So I spent my Christmas vacation sleeping, catching up on movies and generally laying about while I wasn’t eating.

And man, did I ever eat. Three amazing dinners to celebrate my birthday — one at Trezo Vino, one at J. Gilbert and one at Blanc Burger. Great meals all, but my waistline is definitely worse for the wear.

My birthday and Christmas were terrific: I got everything I really wanted (except more storage for my computer…I’ll just buy that myself), including two new rad pair of sneakers and a new leather messenger bag for work (it makes me feel totally grown up).

And now, it’s officially 2012. Resolutions suck, but it’s a great time to start anew and set new goals for the year. So here are mine:

• I’m getting back onto Weight Watchers for real. We had some great success with it last year, but I stopped counting points and really lost my way. No more messing around. I’ve got 50 pounds to get to my goal weight. I’m aiming for getting there by the end of the year. Ideally, I’d like to be there by summer, but I want to be realistic too.
• I’ve got two big website launches this year. I want them both to go well.
• I want to find some sense of purpose for this site. Whether it’s WordPress or Tumblr or whatever…I want to post more and have more clarity in my posts.
• I obviously want to improve my work/life balance…whatever that might mean.
• I want to go on another adventure with Alli. It’s been too long since our Italian adventure. It’s time for another.
• Drink more water.
• I’d like to take another crack at reading 25 books this year. It’s been 5 years since I last did it. Look for an upcoming post with the books I intend to read this year.
• Keep being awesome.

Now that they’re written down, I have to stick to them, right? Isn’t that the point of stuff like this? What do you plan to do this year?

Since January 1, Alli and I have been on the Weight Watchers online plan. I could lie and say that I wasn’t inspired by Jennifer Hudson’s crazy weight loss, but I won’t.

I’m not a skinny person by any means and I love food, especially burritos from Chipotle.

Fortunately, thanks to the beauty of online nutritional information, I have the ability to calculate exactly how many points I consume each time I eat at my favorite restaurant. As a rather large person, I have quite a few points that I am allowed to consume, so my regular diet of Chipotle 3 times a week isn’t too much of a problem.

Think I’m lying? Here’s proof: Since I started Weight Watchers in January, I’ve eaten at Chipotle no less than 2.5 times per week. This is the 16th week of the year. That’s about 40 times, a conservative estimate. In that same span, I’ve lost over 25 pounds.

Here’s what I typically get:

• Burrito bowl
• Rice (5 points)
• Chicken (7 points)
• Mild Salsa (0 points)
• Medium (Green) Salsa (0 points)
• Cheese (6 points)
• Guacamole (4 points)

That’s 22 points for my entire, rather large and quite filling meal. If I was doing any other diet, I’d probably have to cut back on the Chipotle considerably, but since I know how many points I have to allocate, I can reserve the proper amount for days that I know I want to have Chipotle (which is, let’s face it, just about every day).

Then, there’s the added bonus of eating at a place like Chipotle who goes about their approach to food in the right way. Their Food With Integrity program is one of the differentiators of what makes them a great company and one of the reasons that I have no problem frequenting them as much as I do. From their website:

Food With Integrity is our commitment to finding the very best ingredients raised with respect for the animals, the environment and the farmers.

This system may not work for everyone, but it works really well for me an Alli. We have the ability to eat what we want and still lose weight. Plus, we support a pretty great company. Sounds like a win-win-win situation to me.

My good friend Eric is the director of food and beverage at The National and he continues to put together great events for the members, including his latest: Top Chef GIRL POWER with Chef Carla Hall (Fan Favorite for Top Chef: All Stars) and Antonia Lofaso (a finalist in the Top Chef: All Stars event).

The six-course dinner at The National will for the first time be open to the public. Reservations are being taken now for the dinner, which will be held on Saturday, April 16th with cocktails beginning at 6:00 p.m. and the dinner, complete with Terlato wine pairings for each course, begins at 7:00 p.m.

