2016 Test

test 2016

BACK TO BASICS!!!

Wow!!...... I think that's the understatement of forever, for everyone, I mean really isn't like saying hindsight is 20/20?

How many time and places can you apply this to your life. I know for me it's more than I can count.

All that said, life is too short to worry about the past, so move on and live your life to is fullest

I'm working today. Honestly, everyday. It's being a week since shit hit the fan. I don't understand, things have changed for days now. I'm finding myself dealing with it better at home than work. But at home I crave being out. Work reminds me how after a year I didn't learn the right lesson of leavening people that don't value you or people that only wanted to use you for your ideas rather than be creative!!!! It makes me feel as if I have made no progress.. Yes I'm in the same position as last year and things have changed. But today I am finding it hard. I am lost and I admit I need o find my way back… A day at a time. What a shitty process!!!

I definitely wish I had known the paths my life would take in my earlier years.  Everyone has to pay his or her dues, and everyone develops and matures over time.  I just wish there had at least been enough understanding of the clues.  I knew I was different, I knew my true ideals didn't match up well with others that I knew.....

Over time, I educated myself and I finally found the real me.

Just wish I had known back then!!!

I wish I knew that there were people who HURT other emotionally because deep inside they were many times more deeply hurt. Then I wouldn't have to feel so sorry for myself when I was going through a tough time being hurt by them.

It's my personal experience that it's harder to forgive a friend than an enemy.

I understand these choices I've made in life, the mistakes, the triumphs, the bonds and the experience all define me. The one thing that I can't understand is the what if’s?

What if I hadn't been blind too what I had, what if I hadn't walked away. This haunts me a lot!

Oh well, if a person never quit when the going got tough, they'd have nothing to regret for the rest of their life. So I am back to basic I guess, where it all started. When I had no manager or loads of staff. When the chef I had then could not even flip a burger or know what a soup of the day was. When the front staff could not know how to place a plated plate in front of a customer. When art was just clutter that filled the walls and passion was only for lovers. All in all I am well and blessed. But every so often we all have to vent !!!

ME, MY CAMERA & THE FLASH

 ……….A ship inside a bottle cannot sink or collect dust; it is nice to look at and floats on glass. No one is small enough to board it. It doesn’t know where it’s heading. The wind outside won’t blow its sails. It has no sails, only a slip, and a dress. So are photos, they stay the same as time goes by. I felt like having fun so I grabbed my camera and flashed away. These are some of the dishes that we do and I am not the best photographer you have ever met but I tried.

                                                    

                                                         Our soups :)

.......I have never liked the thought of having the same thing over and over so as a rule in our kitchen, we change things almost daily. There are many reasons as to why i choose this method, one of them being to keep things interesting in the cafe, for costumers who come there daily. There is so much available everyday from farmers, fresh vegetables and it would be a shame not to take advantage of this lovely goodies. Another reason that i cannot ignore is the fact that i have trainee chefs/staff and i have to constantly keep pushing the bar daily for motivation, awareness and pass on knowledge. learning something everyday is awesome and it leaves you with a feeling of achievement and in turn very empowering. Most of my staff are young and full of energy, they demand and absolve what they learn quickly. So we soak beans, roast bones to make stocks for our soups or slow roast vegetables, either pan roasted or oven. Blend them or leave them whole. Fuse new with tradition to create something different. Which ever way i totally encourage it daily "to be creative". If you happen to stop by, be adventurous and go healthy for a moment, try a soup for a change. Soups that we make include,,,,, Tomato and rosemary, butternut squash with coconut and lime, bean soup with coriander, nduma soup,  roast carrot and ginger, potato and spinach or sometimes we will do it with managu when there is plenty going around. Chicken soup or vegetable soup and more all served with toasted bread and you can always butter your toast just ask (at no extra cost).

                                                     Our Sandwiches :)

......We have a standard way that we do our sunnies, toasted bread three layers, buttered. Our selection include, B.L.T Sandwiches(bacon, lettuce, tomato with mayonnaise sauce) chicken and guacamole Sandwiches, organic egg salad Sandwiches, club Sandwiches. We sometime do on request veggie Sandwiches if you if meat is not your thing.

                      other thing we do......

                   
                               lamb stew with lionise potato

                                 Githeri with seasonal vegetables and fried gizzards

                              Roast chicken with fries and salad

Quesadillas 

                                          Happy Cooking !!!!!

Words And Me Thinking Out Loud!!

…….I thought love was supposed to be a golden rose, and the heart its vase. I thought it was to grow and the heart to beat faster in anticipation. It is at first, but then the thorns begin to pierce the heart and the flower’s golden hue fades into non-existence as it passes slowly away. The heart left pierced slowly cracks as the flower dies, and then there exists a void where once that flower bloomed. You only get that golden rose once in a lifetime. The void never ceases to exist no matter how you try to replace it. You will find a tulip here, a carnation there. You may even chance upon the rarest of orchids, but you will never be able to fill the void left by the passing of that one true love, that golden rose. You may not admit it, but it is seen in the argument you have with your new flower, or maybe the faults you find within it—A broken stem, a drooping leaf, a faded color. Whatever it may be, it will cause that void in your heart to grow and grow as the crack widens. If you ever find your golden rose, cherish it for what it is and nurture its growth for your growth depends on it as well. Then again, I am nothing more than a raving lunatic.

When I was young, I believed that love in its purest form was simply loving someone and not expecting anything in return. Simply loving a person because of who they were and how they affected your life. Loving them for the sake of loving them. That can be a painful kind of love, for at some point you start to want the object of your affection to see you, and then to love you as well.

I miss that pure love that heart that once beat for someone even when they didn't know you existed.

