And All Is Well In Linda's Kitchen

Ahh, as always, life has moved on. No more friends in the kitchen (lying, cheating, stealing will do a person in), another busy tourist season, and successes learned, have turned my restaurant employment into, once again, a job worth my while.

But with the extra days off (we have another cook), the appointment of pastry chef, and my own garden, my own kitchen has been a pleasure in recent months.

I had the worst oven anyone could own, and when two burner's finally bit the dust, I just told my husband that's it. New stove. A trip to Fred's Appliances in Coeur d'Alene. And lo and behold, it turned out that in two weeks after that trip, Fred's was having their giant parking lot sale in Spokane. Well, even if it meant rising at 4am, I wanted a decent stove and so off we journeyed. I didn't get my ding and dent, but I did buy, at a very reasonable price, a GE duel range, 30" stand alone (which is huge for my kitchen) and I am so happy! I'm still getting used to the very accurate oven, working with high-powered gas burners, compared to 18 yrs of electric burners, and just the overall workings of this baking/convection two-oven marvel. Indeed, I'm just now figuring out the bread temperatures, an important point to know since I bake all our own bread.

I also have my garden to contend with these days. The cutworms have been deadly to my black Tuscan kale and Swiss Chard so it's now warfare. Thankfully, Garden's Alive provides me with a pretty much organic defense, but all the rain has made this an ongoing war.... It's extra work, but I mean to prevail.

So, with my own garden produce coming on strong, I have been making endless creations with spinach, lettuce, fresh herbs, baby turnips, beets, and carrots, some peppers, summer squash, and even some early, renegade potatoes. It's all so delicious! From the first chives in spring, well into October (and even later with global warming) my garden just keeps on giving....

I did make myself, way back in April, the most marvelous birthday cake ever. After buying myself Sherry Yard's Desserts By the Yard, I made the chocolate twelve layer Dobos torte that she had once made for an Academy Awards dinner. Oh! Wow! Oh! That was incredible! One of my best birthday cakes. But that is what I do every year for my birthday - I challenge myself to make a dessert in which I do not fully understand the process but, of course, by the end, I'm "in the know." It's so gratifying, especially when it turns out so perfectly.

Ah, it's so good to be writing about food again. I can't wait to upload some photos to support more of my incredible experiences with food.

When Friends Try To Work With Friends

InLindasKitchen is on hold for the moment. A month after I started working as a chef, a "friend" came to work at the restaurant where I work and it has been a disaster since day one. She is so unbelievably inappropriate, but no matter what happens, she still manages to linger on, inadequate waitress that she is. She was so bad that within the first six weeks, after grabbing a dessert off the tray I was holding, and upsetting the balance, followed by an insult to me, I told her f*** you. She went ballistic, yelling on the floor of the restaurant and in the kitchen, but was she fired? No.... instead she has lingered although most of the employees can't stand her. She was a friend, but her actions at the restaurant indicate to me, at least, that not only has she no interest in friendship, only in control, but that she may also have very deep psychological problems. Very weird. Very off-the-deep-end and yucky, it seems to be about me and my fellow chef. Very bizarre and the stories she weaves even more so. Oh, well, my employees either don't see it or don't want to deal with it so.... until I decide to completely change focus, this blog is halted until I re-think what I want to report.

Moving Into Fall At Papa Byrd's

School has begun, the tourist season is about over, but the great food at Papa Byrd's just gets better. Business has certainly slowed and our tanking economy hasn't helped much, but innovative Tracy has us serving half portions again during the day, and college has taken away many of our employees, so we continue on.

We slid gracefully into Fall with a lovely, artistic belly-dancing performance by Tracy's friend, Erika. Having only seen belly-dancers who danced for the tips lavished upon them, Erika's presentation was a pleasant departure into something that emphasized grace, artistry, balance, and form. The customers were very pleased and even the employees had to stop their work and become absorbed into the show. At the end, Erika did a beautiful dance while skillfully balancing a series of candles on a tray on her head. Beautiful!

