Walker House Mini Pasties

"Chef, What Makes your Pasties So Different?"

This was a question I got in an email from someone that grabbed a couple of my mini-pasties from the market last weekend.

So here we go...

Butter in the dough along with Tarragon, Roasted Garlic and "CheffySalt"

I use Top Sirloin Beef

Cut it by hand

Reserve the fat for my own suet

And the inevitable CheffySalt

Cube up the steak, cut up some taters, mix with some onions and the suet that I made out of the cap of the Top Butt and Tah-Dah

A couple hundred Pasties later....

And if you come see me when we open the doors maybe you can try one of Chef's Meditteranean Pasties (affectionately referred to as Chef's Anti-Pasty) Smoked Chicken Breast, Roasted Red Pepper, Artichoke, Roasted Garlic Pesto, Black Olive and Feta Cheese....on a bed of Roasted Red Pepper Coulis...

MMMMMMMMMMMMM

M&M...playing with Chef

I was talking to a local Bed and Breakfast owner a couple days ago and he used a phrase that I totally loved...(I am taking a week off to go hang out with the Dalai Lama and had made reservations at his B&B for my week hiatus)

He asked if I was a "localvarian"

Oh crap...if I am anything I am totally a localvarian....I love what Mineral Point, Iowa County and just southern Wisconsin has to offer....I wish that I could offer more to my community but I try to do as much as possible...am I a "localvarian"? yeah you bet your butt...I love what my little community offers...

Aside of being the local guy, some that keep on reading my stuff knows how local I really am...

I am not one of those Chef's that say I am this and that and am anything but...

I am involved with the great stuff the Mineral Point Lion's Club does, with any benefit that I can get ahold of and any donation that I can provide to the community to make us a bigger, happier place...

I posted the brat feed for the Mineral Point Rescue Squad earlier, and I did the same "Stump the Chef" giveaway for a woman that is suffering from Cancer and donated the same class...

So I guess this is the foreward to my story...

Some Pointers know me, there are a bunch that do not, so here, in part; is my story...

My family....10 kids....some of them affected by mental retardation: my mother made scientific history for discoveries made in Cornelia DeLange Syndrome (CDLS), for this I am honored, it made me the Man, Father, Brother, Friend that I am today (thank you Joanne, MaryEllen, Kathleen, Daniel and Carl Matthew...my affected siblings...you helped me to become the man I am today....forever yours....your brother...Michael)

Today I had the honor to hang out with two of my latest Point friends that I will only refer to as M&M....got talking with them last night and wanted M&M to come hang out with me and play with Chef in his kitchen....I really had a blast (and a good cry) so here are pics of Cheffy, M&M playing around in my world making pizza dough and pasties....

Some things in life are not able to be replaced....this is one of them....thanks M&M.....I had a lot more fun than you did....You centralized my existance and I am proud to call you my friends...

Chef

New Pics-Latest Function

I have done some crazy parties in some crazy places in my life, this one was probably in the top 5....

A barn with fainting goats....(yes, fainting, like fall flat off of all fours fainting...)

Nice dinner....

Butler Passed

Cucumber Wheels stuffed with Shrimp-Crab Dip

Smoked Salmon on Baquette with herbed cream cheese, capers and onions

Huge hand made Spanakopita

Assorted Miniature Quiche

Italian Meatballs with Garlic Italian Sausage on Croustades with Shredded Parm

Salad Course

Melange of fresh vegetables and black beans tossed in lime cilantro viniagrette on top of Boston Bibb Lettuce

Plated Dinner Service

Chicken Provencal with Kalamatta and Black Olives, Basil and Roasted Garlic

Orzo with Lemon, Parsley and Basil Gremolata

Dessert

Brownies with Raspberry Sauce and Whipped Topping

The table setting was a table for 50 down the center of a barn with the table and bar design done by the client whom is world renowned for her expression of food and service. I will refer to her as Ms. Eva...anyway...Ms. Eva teaches across the planet on the experiences and history of the dining table, from Renaissance Dining and Banquets to Nouveau Dining of the up and coming chefs in the world. What an interesting individual!!!! It is humbling because it makes me realize that no matter how much I think I know, I don't know shit...

Original Table Setting before the event

One of the Hand Passed Platters with Smoked Salmon, Cucumber with Shrimp and Crab and the Meatball Croustades

Picture of Ms. Eva's Garden

The Provencal Plate

The Fainting Goats

My latest adoption- Chica making oatmeal cookies with wild cherry

The Brownie Plates

Music by my friends "Point Five"

David (on left) with Aaron and his lovely wife Monica

Long View of the Barn and Table

Pic of the Barn

This is probably one of my favorites...this is my buddy Jeff from Chicago...has never worked in a kitchen before but is a really good cook and I saw him at the Farmer's Market last weekend and asked if he wanted to play and he was all over it....we had a good time...Thanks for coming Bubba...is always fun to hang out with you....

