My husband, Corby, is the cook around our house and I am the photographer (it’s not that I don’t like to cook…he’s just better at it and I’m fine with that!) We call him Yes! Chef! because we love him and we love his food. And when we help him, and he asks us to do something, we don’t question it…we just say, “Yes! Chef!” Although, he did not graduate from culinary school, he is a fabulous cook. He has worked in a restaurant as a line cook and he does catering at some of the local wineries. I hope to highlight his food and recipes and some of my own food through my photography. We also love to take road trips around the area visiting wineries and eateries. So, there will be reviews and commentary about those adventures along with some travel tips for visitors to the area. That’s all…food, photography and travel tips for some wineries and eateries that we visit. That’s it. Well, maybe a little about our life and maybe zombies, but I doubt it.
You can contact us here: schmautzhaus@comcast.net
If you would like to see the rest of my photography, go here: Sierra Springs Photography. Happy eating!





Mmmmm! That bowl of pasta looks perfectly delicious! Keep inspiring 🙂
You can tell you are a photographer based on how beautiful and aesthetically pleasing this blog is! Great to see someone dedicate a blog to their husband. Both of you keep up the awesome work!
Thank you! My husband is not only a great cook, but he’s a great guy. I’m one very lucky woman.
Cooking and photography – sounds like the perfect marriage (especially since he does the cooking)! I’m enjoying your blog very much 🙂
Thank you so much. It is a great deal for me because he is a super cook.
Love the photos. I have the food part figured out, but am struggling with photography in my blog. Hope to learn a bit from your great photos!
Thank you so much. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask. I am taking some food photography classes, so I am a learner, also.
Oh, and I love the name. When working in a restaurant kitchen, “yes, chef!” is the only right answer to a request.
My husband agrees totally with you, especially after working for a very talented chef in a restaurant.
Congratulations on developing an interesting and beautiful blog! I do the cooking in my house but haven’t quite figured out how to get my wife and daughter to say “yes” so willingly (perhaps it has something to do with the quality of my cooking). Love the photographs!
Your comment made me laugh. Thank you so much for your kind comments.
I love your blog, T my other half is a wonderful cook and we share in the duties of the kitchen all the time. Your photography is really good and ‘Yes, Chef’ is a keeper!
Thank you so much. I will look forward to reading more of your blog.
Oh! I forgot to say that my husband was looking at your blog the other day because I had it bookmarked on my ipad. Your hummingbird photos are to die for.
We really love your blog… Your photos, recipes are awsome…
Thank you!
Aww I love the blog nameee! I Can imagine everyone at ur place ruunning arroung saying Yes! Chef! Fantastic pictures by he way! Cheers
thank you so much. Outside the kitchen he’s the dad, but inside the kitchen we become kitchen slaves and he is King! Thank you for stopping by.
do you have a pintrest account? would love to follow along with all the goodies!
why, yes we do. http://pinterest.com/karen_schmautz/. I need to portion out my time looking for goodies because it sucks up lots of time…ha!
yummy. you have a great place coming up or should i says it’s already there… here 🙂
Thank you so much for stopping by and your kind comment.
great blog! How perfect, food and photography. I am a potter who loves cooking and eating. Always like creating the perfect palette for serving culinary creations. Look forward to reading your future posts.
Thank you. I so admire people who can make things with their hands, especially pottery.
Love the bits of your blog that I have read so far……can’t to have a thorough perusal. I think that it’s marvellous that Yes Chef does most of the cooking; at mine my husband is the photography aficionado and I dare say that I haven’t maximized his skills for my blog posts; well all that is about to change *cue evil laugh* 🙂
Love the evil laugh. In our house he/she who cooks doesn’t clean up, so the photog gets to wash dishes and clean up the kitchen. Luckily, Yes!Chef! is not a messy cooker and he usually cleans as he goes (comes from working in a small restaurant kitchen where you have to keep your station clean.) I will be looking forward to see some pics from your husband.
Oh my! What a PERFECT arrangement! I should establish that here as well! I cook; he washes up……but wait, no, it won’t work……..I have OCD…….the kitchen will never be clean enough if he does it…….sigh………:-)
I have enjoyed bits of your blog that I have read so far. I love the fact that Yes Chef cooks at home. My husband is the photography aficionado at mine and I dare say that I haven’t maximised the use of his skills for my food posts *cue evil laugh* 🙂 I can’t wait to fully peruse your posts; they hold such promise and excitement!
Wonderful foodie photos!!!
Thank you! It was fun taking them (and eating them.)
I love the name of your blog. Having worked for a short time in a professional kitchen I love the words, yes chef!
Thank you. It is actually what we call him when he is in the kitchen, though he’s not a real chef (in our hearts he is.) He did intern for a Cordon Bleu chef for quite a while.
Love everything about your blog. It is beautiful.
Thank you so much for your kind comments.
Beautiful photography and the recipes sound as delicious as the photos make them look.