The cost for the evening is $100 per person, which is pretty reasonable when you consider 6 courses from top-quality chefs and wine included. Look, there’s no doubt I’m a fan of Top Chef. I’m not getting paid for this endorsement, I just think it is an awesome program and if you love Top Chef and great food, give the event a try. These events don’t come along often and they aren’t always open to the public.

The Menu

First Course (Antonia Lofaso)
Hamachi Crudo, crispy rice, mizuna, miso vinegrette
Santa Margherita Pinot Grigio, Italy

Second Course (Carla Hall)
Asparagus, Golden Beet and Shitake Salad with goat cheese bousin and tarragon dill vinaigrette
Sokol Blosser Evolution, Oregon

Third Course (Antonia Lofaso)
Curried cauliflower soup with sweet shrimp, apples, micro cilantro
Wairau River Pinot Noir Home Block, New Zealand

Fourth Course (Carla Hall)
Grilled Halibut with ramps, pickled fennel and roasted sunchoke pesto
Chapoutier Crozes Hermitage Les Meysonniers Rouge, France

Fifth Course (Antonia Lofaso)
Lamb loin, fennel butter, brussel, blue bacon salad
Luke Donald Claret, California

Sixth Course (Carla Hall)
Strawberry Rhubarb Meringue Tart with lime basil coulis
Two Hands Brilliant Disguise, Australia

Credit card reservations can be placed by calling Meghan at The National at 816-746-0200.

If you’re interested, let me know and I can get you in touch with the folks from The National (or…you know…you could just call the number).

Sunday night, I was invited by a friend to attend an amazing event at The National Golf Club in Parkville — a 6-course dinner prepared by season six Top Chef contestants Eli Kirshstein and Kevin “Beardy” Gillespie and The National’s Executive Chef, Eric Barkley.

You may remember a few weeks back when I talked about the Top Chef Tour coming to Kansas City. In that post, I said:

[My friend] Eric [who is the Director of Food & Beverage for The National] is actually bringing back Eli and one of my personal favorites, Kevin “BEARDY” Gillespie for a special 6-course event (two by each Top Chef and 2 by Chef Barkley from The National) at their clubhouse in May.

Well, I was lucky enough to be invited as a guest to this amazing event. Alli and I were seated next to the pastry chef and executive chef (and 4-time James Beard Award nominee) of bluestem in Westport, which was really a treat. Not only were we treated to an amazing meal, but we had some great company and got some insight into the cooking side of things from Colby and Megan.

And now, the food…

The first course was prepared by Chef Barkley. It was a walleye served on a bed of sweet corn topped with ramps (wild leeks), morels, black truffles with a white wine foam. There were a lot of things that I just typed that I had never eaten before Sunday night, particularly ramps, which are apparently a very difficult to acquire vegetable (unlike normal leeks). As a lead-off dish, this was bright and interesting, but kind of large. The sweetness of the corn counteracted the acidity of the pickled ramps and the richness of the walleye and black truffles. I liked it a lot.

The second course was prepared by Chef Kirshtein, a scallop served on top of black garlic with Enoki mushrooms. I was really looking forward to having some scallops, but was a little disappointed in this dish. The scallop itself was nicely cooked and the black garlic was delicious, but I couldn’t get into the mushrooms. I want to be adventurous in my eating, but these were a little out there.

This next dish surprised the crap out of me. I did not expect that Chef Kirshtein’s chicken with broccoli gremolata and lily bulb puree would be my favorite course of the night. I have never tasted a chicken that was cooked better. The skin was crispy and the meat of the chicken was rich and tender and in stark contrast to the vinegar-y broccoli gremolata. Another wonderful surprise about this dish was the lily bulb puree. This was a point in the meal where it was extremely helpful to have chefs Garrelts at our table. I learned that lily bulb was actually a fancy name for onion. So basically, it was like a potato puree, only with onions. And it tasted awesome.

The fourth course was our first from Chef Beardy Gillespie, and it was actually a Top Chef challenge winner from last season’s Pigs and Pinot challenge. What was it? It’s difficult to tell from the picture, so let me help: it was a pork terrine with a pickled cherry and a mushroom salad (not like a green salad, but like a chicken salad…it’s that gray stuff on top of the pork terrine slice). I really liked this dish. It wasn’t amazingly appetizing to look at (although it was extremely cleanly plated), but it tasted salty and sweet and balanced. Yum.

