When I taught at a culinary school, part of my curriculum was culinary math, WAIT, don’t stop reading! I know we all hate math, goodness knows I do, BUT for chefs it’s essential, not only so they can convert recipes but also so they can control costs and actually make some money. After all, how can you make or save money if you don't know how much what you want to cook costs. One of the first entrée’s I used to teach students the benefit as well as how to do it was breakfast. You will see why in a minute. For you, the home cook, there are some easy concepts that can help you take control of your food budget, eat well and save some nickels; nickels that can hopefully be used to for something special.

What the H E Double Hockey Sticks is Malolactic (or Non-malolatic) Fermentation?

This is a term that gets thrown around and most people just smile and say "Oh yes, well that makes sense" but they really have no clue as to what the term means or what it does to the wine.

As a long time fan of chef Rick Mahon and The Waterboy restaurant in downtown Sacramento, his newest venture, One Speed Pizza in East Sacramento was a must try. Though it opened back in the summer, I have been stalling, hoping to find an opportunity to avoid the very busiest hours (I heard it has been packed since he opened the doors) and go with a large group so we could sample more items. When we were trying to decide where to have our TCW staff meeting, it was quickly decided, kind of a ‘no brainer’, that One Speed was it. We also thought it would be an opportunity for all of us to review the same restaurant so you could hear, in our own unique voices, what we each thought.

Me first!

I watch Food TV from time to time and started noticing the shows focusing on feeding your family for under $10 and my first thought was, that’s not that hard…$10 goes a long way, especially if you give it some thought. I considered the methods chef’s use to manage their costs and wondered if this is something that would help people.

Don’t you love the sound of the milk steaming at your local coffee shop? And the smell of the espresso as it brews! Something about that process and the way it tastes and feels in my mouth is REQUIRED, it’s my ritual and I have enjoyed it for many years. Every morning, after sleeping until the last possible second of course, I get ready for whatever the day has in store for me. Before I leave the house, I stop, gather my ingredients and make myself a super yummy, warm, frothy Espresso drink. My favorite is the White Mocha!

As you can probably guess, we all do have day jobs.  As much as we would love to write about food and wine full time, we all still have one foot firmly planted in corporate America to help out with the little things like car payments, home mortgages and our weekly wine allowance.  Yup, just like you!

In the past, when one of us got too bogged down with the daily grind,  the others just kind of filled in the gap.  But it seems that in the last two weeks,  we all got slammed at the same time.  Sorry about that!!!  The storm of projects seem to be behind us and we should be back to entertaining your pallets any second now.

March is coming and we all know what that means:  St. Patrick's Day!!!  We have a lot of ideas for this month so keep an eye on us!

One parting word of advice: don't try to shop for a new house and get married in the same month!!! What were Jen and I thinking!!!!!!