Notes from
Chef Briellen

To remove water from cooked pasta faster, try using a salad spinner.:

To measure sticky foods such as honey, molasses or corn syrup, coat your measuring spoon lightly with cooking oil.

Chop herbs by rolling a pizza cutter back and forth a few times. Don’t use a knife, as it could bruise and darken the herbs.

To remove scales from a fish, wash it well in cold water and then place in a large plastic bag. Working inside the bag, scrape the skin of the fish with a knife as if you were shaving. The scales will fly off and remain in the bag.

Serve vegetables as soon as possible after harvest. Store in the refrigerator, with the exception of tomatoes, potatoes, eggplants, garlic, onions and winter squash.

To beat egg whites, let the eggs sit at room temperature for about half an hour first. They’ll have more volume.

To keep fruit from turning brown, drop it in cold, lightly salted water immediately after peeling.

To remove capers or other foods from a narrow jar, use a melon baller or a pointed vegetable peeler.

When baking tomatoes, either whole or stuffed, use a muffin tin that’s been well coated with cooking oil spray. The tomatoes will retain their shape.

Get Out of the Kitchen and Into Your Life!

Would you like to come home to a healthy and delicious meal that has been lovingly prepared by your own personal chef?

How about a customized menu made from the freshest ingredients and the highest quality meats and seafood?

It’s not a dream. It could be your reality -- every day - at a cost lower than you can imagine.

Does This Sound Familiar?

• Your family is on the run. You barely have time to cook, much less make it to work or soccer practice or ballet recitals, piano lessons or …….You need fast, healthy meals on a regular basis.

• You can’t cook or don’t like to cook. Maybe you’ve mastered the basics, but you’re bored with the same-old, same-old, so you supplement your repertoire with fast foods or expensive meals out.

• Your career is so demanding that the last thing on your mind when you come home is cooking a healthy meal. So you eat out, spending more time and money in restaurants than you care to admit.

• You wonder if your meals are fresh or even very nutritious. In the meantime, the calories pile up and your waistline seems to expand every time the dessert tray marches by.

• You have unique dietary needs, but find it a challenge to prepare meals that meet your standards.

• Or maybe it’s a special time in your household and you need extra help in the kitchen: a new baby has graced your family, you’re in the process of moving or you’re temporarily laid up, due to illness.

Because You Deserve the Night Off

I’ll customize your menu, shop for your groceries, come to your home and prepare your meals (with my own equipment), then package and store your food which you can simply reheat at your own convenience. You’ll be set for a week or more with an array of appetizing meals.

Meanwhile, I clean up after myself, leaving behind only good smells and great food.

Briellen Wolchik
The Garden Gourmet

Personal Chef   Cooking Lessons   Catering

Serving parts of Warren, Hunterdon, Morris, Somerset, and Union counties in New Jersey.