Our next dish, from Chef Eric Barkley, had my favorite side item of the night. Served with a wagyu Kansas City (they called it New York…I refuse to do so) strip loin topped with a vidalia onion compote was a completely EPIC gorgonzola bread pudding with bacon. (Okay, so the dish was technically centered around the strip loin, but not for me.) So much awesomeness here. If I described it more, you might become insanely jealous and hunt me down.

The final savory dish was from Chef Beardy and was quite an experience. Now, I’ve had lamb loin before at Perilla in New York. I have not, however, had lamb loin with sweetbread (most mis-named food EVER) fricassee, lemony greens and potato cream. I wasn’t too hip on eating the thymus and pancreas of an animal, but I figured I had to give it a shot. Really weird. The lamb was pretty good too and the pomegranate brown butter that it was served with was quite tasty.

I didn’t actually photograph the 7th bonus course, which was prepared by the Herndon Career Center from Raytown. The dessert plate was a myriad of deliciousness — a Meyer lemon verbena sponge cake, chocolate two ways, homemade orange “pop rocks” and some nitro ice cream in a macadamia nut cone. The cone was the best part, but considering that it was concepted and prepared by high schoolers, I was really impressed.

After the meal, the chefs came out and answered some questions and told stories of their culinary background and their experiences on the show. I’d heard some of Eli’s stories from the Top Chef event from last month, but it was really fun to hear some of Beardy’s stories, since he was my favorite from last season.

I can’t thank my friend Eric enough for inviting me and Alli to attend this event. It was such a great experience to each such delicious food. I know that The National is working on another Top Chef-inspired event in September. Be sure to follow me on Twitter and I’ll be sure that you know about the event if you’re interested. If you love food and you love Top Chef, you really shouldn’t miss these special events.

I know that I’m glad I didn’t miss this one.

Once every 3 years or so, my family has this ridiculously excessive tradition. We wake up early on a Saturday and have a donut tasting.

And it is exactly as awesome as it sounds.

However, this is an amazingly un-local thing. The local-est place that we go is Lamar’s, but we also tried Krispy Kreme and Dunkin’ Donuts this year. After my devotion

Then, there’s this.

Meesha is organizing a meetup at John’s Space Age Donuts in downtown Overland Park on May 19, the same day that the new Dunkin’ Donuts opens up just down the street. I’ve got some friends who freaked out when Dunkin’ Donuts came to town. After my donut day, I can categorically say that Dunkin’ Donuts is very MEH and they certainly can’t hold a candle to Lamar’s. I’m going to try and make it to John’s on May 19 and give them a try.

It seems like they’re the awesomest. What are your KC suggestions for my family’s next excessive donut day?

Eli Kirshtein from Season 6 and Nikki Cascone from Season 4 came into KC and showed off their culinary chops and answered some questions in four sessions outside Cosentino’s Market. The first 15-20 minutes were spent making a quick Scimeca’s Sausage meatball with sauerkraut, aioli and topped with some gala apples.

By themselves, I like very few of the components in this dish. Sauerkraut? EW. Mustard? No thanks. But as a dish, it totally worked. The flavors worked together to create something really simple and tasty.

My favorite part of the event was the Q&A, though. As someone who’s been watching Top Chef since season one (and I’ve talked about it plenty), I was interested in hearing about the show and their experiences. One of the things that cracked me up was Eli and Nikki talking trash on some of the more well-known chefs of the world, particularly Bobby Flay (“Just throw it on the grill with some chipotle in adobo and some cilantro.”).

I was actually really surprised at how open and honest they were, pulling no punches about the contestants they competed with (Eli still hates Robin, it seems) and the challenges they competed in.

