Tuesday, April 29, 2008

There's a lizard in my kitchen!

Ok, we live in the desert so I guess that exclamation point after the title is more hype than truth. The fact is, lizards in our kitchen are not that rare. Besides, I am talking about our outside kitchen so the lizard is more welcome than an intrusion. For the last few years, we have had what seems to be one lizard who likes to hang out near our atrium and one that stays around the outside kitchen.
Hmmmm. I hate to say it but, they all look alike. Only the distance assures us they are not the same reptile in each place.
These aren't your little old skinny lizards that run away at first sight. Ours are those big fat Mountain Bloomers (both with stumpy tails this year) that merely lumber out of the way when we go near them. The kitchen lizard is especially funny because he does seem to get startled once in a while and "peels out" on the concrete floor to run under the stove or out the open door. He looks like one of those cartoon critters, making his getaway while the bongos play as they take off!
While some of you may be very distressed at a lizard cavorting around your kitchen floor, somehow ours seem kind of comforting to us and a constant stream of entertainment.

Friday, April 25, 2008

Wow! Has it been this long?

Geez, we have been so busy with all our pursuits the past year that I just have not taken time to write anything. That is changing right now! There is so much to tell about food and cooking, and we are busting at the seams to spread the word.
We discovered a few days ago that our only real competition in town is closing their doors May 1st. That is too bad as we think some friendly rivalry is a good thing. Before the word came out that they were closing, we had made the decision to just about double our class offerings. We are so excited about the opportunities to share all our great cooking ideas and recipes that two or three classes each week just didn't cut it anymore.
I think our best idea lately was to add our Basics of Cooking course. We have been kicking the idea around for a long time but just hadn't been able to formulate exactly how we wanted to present the information. We are now running two sessions of this class each week and we are having a blast!
I have just finished a little remodel in our outside kitchen. I removed the large sink and its counter then installed a new cabinet a with a larger countertop to give us more prep area. So far, it is wonderful! Now I need to go to the next step which will be enlarging that part of the kitchen so I can install my commercial stainless sinks and move the fridge to that area. Then we will have a lot more room in the main part of the outdoor kitchen.
Last night we taught Four Pastas and Four Sauces. Our class had a lot of fun preparing these great recipes and the food was out of this world! I think it was the best we have cooked in a while. After cleanup, Mardi and i enjoyed a nice glass of Shiraz on the patio to wind down before bed.
Saturday we have a group of "bigs and littles" from the Big Brothers/Big Sisters organization. Mardi and I are really excited to host this class. The kids should be a real hoot.
Chow!