Where has the time gone?

It seems as if it has been ages since I touched base with you all.  I have been traveling like mad and have just settled in at home after months of working away from my desk and kitchen. One week I was on the East coast twice. Talk about spaced out…but smiling.

 

I also spent a great deal of time up at the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone in the Napa Valley. One conference was for corporate chefs from chain restaurants and my demos were to show them how to get more craveable egetables on the menu.   Another was co-sponsored by the CIA and Harvard Medical School as was called Healthy Kitchens Healthy Lives. The attendees were doctors, nutritionists and other health  practitioners.  I did cooking demos show them how to make grains and legumes taste yummy as well as cooking demos on salads and salad dressings from my book Mediterranean Fresh. They loved the salad sessions and bought so many books the CIA had to order cases more.  There was a seminar on spices, herbs and aromatics, the sex appeal in most recipes. But the best demo of all was one I did with my grandson Adam. We wanted to show that if you get kids in the kitchen cooking they would eat a greater variety of foods and healthy ones at that. We demo-ed  couscous with dried fruits, made pesto and whole wheat pasta and did a stir fry with shrimp and snow peas. Adam was great. Cool and calm and very funny too.  Mt friend , fellow chef Suvir Saran, wrote about our class on his web site www.suvir.com, go to weblog and look for Cooking is fun. You will read about it. 

I also did some demos for Con Agra foods with their new ultra grain flour. I made fresh pasta, lasagne and blintizes. What fun. And taught a seminar for the US Potato Board, showing how to creatively use potatoes as side dishes, salads and main courses.  

Anyway it’s lovely to be in my own kitchen. I have been testing recipes for a  a piece on brisket for Fine Cooking.  These are always fun to write because I get to explain foods that I love to cook and hope that others are inspired to try the recipes. 

I’ll try to be in touch more often. I have been clearing my desk so I can feel caught up after being away for so long.  Nice to talk with you. Please keep in touch too.