conquering meat and other tales

this is not sequential but nonetheless/
in true american tradition, Chef and I observed the 17th of march holiday by joining up with a celebration of not only the fizzy sort of beverages but also that meat stuff. this year's celebration was especially notable due to several marked events - a birth, a birthday, and a veg lady's embark on corned beefdom, and amongst these hosts, a choice line up of characters made it a notably fun, fun weekend.  but since this is a food blog, I'll keep it to that and to a mystique by observing anonymity too. onward to the beef--
with a few deep breaths, the St. Patty's day chef slid two hunka hunkas of those red meats went into a big pot with water and the season packets. phew! not too terrifying a task as evidenced with not as many exuberant vocalizations I had expected to hear from our St. Patty's chef!   A few hours later, she added some carrots and <holy heck> awesome colorful fingerling potatoes. yes, even purple! how exciting!! but that was not all, a broiled salmon joined by roasted veggies - leeks (what a great day! purple potatoes AND leeks(!)), zucchini mamas, peppers, and more vegetable friends. it was a grand spread and the St. Patty's chef nailed the beef, remarked the Chef. Only three thin little slices of the meat stuff remained after the meal! Bravo and thank you St Patty's chef! And, did I mention there was cake? yes, chocolate.  

but before all that fun, the Chef had quite a night mentoring and organizing his students. their school participated in a very unique event. they were asked to prepare food for all attendees (300+) at a fundraiser for a local non profit in a top chef type of food competition. talk about tension!! an eco-minded event, the majority of the ingredients came from local farms, dairies, and ... meat producers (what's a better term for this??). goat cheese, milk, dinosaur kale (OMG!), sweet potatoes, goat meat, turkey, beef, eggs, beets, oysters, perch, spinach, mushrooms, and much more! the top guy beer guy of Baltimore was there, the maker/owner/hero guy of heavy seas beer - i told him i loved his beers (giggle giggle). it was quite an undertaking - 40 or so students and dedicated chefs prepped all week and late the night before. down to the minute, it went off without a hitch. woohoo to the group of alumni students & chefs and present ones as well!

and to bring it all up to date, my din-din from tonight:

Chef fried rice!  he mixed in a little hoisin sauce with a veggie array of baby bok choy, chinese eggplant, freshy shiitake mushrooms, ginger, onions, marin-tofu, cilantro. all that shoved in the pie hole with chop sticks...