Come Home to Cooking

2013 Seasonal Class Schedule

This year's schedule of classes invites you to take time off for a cooking holiday at home with Kay. Besides all the good food and company, you will get to learn how to make the most of what's in season, by creating simply delicious and healthy meals that also help set you up to maintain a freshly stocked pantry full of ready possibilities.

In this newly expanded cooking class format, we'll have plenty of time to work our way through each step in every multi-purpose recipe, take refreshing breaks in between, and then sit down around the table to relax and enjoy all we've made together. We’ll also have the opportunity to confirm and expand our learning experience with optional playful homework and then a follow-up discussion review session several weeks later.

2013 Cooking Classes with Review Sessions

Each class with corresponding review session is offered twice—choose either the Wed daytime or Sat evening option.

CLASS 87: SPRING SEASONAL MENU & PANTRY STOCK

• Cooking Class on Wed, March 20 [9am–3pm] with Review Session on Wed, April 10 [9–11am]
• - or -
• Cooking Class on Sat, March 23 [3–9pm] with Review Session on Sat, Apr 13 [3–5pm]

CLASS 88: SUMMER SEASONAL MENU & PANTRY STOCK

• Cooking Class on Wed, June 26 [9am–3pm] with Review Session on Wed, July 17 [9–11am]
• - or -
• Cooking Class on Sat, June 29 [3–9pm] with Review Session on Sat, July 20 [3–5pm]

CLASS 89: AUTUMN SEASONAL MENU & PANTRY STOCK

• Cooking Class on Wed, Sept 25 [9am–3pm] with Review Session on Wed, Oct 16 [9–11am]
• - or -
• Cooking Class on Sat, Sept 28 [3–9pm] with Review Session on Sat, Oct 19 [3–5pm]

Tuition: $125 per person per class with review session.

For Sign-Up and general class info, refer to: Class Registration

Continue reading for all the juicy details about our newly expanded Class Format, Review Sessions, Class Descriptions, and Private Party Group Class possibilities. . . .

What It's Like in Class (2013 update)

We start off by gathering around the central work table for introductory remarks and a description of that cooking session’s recipes and activities. Then we all get to work, either remaining around the work table and/or moving about the kitchen to accomplish the various tasks at hand. During this time we pause for specific directions, observations, tastings and technique demonstrations as appropriate. We also take little breaks to refresh and nourish ourselves, as we coordinate the timing to keep separate activities integrated and moving along. Questions and comments are addressed throughout, and everyone has the leisurely opportunity to learn all the steps involved in every recipe scheduled for that day. Then the moment arrives when everything's done and we sit down to enjoy the fruits of our labor.

Having completed the hands-on cooking portion of our extended class experience, the shorter follow-up review session provides us with time set aside to focus our attention on analyzing and absorbing the recipes we've been using. To more thoroughly explore the variations and additional possibilities they represent. For this discussion we sit down around the table either in our dining room or garden courtyard, weather depending. The multi-purpose class recipes are offered as a vital guideline for understanding core concepts that will apply to both your everyday and special occasion cooking.

Many students come with, meet or make friends at Come Home to Cooking, but the intention of these classes is for you to leave feeling more confident and inspired about the supportive role real cooking can play in your life. We are here to celebrate learning as well as to share the joy of living and eating well.

Relaxed and Casual Cooking

With Something for Now and Later Too—

We've all seen that movie. The dreamy one where family and friends gather in the kitchen to work and play in warm light and open-ended time. Cooking, talking, flirting, fighting, learning, laughing, chopping, stirring, tasting side-by-side. No, it’s not Thanksgiving, but there is a real sense of celebration and abundance. We’re there with them for the moment when everything’s ready, someone opens the wine, lights the candles, and everyone makes a pilgrimage to the table, carrying aloft their parade of delectable dishes to pass around for yet more hours of eating and drinking and sharing and joking and debating. Until we all, audience included, finally sit back with satisfied sighs, because the only need left is for sleep.

Casual Recipe for Melted Cheese Sandwiches

Grilled, Toasted or Pressed—

Who doesn’t love a good grilled cheese sandwich? All that warm, gooey cheese oozing in between slices of crisp toasty bread. Since you can quickly do the deed with the help of either a skillet, griddle, grill, sandwich press or oven, this classic combination goes by a variety of different names. So call it whatever you like. Just be sure to make it with an honest loaf and real cheese for the most sublime flavor and texture experience.

Casual Recipe for Chicken Noodle Soup

with Aromatic Vegetables—

Right now, what wouldn't you give for a steaming hot bowl of Chicken Noodle Soup? Whether it's because you've caught that nasty winter cold going around or have just come home from a frosty 50-mile bike ride, this clarifying and legendary cure-all is often just what they say the doctor would order. Especially this time of year...

The Day After

And the New Year Ahead—

'Tis the day after Christmas, if that's what you celebrate, and even if you don't, the New Year is still less than a week away. One way or another, we've all made it this far. But it's only natural for survivors to wash up on shore feeling as exhausted as we are grateful. So before you start polishing the spots off your champagne flutes, why not find a way to get back some of your own inherent sparkle...

Casual Recipe Suggestions for Winter Vegetables

Go for the Gold, Reds and GREENS!

Who can resist? It's so easy to reach for another cookie. Especially this time of year when we're running around like crazy and the dressed-up goods are on parade everywhere we go. But apparently sweets are the last thing we need when our energy reserves dwindle along with the daylight while those to-do lists only keep growing longer. When we're trying to stay or get healthy, and want to party hearty our way through the holidays. So this is a reminder, for me as well as you. To treat ourselves to greens if we want to keep going. And save all the rest for a happy ending...

Casual Recipe for Baked Apples

To Help You Simplify or Embellish—

Instead of the traditional pie, my plan was to make an apple galette for Thanksgiving. I love the way that more free-form creation shows off the flaky pastry crust, delicately crisp throughout and delivering up a condensed layer of pure fruit essence folded inside. And since one of our guests is gluten intolerant, I knew it would be easy enough to make a baked apple for him alongside. But when our son and this friend arrived, we decided to go for a walk with our dog instead of diving right into the galette baking project. And by the time we got home on that beautiful day, everyone was eager to sit down and get started with our Thanksgiving Bread Salad instead of mixing and rolling out dough. All of us happy to have the more quickly made baked apples for dessert instead of pastry this time...

Casual Recipe for Thanksgiving Bread Salad

and a Refreshing New Start—

What's the first bite you take? When your plate's piled high with Thanksgiving riches and there's so much to choose from. Most folks head for mashed potatoes and gravy or their family's favorite dressing. It's rarely the turkey itself. Not unless you're that kid who gets to wave around the prize of an entire drumstick. But when you raise your own fork to dig into a plate of plenty, which helping calls out your name?...

Casual Recipes for Roasted Butternut Squash

To Make the Most of Harvest Gold—

I couldn't believe it was winter squash. Neither mealy nor bland, those roasted golden cubes were both salty and sweetly caramelized around the edges. And when I bit down, the insides were not only silky smooth but also garlic-infused. Absolute heaven. And not like any winter squash I had ever tasted before. Decades ago, that potluck dish a dear friend brought to our extended family Thanksgiving forever changed my relationship with winter squash. And now that autumn has kicked in once again, I am still excited about cooking up yet more new ideas for how to use this delicious vegetable in all kinds of satisfying ways...