• Rutabaga, Celery, Dill, & Smoked Chicken Soup
  • Matcha Whoopie Pies with Sakura Buttercream Filling
  • Chicken with Oyster Mushrooms, Portobellos, & Napa Cabbage
  • Mushroom Chicken Pie
  • Pistachio Wasabi Beets
  • Sichuan Chili Oil, and variety of cold-chicken-based lunches
  • Lemony Pea and Radish Salad with Mint
  • The Fort Greene
  • East African Sweet Pea Soup
  • Lazy, Rustic, Haphazard, and Amazing Sour Cherry Pies
  • Malaysian Chicken Satay
  • The Wildman’s iPhone App
  • Welsh Cakes with Dried Apricots and Candied Ginger
  • Farmhouse Pork with Black Beans and Green Peppers (and Trotter Gear)
  • Black Pepper Tofu with Pork
  • Peposo
  • Toasted Hazelnut Chai
  • Kentucky Coffee Spread
  • Banana Guacamole
  • Spicy Shrimp with Wine Rice
  • Double Ginger Chocolate Chunk Scones
  • Artichoke and Blood Orange Salad (with frisee, parsley, and cardamom)
  • Chevre Truffles
  • Clementine Sassafras Ice Cream
  • Jack is Closed (but you can vote for our pie on Sunday)
  • Our Wedding
  • Pecan Mole
  • Son-in-Law Eggs
  • Saffron Turmeric Cake with Meyer Lemon Sorbet, Argan Oil Whipped Cream, Almond Brittle, and Thyme
  • My Triumphant Return, with a Book Giveaway!

« | Main | »

My Triumphant Return, with a Book Giveaway!

Ah, so it turns out that I took an unplanned hiatus from blogging. Sorry about that. Dave and I just moved to a much nicer apartment, and we are finally wedding planning in earnest, so things have been pretty overwhelming around here.

As part of my return to food blogging, I have presents for you! (It’s sort of like how hobbits give presents to everyone else on their birthdays.) I have three copies each of two new books from the Culinary Institute of America to give away: Baking & Pastry: Mastering the Art and Craft 2nd Edition and Remarkable Service: A Guide to Winning and Keeping Customers for Servers, Managers, and Restaurant Owners 2nd Edition.

More on the book giveaway later, or feel free to skip to the bottom of this post for instructions on how to win one of these books.

Wedding planning, did I say? It’s coming up fast, and we are caught up in the panic of it all. We finally sent out save-the-date cards, at least! Not all family friends are thrilled by them, but they tell the true story – we are utterly silly geeks in love.

I’ve also been making a lot of art, mostly handspun yarn.

I’m in love with texture, as usual. It’s much like my cooking, really.

And vivid colors.

Now when I wear out old suits (which happens frequently, what with all the lawyering), I can just cut the fabric into strips and spin it into more yarn.

I even crocheted a yarmulke for my cat brother.

Not everything is fiber art and law, though. I also finally started building blinds for our new apartment out of card catalog cards from one of Columbia University’s old defunct card catalogs.

Okay, let’s get back to what you really care about – the CIA book giveaway!

The Rules: To win one of the books, leave a comment on this post telling me which Jack: an occasional restaurant dish you’d most like to see me post the recipe for (or, y’know, just say hi!). In about two weeks, I’ll pick 6 comments randomly, and have the publisher send a copy of one of the books to each of the 6 winners. (Unfortunately, the publisher can only ship to people located in the USA or Canada.)

Again, the books are Baking & Pastry: Mastering the Art and Craft 2nd Edition and Remarkable Service: A Guide to Winning and Keeping Customers for Servers, Managers, and Restaurant Owners 2nd Edition. The publisher’s blurbs are as follows:

Baking & Pastry: Mastering the Art and Craft 2nd Edition: The first edition of Baking & Pastry has taken its place alongside The Professional Chef as a must-have guide for all culinary students and professionals, and has been praised by top chefs as “the ultimate baking and pastry reference” from “the best culinary school in the world.” This edition will improve upon the first with new recipes, photos, instructional illustrations, and information on the ingredients and techniques needed to create spectacular breads and desserts.

Considered to be the most comprehensive reference on the market, Baking & Pastry contains foundational chapters covering ingredient and equipment identification, baking science and food safety, and baking formulas and percentages, as well as information on career opportunities for baking and pastry professionals. The book includes a total of 625 recipes ranging from basic to advanced in difficulty, and features appendices with useful conversion and equivalency charts, reading and resource information, and a glossary of terms. Accompanied by 389 four-color photographs and 72 illustrations, this completely revised and expanded text contains new sections on everything from baking entrepreneurship and principles of design to breakfast pastries and vegan baking.