Several weeks ago Josh's dad, Terry Sherven, played guitar and sang at the restaurant, along with local musicians Gary Lawrence (bass and singing) and Wayne Rau on mandolin. The customers really enjoyed the music. I had to agree with many of them that it sounded like Willie Nelson was in the restaurant. Great night!

We've had several perfect restaurant weekends because Josh and Tracy have been serving and the evening's flow has been everything a restaurant could wish for. We have an excellent core group of people that just cannot be beat. That's our dynamic duo: Tracy and Josh!

And our customers seems to be happy. We've had people from Seattle to Tasmania to Coeur d'Alene rave about the food. We even had a customer write about us at TripAdvisor.

Besides our regular menu which includes Mark's signature lasagna, Mark also creates the most delicious specials from Vodka Sauce on Papparadelle with Freshly Grated Parmesan to a Wild Mushroom Duxelles Sauce on Mushroom Ravioli topped off with a Balsamic Reduction to Orange-glazed Game Hens served with Wild and Brown Rice with Middle Eastern Herbs and Roasted, Locally Grown Apples and the list goes on.

I've created some new desserts, a favorite being my version of the Velouté au Citron (Lemon Velvet Cake), in which I use two biscuit layers in the center and two almond meringue layers for the top and bottom, thus creating a multi-layered cake. Last weekend I created a cake I called "Evita" because it had flavors reminding me of Argentina: chocolate genoise layers made with
Dagoba Xocolatl Hot Chocolate Mix, three layers of mocha buttercream, topped with a chocolate ganache, and then I trimmed the sides to show off the layers. Yummy! And last night I made a Caramel-Pecan Chocolate Ganache Tart. After "quality control," the kitchen came to a standstill.


Arriving home after work, I found the movie "Chocolat" just beginning on TV and was compelled to watch the entire movie for yet another time. It just captures me and dessert-making....

Well, off to work....

Summer At Papa Byrd's

It has been a busy summer. I've been working six nights a week and as much as I love working it doesn't leave much time for other favorite endeavors, like blogging. I did, however, manage to get in a few words at my other blog since my son, Julian, was one of two pages from Idaho at the Democratic National Convention. He was also the youngest member of the Idaho delegation, and as the mom with subsequent bragging rights, I had to write about the convention.

But back to the kitchen, which these days seems to be Papa Byrd's kitchen instead of Linda's.... Maybe not, after all I do work there.... The summer has been interesting with live music, a belly dancer, and all sorts of delicious specials created by Mark. I've had a hand with several different desserts. I captured some of the specials and desserts on film so photos to follow! We've had some incredibly busy days and also some slower ones but in a restaurant's first year it seems no predictions can be made. Summer has been good because we're located adjacent to the city parking lot and just a few doors down from the Visitor Center. For those of you who have never heard of Bonners Ferry before, we are a gateway to both Montana and Canada and we have more than 30,000 tourists who pass through our county (pop. 10,000) every summer.

We only have ten tables at the restaurant plus four 2-tops outside. Tracy, one of the owners, can handle the entire place easily but some of the local help has more trouble. On the positive side, many people know all the local help so patience comes in full supply. All in all we have a very good crew although the college students will be sorely missed.

Of course my favorite working crew belongs in the kitchen and on Saturday nights three of us have a great time no matter how busy it gets. So meet Anita, Mark and myself, Linda:

I caught some of the desserts on camera, but please, I'm no photographer. One night I made a Chocolate-Dipped Financier Cake, served with sweet whipped cream and fresh raspberries:

On another I went for my Chocolate Mousse Cake (because of the lighting the filling looks to be different colors but it comes out solid chocolate):

A favorite is Tiramisu, made with real zabagloine, macarpone and whipped cream. Most people here have only experienced the American custard (or vanilla pudding at some places) mixed with cream cheese, but we have the real thing and it is appreciated:

