Welcome to a new aptly titled "Pastry Chef Jenn & Joel" where we switch roles on who's chef and sous chef and we make desserts. Our first endeavor down this road was to make an Apple Pie. To do so we had to make a 60+ mile excursion to the beautiful Oakglen area in Yucaipa. 

A couple of days ago we were watching The Daily Show and they did a segment on how Facebook is where the majority of people get their news. Although for me it's Twitter, I do go on Facebook more then I'd like to admit. My newsfeed is a mixture of anti-Trump, pro-Clinton news articles with the occasional friend posting a picture of his/her kid and a recipe thrown in the mix. This past Sunday I did my normal morning Facebook browsing and came across a video recipe for a Rigatoni Chicken Parm Bake that I immediately showed to Jenn and we decided to try and make it. 

It's been a couple of months since the last Chef Joel & Jenn post and with that I know I've begun falling behind my goal to write a certain number of these this year. To try and right that wrong I'm going back and writing up the last one we did in late July right before Jenn whisked me away to Paris for my 30th birthday. 

I'm not sure why Jenn and I don't go to Sunday Brunch more. For me it's one of my favorite meals ever. It combines foods from all three meal categories (Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner) and usually comes with bottomless champagne. Over the memorial day weekend Jenn and I went to the Bayside Restaurant for brunch. Their setup is slightly different then the typical Sunday brunch buffet changing that instead for a set 2-course menu with bottomless champagne.

Unfortunately its been another big gap between Chef Joel & Jenn posts. To say we've both been extremely busy with work and life would be an understatement. The last couple of weeks have had both Jenn and I working many nights and weekends not to mention other obligations. It was nice this past weekend to not only do next to nothing but also take out the old cookbook and try yet another new recipe.

At this point Jenn and I have ate at almost every restaurant in Fashion Island. It was our home for so many years that it often made for great date nights. The one remaining restaurant that we hadn't tried was the somewhat newly built/opened Fig & Olive. At our dinner a couple of weeks prior having dinner at North Italia I mentioned to Jenn that Fig & Olive had a Groupon special going on, I preceded to show her the deal when she then hit purchase. And like that this date night was set up.