Wow! thank you so much. I appreciate your kind comments and thank you for stopping by.
Hi there! I love your blog and I’ve nominated you for the Versatile Blogger award 🙂
http://kellyinthekitchen.net/2012/07/09/an-award-and-brown-butter-pecan-cake-with-chocolate-ganache-glaze/#comments
Wow! Thank you so much. You are very kind. I will head right over to your blog to read all about it.
Wow, sounds like a real family adventure in the kitchen! That’s really, really cool!
Thank you. We do have fun.
Thanks a bunch for visiting and following my blog and reading about my adventures in and out of the kitchen. Can’t wait to read more of your writing and see more of your great photography!
You are welcome. You are a wonderful writer and I thoroughly enjoy your stories! Keep them coming.
Thanks, Karen!
Hi =)
Hey! thanks for stopping by.
Hi, Karen,
Your blog makes me hungry!
(I’ve just upgraded to the ‘Linen’ Theme … can you ‘share’ how you added the code for your ‘share’ buttons – RSS, Twitter, Facebook, Google + and Tumblr … for the life of me, I can’t replicate what you’ve done).
Happy Holidays!
Doug Cronk
http://dougcronk.wordpress.com/
Thank you. It looks like you have the share buttons up and running. Am I missing something?
Hi, again.
I’m trying to make my share buttons look like yours and like this:
http://theme.wordpress.com/themes/linen/
How did you do that with the Linen Theme?
(Also, neither yours nor my RSS feed work … but one problem at a time).
Thanks.
I haven’t set up my RSS feed because I don’t know how to do that. As for the rest of it, go to Settings>Sharing. YOu add the ones you want and set up the links there.
Also, here’s some info that may help: http://en.support.wordpress.com/publicize/
Aha! Brilliant. Thanks for your time.
You are welcome and good luck with your blog!
Good Morning…Love your blog! Come visit my new blog at http://www.redwinefinefood.com
Thank you and I will!
Hi, Karen!
I’ve nominated you for the Versatile Blogger Award.
http://craftycooknook.wordpress.com/2013/01/31/versatile-blogger-award-or-i-finally-understand-that-liberal-arts-education/
Thanks for such consistently great writing and recipes! Best wishes.
Wow! Thank you so much. I will drop by and take a peek.
Hi I have nominated you for the Super Sweet Blog Award, please visit http://bowtalks.wordpress.com/2013/02/17/that-wonderful-feeling/ to claim the award ,Thank You,www.bowtalks.wordpress.com
Fantastic! Your warm ‘About’ entry made my soul smile. Well, if that’s possible. I’m new here but something tells me I’ll stay for longer.
Why, thank you so much! I took an excursion over to your blog and I enjoyed it very much. Lovely pictures.
Love, love, LOVE this site. Thanks for sharing Food, Family, Fotography (photography) and Fun.
Very clever! I wish I had thought of it. Might have been a better tag line than “Because life is too short to eat crappy food.” I’ll have to speak to Y!C! about this.
Congratulations! You have been awarded:
Sunshine Award
Participation is optional, only if you want to pass the awards to others. Please check out your awards at: http://sweetbakedlife.com/2013/08/18/honored-best-moment-award-and-sunshine-award/
Have a great day!
Karen–You can delete this after you see it. Sorry, but I couldn’t find an email address for you. Your most recent email link to a post about Crockpot Balsamic Beef is broken. When I click on the link, I get a 404 Error (page missing). I can’t even find the post by going directly to the site. Good luck. Ken
I know, I published before I was ready, so I removed it. It should be good to go now. Thanks for the heads up.
I too love food and spend a good deal of time in the kitchen! And my other passion is photography!
Thank you for signing up to follow my blog! I hope that you will enjoy my posts! Please take a look under the category “In the Kitchen” for my recipes! Thanks again! – B
Thank you! I will take a look.
I wish you and yours a Happy Thanksgiving!
great photos. you guys are hilarious. after spending about 20 minutes on your blog i’m already smitten.
this is a really excellent about page. you guys do cooking right. if you aren’t goofing around a little bit, then there is no point. it seems like you guys really understand the nature of cooking bringing people together (whether within the family or not).
keep up the awesome work, and i’ll do my best to pop in on occasion.
Wow! thank you so much for the kind words. do stop by again!
[…] Corby was born in North Dakota and lived in Minnesota and New Orleans before meeting Karen. He had never been to California before Karen snagged him and dragged him off to California to live with her. He got his culinary training as an intern under local chef, John Evans who is a Cordon Bleu/Paris graduate. Chef Evans trained at Bouchon and owns ZackJac Bistro and Zachary Jacques restaurant. Corby has done catering events at some of the local, El Dorado County, wineries. Corby has a day job that does not involve cooking, so his cooking is normally done on the weekends and days off. […]
I love your about page! It’s a lot of fun and really seems to capture your goals, personality and family perfectly!
Thank you so much!
Love this and would like to follow you and Corby