Remarkable Service: A Guide to Winning and Keeping Customers for Servers, Managers, and Restaurant Owners 2nd Edition: The first edition of Remarkable Service and its follow-up, At Your Service, have been trusted resources in the food service industry since 2001. This new edition will be fully updated with new content and photography throughout, making it the must-have guide to service and hospitality.

Remarkable Service addresses the needs of a wide range of dining establishments, from casual and outdoor dining to upscale restaurants and catering operations. Chapters cover everything from training and hiring staff, preparation for service, and front-door hospitality to money handling, styles of modern table service, and the relationship between the front and back of the house. This new edition includes the most up-to-date information currently available on serving customers in the contemporary restaurant world.

Post a comment

You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

50 Responses to “My Triumphant Return, with a Book Giveaway!”

  1. Lisa Soto says:

    Oh, man. Just /one/?? How about Pork Sundried Tomato Cappelletti
    pomegranate walnut sauce, sev.

  2. Stacy says:

    YAY! I’ve missed your blog! I keep thinking of pinging you
    about it, but I know you have plenty else going on. :)

    I would so love to win the pastry book. I think the recipe
    I’d like to see (at the momment) would be
    Fiddlehead Fern Salad
    grapefruit confit, chevre
    since I have fiddlehead ferns and looking for all kinds of
    things to do with them.

  3. Vicki says:

    You 2 are so cute! I’d love to see the recipe for Plum Wine Brandied Quail, Fig Stuffing, Chard with Pickled Plums. And I’d love to know how you made those blinds!

  4. Cris says:

    Yay! You’re back! With an adorable save the date card ;-)

    Have you ever posted the recipe for Chocolate-Whiskey Pudding Cake?

    I’m a sucker for baking books, obviously.

  5. Nick says:

    I’m no professional cook (though I can fantasize) so I can’t say I would get much use out of either of these books, unfortunately. That said, I find myself highly curious about the heartburgers with sage pesto and tangerine relish. Are they actually made from heart? And if so, you must add some sort of fat to compensate for the leanness of the heart meat, right?

  6. Nick says:

    Also, I didn’t realize the menus were available via RSS. One more feed to distract me from my work now.

  7. Jodye says:

    Your yarns are beautiful, and what a novel idea for the blinds! Also, your cat is so adorable!
    With that said, I’d love to see the Turmeric Saffron cake with meyer lemon sorbet, argan oil
    whipped cream, almond praline, and thyme. It sounds so delicious!

  8. Alison says:

    I’d love to see the recipe for the Clementine Saffron Rice. Sounds delicious! Your save-the-dates are ADORABLE. Don’t let fuddy-duddy relatives get you down. :)

  9. Rayna says:

    Love the Save-the-date cards:)

    I’d love to hear about your foie gras, a dish I drool over all the time, but couldn’t imagine making for myself!

  10. Renee G says:

    I’d like to see the recipe for Tamales of Cocoa-Rubbed Ribs with Tobacco Blackberry Sauce

  11. kat says:

    Miso Butterscotch Pork Buns. Or Turmeric Saffron Cake. I can’t decide!

  12. Wendy says:

    The Clementine Saffron Rice sounds AMAZING!

    P. S. I am so loving the cat yarmulke! :)

  13. ikkinlala says:

    It’s so hard to choose just one… maybe the Nectarine Soup?

  14. adrienne says:

    The Chocolate-Whiskey Pudding Cake looks AMAZING. Chocolate and whiskey together??? Oh. My. God.

  15. Vicki Bloom says:

    I’d love to see the recipe for Tamales of Cocoa-Rubbed Ribs
    with Tobacco Blackberry Sauce. So bizarre yet sounds so good!

  16. Kathryn says:

    Wow. What fabulous yarn: how inventive. Love the colours.

    I think that the cat should keep the yarmulke — he looks so pleaed.

    Glad to be reading you again.

    K

  17. miss fae says:

    I second the Turmeric Saffron cake with meyer lemon sorbet, argan oil
    whipped cream, almond praline, and thyme. I love spicey deserts

  18. Kaitlin says:

    i second vicki bloom with wanting to see the recipe for tamales of cocoa-rubbed ribs with tobacco blackberry sauce. sounds divine, and very very unique.

    second, hot vanilla with sassafrass and rum … just because i want to say sassafrass ;)

  19. Red says:

    That picture of the car wearing a yarn “fro” is hilarious…
    very endearing..

  20. Jennifer C. says:

    I would love to see the pulled pork recipe! It sounds delicious!

  21. sandy says:

    miso chicken and Carrot Cake look good. Like the save the date myself and love those card catalong blinds

  22. Nicole says:

    Turmeric Saffron Cake… even though I really don’t enjoy baking so much myself!

