well the kitchen is in, but the dust is still settling down at the goat, so we have not fired it up just yet.  as we eagerly await cooking on our new jade line, we hang at my house and test recipes.  not quite the same, but we still have fun in the kitchen, as always.

we have been working out of my house for events and such for about a year now, to my neighbors’ dismay (i guess not everyone likes the smell of goat roasting throughout the night), and are now using casa de steph to test various recipes for the goat.  of course this has been tricky since our menu is going to be very focused on local farms, and available ingredients change every week.

recently we were playing around with two of the spring ingredients abundant at the market right now, asparagus and rhubarb.  though the menu will be filled with fun local meats and sustainable seafood, we also want to celebrate some nice simple and fresh flavors with our vegetarian options.  who does not love some fresh roasted asparagus alongside a bit of tart rhubarb, crunchy almonds and fresh goat cheese from our friends at prarie fruits farm?  yes it looks tasty.  but no, it will not be on the menu when we open.  local asparagus will be leaving us soon as mick klug farm told me yesterday we have about two weeks to enjoy this delicious treat!  so go eat some asparagus this weekend.  and smell your pee.

we were also taking photos of a simple salad that will make an appearance on the opening menu in a few weeks featuring seared tuna caught the day before by my fishing friend michael in north carolina.  i flew down there a few weeks ago to check out the boats with my friend sean from sea2table, and had a grand ole time.  of course every time i even step foot on a boat i get a little woozy.  i felt much better afterwards when we were sipping on some PBRs and frying up some tasty soft shell crabs.  speaking of crispy soft shells, they will still be holding strong in a few weeks and will be on the menu with a spicy broth and some tasty little semolina dumplings we tested yesterday.  mmmmmm.  soft shells.  always feel bad this time of year for my sister - she has a shellfish allergy.  not to worry, stacey! there will be other fish to enjoy, as well.

as we continue to be silly in the kitchen we are getting very excited to move into our new home.  hope to have my awesome new staff in there on monday to get the place fired up!!

and a huge thanks to the flashcards for letting us use their song! looooooove these guys, and you should, too - and one of the members is on grey’s anatomy. um, hello!!!

any maybe, just maybe, we’ll have a couple more of these preview-esque videos before the restaurant opens

*thanks to linda bergonia for the photo