It was a really nice event and I have to say thanks to my friend Eric from The National, who got me the tickets. Eric is actually bringing back Eli and one of my personal favorites, Kevin “BEARDY” Gillespie for a special 6-course event (two by each Top Chef and 2 by Chef Barkley from The National) at their clubhouse in May. As amazing as the event sounds, the price tag might be a little out of my range.

For the rest of my pictures, check out my Flickr photoset.

Tonight was our big date night in the city. We had tickets to see Complexions Modern Ballet at the Joyce Theater (which was amazing), but before the performance, we had one of the greatest meals I have ever eaten.

I was a fan of Harold Dieterle’s as soon as I saw him on Season One of Top Chef [proof 1 2 3]. In fact, I even put “eat at Harold’s restaurant Perilla” on a bucket list I made in May of this year.

Tonight, I actually got to check that off tonight.

What you’re seeing in this picture is the tasting of Colorado lamb, my entree at Perilla.

I started with the Crispy Calimary & Watercress salad. It had mint and pecans and a chili-lime vinaigrette. Alli started with the Baby Red Romaine salad, which had bartlett pears, stilton cheese and spicy pecan vinaigrette. I tried both. They were so balanced and amazing (you’ll see a theme begin to develop).

For the main course, I had the lamb trio — grilled rack, crispy braised belly, homemade cheese & parsley sausage. Alli had their Red Kuri Squash Agnolotti with chanterelles, grilled halloumi & brown butter-hazelnut sauce. We also got the Farro Risotto on the side to share. We followed it up with a piece of the pumpkin pecan pie with caramel sauce and pumpkin ice cream.

I don’t think that we could have made a bad decision. Frankly, I’m fairly certain that everything on the menu is phenomenal because everything that we had far exceeded my high expectations. Our service was exceptional. The decor is appropriate. The music…well, I don’t know who makes their playlists, but it might as well have been me.

One more thing: at the end of our meal, I told our server to please give our compliments to the chef and that I was a huge fan of everything. She said, “Well, he’s here, would you like to say hello?”

Um…YES PLEASE.

I thought that she was going to bring Harold out to the table…no, she came back and waved to us, signaling us to come with her and we followed her back into the kitchen where I got to shake Harold’s hand and thank him personally for the meal. I admit that I was a bit starstruck, but who cares? It was awesome.

I can’t state this too strongly: our meal was legendary. It’s been 4 hours since it ended and I’m still thinking about it. Thank you so much to Harold and the entire Perilla staff for making our dinner very special. It far exceeded my experience at Bobby Flay’s Mesa Grill. Oh, I didn’t tell you about that?

All in due time…

In that town are maybe 6 places to eat, but everyone in the town knows of the Pizza Shack.

Named the Best Pizza in Iowa (in 1981), the Shack, as it is affectionately known has been owned and run by the same family, the Hamptons, for a few decades now. The Shack was there when my parents were at Graceland in the late ’60s and it is still there now, ten years after I graduated.

I worked there during my freshman, sophomore and junior years at Graceland and during those lunch shifts, I met and got to know the woman who would become my wife. I was a cook and she worked the front of the house. We got to spend a lot of time laughing and talking as we would get ready for lunch service.

I lived next door to the Shack for a year too. That was the year that Alli and I started dating. Coincidence? Probably. I remember how I used to come back from work smelling of pizza. I never tired of that smell of dough and sauce and pepperoni. The old oven, the linoleum floor, the stop light and jukebox and the old decorations all are a part of the wonderful experience and make the memory all that much richer.

If you’re ever on I-35, headed from Kansas City through Des Moines, be sure to stop in Lamoni. Just watch out for the Amish people.

Whenever we’re cooking, Dreyfuss is around, waiting for something, anything to fall to the floor. On the other side of the counter in the picture is a rug. And on that rug is an imprint of his butt from where he sits while we cook.

Alli started this habit of giving Dreyfuss the remnants of her burrito bol on the nights that we got Chipotle for dinner. We are regretting it now because anytime he sees that brown bag he starts freaking out and whining constantly until he gets the scraps.

All along, we’ve thought there was some sort of addictive chemical in Chipotle that makes us love it as much as we do. Turns out we were right.