During pastry school, the fabulous Chef Kelly Bailey Newlon shared her recipe for Coconut Curry with the class, and so Friday night I decided to try and duplicate it.  Like most great chefs, there is no exact recipe, it's more about smell and appearance, but Dan tried his best to determine the amounts and put them down on paper.  Let's just say it was a "reasonably good" attempt at duplication.  Mine ended up a little sweeter, a little hotter, but good none the less.  The biggest question of the night was whether or not we would all die of food poisioning or suffer some sort of huge gastro intestinal "incident".  For the purpose of explanation I will recreate the conversation...
Scene:  me in the kitchen, Dan returning from the store
Me:  Did you remember to buy the curry paste?
Dan:  Oh, no.......I think we have some....(he begins to search)......"It used to be here...."  still searching...........(checks the canned goods in the garage)........"here it is"......
Me:  Ummmmm, the can says it was manufactured in 1994?
Dan:  Really?  It's in a can, it's fine....
Me:  It's 17 years old...
Dan:  If we were in a nuclear holocaust we would be happy to have that can....
Me:  Yes, I guess we would ......
And so, the "alleged" 17 year old can of red curry paste went into the curry....(of course we did a smell check and a visual check for anything out of the ordinary)....4 days later, as of this posting I am happy to report that we are alive and well and had no adverse effects................yet.

This weekend I helped with bread class.  Naan, fugase, mulitgrain, olive bread, blue cheese, apple and walnut bread, fig and hazelnut bread, potato rosemary, and ciabatta.  I always love to see people get excited when something they made actually turns out. So, other than that it was a kind of quiet weekend.  Tonight when I got home from class, we fired up the grill and Dan cooked hamburgers.  Just the way I like it, crispy on the outside, cheese, tomato, ketchup, sliced onions and just a swipe of mayonaise.  If only it would have been a "fresh from the garden" tomato, then it would have been a true, full on summertime meal.  Friday night I made Chop Suey.  My grandma's recipe.  It's not really much of a recipe, but it's one of those meals, that the very smell of it sends my mind back to everytime we sat at her table and ate it.  She didn't make it often, maybe one or two times a year.  She had this certain rectangular, metal pan that she would pour the chow mein noodles in and toast in the oven, I can still see it ...in fact, somewhere in a box, I think I have that pan.  I am ALWAYS amazed at the power of food and how the taste or smell or sight of it can transport us to another place.  I think that's why I enjoy seeing people's eyes light up when they are proud of something they created.  I know that they will take that new found knowldege and make delicious and beautiful things for their family and friends... and  the cycle of food sparking memories will continue...just as it should.

What a long, long week!  The weather in Denver this week ran the gamut.  My Thursday morning commute consisted of drizzle, full on rain, blowing snow and then finally sun.  It's been a dreary week, but the grass is greening and the plants are blooming, so I won't complain.  The highlight of the week was assisting with a Tapas class at the culinary school.   The class prepared some delicious dishes.  One of my favorites, and one that will sure to be a hit on the summer barbeque menu was a grilled peach with honey and mascarpone cheese (infused with a little grand marnier, which never hurt anything), and sprinkled with some chopped pistachios.  Simple. Easy. Delicious.  Be sure to choose some ripe fruit, and let your imagination run wild with the mascarpone.  So good.    A rainy weekend, brought about some time to dig into some cookbooks and compile a huge list of new things to try and experiment with.  I can't wait to get started and share the results with you all.