  23. Claire says:

    Miso butterscotch pork buns, please!

  24. Rich Blackmon says:

    Wow I would love the pastry book! In keeping with the baking/pastry theme and my own sweet tooth I would love to see a recipe for the Sour Cherry Molten Chocolate Cake. I love molten chocolate cakes and this sounds like a wonderful twist. Now if I can just make it to NYC for one of Jack’s openings. What a wonderful and different idea for the blinds, btw. Thanks for the time you put into the blog and keep up the good work!!!

  25. brilynn says:

    Welcome back! Been wondering where you got to…
    While scanning the menus I was happy to see heartburgers made
    an appearance, those were awesome! As for recipe I’d like to
    see posted, I’m going to go with Miso Butterscotch Pork Buns.

  26. Catherine says:

    I’d like to see the recipe for Culatello because it has mango and macadamia, teo of my fav things

  27. Sarah Z says:

    I would love the recipe to Seared Scallop – root beer date sauce, plantains with fermented black beans, coconut crisp, yum!!!
    Thanks

  28. Evan says:

    Please, please, please post:

    Cocoa Nib Crème Caramel, Tempura Pears, Bay Foam, Mocha Sauce

    I just got my first Kitchenaid and need to make some killer desserts.

    Best,

    Evan

  29. brooke says:

    Perhaps it’s because I haven’t had them in a really long time but the Tamales of Cocoa-Rubbed Ribs with Tobacco Blackberry Sauce sounds so yummy… I would love to get my hands on the Baking & Pastry: Mastering the Art and Craft 2nd Edition… Always baking something but never been trained per say

  30. Deborah R says:

    mmmmmm…how about the pulled pork from the 1/24 menu? Welcome back, and congratulations!

  31. Hannah says:

    All of the desserts sound so good, I’d be happy to see any of those recipes. :)

  32. Esme says:

    I would love to see the recipe for Squid Ink Turtei Ci La Cua. It sounds delicious.

  33. kim v says:

    The Clementine Saaffron Rice.
    Thanks for the giveaway!
    Kimspam66(at)yahoo(dot)com

  34. Erin says:

    Tamales of Cocoa-Rubbed Ribs with Tobacco Blackberry Sauce do sound amazing…and I sure could use a baking & pastry book!

  35. yoko says:

    Always loved your blogs. I wouldn’t mind “Turmeric Saffron cake,” or even the chestnut hot chocolate.

  36. kyburg says:

    MISSED YOU.

    That said – I want this one:

    Plum Wine Brandied Quail, Fig Stuffing, Chard with Pickled Plums

  37. Mishia says:

    Ohh….Miso Honey Chicken. Yum.

  38. peachstar says:

    Definitely the Cherry Molten Chocolate Cake, yum… though, i would love to try making Blood Orange Sorbet with Basil Sauce as well. (Baking & Pastry book looks great!)

  39. Lesley says:

    I’d love to learn how to make your Bamboo Gelee with Clementines and Crea

    And I can always use another pastry and baking book! Thanks!

  40. Congrats on the new apt., although I’ll always have fond memories of your Park Slope place. My former boss gave me this book for Christmas, and it’s a great resource.

  41. Sarah says:

    Sassafrass marshmallows! Need I say more?

  42. Ramp Ravioli – duck, seasonal mushrooms. That’s the one – the o
    one I NEED. And I LOVE the card. And btw, I can’t believe
    I’ve never come across you before (got the link from
    Tartlette)You spin, bake and make cool stuff. Neat.

  43. Steph says:

    Oh this is so easy peasy – my eyes went directly to this one:

    Miso Butterscotch Pork Buns

    Puleeze?! Pretty Puleeze?!

  44. Kendall says:

    Oooh this is difficult…Very difficult…

    I think…

    >>Thai Tea Cake
    lemongrass pot de crème, basiled basil seeds, coconut crisp, ginger, lime<<

  45. noa says:

    Just in case you haven’t chosen winners yet… I’m in! Hi!

  46. Congrats on the upcoming big day!!! It’s fast approaching! :)

  47. LOVE the card catalog blinds. did you just examine some blinds and attempt to duplicate the structure, or did you find intstructions in some sort of DIY book??? do tell!

  48. Iris says:

    The blinds are super duper cool.
    Miso Butterscotch Pork Buns
    yes

  49. Rose says:

    I LOVE the card catalog blinds…they resonate with my love for libraries and creative endeavors….

  50. jan sanderson says:

    no question… the pulled pork! YUM!!! :)

Leave a Reply

May 2009
S M T W T F S
« Jan   Jun »
 12
3456789
10111213141516
17181920212223
24252627282930
31  

Metadata

Credits