Denise Rae Kouzoujian Guest Post Part II - Which came first—the chicken or the egg?

Currently I am working on a memoir piece/pastry cookbook that I’m calling,
“Is That a Chicken? Finding Patience Through Pastry.”

Last year while on a camping trip with my husband, son and my college roommate’s family, Dave said, “Hey Denise! I saw a great T-shirt last week and I thought of you. It said ‘I don’t have AD/HD… IS THAT A CHICKEN?’”

Now, one year later, it’s my favorite line and my husband’s too. I must say that I have those “chicken” moments all the time! Whether it’s AD/HD (Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder), bi-polar, high functioning autism, learned behavior or merely genetics, it’s who I am. It’s what I do. And it seems to get me through.

I’ve been a shoot-from-the-hip kind of gal all of my life, and when it comes to cooking, I have always said that I don’t do pastry. I’m pinch-and-dash, a savory chef. Pastry takes patience. I’m not patient. Cooking is emotional, pastry is logical. I’m emotional—I cook!

Well, earlier this year, I fell into the world of pastry and I’m beginning to find my patience. Let’s see what comes of it, shall we?

Here is an Apricot-Blackberry Galette recipe from “Culinary Road Trip” A Search for New Wines Leads to Past Reflections, an article I wrote, appearing in the July & August 2009 issue of Vine Times Magazine that I thought you might enjoy:

Apricot-Blackberry Galette (Serves 6)

One of my favorite childhood memories is walking with my sister down to our local elementary school, bucket in hand and dressed in “berry-picking clothes,” to pick blackberries. We’d bring them home for fresh blackberry pie and jam. This galette is a nice twist on an old favorite.

For pastry dough:

1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoons salt

1/2 cup cold butter (1 stick), cut into thin slices

4-6 tablespoons ice water


For apricot-blackberry filling:

3 tablespoons cornstarch

1 cup, plus 2 tablespoons sugar

10- 12 sweet, ripe apricots, cut into 1/4"-thick slices

1/2 pint blackberries, raspberries or other berries; can be a combination or a single kind

Juice from half of a lemon

2 tablespoons butter, cut into thin slices


Egg wash:

2 eggs & 2 tablespoons water, beat together with a fork.

Preheat oven to 425F.


To prepare pastry dough:

1. In a medium bowl, mix flour and salt. Cut in cold butter using two knives in scissor-fashion or pastry blender until mixture has coarse, pea-sized crumbs. Sprinkle ice water, 1 tablespoon at a time, into flour mixture, mixing with hands just until dough holds together. (If you work dough too much, it will not be as light and flaky once baked.) Shape into a flat ball and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate 30 minutes.


2. Line large cookie sheet with parchment paper. On floured surface, roll out dough into 13-inch round. Transfer to lined cookie sheet.


To prepare apricot-blackberry filling:

1. In large bowl, mix together cornstarch and sugar, reserving 2 tablespoons for later. Add apricots, berries and lemon juice, gently tossing to coat fruit. Spoon filling onto center of dough round, leaving a 2-1/2-inch border all around. Dot filling with butter. Fold border of dough up over outer edge of filling, leaving a good-sized opening in the center. Pleat edges as you go and pinch dough to seal any cracks.

2. Lightly brush the dough on top with the egg wash & sprinkle with reserved sugar.

3. Bake galette 45 to 50 minutes or until crust is golden brown and filling is gently bubbling. As soon as galette is removed from oven, use a metal spatula to loosen it from the parchment paper. Allow galette to cool 15 minutes on cookie sheet, then slide it onto a rack to cool completely.

So, to answer that age old question, which came first – the chicken or the egg? I still don’t know. Maybe it’s either, both or possibly neither. I guess there is no right or wrong answer to this question. It’s like that with passion, you find it everywhere and in everything; from the people in our lives, the art and music we love, to the food & wine we eat and drink, and the places we see in business or pleasure, and for some, in the words that we write. There is no right or wrong with passion either, it’s who we are, what we discuss and sometimes write about, and for me that’s all it really needs to be.

