Happy Friday, folks! I thought I would take some time to share some updates and check in with you this Friday. We will start with some shameless self promotion (I was in theatre after all), and then to make up for it, I have some ridiculously cute pictures of Maggie, my parents’ dog that we are watching for a month, and then more updates about life, work, and cooking.

Come Cook With Me!

I will be teaching a cooking class in February at Orange Tree Imports, a specialty cooking store in the Madison area. This session I am teaching Raising the Salad Bar and we are going to make a bunch of homemade salad dressings, yummy salads, and I will have a scrumptious dessert to top things off. As always, I will also pair wines with the salads and have something fun non-alcoholic to drink. Here is the menu for the class:

Couscous, Cranberry, and Pecan Salad with Curry Vinaigrette
Taco Salad with Homemade Thousand Island Dressing
Wedge Salad with Homemade French Dressing
Grilled Chicken Caesar with Homemade Creamy Garlic Dressing,  and Homemade Croutons

All of the dressings are from the cookbook and they are awesome, clean solutions to some standard favorite dressings. You can sign up for the class here. I would love to see you there!

Cute Puppy Pics

Okay, so maybe Maggie isn’t a puppy anymore, but she is certainly a cute dog and hopefully, these pics will make up for my shameless self promotion.

Maggie, cute dog

For the last month, she has become my shadow. She hangs out with me in the office when I am working, cuddles with me on the couch, even lies outside the bathroom door when I’m in there.

Every day I listen to NPR and most of the time, they are playing classical music. Apparently, Maggie is a fan…

maggie listening to the radio

She curled up to the radio and was there for the whole song. When the announcer came on, she got up and left the room.

More Updates

I received my first batch of lessons for my Nutrition Certification program.

nutrition lesson plans

I am super excited to get started! Before our baby makes his/her appearance at the end of May, I am hoping to finish this certification. I am also taking two other online classes: a Food Writing course through CooknScribble and a book proposal class through the UW extension program. It’s almost like I am going back to school for a semester!

As far as cooking goes, I learned two important lessons:

1- Do not put a bag of Ghiradelli chocolate chips when making Overnight Whole Grain Waffles.

2-Do not use said bag of chocolate chips when trying to Almondtella. It won’t end well.

chocolate in a double boiler

Lucky, I had another bag of chocolate chips in my pantry and finally, FINALLY succeeded in my Almondtella recipe. All my goals were met: no dairy (depending on the chocolate chips you use), no added sugar, and a soft spreadable texture.

almondtella

This is another recipe that will be included in the cookbook. I think you are going to love it.

Finally, I have broken out of my breakfast rut. After my weekly weigh in, I decided if I kept up with my Overnight Whole Grain Waffle habit, I would end up looking like Two Ton Tessie by May. I have become obsessed with making my own bran flakes for homemade cereal. I am researching recipes right now (aka reading every recipe I can get my hands on), and hope to have something to you soon.

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Tell me something about your week.

 

 

 

 


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