Author Archive: Recipes, Meals & Personal Chef Notes
Here you'll find every story the site author has posted on Enjoy Dining In. Scroll through the entries below, or use the pagination to reach earlier posts. The list that follows sums up the main topics these articles cover.
- Personal chef services and dining experiences at home
- Cooking lessons and hands-on kitchen skills
- Party and celebration menus, from bachelorette get-togethers to Valentine's dinners and stay-cation meals
- Recipes and ingredient notes, including mushrooms, coconut, mac n cheese and flourless chocolate cake
- Family meals and helping children eat well
Recent Posts
A meal should feel like an occasion, and it doesn't have to be fancy. Even when it's just the two of you, take a moment to set the table nicely, add a vase of flowers or a few rosemary sprigs from the garden, squeeze lemon into the water and pull out the cloth napkins.
Earlier this month I cooked for a couple on a stay-cation. They took a week off work and, instead of booking a hotel, packing and travelling, they stayed home. They set up a cabana with white lights, two lounge chairs and a romantic table for two.
Many of us grew up being told what and how much to eat, so we lose touch with what we truly need and want. Nutrition Matters Inc. shares tips for helping children tune in to their bodies and eat intuitively, beginning with a conversation.
Coconut products have grown hugely popular, and with good reason. Coconut works as an excellent substitute for other dairy and animal fats, and it holds its nutritional properties under high heat, which makes it ideal for stir frying. This versatile nut yields several culinary products, along with a range of beauty uses. Coconut butter is delicious.
Here's a fresh take on a bachelorette party: wine, food, plenty of laughs and a private painting class at home. The menu was a four-course Italian meal, starting with Parmesan crusted meatballs and petite pastries filled with goat cheese and roasted eggplant, then my signature Confetti Cabbage Salad.
Give this flourless chocolate cake recipe a try, baked as a whole cake or as cupcakes, with coconut cream standing in for the butter: 4 oz fine bittersweet chocolate, 8 tablespoons coconut cream, 3/4 cup sugar, 3 large eggs and 1/2 cup of your chosen dry ingredient.
Last week I cooked for an intimate dinner party in San Marcos. The setting could hardly have been more perfect, and the hosts were wonderfully generous to me, my staff and their guests. Hors d'oeuvres were passed with margaritas on the back veranda.
As much as I enjoy cooking, I love it even more when someone cooks for me. Being welcomed into someone's home where a beautiful meal has been thoughtfully prepared for the guests is a real treat. For many of us, home is still a place of work.
Anyone working in health care can confirm how demanding the schedule is. Naturopathic doctors, physical therapists, surgeons and veterinarians fill their days with appointments and the needs of others. Health care professionals are often overworked and stretched thin, so who takes care of them?
Read the full posts through the links below.
- Celebratory meals without the fuss
- A couple's stay-cation dinner
- Ten ways to trust your child's appetite
- The joys of coconut
- Bachelorette party for six generous women
- Dairy-free flourless chocolate cake
- Surf n turf Mexican menu for a guest from the Midwest
- This year, Valentine's could be an ongoing affair
- Three reasons hiring a personal chef will enhance your life
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Whether you're planning a celebration, curious about cooking lessons or simply looking for a new recipe to try at home, these posts offer plenty of ideas to start with. Each entry reflects the same approach: thoughtful menus, fresh ingredients and meals made to feel special.