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Service 101: Where (Not) to Eat on Mother’s Day

Looking for a great place to eat out on Mother’s Day? Eat at home. Or, if you have your heart set on taking mom out for a nice meal, try something different and book a reservation at your favorite restaurant on the Friday or Saturday night BEFORE Mother’s Day. Please, for the sake of your family and your emotional well-being, do not take your mother out to a restaurant for Sunday Brunch on May 9th.

Because if you love your mom, you will want to stay as far away from Mother’s Day Brunch as possible.

I repeat, no matter how good any special, prix fixe menu may read, Mother’s Day brunch is a recipe for disaster.

I know there’s a lot of pressure to do something special on Mothers Day. Moms are, without a doubt, some of the most important people in the world. These influential women—the people that carried you in their womb and raised you—formed you into the person you are today, both literally and figuratively. But with the fact that everyone wants to take their mom out on the very same day at the very same part of the day sets everyone up for disappointment.

The Mother’s Day brunch guest is rarely happy

With three mothers (one mom, a step-mom, and a mom-in-law) and 15 plus years working in restaurants, I feel qualified to give you the advice to eat out the night before. Why? Because according to one poll of restaurants, Mother’s Day is the busiest day of their year. Remember the chaos of that Valentine’s Night reservation? Mother’s Day is worse.

Valentine’s Day (the second most busy day of the year), reservations are hard to come by and customers–pumped up by high expectations for a meal that will prove their love–are jammed into as many spots as possible. In addition to tight reservation times, restaurant kitchens and service staff are pushed to the limit. Unfortunately, with expectations this high, it’s easy to walk away from this important meal disappointed.

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Spiced Caramel Corn Recipe

I blame Michael Ruhlman for my caramel corn craving. Back in January– soon after we met at Club Med’s Food Blog Camp—Ruhlman started a flurry of debate on Twitter on the merits of cooking popcorn in cold oil. Though I have never before craved popcorn of all things, I realized that my rather serious longing for a spicy caramel corn was not going to go away until I made some for myself.

Let’s just say I’ve made a number of batches since January. Thanks, Ruhlman.

Turns out, caramel corn is a tricky thing. Some recipes I tried were too sugary and encased my delicate corn puffs in sugary straight jackets. Others varied widely, depending on the type of sugar I used. I have tried several batches (and dispatched the leftovers to loved ones across the state so that I wouldn’t eat the entire thing myself), and have finally discovered the best recipe to fullfill for my need for spiced (i.e. cinnamon and nutmeg spiced), caramel corn.

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National Food Blogger Bake Sale

On Saturday, April 17th, hundreds of food bloggers from across our country will combine baking talents for the first annual National Food Bloggers Bake Sale. This first annual fundraiser–part of the Great American Bake Sale–will give food lovers from Massachusetts to California the chance to buy treats from their favorite blogs and rais money to support of Share Our Strength’s efforts to end childhood hunger in America.

The event is the result of private chef and food blogger, Gaby Dalkin of WhatsGabyCooking.com.  Thanks to her organizational skills and clever ideas, this year’s nation wide food blogging bake sale promises to raise thousands of dollars to feed our country’s hungry children. Nearly 17 million—almost one in four—children in America face hunger. Despite the good efforts of governments, private-sector institutions and everyday Americans, millions of our children still don’t have daily access to the nutritious meals they need to live active, healthy lives.

Here in Los Angeles, some 50 food bloggers will team up to put together a notable collection of sweets for the bake sale. Hosted by the generous people at Morel’s French Bistro (a former employer) at The Grove, my friends and fellow bloggers like Gaby, Matt from Matt Bites, Erika from In Erika’s Kitchen, Rachel La Fuji Mama, and Esi from Dishing Up Delights will be on hand to talk about their baked sweets and their love of food.

If you live in LA, I look forward to seeing you there! I’ll be bringing the spiced caramel corn. Recipe to come soon!

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Easy Late-Night Ramen Recipe

easy late night food recipe

When you work in a restaurant you must be fast thinking, quick on your feet, a skilled multi-tasker, and able to ignore hunger for long periods of time. As a waiter, it’s your job to serve food, not eat it.

Unlike a traditional day job that allows for 30 or 60 minutes for lunch, most restaurant workers don’t get meal breaks. Though there may be a staff meal–a pile of something that’s cheap and easy to make–at the beginning or end of their shift, most restaurant workers are required to work without stop from late afternoon until midnight (or later).  Stopping for a bite of bread in some restaurants is an offense worthy of termination.

So when I finish work and the grip of hunger is too strong to deny, I ignore my desire to indulge in delicious high-fat foods (a double double at In-N-Out or poutine at Animal) and head straight home for a satisfying cup of noodles.

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Touchstone Cookbooks

Betty Crocker Cookbook, an influential cookbook to generations of food lovers

Maybe it’s because I’m approaching a somewhat noteworthy age, but I choose to believe that perhaps the most significant of all my birthdays was my fifth. Why? My fifth birthday marked the day that my obsession with food (and food as an artform) was born when my mother gave me my first cookbook.

I was in the kitchen, watching my mother fuss with something in a drawer, when she gave me a copy of Betty Crocker’s Cookbook for Boys and Girls.

“Go sit at the table and look through the pictures,” she said. “Figure out what kind of cake you want for your birthday. Draw it for me.” I took to the challenge right away. I sped to the kitchen table, grabbed paper and wax crayons, and went to work. In between pages of subtle advertising, black print, and Gloria Kamen’s clever illustrations, I found vibrant color photos of party foods and ornate party cakes.

Even then I was a fool for clever food styling.

“Extra Special Drinks” for kids from Betty Crocker’s Cookbook

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