Working for the weekend

Late night ramblings. Just got home from a Saturday night work gig at Wolf Creek Amphitheater. Tony Toni Tone was one of the acts and they were fun (it feels good, uh uh baby) but I just have to say it … I don’t miss going out on Saturday nights. The whole thing looks so exhausting now. Getting a cute outfit together, hair, makeup, drinking, being all sweaty from dancing. It all seems like way too much trouble. I’m still going to stay up a little longer. But it’s to watch scandal and eat a couple of scoops of Ben and jerry’s. I love that I won’t wake up with a hangover or regretting a late night taco hell run. Instead I’ll make pancakes (with lots of butter, of course) and watch Frozen (again) and watch my kids terrorize each other. That is now my awesome. And I’m ok with that. In fact, I’m pretty sure I’ve got the best gig in town with the best seats money can buy.

This is what I came home to tonight. Does it get better than this?

The Chef

I got home last night with the kids and while we were winding down and catching up on the day, the hubs mentions that he somehow managed to come across my blog.  Side note:  I’m still confused about how he found it – he recently signed off of all social networking after a particularly long, grueling, “no days off for a month” kind of run at the restaurant, during which just about everyone he/we know went on summer vacation with their families. Presumably everyone went to one big party at the beach that lasted the entire length of his work schedule and we were stuck at home, being over-worked, under-rested and pasty.  So, that day he restored his phone (a little drastic a measure, but I went with it) to factory settings, refused to reinstall any social networks, but did manage to keep his work email and some miserable app that allows him to see exactly how many people are at the restaurant, how much money they’re spending and what his labor is at any given moment.

Sorry, hell of a side note … anyway, his first question about the blog?  “When are you going to write about how awesome your husband is?” It’s a fair question, the first person in the title is the chef.  And since I think he just gave me permission to use his real name, here goes my About Chef Phillip and how awesome he truly is.

Chef Phillip was not always planning to be a culinary genius.  He initally planned to teach, maybe high school, maybe college … but he loved school.  He has two degrees, in addition to his culinary degree, philosophy and history.  He is a history fanatic.  In fact, as of late, I have been forced to watch that PBS thing about the Roosevelts for hours on end, night after night.  Last night he re-watched one of the episodes with his daddy.  It was cute to see them together enjoying it some father/son time, but for me … not so much. I just checked for broken links on here and uploaded more pictures to use later.  Damn, digressing again.  Back to Phillip.

After finishing college with a double major, he set off to teach.  High School.  That still sounds crazy to me.  Then he decided he wanted to be a chef, so he went to culinary school at the Art Institute of Atlanta.  Graduated top in his class and went to work for Buckhead Life.  He worked at the famed Buckhead Diner and did stages (basically, chef internships) in various upscale restaurants before heading to NYC.  He did several more stages in NYC at some of the best restaurants in the city before landing at Gramercy Tavern, under Tom Collichio.  Yup, the Top Chef guy.  No, he’s not going to be a contestant on the show.  I think that would be weird.  Anyhoo, worked his tail off, cut off a thumb (literally) and landed an exec position at 71 Clinton.  By all accounts, he was a rock star Chef in one of the best places to be a Chef in the world during one of the most exciting times for fine dining.  I will always regret that we didn’t meet sooner and that I didn’t live through this time with him.   It sounds like it was a blast from the stories he tells.

Thankfully, he came back to Atlanta, landed with his current restaurant group, became Sous at a fantastic restaurant in Buckhead, moved to another fantastic restaurant in Buckhead where he was eventually named Executive Chef again, and has remained in that role in every restaurant he has worked with since.  He is awesome.  The man is talented and fast and I am so proud of him every day.

This is him on a rare day off.

Daddy and his babies

If you have the opportunity to eat this man’s food.  Do not hesitate.  Do it.  It’s amazing.  And he uses real butter.  Always.

Just let me introduce myself

Ok, it’s a working title for now. I’m not 100% about the title, but I do hope the idea is coming across. I have wanted to start a blog, a real one that I can actually keep up with writing, for a few years now. I have “started” a good few times, created, chosen a layout, drafted a few posts and then left to die in cyberspace. Thankfully, I don’t believe (and WP insights tell me) no one has viewed, commented or shared any of them. So we’ll call this my first real foray into writing this thing.

A few things about me. I am married to a chef. We met 7 years ago while both of us were going through a “party like a rock star” phase in our lives. We had both been married and divorced before the age of 35. Neither of us had any intention of settling down again but after a year or so of the wild life, we started to realize that we did, in fact, want more. We moved in together, enjoyed late dinners, sleeping in, Sunday cocktails and brunch with friends, and even the occasional vacation.

me and my friend michelle during the summer of awesome (2009)

Then we had the talk. The “have you thought about kids?” talk. I mean, of course. I was raised by Cuban and Peruvian catholic parents. That’s practically a given. In fact, by all accounts, I should still be married and seeing my children off to high school and college by now. But aside from what I was told I should do, I always enjoyed children, playing mommy to my little brothers and other people’s kids. I always assumed I would have my own one day, but after an ugly divorce and a rough few years, I thought maybe I was just supposed to be an awesome aunt.

Jagger in the belly

Fast forward to 2010 that all changed, when my then boyfriend (now husband) and I moved to Grant Park. After a month in our cute little bungalow, I got pregnant. At the ripe old age of 38! I was thrilled, scared, excited and most of all SHOCKED! I mean, I knew it COULD happen, I did take sex ed in school and all. But we’d been rolling around without contraception for 2 1/2 years and had hoped it might happen, but after two years thought it just wasn’t in the cards for us.

Happiest I think I’ve ever been.

The troublesome trio en route to Puerto Rico for a last hurrah before baby.

We brought home our son in early 2011 and couldn’t have been happier. Then I got the bright idea that our little boy needed a sibling and I needed one more go around as a prego (which, to me, is one of the best feelings I have had the pleasure of experiencing). Bam! One month of trying and here I was, prego again with baby number two. The doodle was born in February of 2013 and we were very quickly a family of four, in a tiny bungalow (that we were thankfully renting, so we could move easily) and a husband who had just accepted an Executive Chef position in a new/larger/much more demanding restaurant.

The first love of our lives

 

 

 

doodlebug as she is known today has completed us in a way that we didn’t even know we needed

And here, boys and girls, is where our story begins …

 

About the butter situation

Just so everyone is clear about this butter issue.  It is an important enough player in our lives to be part of the title.  We love butter.  On pancakes, on toast, on potatoes, in our mac and cheese, in the pan with some cuban bread and a cafe con leche, that is heaven.   I think I spend more time writing the word butter on my grocery lists than any other word in our vocabulary.  I have a Chef husband who believes in butter.   On everything.   He is very adamant about the use of real fully fatted butter in cooking, because it tastes freakin’ amazing.  I can’t say much more about it … other than I love it and I probably go through about 6-8 sticks per week.  Yup, a stick of butter every day.  Don’t judge.  There’s four of us.

this is what heaven looks like

It’s Up!

i’ve finally written a post to kick off my chef’s wife life blog.  i think i like the name.  i mean i love butter.  so do my kids.  so does my husband.  i never have enough in my life or my fridge.  seriously, i buy more butter than is probably socially acceptable.