before, and only in the spring and fall, that’s as far as I got out in that beautiful state. My family is based out of the Northeast, and we’ve always planned our ski vacations to New England mountains, so I’ve never been “out West” for ski season. Although we didn’t ski, we engulfed ourselves in the culture of the ski community, and took a beautiful drive through the mountains. Ethan is really excelling as a ski instructor out there..I am so proud of him, and it was really great to see him in his element. He has made great friends out there, and has even gotten close to old friends that are also working at the mountain with him. I had a blast getting to know his friends, the town, and the state better. As always in our opinions, the trip ended prematurely. I can’t tell you how excited we are to say goodbye to the long distance, and hello to seeing each other every day. 

Well, I’ll leave you with those.

Back to work and back to reality.

Enjoy!

Hi All!!

Per request/suggestion, today’s post is about what I am up to over at The Gourmetour. Now that my business is in full swing, the synergy of opportunities is definitely picking up. Currently, I have about 4-5 days/week of personal cheffing clients, and when I am not cooking privately I am volunteering and brainstorming my next big move.

First off, have you all seen my newsletter sign up form floating around facebook, twitter, and my website? I sent out my first ever newsletter on Sunday and have big plans for creating bi-monthly emails in addition to monthly newsletters. If you did not receive the last newsletter make sure you sign up for them, and I will forward you February’s. There are three options to sign up: You can text THEGOURMETOUR to 22828 and it will prompt you through sign-up, you can fill out the form on either The Quaint Kitchen or The Gourmetour website, or you can scan the QR code below to your phone. Please please please sign up! You wont be disappointed, I promise!

Anyway, back to it. As many of you know, my main goal in pursuing health and culinary arts was not to become a personal chef. But, to become a touchstone for health and nutritional education which will, in turn, contribute to the eradication of our current health epidemic. In other words, my passion is education.

In order to stay on track with my goals of becoming an educator, personal cheffing pays the bills. Not to sound like I don’t love personal cheffing, but I need to keep my priorities in check. This brings me to the topic of volunteering.

Currently, I volunteer 2 days per week at a public school in Queens teaching 8-11 year olds healthy cooking classes. I absolutely LOVE working with children, despite how challenging they can be. I also see the importance of directly reaching children and youth in concern to nutritional education. For the first time in history, the children of today have shorter life expectancies than their parents…. Um, what? Something has GOT to change, and I hate to say it but the parents are doing something drastically wrong. That’s where my peers and I come in: we teach the kids directly and encourage them to make their own decisions around food. All we can hope for is that the children will request healthier food than what they are being offered at home.

Additionally, I have been offered the opportunity to host a Nutritional Education Day at a school in the South Bronx. Parents and their children will attend my cooking demonstration in the morning. Then, children will be dismissed and I will have the parent’s undivided attention where I will lecture the parents about various topics surrounding smarter grocery shopping. I’ve been working away on ideas and materials to use, and if all goes well I will be able to set a template for future school opportunities.

Future opportunities? Yes, I have my eye set on some. As I previously mentioned, the opportunities have continued to flow since I’ve put my goals out there into the universe. I don’t want to say too much yet, but I was notified of an opportunity that I am being considered for with a top firm here in NYC. This company has a new volunteering initiative that they need leaders for. My role would be to take a number of this firm’s employees to schools with me, and essentially host a workshop similar to the one in South Bronx but with a further reach! My mind is racing with the possibilities and the potential of creating this program!

It’s truly an amazing feeling to have your dreams come to fruition. The hard work continues to pay off, despite the fact that I am far from the big goals I have in life. But, each little victory is a huge step forward towards those goals.

And to you, my readers, thank you for your loyalty and support through all of this! It’s your encouragement that keeps me on track through the hard times.

Enjoy!

Hey all!

If you know anything about me, it’s that I tend to be more skeptical than not about things that I believe could have a political agenda. To save face and not get into the nitty gritty of it, what I mean is that I typically only get passionate about one thing that is politically charged: food ecology for both our species and our planet. As I have allowed myself to become more educated on the topic, my sense of awareness for how consumer-centric our planet is, more so than when I studied marketing, has grown far beyond any boundaries I would have ever anticipated. For example, ever since I was a child I’ve always recycled when permitted, but was never proactive about finding a way to recycle when it was not an option. Or, I have never previously considered my use of plastic storage bags and brand new trash bags as anything but normal household goods, meant to be used frequently. At the grocery store I would (prior to about a year ago) put all of my fresh produce into it’s own separate plastic tear-away bag provided by the truckloads by the grocery store. In college, I would buy water bottles periodically, reuse them for about a week, buy a new one and so on and so forth.

In an attempt to eradicate my misuse of plastic, I have been making changes to all of the above. I rarely use plastic bags at the grocery store, and am in the market for reusable produce bags, and I almost always use The Gourmetour shopping bags at check out (way easier to commute with by the way, less stress on your body!). I buy bulk whenever possible (this is good on your wallet too!), and am in the market for cloth tie bulk bags good for small items like rice and quinoa. I use my own Sigg water bottle, and have begun investing in glass storage containers for cooked food and bulk goods at home and at client’s homes (good for avoiding BPA too!). I am trying to start reusing plastic trash bags, or at least start using plastic shopping bags that do find their way into our home before buying more trash bags. Also, I am starting to accumulate reusable snack bags that velcro closed and can be washed very easily (thank you Whitney for my first one!). Oh, and I am considering composting! Someone on my street already does – I see their compost in the garden boxes around the trees! We used to compost at culinary school, and I totally see the value in it especially for someone who is gardening!

