Happy Valentine's Day!

ESPECIALLY to those who are single, enjoy it- and go ahead, binge on chocolate bon bon's until you're parched and lonely soul overflows with processed sugar and you're heart skips a beat! I have kindly provided the means, displayed in the crevices of swans...

Nah, really- happy valentines, and Happy Chinese New Year, too!

Enjoy!
Chef Debra

Oh, Beautiful Salads!

Some call me the "fruit queen." Yeah, I hear you laughing! However, I don't joke around when it comes to fruit- or salad. I love my local supplier, Frog Holler, and we can work wonders with their beautiful produce!

These three salads were all made this week- and I was only there 3 days! We love to make lots of healthy sides, especially at lunch. 

Here's my favorite goat cheese, toasted nut, Michigan cherry and raspberry vinaigrette salad with some yummy grapes!

Here's another one of our fruit salads. They are super pretty around here- I like to arrange by flavor and color. It's so much easier to eat  your veggies and fruit when it looks so amazing, right?

This one is a salad I did on Tuesday? It's got a little bit of everything in it- including wild mushrooms and chickpeas! 

Thanks for reading, happy eating and cooking!

Chef Debra

Whole Baked Fishy

Today I experimented with a whole fish picked up at the Asian Market up on Washtenaw.


According to this blog... Food really DOES have a face!

I simply washed it, gutted and opened the stomach, slit into the sides. Rubbed the fish everywhere with fresh chopped garlic, fresh lemon juice, sea salt, freshly ground black pepper, creamy butter and white wine. Roasted in in a convection oven at 400 f for 20 minutes. It was DELICIOUS!

Happy Cooking!

Chef Debra

Our Fantastic Staff Team of 2009-2010!

Every year, I hire a new team it seems like- just to see them go the at the end of the school year. This year, however; our team holds steady, and all team members plan on staying on board for the fall of 2010.

It's a good to time to introduce all our team members!

Chef Debra

Debra Sullivan-Spagna Returns for her sixth year as head chef, running MBTA's kitchen with more fresh ideas, a new rotation menu, and a brand new staff for 2009-2010. Debra's culinary experience comes from Zingerman's Roadhouse Restaurant, New York's Omega Institute for Holistic Studies, Whole Foods Market, and other gourmet establishments and is also enrolled in WCC's Culinary program.
Originally from New York city area, Debra has resided in New Mexico, New Jersey, and upstate New York as well. Debra currently lives with her boyfriend, Jade with their 3 cats; Spooky, Nemo and Taco-beans in a condo in Saline.
Debra attends classes on scholarship at Eastern Michigan University's Art program and also at Washtenaw Community College, where she's on the deans list and contributing creative writer for the school paper. In her spare time, (HA!) Debra travels, creates art, writes, runs a small business (scarlettfox.com), has a small catering company (foxcatering.com), takes photos, writes, blogs, gardens and spends time with Jade and the kitties. Debra Likes to eat, and loves to cook! Debra would love to skydive one day- and learn how to fly a small plane. Oh, and be an awesome graphic designer living in New York City! Until then, she's enjoying every moment of the Telluride experience, and keeps returning- year after year!
Jade occasionally will come around for dinner. He graduated summa cum laude from the U of M's Computer Engineering Program, and works downtown in A2. Jade's primary project is "Verus" the world's most accurate multi-lingual Optical Character Recognition software. He's quiet, but he'll open up quick if you mention batman, robots or cookies. :P




Jack Moore





Jack Moore returns for to complete his first year at Telluride as the weekend cook and more. Jack does a little bit of everything in the kitchen, and has dramatically grown as a cook in the last year.

Born in California, Jack has lived all over the USA- and landed in Michigan two years ago. Jack spends alot of time traveling the USA, visiting family when he can, learning about wild herbs and cooking, and has quite a varied history. He's spent time in the army as a nuclear engineer in training, and as an apprentice in a successful Italian Restaurant. Jack is a sweet man with a big heart, and an open mind. He's irreplaceable in the kitchen-he's a super hard worker- PLUS he's one of a kind!

Jack also loves to sing and play guitar, especially good covers. Don't let him near you're guitar if you want it back anytime soon! He also enjoys movies and video games.


Jason Steinhaus

Jason comes on board for his first year at telluride in the fall of 2009. Jason recently worked at a Greek Restaurant in Upstate Michigan.

Jason is originally from Canada. He resides in Ann Arbor and attends Washtenaw County Community College's Culinary Program. He's also earned a degree in Classical Studies at Dartmouth, and is interested in working in the field in Michigan in addition to cooking at Telluride. He lives with his girlfriend, Leslie and his dog, Phantom just up the road from MBTA.


