P I C N I C

For dinner tonight shrimp and polenta with a shrimp shell and torcolato sauce. Also, butter lettuce rolls with omelet, salt pickled daikon and shitake, carrot and sweet onion.

I’m catering a wedding next week and am coming up with canapes to make. On the right is tarragon-marjoram mayonnaise, roasted beet and poached chanterelle. On the other side is a little pastry shell with BBQ pork, vanilla glazed carrot and pickled cabbage (not to be confused with sauerkraut).

Today I spent all day cooking, something I haven’t done in months. It’s a real shame, there are just so many projects. But this weekend I’m doing tests and recipe refinements, trying to get a few things hammered out. I was trying to get maximum oven spring on this quadru-sected loaf in the middle. I was pretty successful. To the left of this loaf are some potato chips, and to the left of these are knives and spatulas covered in BBQ sauce. It was a fun day of cooking.

The rains have now started and I need to cover the cart up because it doesn’t have a roof yet. That only helps so much though, as there are plenty of leaks.