Although I have been voluntarily making these changes over the past month or so, seeing the video below this morning has really inspired me to share my changes with you. I completely understand how someone who is really busy or unaware of how available plastic alternatives are could ignore the trend that is upon us. But, I think that when we see reducing our plastic use as more than just a trend, we make ourself more available to changing our habits.

2000 miles away from the closest continent

Let me know what you think!!

Heyo!

Happy Friday! I’ve been stuck in transition between my old apartment and my new one. Literally a week of sharing a bed with my sister. Luckily, the end is in sight. I’m partially moving into the new place tomorrow in order to make it as comfortable as possible for Sunday. What’s Sunday? Ethan’s coming to visit!! Yay!

This past week has been spent finishing up some work, tying loose ends, and starting new projects! I’ve finished my internship requirement for culinary school, cancelled utility bills from my old place, booked tickets to Chicago for March, and started a new venture with some friends from school (among much more, of course!). I’m taking the majority of next week off to spend time with Ethan and reboot a little bit. Come the week after next I’m starting full force into my new projects and adventures, so this break is much needed.

Yesterday I went over to my friend Whitney’s house in SoHo for a business meeting with her and another friend, Julia. I’m not going to say too much about it considering it was our initial meeting, and essentially a brainstorming session. As soon as things get under way I will be sure to fill you in! What I can tell you, though, is that Whitney is an amazing hostess! She provided a beautiful breakfast spread of wonderful over-sized muffins from Dean and Deluca, fruit, cucumber water, and coffee. Everything looked beautiful and tasted delicious, and certainly helped fuel our meeting!

Tomorrow and Sunday are going to be jam-packed with errands…weather permitting. Any East Coasters out there getting hit by storm Nemo? I hope you all have power! Anyway, on my agenda for this weekend: Costco, Target, Yankee Candle, grocery stores, nails (Whitney are we still on?), hair appointment in SoHo (wish me luck I’m doing something I’ve never done before, eek! but I LOVE my hair stylist so it’ll be great! I’ll show you pictures after), and last but certainly not least picking up Ethan from JFK!!!

I’m hoping to pick up some fun foods and arts & crafts that are Valentine’s Day themed for when Ethan and I are in the new apartment… without cable and internet! I’m excited because we haven’t seen each other in a while so it’ll be a good excuse to have little distractions, and really catch up. Oh, also on the agenda (hopefully) is the Our Global Kitchen exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History. I’ve been meaning to go with some culinary school friends, but I could never make it when they had planned. I think Ethan will really enjoy it too, so it’s perfect that we’ll have the opportunity next week.

So, all of my ideas for food and arts & crafts with Ethan are Pinspired (get it? did I just coin that?! probably not), as I’m sure all my ideas for anything will be for the rest of my life. I’m an addict. I wanted to share them with you and hopefully inspire you too! And by all means share any ideas that you have, too.

Literally.

Tomorrow I finish packing up my very first New York City apartment and move on to bigger (not really) and better (this is true) things.

Sorry for the blurry picture, but you get the idea. Other than my clothing, this is everything.

My packing isn’t actually as disorganized as you may think from looking at this picture. There are boxes that are packed nicely under all the random odds and ends, and a few on the counters just to the left of the picture. The two on the counter are full of office stuff and books/cookbooks… and well, they’re on the counter and not the floor because they’re so heavy that if I put them on that floor they will never be moved from there.

To fill you all in, my sister Kendra has purchased her very first home (apartment) in Manhattan, and is letting me live with her for a few months to save some money. I’ll still be paying rent and splitting utilities with her, but she’s charging me a dramatically reduced rate from what I’m paying now. And if you know anything about renting in NYC, you know that it costs as much as a mortgage on a decent sized home to rent a closet sized room.. with no closet.. in an apartment that you share with 3-5 other people…

But back to the fun of it… her new apartment is gorgeous (seeing that the prior owners had just renovated it before having to move unexpectedly), with a brand new (Chef approved) kitchen, a huge bathroom with heated floors, a huge jacuzzi tub, and TVs built into the walls (um, yes please minus the bath.. I hate baths), and just overall beautiful detail throughout. To top it all off, the apartment is 1 block from: the subway, major grocery stores, starbucks, one of our favorite restaurants, the Hudson River, and Riverside park (with running trails). Here are a few pictures that I jacked from the realtor’s website… they’re super tiny on the website too so don’t get mad at me. I’ll take better pictures for you guys once we get all moved in!

Moving is always so bittersweet. Love reorganizing, hate packing. Love new adventures, hate leaving the source of old memories. Love the updated features in the new place, hate the lack of personal space I’ll have. Love getting out of a construction war zone and leaving my current landlord/management company, hate leaving my roommates that I’ve built close friendships with. Love getting out of mice infested quarters.. yeah that one’s just all good.

Okay, to spare us from getting too sentimental here, I’m off to order food because everything is all packed up here.

Today’s recipe, Mediterranean Salmon, is the perfect dish for both seasoned chefs and rookie home-cooks alike. The 4, simple ingredients keep this recipe light, healthy, and appropriate for all seasons. Never underestimate the power of less-is-more when it comes to cooking. Serve the salmon over a classic risotto for a perfect comforting meal that is easy, but will impress even the pickiest of eaters.

Although the ingredients are nothing out of the ordinary for Mediterranean cooking, I thought I would share this recipe so that everyone has a basic, easy to memorize salmon dish that is both good tasting and good for you. It’s so simple and easy, you’re sure to make this again and again.

A little health fact about Salmon: Salmon is an excellent source of omega-3 essential fatty acid, a crucial nutrient for brain, metabolic system, and nervous system functions.

Enjoy!