Introducing Belly-Timber
I. Ten True Confessions.
1. Our kitchen often looks like this:
2. We have been known to eat ramen and 75 cent tacos for weeks on end.
3. We have never been to Europe.
4. We buy Carlo Rossi wine by the gallon.
5. We cook on an electric cooktop.
6. Hell, we don’t even own a dishwasher.
7. Needless to say, we suck at cleaning up after ourselves.
8. One of us (guess which one) runs screaming at the sight of organ meat.
9. The other one (guess which one) has no problem at all drinking cheap beer.
10. Despite all of this, we are starting a food blog.
II. The cook.
Chopper Dave has been in the industry for ten years, and is a recent culinary school graduate. Despite what some owners of sports bars might think, this did not turn him into a snob. He’s still as irreverent as ever, it’s just that now he knows how to pronounce all those fancy French and Italian words.
Chopper Dave got his nickname due to an incident involving a Buffalo Chopper and a fifth story window. Descriptions of this incident available upon request. For a small fee.
III. The cook’s assistant/photographer.
Mrs D isn’t a cook. In all honesty, she prefers watching her husband cook to actually cooking, and if he asks her to set down her camera to chop vegetables, she’s likely to get pissed.
Mrs D does, however, love good food. Unless that good food contains dairy products. Or broccoli. Or cauliflower. Mrs. D has food issues. Or rather, her gut has food issues, and she would do just about anything to trade in her gut for one made of cast iron.
IV. Platelicker.
Platelicker is only allowed to lick plates once they’ve been placed on the floor, far, far from begging territory. This does not stop her, however, from fulfilling a life-long dream of being rechristened “Steakgrabber.” She achieved this dream once. She will never achieve it again.
V. The Cat.
What’s a kitchen without a cat? Especially a cat who has permission to walk across the counter, shedding fur into our blueberry gastrique. Why do we let her do this? So she can reach her cat food dish, also on the counter, far far out of reach of Platelicker.
VI. It’s all about the teamwork.
Mrs. D and Chopper Dave met during a production of Sweeney Todd. They have yet to determine what impact this fact will have on their culinary fate.
In a fit of insanity, nearly one year ago, Mrs. D and Chopper Dave decided to get married. Not only that, they decided to tread where mere mortals fear to tread and cater their own wedding. This fit of insanity was quickly followed by a long spell of exhaustion. During this spell, they made plans for many other joint projects, including an online serial adventure novel, a nautical screenplay, and a theatrical extravaganza that begins with a mass food poisoning. Some of these projects may even see the light of day. In the meantime, they are happy to finally launch their food (and beer — did we mention beer?) blog, Belly-Timber.
April 5th, 2005 at 1:09 pm
I found you through Gastronomie - welcome to the food blog world! Your blog looks great so far.
April 5th, 2005 at 3:34 pm
Mrs D & Chopper Dave — I like it! And welcome to food blogging.
I like your blog’s tone (and the POV of Mrs. D reporting on Chopper Dave’s efforts). In fact, I already feel I know you well enough to diminutize your names to MizD and Chopper.
Using puff pastry as the base for the quittata was brilliant.
April 7th, 2005 at 8:18 pm
Well, I must comment, because your entry made me laugh. I have a plate-licker of my own. Welcome! I anxiously wait to see what you’ll make after the inspired Paper Chef entry!
April 8th, 2005 at 1:47 pm
Jen, Kevin, & Caryn,
Thanks tons for the kind words and welcomes to the food blogging world! I am a complete dork for not seeing these comments sooner — I forgot I had Movable Type set to screen comments, and here I was checking, feeling lonely, and getting ready to prepare worm soup for lunch!
Chopper Dave will be doing some of his own posting soon — assuming I can tear him away from The Video Game That Dare Not Speak Its Name sometime in the next few days!
April 27th, 2005 at 10:12 pm
Oh, not another game widow? My Sweets is a recovering EQ addict (yes, he did stay up through the night because “well, otherwise the Swedish team will come in at 3am and get all the good stuff…”. I digress.
Loved your kitchen honesty photo and listing! I haven’t even made it to the “admit you have a problem” stage :)
April 28th, 2005 at 10:39 am
Chopper Dave’s curse is Neverwinter Nights. So far, though, he’s just been playing on his own, so no staying up into the wee hours for fear of alternate time zone supremacy.