And when berries were in season, we just served the zabaglione with fresh fruit:

The desserts are only a final compliment to Mark's excellent and delicious "specials." On the following occasion he created a roasted fennel and red pepper shrimp, served on top of a Gorgonzola potato galette and accompanied with garlic roasted fresh red and golden beets on top of their own garlic fried greens. It was so good that the staff as well as the customers demand it frequently! The food just keeps on coming! Unfortunately my camera has not caught all of our delicious specials, which leave staff and customers satiated! But I'm working on it because I want everyone to know why Papa Byrd's is THE hottest restaurant in Boundary County, Idaho!

Slow Food In Bonners Ferry

It was, indeed, a rather slow night for the restaurant, but our slowly made Bolognese Sauce was well worth the wait! I fell in love with Mark's version of it (he used Italian sausage) and could have eaten at least a pound of sauce and pappardelle. But I restrained myself and saved it for customers....

The entree included our caprese salad, so I shot a quick pic of the caprese salads and of our house salad (mixed greens, tomatoes, gorgonzola, and a balsamic vinaigrette) right before the waitress scooped it up to serve.

I took several more photos but didn't like some of them including the photo of Mark and myself (better luck next time). However, since I mentioned waitresses, we had two of our college students, Meadow and Betsy (left to right) with one of our dishwashers, Tony, who's always eager to pose between two beautiful girls.

More to come after I get used to taking photos while working....

It's About Time I Brought My Camera To Work....

We've been creating some very tasty and beautiful dishes this summer and I keep leaving my camera at home.... Every time I read some of my favorite food blogs I just cringe at my own negligence. I guess it's about time to bring that camera to work.

This morning I made a carrot/ginger soup. Pretty typical these days but it did contain lots of flavor. I think it was the nutmeg and cardamom that pushed it over the top. I also did a watermelon gazpacho, from a recipe supplied to me by my chef, Mark. It had a lot of flavors in it, including watermelon, cucumber, peppers, mint and several others, and when all those flavors finally married, it was really sensational! And perfect for a 90+ degree day.

Before leaving for the day, owner, Tracy, wanted a variation on her favorite Alfredo style sauce, "something with spinach," she said. I left her with a spinach cream sauce, made with the simple basics of spinach, white onion, salt, nutmeg, and cream, all blended in the food processor, and then mixed in a bit of Parmesan. I loved the flavor and in our "quality control" test, in which we finished it off with freshly ground pepper, we both decided the chicken raviolis were a terrific match.

Yum, another day of cooking all day. I just love it!

Papa Byrd's Bistro

The days all tumble into one on-going love affair with food. The people just keep coming and even when we're hit all at once, with almost every order having a special request, I still love it! From the desire to please to the desire to create, I feel I'm on top of the world, and I have only Papa Byrd's Bistro to thank. Well, and Mark and Tracy, owners, as well as to the great staff that also works there. Our grand opening isn't until June 28th, but the summer tide has already begun and I expect we'll be putting in lots of long hours through next fall.

Our menu is starting to really form, although it's more in our heads at the moment. Of course we'll be keeping all the pizzas but we're adding different salads and sandwiches, and Mark keeps creating the most delectable and delicious dinner specials. I still haven't gotten over the amazing Moroccan spiced ribs, served with couscous and tzatziki. Wow! I think that special should be available once a week all summer long! People also seem to crave different pasta dishes, so that will be fun. I've made a number of different desserts but the Tres Leches coconut cake and the Decadent Chocolate Cake seem to be keepers, at least for the summer. Homemade ice cream also offers both a great dessert complement as well as being delicious on its own. And soon we'll be adding Creme Brulee. Oh, the yummy quotient just keeps growing!

Every day I mean to bring in my camera, but who knows if I can find time to take a photo. I must try however, because Mark does such a beautiful plating, and the food looks as good as it tastes. Well, I'm off to work.... and work has never been so much fun!