Month: November 2010

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Michael's Meetup

I love to eat good meals, cook from interesting recipes and learn about food. Next week, I’m thrilled to say, I’ll be able to do at least 2 of those things. If all the stars align (no sick kids) I’m going to Michael’s Meetup at Michael’s Restaurant in Santa Monica.

Owner and chef Michael McCarty and Executive Chef Mikey Stern will take a group to the Santa Monica Farmers’ Market on Third Street Promenade to talk to farmers and find ingredients to make a meal. This is the second month of the meetup and the chosen theme is parsnips. The chefs will show the group how to pick the best parsnips and then walk back to the Michael’s restaurant to try seared Nantucket Bay Scallops with Parsnip Puree, Bloomsdale Spinach, Mangalitsa Pork Belly Lardons, and Chives, and Braised Short Ribs with Parsnip-Fuji Apple Mash and Glazed Baby Carots.

This is fantastic because I’ve never cooked with parsnips and wouldn’t know what to do with them. This is the second month of the meetup and last month’s ingredient was Kabocha Squash.

Here’s more information about the Meetup. Hope to see you there.

Michael’s Market Meet-Ups are a monthly event featuring a seasonal ingredient of the month. Each month, attendees will meet Executive Chef Mikey Stern and Chef-Owner Michael McCarty at Michael’s Restaurant just off Santa Monica’s Third Street Promenade. After cappuccinos and house-made cinnamon buns at 8:30 a.m., attendees will join Chefs Michael and Mikey in a tour of the market. They will meet the farmers, discuss other uses for the month’s ingredient, and learn how to pick out the best of that season’s bounty. After the market tour, the group will walk back to Michael’s and sit down for a tasting of the featured ingredient as well as sips of wine from Michael’s list.

The light breakfast, tasting and Farmer’s Market Tour is $60 per person and includes a personalized, signed copy of Chef Michael McCarty’s latest book, Welcome to Michael’s: Great Food, Great People, Great Party!

Wednesday, November 10th,and monthly, TBD, 8:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.

RSVP to Michael’s Restaurant (310) 451-0843

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Razor Playdate

My younger son is shy and adorable, but when he warms up watch out. He’s full of energy and he’s not afraid of much.

That’s why I was a little worried about the Razor Playdate picnic a couple of Saturdays ago at the skate park in Culver City. Kids were supposed to bring knee and wrist guards and helmets. They would ride scooters, skate boards, 3 wheeled bikes that can spin in a circle, and a motorized tiny car.

This was all very scary for me, as the mother of a 5-year-old boy who had stitches twice before he was 3-years-old and who had also watched the same boy hit his head 3 times while on a camping trip the week before the event.

We (or I) put fear aside and went to the picnic. One of the first things we saw was this.

Notice how many feet are between him and the ground. Thankfully, those were Team Razor skateboarders and we couldn’t get into the area where they were skating. When we did get to the scooters, I was relieved to find all the equipment on flat ground.

My son really loved the Rip Rider 360 and how fast it spun around. We will not be getting that, but we were given a 10th Anniversary scooter to test out. It’s great and my son loves riding it. He had a 3-wheel razor that we got him a couple of years ago, but it wouldn’t go fast enough for him. It’s been so nice since we got the new scooter. My husband went out and bought both my boys new skate/bike helmets (ones that actually fit their heads, unlike their old bike helmets) and they ask to ride their scooters every day. I’m not just saying this because Razor gave us a scooter, but it’s really nice to have my kids ask to go outside instead of play video games.

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Please Vote!!

I don’t have a lot of time to spare. Call it poor time management, but I think I’m overambitious and try to cram too much into the short window I have while my kids are at school. But last Friday, I set aside 2 hours to go down to the Obama headquarters in Culver City to help get people to vote.

When I arrived (late because I had to get work done in the morning), I was surprised by the lack of hustle and bustle. There weren’t many volunteers and my job was to call around to get volunteers to come into the office for the weekend. Making calls during the middle of weekday isn’t so easy, I have to tell you. The people who are home aren’t thrilled to be getting a call. One woman said she was home with two sick kids and couldn’t volunteer. I wanted to say, “don’t use the sick excuse with me lady. I invented that excuse.” (Mostly because it’s always true! We’re sick all the time here and I was sick on Friday and still am today). But I let it go.  I thought of all the things I needed to do at home, which included baking a cake for son’s school party, cleaning my house, doing other work, and getting the kids ready to to to a friend’s house so my husband and I could have a date night. After that I needed to go on the “date night” and try to forget how tired and sick I was.

Well, I’m sick again today with asthma that sent me to the doctor. I came home with four prescriptions and feel like crap. But I’m going to pick up my kids from school and we’re going to vote. No matter what.

If you do one thing the rest of the day. One thing at all, please vote!.