Wednesday, November 4, 2015

The chef

Chef Jacqueline started yesterday (after a Monday holiday here).

She arrived punctually and after a quick tour of the kitchen, asked what I normally eat for lunch (she was unimpressed by my answer of "nothing or sometimes graham crackers" so then I pretended like I was just joking but she was equally unimpressed with my revised answer of "an apple and peanut butter". She then checked out the fridge to see what we had in stock (nothing), checked the pantry (said she'd re-organize it), and checked the freezer (asked why nothing was labeled). 

She really had her work cut out for her since we truly just about only had cookies, Ramen noodles and outdated yogurt in stock. Well, that and a lot of Halloween candy but I don't think she eats candy either. 

Lucky for her that I know what everything is in the freezer, even without labels, because I found some leftover frozen vegetable lasagna that I told her I could eat. There was also bolognese sauce in the freezer that she was going to pull out for dinner. 

I was summoned to lunch at 12:30 just as if I were one of the Granthams on Downton Abbey to a plate that looked like this:
She had doctored my sauce with who knows what and it was delicious!

This morning I met her at the grocery store so she could buy groceries for the house. Obviously she prefers less of a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants approach to meal preparation than I have had here in Rio, which means we will eat out a lot less and will eat substantially more fruits and vegetables. She also likes a stockpiled freezer full of meat and fish. She bought who's know what in the meat department and is right now packaging everything into serving sizes for the freezer.  (Note to self: we'll have less waste, too.)

Lunch today was a fabulous green salad with Thai chicken. Fab.u.lous. I could've licked the plate. 

While I was eating lunch, she was preparing focaccia bread because Mac told her yesterday that he loved it. If it's good, he's going to be in heaven. (The kitchen already smells like heaven with that yeasty smell floating around.)

Today is Jimmy's birthday, but as he's in Brasilia until late tonight, we're not celebrating until tomorrow. She's cooking filet mignon with other surprises. More to come on the birthday meal. 

Having a chef is a real game changer. I don't have to devote one bit of energy to thinking about what to cook for dinner (or whether we have graham crackers in stock for lunch). 

And I'm not going to lie to you: it's pretty amazing and I think I can adapt well to this lifestyle. 

You may refer to me as Lady Grantham from now on...


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