CIA - GREYSTONE

CIA - G R EYSTO N E
WHAT A WONDERFUL DAY!I had the absolute pleasure of presenting Christine Schmidt with her Chef2Chef scholarship, yesterday at the CIA, Greystone. Oh my, talk about goosebumps!!That is the most gorgeous setting, building, campus, garden, yadda yadda, I've ever seen. Can you imagine, a citrus garden, an herb garden to kill for - all a student has to do is walk out the door and gather!Christine ...I don't think we could have picked a better student, she is so passionate and dedicated to what she is pursuing and so very grateful for the help from C2C. She can talk a mile a minute with the cutest New Orlean's accent, I was exhausted after a couple of hours of keeping up with her! She is 52 yrs. young (is that legal to tell?) and she says I am her hero, but my God, she is really my hero, she knew what she wanted and she went for it in such a humungous way!I left the place loaded for bear with all the brochures and goodies one of the administrators, Catherine, told me I just had to have because I needed to come back for at least a week's class - which, I will do come hell or high water before I leave California. (as of 11/06 in Washington, I’ve not made it…yet)

For all who have not taken the opportunity to visit one of the CIAs - I hope you will, just think ‘goosebumps and hair standing up’ experience in those rooms. And the Chefs were so welcoming!!Speaking of Chefs, the one bummer, well kind of, FoodDude was at the hospital - the new baby had just arrived, so couldn't see him. But I left a card from all of us for him. He is very well liked there....and how was your day?

Dave, thank you for the opportunity to represent C2C in this way - the CIA was so appreciative of us all who made this possible for a student....

AND FOR LUNCH...We went to Bistro Jeanty in Yountville for lunch ...oh my! There were two of us, so we made sure we ordered different things to be able to taste.I took Janis' advice and ordered the deep fried smelts with spicy lemony aioli - addictive!!I ordered a second hors for my lunch - Rabbit Pate with Celery Root Apple Salad - another winner. (June, Beef Cheeks weren't on the menu or special, darn.)

My friend order the 'special' Asparagus Soup advertised as not the creamy type. When it came it was topped with a wonderful puff pastry and digging right into it, Coleenie found a gorgeous salmon colored cream soup...????? We kept tasting trying to figure out the flavors and where the hell the asparagus was. Finally called our waiter over ...he had made a mistake, she got the 'signature' Tomato Soup in error. But, she wouldn't let it go back, it was so good. (The chef very nicely gave me the recipe - it really is super!!)Then she had the Coq au Vin - I was surprised how strongly flavored the sauce was for the chix, but it worked somehow ...but a little too bacony, I thot.

Split a Lemon Tart for dessert.Overall, a very nice lunch. The hits for me were the Soup and the Smelts!! Loved those little buggers! Janis also mentioned in her post a few weeks ago about stuffing them .... I dunno, they are kinda small to be messin' with like that, but, maybe I'll give it a try.

Then on to the Tourist Traps - THAT was fun! Picked up three different cuts of pasta - the multi-colored stuff. Bow-ties, long, narrow lasagne type strands, and 4"X6" lasagna sheets - pastel yellow, green and pink - now, what sauce with this? I don't want to cover w/a typical red sauce, maybe some kind of white? Hmmm, someone was talking about Stroganoff in another post, that might be good...O. K. that was my Thursday, Apri121, 2005 - now, I'll go pack the trailer....