Last night I led a cooking dinner party for 10 and I thought it only fitting that I include a picture of Suzanne, my trusty assistant who helps with most of my dinners. This is her slaving over the large pots as she does every event, and they wouldn't run smoothly without her! I made the Italian menu again, and ate the leftover pasta carbonara at midnight while catching up with my husband after we both got home.

Today marks the final post in my dinner journal blog - I made a commitment to chronicle what I eat for dinner for a full year, and unbelievably, I've done that! Most people probably don't give much thought to what they've eaten in a year, but here's a snapshot for my year:

I ate out 86 times during the year which averages to once or twice each week. By far my most popular dishes to cook are pasta, which I made 71 times. I also use alot of cheese (70), made salad for dinner a fair number of times (57), ate leftovers about 3 times each month (37), and about twice a month (23) I just snacked my way through the evening, usually on a hefty serving of those Cape Cod Reduced Fat Potato Chips. I chronicled what I ate during my travels (33) on my travel journal blog (including some great photos if I do say so myself). By protein, here's what I cooked this past year:

Beef 66 (45 of those were steak)
Chicken 55
Fish 32
Seafood 25
Buffalo 6
Lamb 4
Pork 4
Turkey 3
Kielbasa 2
Ham 1

My goal for the next year will be to eat more fish and seafood than beef!

Starting in March I will launch Tips from The Kitchen Coach, my new blog, which will be full of tips, techniques, recipes, cookbook reviews, sources, and other useful culinary information. Be sure to check it out.

Thanks for sharing my year with me!

Well, it wasn't fancy or elegant, but I managed to make a meal and my husband and I sat down at the dining room table to eat and talk about what's going on with his work and our new house. Since we're moving in 3 months I don't want to buy new food, but rather eat up as much from the pantry as I can so I don't have to move it. Here's what I came up with:

Wild Rice Pilaf
I cooked long grain wild rice in some chicken stock with cumin, coriander and chili powder, dice green chiles, and a diced carrot. When it was almost cooked I added a can of drained chickpeas and a little butter.

White Sweet Corn
It was like a blast from last summer - I cooked some of the sweet corn I had frozen from last season and it was delicious!

Pan Fried Tilapia
I simply seasoned the fish filets with salt, pepper and some freshly grated lemon zest, them pan fried them in a little butter and extra virgin olive oil.

I was busy last night getting our house in shape to be photographed in order to list it for sale and barely had time to throw together a quick pasta dish for my poor husband who has been wondering why I never cook for him anymore. I think I'll surprise him with something spectacular tonight.

Orzo with Beef Sauce
I sauteed a diced red onion in extra virgin olive oil with some ground beef until is was browned, then added chopped tomatoes, tomato paste, canned mushrooms (I keep them for when I'm in a pinch even though their texture is rubbery), chopped fresh parsley, salt and pepper. I tossed this sauce with cooked garlic parsley orzo and topped the dish with shredded Parmigiano Reggiano cheese.

I spent 3 hours yesterday walking through the new house we are buying with our builder and his wife the interior designer to review features, tweak layout, agree on lighting and fixtures, and, most importantly, review the complete kitchen design. I've never built or remodeled a house, so this was the first chance I had to think about kitchen layout (like including a full counter lined with a long appliance garage for all my heavy work tools), to specify appliances (Wolf and Subzero), and to pick cabinetry (like the very cool floor to ceiling bookshelves for my 500 cookbooks that will include a library ladder to reach the upper shelves). It was a great experience and I can't wait to settle in our new digs.

I also taught a private cooking lesson yesterday where we focused on appetizers plus made a dinner. Here's what we made:

Pan Seared Lemon & Garlic Shrimp
Cannellini Bean Dip with Pita Crisps
Tuna Tartare in Wonton Cups
Mushroom Palmiers
Prosciutto and Fontina Wagon Wheels
Red Wine Braised Lamb Shanks on a Bed of Couscous

I was tired and not hungry when I got home and didn't eat any dinner, but did manage to nibble a couple of my healthy oatmeal chocolate chip cookies before bed.

It was not an easy trip home from Park City yesterday with my daughter on crutches and me hauling all the bags and her snowboard in the sleet and snow, but we made it home in one piece on time and the airport personnel could not have been nicer or more helpful to us. I was exhausted by dinner time and made a simple Sunday supper for the three of us to eat while watching the Academy Awards.

