On Having Your Priorities Straight...

I once heard Rachel Ray say, during one of her 30-minute meals shows, that she used to make food (I think it was some soup) after coming home from work at 1 o'clock in the morning.
Puh-leaze. Does any chef or professional cook do that kind of stuff? I mean I love cooking and I do it daily, but not at 1 am after working a 10 hour shift in the kitchen. I do my cooking in the morning and early afternoon, before going to work.

You want to know what I do when I get home from the restaurant? I do the following (exactly in the order listed):

1. Pour myself a glass of wine -- or something stiffer, depending on the day I've had.
2. Bring take-out container (from work) upstairs in the study and hop on the computer.
3. Eat contents of take-out container while catching up on twitter feeds, facebook and email.
4. Occasionally blog (although sometimes step 4 is postponed to a more godly hour of the morn')

I do not make soup, or any food for that matter, when all I want to do is put my feet up and when my eyelids are starting to close. Nobody should be handling knives in that condition, so unless the soup is out of a carton, Rachel Ray should go to bed and make said soup in the morning.

On a different note, I realized today that in our kitchen we all have nicknames. Today, when asked if I knew what bikini line's real name was, I drew a blank! You heard me, we call her bikini line. Is that demeaning? I also work with "Hairdo," "Heels," "Snappy Kat," "D-Rock," and "The Pope" Me? I'm "little Chef." Guess they couldn't come up with something more clever, like "midge" or something... The great Chef himself? He's called Scrawny, Johnny, or sometimes Dude. We also threaten each other a lot, but only jokingly. It is quite common to hear "I'll stab you in the troat!" No, that's not a typo, it's troat indeed. Like.. "In the troat, man," said with jamaican accent. There are a couple of Jamaicans in our kitchen, thus the funny line. Not even sure where it came from anymore, but that line has been with us since last year.

Now, before I want to stab myself in the troat, I must hit the sack. A friend is coming over later today (yep, it's Wednesday already) and I have emailed her the five-course menu. It apparently made her fall off her chair. I have to be in top form tomorrow and keep my promise or... say it with me... she'll stab me in the troat! Maybe I'll even show you some pictures tomorrow. Not of the stabbing, but of the food.