Our Pepper’s team did one outstanding job this evening for the medical staff of St. Vincent hospital. It was awards night and 300 plus guests had a ball with a very busy casino night, many awards etc.

The cuisine by Chef Paul & the gang blew everyone away. The Zoot Suit Chef’s ( it was a roasring 20’s theme) carved up brined coffee crusted turkey tenderloin, while the seafood chef’s offered up lobster, scallop & shrimp ceviche, shrimp cocktail shooters and the hit of the evening, mushroom dusted diver scallops, set on a vanilla bean scented parsnit puree with carrot juice gastrique, beet frizzies and micro radish sprouts. They did me proud and the display work was off the charts. Next yeart will be tough to beat

Each Wed. I volunteer at Mt Wachusett as a ranger. I enjoy the comraderie of the other rangers and ski patrolers. One of my best friends, Chef Micky Beriau was instrumental in my getting into this. My skiing has gotten so much better but equally fun are the dinners. We all take turns cooking up belly warming dishes and micky and push the bar up a bit and it works. Moose stews, great turkey chili etc., etc. This week was my turn so I did a pork tenderloin and sausage trilogy cassoulet

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassoulet) along with a fabulous salad I saw in this weeks NY Times food page. Roasted beets, local goat cheese from Ann Starbird’s farm in Sterling, roasted pistaschio, radiccio and a simple citrus vinaigrette. yum yum Dessert was a eggnog custard ( still using up remnants of the holidays