The Pittz Family-Ralph and Janice's 50th

Happy 50th to Ralph and Janice!!!

Next to the Dickinson's (my bosses), the Pittz family were some of the first people that I came to know in Mineral Point. It was kind of cool being involved in Ralph and Janice's Anniversary Party (I cooked a couple hundred pounds of pulled pork for them) and most importantly in being able to call all of them a friend.

I didn't take any pictures the day of the event, it was just too crazy but we had all met at Tony's Tap the following day and here are some of the pics of the day after.

Love you guys,

Chef

Chicken and Brown Gravy-am befuddled....

So Anon said:

"...I have had you in my kitchen and I'm still not sure what that chicken was with the brown gravy. Does that count as "food stuffs?" Love ya today and always!..."

This was a comment on one of my post by some anon. person and I am banging my freaking brain....so let me decipher this....

"...I have had you in my kitchen..."

First off I would think that this was a Chef that I had worked under, but being that I am the little happy boy that will cook for anyone, the next line changed my mind...

"...chicken with brown gravy...."

If any person that ever worked for me, with me or that I worked under ever called my "sauce" a gravy I would kill them....my sauce ain't gravy...and my soil ain't dirt...so this eliminates any chef's that I know or anyone that has ever worked for me (kind of)

"...food stuffs..."

Hmmmm...this part is what confused me more than the other two.....where in hell did I use that word before? am gonna have to google it and find out when I said that....I run my mouth so much am going to have to figure out when I said that and in what context..."food-stuffs" is definately a ChefMike word, but when did I use it and what made you come up with this? Am totally befuddled...

In Greenville, SC at the 858 I did a roasted chicken stock/demi that we used for our airline chicken----but none of them would have called the sauce a freaking gravy....hmmmm...now am more befuddled....

And then finally they "love me today and always...."

Jeez...now I am really confused....

OK...you got me...who in hell are you and why are you calling my sauce "gravy" or did you just say that because you know that I am a saucier that would go freaking nuts when you called his sauce a freaking "gravy"

Love,
Chef

Stump the Chef!!! Mineral Point Rescue Squad Auction

"...Stump The Chef

A Night with Chef Michael Hayes of the Walker House

Mystery Bag Cooking Class/Dinner

Chef Michael invites you to invite up to six guests with each of them bringing a bag of any mixture of food stuffs. Chef will show up with his own bag and invent a muli-coursed meal for you and your friends out of the mystery bags.

Items can contain protein, vegetables, grains, starches, sweet, spicy or whatever your heart desires.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to have a real chef hanging out in your kitchen?

Well...Here's your chance!!!!!

Can you stump the Chef?..."

So anyway, that was the advertisement for the auction last Saturday night...me giving away a night of hanging out with the CheffyBoy, a mystery bag class for up to six people...

I get a call on Saturday night from my buddies Bonita and her husband Dan to let me know that they just bought me...ha ha...she was totally excited, and I was too now that I know who bought me...

They told me they were at the bar across the street from the hotel so I went over there and found out they bought me for a freaking hundred bucks....told them they made me feel like a cheap french whore....ha ha

So anyway, the plan is set, gonna go hang out with the Schmitz's and cook some kind of crazy ass dinner Cheffy-Style within the next couple weeks so that will be a really fun blog babble and photo shoot...

Talk to you soon,

Love,

Chef

Attempting to Understand Things

Sometimes as beings it is hard to understand the path that we should take or the path that fate has chosen for us....

I understand that for some of us the path is long and lonely, and for others that lonely path is filled with love and compassion with any understanding that we may have...

There is love that I have had and never really lost that is confused on what part of the road they need to travel...Carrying on the spirit and essense of our love is what is the most important, love is not always the most prominent issue in our life, but without compassion we would never feel love...I am sorry for those that fail to recognize this issue...and it really is an issue...

My life has taken many phases and many crazes and for those that know me they understand...

Drugs, Alcohol, me losing Jamie and ultimately just being a severely whacked out Chef that feels guilty for taking out any time for himself because he is buried in his "world"...

So where is the happiness?The happiness is in where your heart is.Sometimes my heart is in North Carolina, a lot of times it is in Tennessee, all the time it is in Virginia (with my family), it goes to West Virginia with my daughter and my passed soulmate, it is with the woman in Okinowa that polished my boots 20 years ago, it is with the woman tonight that was practically crying because she needed a job cuz her boss was a dick...

No Passion, No Love....

I guess that what I am trying to say is that no matter how barren the straits may be, you can always find a flower or a butterfly or a symbol that makes us realize there is so much more to life than this...

So if you are happy...look at Tibet and realize that millions of people are not...if you are sad...look at Philadelphia and wish you can help an unfortunate child...if you are confused....put yourself in the Dalai Lama's shoes....if you hate life....then look at how fortunate you really are...

Life is good....make a difference, your problems aren't that big...

Love you,
Chef