Come Home to Cooking

Holiday Revels

Traditions both reassure and renew us. Scroll down to the 13 Desserts of Provence posted last year at this time to provide yourself with a deliciously luminous link to past and future clelebration possibilities.

 

Kay's Turkey & Stuffing Recipes

in November 2009 Santa Rosa Press Democrat articles by Diane Peterson

Both my comments and recipe for Autumn Harvest Stuffing were covered in her full article [A Trio of Different Approaches to Stuffing] in the Nov.18, 2009 Food & Wine section, and she inlcuded both that recipe and another of my favorites, Stuffed Pumpkin with Wild Mushrooms, in her Nov.17 Kitchen Talk blog at: http://kitchentalk.blogs.pressdemocrat.com/10157/a-full-bodied-stuffing/

 

Please find my traditional outdoor cooking tips in her feature Turkey Techniques article in the Nov.25, 2009 Food & Wine section at: http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20091124/LIFESTYLE/911239930?Title=Turkey-techniques

 

Winter-Spring Season 2010 Class Schedule Preview

Here's a Sneak Preview…

Dear Old Friends and New,

In response to many requests for a pastry class, I have decided to have my first next season class [in early Feb.] take its inspiration from the upcoming Valentine’s Day addiction to chocolate, fertility almonds, and the first promise of spring cream & eggs. It’ll be called Hearts & Tarts and we’ll make some of my favorite sweet things: Bittersweet Chocolate Profiteroles filled with an ethereal Grand Marnier pastry cream, Early Strawberry Tart in a shortbread crust [the dough for which could also be rolled out for cut-out cookies], and a simply moist and delicious Almond Cloud Cake that can easily be dressed up or down. I consider all three of these lovelies a must in my repertoire because they offer many, many mix and match, quick or more ambitious possibilities, depending on your time and energy at any given moment. So I hope you’ll come be my Valentine.

And then to continue my practice of providing you with reliable and versatile Mother Recipes that support your life while helping you master core concepts, we'll move on to a class about Essential Sauces [another student request]. I'm also planning a class in conjunction with the wonderful heirloom Seed Bank folks [in downtown Petaluma] to help inform and inspire your early spring garden efforts, and I have many more ideas in the works.  I hope all this helps you realize what a vital role your expressed needs can play in shaping what we do in class. Now's the time to put your thoughts in the hopper. Please just comment below or go to the Student Requests category on my weblog to submit your ideas and then we can both look forward to classes you helped make possible. All will be revealed on my website in January when the first 2010 schedule is posted.

Until then, as always, I wish you joy and a hearty appetite for life--Kay