There are so many things I have enjoyed about working at Marcel’s for the past 6 years – yes, it’s been 6 years! I learn so much interacting with our talented and generous chefs who share their tips and recipes. It’s been a joy to work alongside so many great people here on staff who have become dear friends. And I am thankful to continue to get to know so many of you as you come through the store, talking food and entertaining, sharing recipes. One of my favorite roles has been sharing one of my recipes during our weekly Tuesday demos. Did you know we have free demos every Tuesday? One of us, on staff, at Marcel’s prepares a favorite dish each Tuesday between 11am and 2pm. Everyone is welcome to stop in for a quick taste, grab the recipe, or to sit and enjoy a bite while watching the entire process as we make the entrée, side dish, appetizer or dessert.
And, for those who are working or otherwise unable to come to our demos, each demonstrated recipe is available on our website. Over the years we have compiled quite a nice collection of recipes from these demos. Also on the site are chef recipes for you to enjoy making and serving at home. Some of these dishes have become favorites in my home. Have you tried Janie’s Penne with Beef and Arugula? Jill’s Mussels with White Wine? Or Rita’s Mardi Gras Jambalaya? I highly recommend them – and so many others!
With the start of the fall schedule, our Tuesday demos are again in full swing. Here’s what’s ahead in the next weeks:
Aug. 29 Julie’s Easy Lemon Sole Meunier
Sept. 5 Sharon’s Chicken with Spicy Thai Peanut Sauce
Sept. 12 Deb’s Quick and Simple Asian Tilapia
Sept. 19 Julie’s Wheatberry Waffles
And on Sept. 26, our 6th birthday, I’ll be dishing up a special Anniversary treat! Please join us in the kitchen on Tuesdays.
After lamenting my less than stellar rhubarb harvest last year, a dear friend brought me over this homemade rhubarb treasure. She is a fabulous cook, and the pie was delicious….but it was the big D on that pie that was the most delish! Edible friendship!
Sharing the gift of food is a universal gesture of love and friendship, compassion and kindness. A meal to a family struggling with challenges, chicken soup to a sick friend, cookies to your new neighbor…food has always been a way that we reach out to one another, to connect. We all know this. The food itself may or may not be a fabulous culinary creation, but the gesture speaks volumes.
Somehow it seems to happen that whenever we have out of town guests, something breaks, or clogs, or freezes. Think plumbers on Christmas Eve, or a dozen guests enjoying the warmth of the fireplace – because the power has gone out. This visit was no different, the day before company arrived our ovens decided to quit working. Not a total disaster since the stovetop still functioned, but I needed to alter my menus none the less. 
I’ve had to skip over “grill” recipes for many years, and now here was my chance to dive back in. So far, we’ve seared steaks, grilled shrimp, warmed bread, grilled romaine and even baked banana bread. The surprising one was grilling salmon. I had adapted this salmon recipe for the oven and it had proven quite tasty, but now I was actually able to grill it and wow, what a difference!
My file after 20 years in my own kitchen is scattered amidst pages of heavily annotated cookbooks, dog-eared pages of Fine Cooking, vintage cards in my grandma’s ornate script and a healthy pinch of recipes gathered online. Of the thousands of recipes that could be unearthed in my home, there are a handful that reappear time and again – a motley mix that is a representation of my family’s tastes and sensibilities. Years of experimentation have mined out our shining stars: an endlessly adaptable loaf of peasant bread, a dead-simple before school pancake recipe, an aromatic chipotle and cumin burger… 
Monday, April 3rd. I turned 60 years old. 21,900 days. That’s a lotta days.
This story reminds me of when my Grandma would visit from California, always arriving with trinkets and stories of her travels. While she was staying with us she would always bake. We would place bookmarks in cookbooks, marking the things we wanted her to make the next time she was in town. Food certainly has a way of generating memories, and this is especially true with a particular recipe of hers. She visited one time with a recipe cut out from a newspaper for “Boiled Cookies,” and it became an instant favorite. Not only were they yummy, but we loved that they were called “boiled” cookies. Today, many call these “No-Bake Cookies.” Despite the different names, they are still made the same way, bringing butter, milk, sugar, and cocoa to a boil on the stove before adding vanilla, peanut butter, and oatmeal. The next step is to spoon the mixture onto sheets of waxed or parchment on the kitchen counter, while fighting the willpower not to eat them before they cool.
I know my family now has their own memories of these cookies since they were a regular after school snack. We call these a semi-healthy cookie since they are gluten-free and we make them with organic sugar and oats!
As you might imagine, I’ve got quite a collection of kitchen stuff and exquisite tableware. Brock, my husband, has developed a certain look when he sees me coming in with a Marcel’s bag. It’s a look that says, “Is it necessary to have four different machines to make coffee?” (Um….kind of! They’re all different! And anyway we have 5 not 4. Just saying.). It asks “Don’t we already have way too many plates?” (Well, technically yes, but look at how gorgeous these are and how great they look with all our other Juliska plates!!)
It begins innocently enough. I’m having a discussion about the wonderful features of a product with a customer and next thing I know I’m the one who’s standing at the counter purchasing it. I’ve literally sold it to myself!! It was in this exact way that I recently became the owner of a Fagor Lux Multi-Cooker. I think selling that machine to me may have been the best sale I’ve ever made.
I’ve owned my Multi-Cooker for about a month and have had so much fun trying new recipes and learning easier and faster ways of doing things. And when Brock recently wondered aloud “Where has this thing been all our lives?”, I shot him my look that says “Told ya!”
Yes, things are getting busy. With Thanksgiving dinner and then holiday shopping and baking and visiting, life can get a bit hectic. Recent family health issues have caused me to slow down and reflect on the things that matter. While I’m thankful for so many big blessings like family, friends and home, I’m also thankful for many smaller joys.
I encourage you this holiday season to take some time to slow down and be thankful for your many blessings, help those who have less than you, look for the good in those around you, enjoy a job well done, show simple kindness and enjoy it in others. And sit down and enjoy a bowl of soup and some fresh, homemade bread.
During a specialty farm tour this past summer at the Hawaiian Vanilla Company located on the Big Island of Hawaii, my family and I had a behind-the-scenes look to see how one family with 25 acres and a growing family of five kids produce 300 pounds of vanilla a year. Owner Jim Reddekopp is the personal tour guide and explains how vanilla is grown and cultivated. The whole Reddekopp family chips in to cultivate the vanilla and share the process with travelers. They host vanilla tastings and luncheons are accompanied by a presentation on raising vanilla and making it’s extract. As they explained how easy it is to make at home since it requires only 2 simple ingredients and no special equipment, I couldn’t help but think how fabulous homemade batches of vanilla extract would be for baking back at home (or if you are really planning ahead, gifting for the 2017 holiday season!). Below, I’ve included the recipe straight from 
Having grown up in a traditional Korean home, there were many dishes that I was often embarrassed or afraid to introduce to my friends. Kimbap was one of them. I distinctly remember going on a preschool field trip to the circus where my mom had to pack a lunch for me to eat on the bus. My mother, having only known what kids in Korea ate for lunches, packed me two rolls of kimbap (aka. Sushi) neatly packed in what would today be known as a bento box. I looked around me and saw my fellow classmates eating ham or PB&J sandwiches, and so desperately didn’t want to be different with my rice rolls and seaweed. It was mortifying as a 5 year old to open my lunch and have to quickly eat my rice rolls to avoid as many “What is that?” questions from classmates. Who in preschool wants to be different? Certainly not me.