Now, if I were to have to try to answer this question, I would say that it was the chicken that came before the egg, or should I say lots of eggs. For many years now I have enjoyed preparing those savory chicken dishes and it wasn’t until just recently that I’ve used so many eggs in my new pastry recipes—and with it all, I have gathered quite a few stories along the way.

Denise Rae Kouzoujian Guest Blog: Part I - Which came first—the chicken or the egg?

Which came first—the chicken or the egg?

I don’t know. But what I do know is passion. Passion is the force that drives me. It’s what I do. It’s who I am. It’s why I write. It’s what is good about me and, at times-- what is bad.

One thing that I struggle with is how to take my life’s passions and put them into the kind of words that a reader can truly feel.

My name is Denise Rae Kouzoujian and I am a writer, a chef, and a salesperson. I’m in the business of selling myself, my thoughts, my work and my product—whatever that may be. I try to balance that with being a good wife, mom and the best person that I can possibly be. It works for me in my own unconventional way and at times drives my husband and family crazy!
I have found over the years that life throws many things your way, and passion, mixed with creativity and a strong sense of faith, is what gets me through! It’s what I write about.

Passion for business and a love for my family kept me in my family’s business for over 20 years now, selling hydraulic and pneumatic products alongside my father. It was also my passion for cooking that led me down the culinary path thirteen years ago. This was about the time I found my way into the Menlo Park Draeger’s, cooking school as a chef’s assistant which eventually led me to start Food for the Soul with D. Rae, a personal chef business and in-home cooking school of my own.

Food For The Soul offers personal chef services, kitchen consulting, catering and culinary education. What I truly enjoy is teaching gardening and cooking classes to children as well as adults. I get a quiet sense of satisfaction knowing that, in some small way, I help to unleash the passion of others.

After getting married and giving birth to my son Jac, I began to write. I’ve always been a journal writer, starting and stopping along the way. In addition to journaling and writing my memoirs, I began writing about food, planted a garden and started to develop recipes, which later turned into a gardening/cookbook that I co-wrote with my friend Pam Larkin. We have just finished writing this book and are now ready to send our proposal out.

A bit of “Your Growing Kitchen: Growing and Enjoying Foods Fresh From the Garden” by Pam Larkin, Home Gardener and Denise Kouzoujian, Chef:

"The real beauty, though, lies in the excitement and pride of serving food you've had a hand in growing. Sharing this with friends and family reaffirms that some of the life's simplest joys prove to be the most meaningful. As you discover favorite recipes in the book, new fruits and vegetables become candidates to be grown in your garden. With new recipes to cook and new plants to plant, you'll enjoy the experience of growing your garden and kitchen. And you''learn that when you garden, you, too, will grow."

Recently, I finished my first formal writing class with Malena Watrous, who is an accomplished writer and an amazing instructor. I found this food writing course through Stanford Continuing Studies Program and look forward to taking another class very soon. I’ve always felt a bit intimidated within the literary world and with my own ability to write. But again, my passions in life and love for books are what keep driving me forward. This is how I found Aggie and the Kepler's Writing Group, which is located in my home town of Menlo Park, and I am so grateful to be a part of this eclectic group of people.

One of my favorite places to go is Kepler’s. I have spent many hours wandering the isles, sitting on the floor with a stack of books, trying to decide which ones to buy. I love reading, and find that I am drawn to many different types of books—especially nonfiction. I have an endless supply of cookbooks, travel and gastronomic essays. I read Ruth Reichl’s Garlic & Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise as part of my food writing class last year and it has become one of my favorites. I deeply enjoy the times that I am able to get lost in the memoirs of lives that seem to somehow connect with my own. I found the haunting honesty of Kay Jamison’s An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness, absolutely fascinating and I currently find myself engrossed in Rupert Isaacson’s The Horse Boy: A Father’s Quest to Heal His Son.

I always have at least one book in my bag, and try to get a few chapters in whenever I can find a handful of minutes during the day. I cherish those long, quiet days when I can cuddle up with a blanket, an intoxicating book and get a wonderful case of “book-itus.”