Jennifer Morgan




Originally from Detroit, Jennifer Morgan is a brand new kitchen Assistant at MBTA. She has culinary experience from cooking for her Church in Ann Arbor. Jennifer is very involved in her church, and attends several times a week. She also cooks breakfast at a national hotel chain in Ann Arbor.

In her spare time, Jennifer loves to cook, especially baking because it's her way of showing love and support for others. She also is very creative, writing poetry, occasionally performing for church functions and she also has experience in floral arrangements. She gets very excited about the prospect of catering, any kind of catering, especially wedding and breakfast. Jennifer also enjoys uplifting music and spending time with her sweetie, Montel- who visits for dinner on occasion.

Jennifer is a pleasure to work with- she's dependable, hard working, determined and positive. She loves to talk about her many interests and aspirations, and has many dreams to fulfill! Chef Debra is teaching this talented young lady everything she can so that she can be on the "other side" of the kitchen.

Sara Kosuth



Sara is a brand new employee at Telluride! She's been signed on to two prep cook shifts a week throughout the school year.

Sara is currently a third year student at the University of Michigan studying psychology and will be attending culinary school in the fall of 2012. One of her favorite things to do besides cooking and eating is traveling. She has been to parts of Europe, North America, and South America; Greece, Italy, and the South of France being her favorite. Sara loves the outdoors and eventually would like to earn her sky-diving license. Although most of her time is spent studying at the library, she enjoys photography and listening to electronic music. But most of all cooking new dishes!

Trip to Asia Market for Chinese New Year Shopping!

 Hello Folks!



Today we went on a trip, which has become the annual "Asia Market" outing. Emily, Siyi, Angel, Sara and myself (Chef Debra) all piled into my little clown car and went off to the big store. Sara had never been there before and her fascination was truly endearing! We found two huge carts full of great, cheap stuff and held up the line. The place was SWARMING with people shopping for Chinese New Year, probably. Just as we were about to leave, I spotted a pretty fishy I just HAD to have. I wanted to try a recipe out on it that I thought the house might like. So I only bought one. Then I asked Sara to tote my fish around in a plastic bag. Fun times. She kept wiggling it and saying "I've got a Fish-eee!" LOL!
I won't be there to prepare the food for Chinese New Year (It'll be tomorrow, Saturday) I was just the gal with the credit card... ha ha. But that took work. We were there for about two hours, not including loading the kitchen, putting stuff away, or the initial meeting. These things take time, even if you aren't cooking- granted, I did also stock up on supplies for regular house meals! Potstickers, anyone? :D Jack will be doing alot of the prep work tomorrow, and Emily running the show. I think it'll be a hit! I also wanted to wish Siyi luck on her solo tonight! Good luck Siyi! I'm sorry I couldn't be there!
Enjoy the photos!

Thanks for reading!

Chef Debra

Filter in a Filter...

Hello All!


Something hilarious keeps happening this year. Every morning, I come into work- and make coffee at some point. Without fail, I find this.



Do you see the problem? There's a FILTER in the FILTER! It kind of negates the purpose of a re-usable environmentally friendly filter when one puts a paper filter inside of the re-usable filter. And that's not even getting into what it'll do the flavor of the expensive, freshly roasted coffee we have shipped in special for our needs...

Here's what to do instead;



then...





And FINALLY;

(use 1.25 Tablespoons per cup of water, or 10 big spoons to 8 cups measured water)




I hope this helps?

Happy brewing!
Debra

Grampa's Beer Bread Recipe Video!

Got a few beers, some flour and sugar lying around? Make some amazing beer bread! The BEST is when it comes out of the oven, and you slather a bit of lovely butter on it all warm....

Delicious and SO simple!

Neil Soup video

Hello!

Here's a video (it's a tad long, sorry, first try_) that Shannon and I did for making Neil soup. (Lentil soup) It was inspired by Neil Rao- who was a housemember for four years, and ate it like it was going out of style. I literally began making it just for him to eat, instead of the regular meals.

Enjoy the video! It's a few years old, but still valid. NOTE this is a larger scale recipe. There's two parts.

La Fiesta Mexicana!

Photos of the beautiful dinner we put out tonight!

I only saw ONE "sideways" glance... and lots of praise- I think it was a hit! ;)

It was a-lot of work... and expensive, but it was fun. (:

Jennifer and I worked on the gorgeous fruit platter- and the juice might look humble, but it was amazing! I know we saved money this week with all the crock pot creations, namingly the chili and the pulled pork.

The juice was guava, mango, honeycrisp apple, organic orange and honey tangerine. Oh! And Fuji apple. Also served was Mexican hot cocoa (with the cinnamon, yum!) and I heard Amanda exclaiming much joy over her little cup.

There was steak too- cooked medium, with homemade guacamole and salsa. The chips were awesome, and I served queso fresca- not colby jack! (ick) This was the real deal! I can't wait for leftovers tomorrow that I packed for lunch.


Chef Debra