I had a CAKE today, or at least petit fours—mini cakes—but they made my day. Simple pleasures, bursts of sweetness, moist almond bites that showed up rather unexpectedly. I was volunteering at the kids’ school and another parent brought treats. Not typical, bad batch of chocolate chip cookies or store-bought donuts, but the ‘can I hire you to make all my cakes forever?’ kind of treats! As in: ‘who are you and where have you been all my life?’ kind of treats.

Turns out, Cindylyn (alayeredcake@hotmail.com) installed a commercial kitchen and is a bonafide, qualified, really talented cake and cookie baker. She calls her company A Layered Cake (no website yet: a genuinely undiscovered gem). So if you want down and out good cakes or petit fours or specialty cookies for corporate or private parties, she is a nice person to know. I don’t think she has done the package-and-mail thing yet, so for now all of you Seattlites have first dibs.

Next week I am going to ask her to create a very special cake for my son’s birthday. To make things a wee bit challenging, the theme is Calvin & Hobbes (my son LOVES all the books and has many of the jokes/cartoons memorized). He even, I kid you not, hand-selected the exact image of Calvin that he prefers for ‘cake-topping.’ This is my first round of hire-it-done and I am looking forward to a little help with the birthday baking! I will still round out my son’s birthday with classroom cupcakes and his favorite dinner on his special day. Cheers to bakers—and business owners—everywhere!

When artists took apprenticeships in years past, they were required to copy, copy, copy the paintings, sculptures, techniques and styles of the great artists that preceded them. It was all about practice, about familiarizing your brain, your hand and your approach with proven gems—artwork from famed, revered artists.

Sometimes this would take years of painful step-by-step learning. Copying this artist and the next, studying brush strokes and mediums, learning about genres, cultures, influences and historical context. And until the upcoming artist truly had mastered and finally appreciated the presence and depth and sheer genius of what went before, they were rarely, if ever, encouraged to create their own art.

I did not go to culinary school, but I have been studying great ‘chef’ artists through the years by engaging cookbook after cookbook. My apprenticeship, so to speak, was to copy recipe after recipe of one cook and then another, and then another, until I began to have a sense of technique, science and art in the kitchen. I cooked my way through different traditions and styles, philosophies and fortes.

There are so many talented chefs out there, some recognized and some not. Though I have learned a lot, I have much more to learn. Even now, I rely heavily on cookbooks, on chefs that are close to my heart both with their kitchen philosophy and their culinary talent. I choose culinary greats to be a part of my kitchen, chefs that I can trust to be benchmarks, wizards and gurus that regularly prove their talent and maintain a welcome in my kitchen.

But not just any chef will do. Just as it is important for you to pick a doctor, therapist, friend and/or teacher that are well-suited to you, so it goes with picking chefs that most reflect your kitchen style, presence and preferences. Because I am not a professional chef, you may wonder how I go about selecting my ‘chef’ teachers.

It is quite simple: I peruse their cookbook, pick 10 recipes that sound good to me and I make them, one by one. I follow their lead, learning about their methodology, kitchen philosophy and favorite foods to engage in the kitchen. Truth be told, after about 10 recipes I have a pretty good sense of a chef via their cookbook. Would I make the recipes again? Did my family like the recipes? Were the recipes exotic or simple? What are their ideas around entertaining?

And then I use my own kitchen philosophy as a filter: Is it practical? Is it a good use of simple ingredients? Is it overly complicated or just about right for the end result? Can I count on this chef to deliver great recipes every time or is it more hit and miss? Are the recipes a good springboard for creating my own?

I welcome my chefs as trusted friends, teachers who gave me my start and still give me ongoing inspiration in my kitchen. Their techniques are now mine, my own recipes have traces of theirs, our kitchen philosophies are permanently commingled.

What cookbooks do you love? Ask yourself why you like each book; you will begin to unpack your own kitchen philosophy, and form your filter for future chef approvals. I may like a cookbook that you don’t prefer, or pass along a cookbook that the next person finds endearing. I may be looking to learn about specific methods (tangine?) or traditions (Indian, Spanish?); my bent toward learning new things propels me to keep reaching for new cookbooks, new chefs. But there are times in my life that I go back to the basics, stick to practical or don’t feel a creative urge. There are chefs to befriend you and I in all the varying chapters of our lives. The important thing is to find chefs that you can trust, bookie foodie friends that will lie atop counters and enjoy regular spatters from the nearby saucepan.

I have to eat these in private because I cannot get them in my mouth fast enough (the resulting fist-in-mouth can be quite embarrassing). If you make enough to share, these ginger-infused pecans are awesome for pre-dinner munching with cocktails.

I sometimes package them in cellophane with twine, colorful ribbon or handmade labels for a nice hostess or holiday gift. I would tell you they keep well for a week sealed at room temperature, but I doubt any will stick around long enough for you to find out.

Ginger Sugar Pecans
5 cups pecan halves
½ cup sugar
2 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp ground ginger
2 T honey
2 tsp olive oil

Toast pecans in single layer on rimmed cookie sheet at 325 for 10-15 minutes. Shake once during baking. Combine sugar, salt, ginger in small bowl and set aside. Mix honey, 2 T water and oil in sauté pan; bring to boil over high heat. Reduce to medium, add pecans and cook for a few minutes until liquid has evaporated. Immediately throw into sugar mix and toss well—these are fabulous warm or at room temperature. They taste even better on day 2 when the flavors have had a chance to settle.

…helped make this meal. Well, they did: chicken tenders are browned until golden, then goat cheese is rolled into pecan-laced balls to make this fine meal that graces our table. Hats off to the animals that feed us, directly or indirectly, meal after meal (this is where my wonderfully conscientious vegan friends cringe: love you guys!).

My mom and husband gave this entree a substantial nod, so it comes to you with green light, thumb-up, bow-worthy, clapping reviews (sans the pom-poms). But seriously, it is simple to make and fun to serve and with a salad of mixed greens on the side, dinner is served.

You can use regular red, yellow or orange bell peppers; I managed to snag some of the smallish ones (costco, trader joes and whole foods all have them), and cut them in ring-like fashion. Fun effect to have bite size rings, but otherwise slice bell peppers into bite size pieces. The goat cheese balls (bring to room temperature and roll between palms) about the size of a large marbles are rolled in chopped, toasted pecans.

Chicken & Goats
Serves 4.

2 large bell peppers or 10-12 small (orange, red or yellow)
4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves OR 8-10 chicken tenders
Butter & Olive Oil
Kosher salt & coarse pepper (KS&CP)
4 oz goat cheese
1/2 cup toasted, chopped pecans
1-2 T shallot
4 cloves garlic
2/3 cup white wine
1 T rosemary

Preheat oven to 350. Slice peppers into rings or bite size pieces, saute in skillet over medium heat in 2 T butter and 2 T olive oil until slightly carmelized, about 10 minutes. Remove peppers from skillet and set aside, adding 4 T butter into same pan. Season chicken with salt and pepper, turn heat up to medium high and saute chicken for 3-4 minutes until browned. Turn over chicken and reduce heat to medium low, sauteing for 4-5 minutes for tenders and 9-10 minutes for breasts (don’t overcook, chicken will finish cooking in oven). Meanwhile, roll goat cheese balls and coat with pecans. Place chicken, peppers and goat cheese balls into baking pan and place in oven for 10 minutes.

In small saucepan over medium, sautee garlic and shallots in 1 T olive oil and 2 T butter for 5 mintues, add chopped rosemary and sautee one minute more; add wine and reduce by half. Pour over chicken and peppers and serve.