Roast Chicken, seasoned with salt, pepper, garlic powder and parsley and stuffed with onion and lemon for flavor.
Baked Yukon Gold Potatoes, served with butter

Well, it was inevitable. Anyone who snowboards 100+ days a year and spends all her time in the terrain park riding rails and boxes, doing jumps and tricks, is bound to get hurt eventually. Although my daughter was thrilled to be teamed with professional snowboarder Erin Comstock yesterday in the Queen's Cup in Park City, she "cased it" (hit the jump wrong) on the first jump because "the setup was gay" (too short between the jumps) and blew out her knee. She tore her ACL, needs surgery and is out for 6-9 months.

We laid low after that and hung out in a hotel room last night with a few of the other athletes and another mom, watching "Dan in Real Life" and eating pizza for dinner while my daughter iced her knee and moped.

Last night was the charity rail jam in Park City and I stood in the freezing heavy snow for 3 hours watching the kids - not my idea of fun. To make it even less appealing, the had set up the rails right on Main Street and between the short course and the heavy snow, it was so slow nobody could even hit a trick. Needless to say, I was psyched to head to dinner at 8:30 at La Casita, a great little Mexican joint right in Park City. My daughter and I shared two different meals:

Chicken Enchiladas Verde
Chili Verde

The Corona with a lime was a perfect accompaniment to the meal!

I'm in Park City with my daughter for the Queens Cup snowboarding and skiing competition. She'll be in the rail jam later today and will compete in the downhill slopestyle tomorrow, and the proceeds from the event benefit breast cancer research.

Last night we had dinner at Grappa, and highly rated Italian spot on Main Street, and dinner was fabulous!

Calamari
Caesar Salad
Pesto Crusted Sea Bass on Risotto with Crispy Pancetta

We went to dinner with a group of friends from my husband's company last night to celebrat a deal they had closed and thoroughly enjoyed our meal at Steakhouse 10 in Englewood. The restaurant is owned by three Greek brothers who recently opened their 11th restaurant, an Italian spot aptly named Undici which means "eleven" in Italian. If you go to Steakhouse 10, try to go with a group so you can actually try all of the appetizers and desserts like we did - I didn't eat all of this, but I certainly had at least a bite of everything!

Ouzo-flamed Greek cheese
Crab Cakes
Escargot
Caesar Salad
Filet Mignon
Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Asparagus Spears
Chocolate Cake
Creme Brulee

Laurent Perrier BV Champagne
2003 Silver Oak Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon
2005 Caymus Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon
Ouzo - Hopa!

After spending much of the day running around and doing lots of little things on the house to get it ready to sell I found myself at 7pm with nothing for dinner and a hungry husband. I also am out of many staples because of my trip to Mexico and I leave for Park City tomorrow with mu daughter, so I had to improvise.

Beef Tips and Mushrooms with Pasta
I thawed and sauteed some chunks of beef tenderloin (I always save the "scraps" when I trim a whole tenderloin) with a diced onion. While that was cooking I soaked some large dried shitake mushrooms in hot water until they rehydrated and then chopped them up and added them, along with a small can of button mushrooms, some beef stock, and the mushroom liquid. I seasoned the dish with fresh thyme, salt and pepper, and thickened the liquid with a beurre manie (equal parts softened butter and flour conbined into a paste and whisked into a sauce). Finally I tossed it all with some cooked garofola pasta and served it with a little shredded mozzarella on top. Fair...you have to love shitake mushrooms as they tended to overpower the flavor.

My husband's favorite type of meal is anything with pasta, preferably with sausage, and usually with red sauce. He's been feeling so badly lately I humored him with a dish right up his alley - and the bonus was I used some of my frozen sauce from this summer and the leftover sausage from Sunday.

Baked Rotini with Peppers, Onions, and Sausage
I tossed half-cooked rotini pasta with sauce I made last summer with peppers and onions, added some diced fresh red pepper and cooked sausage slices, then tossed in some shredded mozzarella cheese. I poured the whole thing into a baking dish and topped it with more mozzarella and some grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese and baked it until bubbly. Yum...

Despite the wintery weather yesterday, my husband and I headed to Cherry Creek for lunch before driving through the neighborhood we think we want to move to in order to check out houses for sale and new homes being built. I had a great lunch at Cucina Colore.

Insalata Caprese
Classic tomatoe and buffalo mozzarella salad with pesto, balsamic, and huge fresh basil leaves.

Linguine with Mussels
Linguine in a spicy tomato sauce with plump mussels and freshly wilted spinach topped with some Parmigiano cheese.

Parma Pizza (my husband's, but I helped myself to a slice)
Thin crust pizza with prosciutto, arugula and some cheese.

Orvieto Classico wine by the quattro litro

When we returned home I was stuffed and not in the mood to cook, so just ate some of the leftover butternut squash risotto with sliced sausage for dinner.