About the kitchen: We’ve been in the “admit you have a problem” stage for a long long time now. Years, in fact. Perhaps it’s not so much a stage as a lifestyle. :)
April 29th, 2005 at 6:53 am
As a close neighbor across the water, with Front Street Ale House in my sights–isn’t is still for sale?–I welcome you to the blog world. Look forward to another island view of the food world.
April 29th, 2005 at 11:27 am
Thanks, podchef!
I just checked your profile — you are close! And here, I thought “across the water” meant Port Angeles or something. :-)
I know there’s still a For Sale sign above the brewing half of the Front Street building, but other than that, I’m not sure what the story is. I’m sure business is still good for the owners — it’s a very popular place — but perhaps they’re just tired of being owners, want to sell, but aren’t in a huge rush to sell.
May 6th, 2005 at 9:44 pm
At our house it’s World of Warcraft. And I’m gonna learn how to play Magic! nerds unite!
May 9th, 2005 at 6:06 am
Neverwinter Nights rules! especially playing online!. It’s addicting, just ask my husband who bemoans the day I started playing but if he wants a good server let me know I’ve got a few to recommend :)
May 18th, 2005 at 5:23 pm
No, no! Don’t tell us about any good Neverwinter Nights servers! I’ll never have a good home cooked meal again! :-)
May 22nd, 2005 at 3:31 am
Aloha Mrs. D and Chopper Dave,
Welcome- you guys are a fabulous addition to the world of food blogging!
Cheers…
P.S. My husband and I are planning on moving to the San Juans soon…small world, huh?
May 22nd, 2005 at 8:37 pm
Really? Cool! Please keep us updated. Perhaps we can stage a mini Island Food Bloggers convention!
June 11th, 2005 at 5:52 pm
Cool blog! Just learned about it from Owen at Tomatilla. I LOVE the picture of your kitchen. Mine is clearly related to yours in many ways…
June 16th, 2005 at 8:10 pm
Thanks, Amy! I’m almost tempted to issue a challenge for everyone to post pictures of their kitchens in chaos!
October 28th, 2005 at 7:45 pm
i know i have your email address somewhere but can’t find it! could i get youo to switch the URL in my blog to blog.kitchenmage.com? pretty please with beer on top?
thx
January 10th, 2006 at 8:38 am
Ha. Who knew there were so many game widows doing food blogging. Must be a nerds marrying nerds thing. My nerd plays D&D 2 nights a week with a bunch of guys from BioWare (we live in Edmonton), but thankfully it’s a real live old-fashoined RPG so I use those nights to do my blogging. We both avoid computer games like the plague though because we’d never get round to cooking (or anything else) then…
I like the blog Chopper & Mrs. very funny.
January 10th, 2006 at 10:04 am
Yay! More nerds! You’ll have to tell me how to keep Chopper away from the computer games some day…
January 25th, 2006 at 1:23 pm
I’m new to the food blogging neighborhood and just checking out my neighbors. Hope you don’t mind, I’ll be visiting you often. :)
January 27th, 2006 at 6:52 pm
Thanks, Felicia! I like your site. Mmmm… tilapia! :-)
April 24th, 2006 at 7:06 pm
The about page is fantastic, the photo and confessions really made me laugh. As for catering your own wedding (!) how did that go, I’m so curious? Is there a link to a post about that? I’d love to read it.
April 25th, 2006 at 4:21 pm
Hi Tejal — welcome! I have to admit even though it’s been almost two years now, I’ve yet to sit down and write up the events of the wedding. The whole thing was crazy DIY, save for the cake — which we almost did ourselves until my sister put a screeching halt to it by sending us cake ordering funds!
For the food, Chopper enlisted the aid of four of his fellow culinary school students, and they created … oh jeez, now I have to remember! … spanikopita, duck ballotine, Serrano & red bell pepper & goat cheese crostinis, quinoa salad, and a whole slew of other things I’m completely forgetting. One of these days I’ll get all the photos up online and do a whole presentation on how to (or how not to) do a DIY wedding!
April 30th, 2006 at 10:23 am
Here’s a new wacky products article for you to consider for your site. I realize its slightly off topic but I thought it was funny and something you would enjoy.
13 Wackiest Products to Keep You Cooking
http://www.americaninventorspot.com/node/808
I hope you like it and will share it with your readers.
Thanks,
Michelle