When I was young I believed in so much. I believed that the person you first love to was the person that you would spend your whole life with. That's what I knew in my heart. I found out all too quickly that was not the case. That knowledge damaged my whole belief system, and yet to this day I still yearn for that dream. That the person I lie beside will be beside me until I pass from this earth.

As a child I saw beauty in almost everything, even the grotesque. My favorite flower is the orchid for encompassing the beautifully grotesque unique look that reminds me of love. So many colors, so many shapes, so horrifically beautiful, as if a mad man created it from some hallucinogenic dream where he thrashed about with brush and canvas and created chaos from nature.

I am neither man, nor child, for I feel the years that have passed and yet I pass through time believing in the same fantasies that I held true as a child. I yearn for dragons, and count change to pay the bills. I write my heart out in a dream and awake to cold realities of broken windows and freezing winds.

Through all, I believe in that pure love, but I realize it is tainted, and yet I yearn for the dream of it every waking hour.......

100 Thing I have Cooked With........

I was just thinking today after having a chat about food, with a good friend. And i wonderer if i could randomly name a few thing. I have to say, i feel very privileged to have known a wide variety of ingredients and used them on a daily basis. I mean this list could have gone on and on and never stop. But Its also shocking!!


1-lard
2-butter
3-olive oil
4-grape oil
5-salt,pepper,
6-white sugar, brown sugar, cane sugar, icing sugar
7-pistachio paste
8-food coloring
9-herbs-basil, chives, chervil, dill, sorrel, parsley(flat and curly) mint, tarragon, lavender, rosemary, Thai basil, galangal, thyme, lemon thyme, bay leaves
10-garlic
11-honey
12-truffles-both white & black
13-vanillar
14-stocks I have made-( chicken, fish , vegetable, beefveal, shell fish, lamb, duck stock)
15-meat-(veal, venison, partridge, guinefowl, quail, wood pigeons, goose, lamb(all cuts), beef (all cuts), pork all (cuts), oxtail, duck, wild boar, goat, baby chicken , rabbit, kangaroo, organic chicken)
16-foi gras

17-black caviar
18-salmon eggs
19-fish-(salmon, sole, dove sole, turbot, halibut, sea bass, John Dory, mackerel, monk fish, cod, fresh haddock, smoked haddock , wild salmon, trout, herring, dogfish, tuna(blue fin) butter fish, catfish, red and black bream, hake, king fish, mullet, mahi mahi, anchovies, perch, place, sardines, tilapia, zander, swordfish , snapper )
20-plain flour
21-self-rise flour
22-00 pasta flour
23-wholemeal, white ground, bread flours
24-saffron
25-eggs-(chicken,duck and quail eggs)
26-corn
27-corn syrup
28-polenta
29-gnocchii
30-fresh pasta (all sort)
31-fresh tortellini,
32-fresh ravioli
35-mushrooms- (morels, flat, Portobello, oyster, shiitaki, shimeji, st.georges, trumpet royal, chanterelle, winecap, yellow foot, black trumpet , blewit, chestnut, cinnamon cap, clampshell, enoki and gamboni mushrooms )
36-raisins
37-baking powder
38-ginger
39-water(a must)
40-tamarine
41-chilli(most types)
42-milk( most type including UHT)
43-cream
44-cous cous
45-lentals (Most type)
46-kidney beans
47-chick peas
48-gungo peas
49-green peas
50-black beans
51-bean sprouts
52-crab (most type)
53-Scotish langoustines( very divine)
54-tiger prawns (and most prawns)
55-mussels-(all type)
56-clams-(all type)
57-scallops( divers are the best)
58-frog legs
59-snals
60-chicken livers
62-bi-carbonte soda
63-lobsters
64-puple potatoes (and all types of potatoes )
65-most fruits exotic and rear
66-panchetta
67-parma ham
68-cream cheese
69-chocolate (most types and flavoured)
70-berries- (all type common and wild)
71-rocket (and most types of salads name it)
72-parmesan( and most cheese that you may know)
73-avocado
74l-eeks, butternuts quash, aubergines (and really a vast vegetable selection)
76-maple syrup
77-golden syrup
78-corn floor
79-tomato paste
80-tined tomatoes
81-bone marrow( not widely use but really good)
82-fresh pestos
83-olives
84-olive tapenade
85-Aubergines pesto
86-risotto rice
87-long grain rice
88-wild rice
89-lemon grass
90-rose water
91-coconut
92-coconut milk
93-fennel seeds
94-cumin ground and seeds
95-tumiric
96-orange blossom water
97-shrimps
98-cherries
99-lime leaves
100- love !!

Teachable Moments!!!

……………It funny how time and distance change you. The choices you make may not always bare fruits. The road you take, don’t always lead you home. You could start something with good intentions and a good heart, you look up and it’s all gone. Sometimes people say your lucky, everything is going well, but for you its not luck but grace. Having said that, we learn as we go and this are the teachable moment. An unplanned opportunity that arise, an ideal chance to offer insight, a fleeting opportunity that must be sensed and seized. So what have i learnt so far beside pots and pans in my tinny kitchen???

                                           

                                         

“I’ve learned that no, matter what happens, or how bad it may seem today, life goes on and it will be better tomorrow. I’ve learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way he/she handles, being lost and a long twisted day. I’ve learned that regardless of your relationship with your parents, you will miss them when they’re gone from your life. I’ve learned that making a “living” is not the same thing as making a “life”.  I’ve learned that life sometimes gives you a second chance"yes it does". I’ve learned that you shouldn’t go through life with fear but with courage, you need to be able to throw something back. I’ve learned that whenever I decide something with an open heart, I usually make the right decision. I’ve learned that even when I have pain, I don’t have to be alone. I’ve learned that every day you should reach out and touch someone. People love a warm hug, or just a friendly pat on the back. I’ve learnt that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

.......am still learning :):)