krismulkey.com

I've worked a bunch of food festivals in my life. Let me tell you, they are hard work.  You have to prep and serve food in a 10' tent while everyone is inches away.  It's always in the summer when it's hot. You're sweating and your customers are right there.  And the reason you're there is because you want them to love your food and come buy it someday. So you have to have your happy "sell, sell, sell" face on! So here we are at the Mill Valley Food & Wine Festival. Tyler Florence is a new resident in Mill Valley with a gorgeous flagship store, so of course he is here.   There is a huge line to his booth. The woman in front of me tells me that he is unorganized. It's taking too long.  I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt, because I know how hard it is to run a kitchen from a tent. We finally get to the front and are served a yummy grilled sandwich with brie, fresh strawberries, a spr...

A few years ago Don and I went to a really fun wine tasting party at a friends house in Tiburon. The husband (whose name I cannot recall at the moment) was in the investment banking business. He took the ferry from Tiburon into San Francisco for work. He often found himself waiting for the ferry in the evening so he would hang out at the Wine Bar in the Ferry Building.  I think he did this quite a bit, because he became friends with the owner and the bartenders. So much so, that he decided to host a wine tasting party at his house one evening. He hired his favorite bartender to coordinate the evening with wine and food pairings. Everything was really yummy because "the husband" hand picked everything to be served. He and his wife Gabriella are Spanish, so the theme was spanish wines and appetizers. It was here that Don and I tasted olive and fig tapenade for the first time. Yum-my. Sweet figs and salty olives combined together. Sounds kinda weird. But tastes really good.  So ...

Yesterday we lost two icons from my youth. The first was Farrah Fawcett.  One of Charlie's Angels. We were in awe of her as kids. She was beautiful, famous and married to Lee Major's, the Six Million Dollar Man. They were about as cool as it gets. And her hair.  Wow, we all wanted that hair. At the time she seemed like the all American girl success story.  Girl from Texas makes it big in Hollywood. Then later in the day we got word that Michael Jackson had died. What!!?! Our office went nuts. A bunch of us are about the same age - in our 40's. We grew up with Michael.  We lived through every phase. Suddenly I felt very old, when I learned he died of cardiac arrest. I remember when the Thriller album was released. There was nothing like it. And the video was the first of its kind. They played Michael's songs on the radio on the way home.  I had tears in my eyes when they played the early songs, "ABC" and "I'll be there". I remember dancing to ...

Every month our office celebrates birthday's by hosting a pizza, salad and cupcake lunch. Everyone looks forward to it. We all stand around eating too much pizza and salad, and then we mosey over to the counter where the cupcakes are.  At first everyone stands there staring at them. They are so beautiful, lined up so perfectly in the box. Almost too pretty to eat. Then you have to decide which one you're going to choose. Are you in the mood for chocolate, vanilla, coconut or something fruity? The cupcakes are always moist and yummy with the best frosting you've ever tasted. You finally decide.....and then you take a little bite of heaven. aaaah.  Kara's Cupcakes pictured Sweet vanilla - vanilla cupcake with sweet madagascar bourbon vanilla frosting Chocolate Velvet - chocolate cupcake with a velvety bittersweet chocolate buttercream Java - chocolate cupcake with a rich espresso buttercream Banana - banana cupcake with silky soft cream cheese frosting Sweet Chocolate - c...

Don and I celebrated our 18th wedding anniversary last night. I know what you're thinking. 18? I must have been married in high school, right? Because I look so young!  Ha, Ha. We both thought it would be nice to stay home since we had such a crazy busy weekend.  We could grill some steaks and drink some wine from the wine cellar. (aka, hall closet) We started with a glass of 2004 St. Francis, Behler Reserve Chardonnay, Sonoma County . It was quite tasty. A little oakey. My mom would really like it. The wine is named in honor of the Behler family who originally cultivated the vineyards in the 1900's.  With dinner we had the 2001 Chimney Rock, Cabernet Sauvignon, Stags Leap District, Napa Valley . Oh. My. Gosh. Was it good. Smooooooth and delicious. It's too bad it's all gone. We used to be members of the St. Francis and Chimney Rock wine clubs. So we have a few bottles in the cellar. Part of being a member is free wine tasting for you and a few friends. So whenever we h...

My new favorite blog is  Smitten Kitchen. The woman that writes the blog lives in NYC, she cooks in a teeny tiny kitchen, has a great writing style, and loves cooking and baking yummy stuff. And she has the coolest food photography I've seen from a non-professional. I want to make everything she talks about. If she can do all this in her teeny kitchen. Then I can do it in mine. I just lost my excuse. She is a top food blogger.  She doesn't need any press. But how else do you find out about this stuff? There is so much on the WWW that I need people guiding me or I would just read the same thing over and over. She has received awards and accolades for her blog. And rightly so.  It's cool. If you're into food you have to give it a look-see.  Check out her marshmallow recipe. Then tell me it doesn't make you want to make home-made marshmallows. Or check out these yummy, super easy cheese straws .  I think they are a must have at our next cocktail party. And then there ...

Someone in our office brought in a bunch of junk food. Oatmeal Creme Pies Marshmallow Pies Twinkies Oreo's Hostess Strawberry cupcakes Oreo Cakesters When there is food in the kitchen you have to move fast or you'll miss out. And believe me, word spread fast. I never buy this stuff because it's too fattening and I'll eat it. But when it's free in the kitchen I can't resist. I was able to nab a small bag of Oreo Cakesters before everything was gone. My plan was to eat one cookie and save the other.  Yeah, right. They were both gone in less than 30 seconds - they were really yummy. They taste like an Oreo. But the cookie part is cake-like and soft. Really good with a cup of joe. 2 cakes = 250 calories 12 g fat 2 g protein (yeah!)