In the introduction to Jamie’s book, he challenges the apprentice cook to learn a recipe and then sign a “pass it on” pledge, promising that you will teach that recipe to a friend. Last year, soon after I started my food revolution, I thought a fun way to do this would be to have a cooking party. But, the more I talked about it, the more people wanted to come and the next thing I knew I was trying to figure out how everyone would fit in my kitchen. I started to make some calls to see if I could do it somewhere else and one of those calls was to my local Whole Foods. They have a culinary center and have classes and demonstrations in there weekly. My contact there, Frances, told me that they didn’t really rent out the space but that my idea was very cool and asked what I thought about teaching a cooking class. I remember saying, “You got the part that I can’t cook, right?” She thought it might be a great experience for their customers and it would help me fulfill the pass it on pledge. So, last Tuesday, my class was held. I was a bit nervous which is unlike me. I speak in front of people quite a bit so that part wasn’t what was causing my insides to shiver. I was nervous about the cooking part. But, once I got there I met Robert who would be my helper for the evening. A graduate from the Culinary Institute of America, Robert had my back and I could tell. He made me feel right at home and I had a blast. I demonstrated three of my favorite recipes to my class: Quick Salmon Tikka with Cucumber Yogurt, Shrimp with Marie Rose Sauce and Pot Roast Meatloaf. It was fun to make these favorites again and everyone Oohh-ed, ahh-ed and MMmmmmm-ed there way through the evening. My class was a great mix of people and it felt as if my worlds were colliding that night. I’m so thankful that they all took the time to come. I had dear old friends and new friends, work friends and mom friends, new faces in the front that I was meeting for the first time and the face of my sweet husband cheering for me in the back. I guess I did well enough, Robert said I did great and they’d love to have me back!
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Look Who’s Cooking
When I started my Food Revolution in 2010, my daughter–“the kid”– was seven (almost 8). She was a picky eater as a child but not your typical picky eater. She was a foodie. At a young age she would declare that a blueberry was not “round enough” or that the grape was “too squishy on top.” I swore she would grow up to be a quality control expert in some restaurant somewhere. She would choose asparagus over a banana. She dislikes pepperoni because it makes her “ears itch” and has always ordered the most expensive entree on the menu. I remember being so relieved when she finally would eat pizza or hot dogs because it made birthday parties and BBQs a bit easier for me. From a very young age she became my sous chef in the kitchen and she still makes all of the sauces and dressings for dinner. Need an aioli? “The kid” can whip one up for you.
Jamie’s Food Revolution challenge this year got me thinking. No one wants to read about me learning to cook anymore. Been there. Done that. But, how fun would it be if my blog now was about “the kid” learning to cook? Like I said, she is an expert at sauces and dressings but still steers clear of the oven and stove. How fun would it be to write about my little foodie (who’s not so little anymore) learning to cook Jamie’s 10 Food Revolution recipes?
So, that is what we are going to do. She started with her first recipe this morning. She made us an omelette (yes, I know, in the U.S. it is omelet. We’re going to stick with Jamie’s spelling) for breakfast. It was delicious! My picky eater was pretty hard on herself. She said it was ugly. I reminded her that my first omelette turned into scrambled eggs! The fact that it looked like an omelette was impressive enough. Not only did it look good, it tasted good too. I asked the teenager, “What do you think? It tastes good, doesn’t it?” I got a shrug of the shoulders. Again, picky. But seriously! Color me impressed. She did great!
How did your omelettes turn out?
Happy Cooking!
Amy
Let’s Get Cooking!
May 20, 2016
We’re going to start your Food Revolution with a bang and celebrate with the world. You’ve spent the past month getting on track and setting goals, getting inspired and finally getting your kitchen ready. Now, it is time to get cooking! I’m sure you are a bit scared. I was! I put off the start of my food revolution for over a week. I had gotten everything ready but was too scared to start. Trust me. You just need to do it and today is the perfect day!
Jamie Oliver started Food Revolution Day in 2012 to inspire and motivate the world to start a movement and a conversation about good food. Access to nutritious food is every child’s human right. Over the last four years the Food Revolution Ambassadors have done all kinds of awesome events but, this year’s activity is what I am the most passionate about. This year, for Food Revolution Day, Jamie has given us 10 of his Food Revolution recipes that together can teach anyone the skills we need to feed ourselves and our families good, nutritious food. Teaching a generation of moms to cook that somehow missed learning those skills is what really resonates with me. It is why I started this whole thing in the first place. So, that’s what we are going to do! We’re going to cook these recipes together. We’ll start with the omelette recipe. Ready, class?
Other posts in this series:
How to Start A Food Revolution in Your Kitchen
Catch-up Cooking Retreat
Going to my mom and dad’s is like a nice retreat. The small town where I grew up sometimes seems worlds away from the hustle and bustle of city/suburban life. Husband and Kid were on a long weekend trip and going to Grandma’s house seemed like a perfect idea for me and Baby. The week had been a little rough in the cooking department. As of last Friday morning I had only made two recipes for the whole week. So, I warned my parents ahead of time that I would be doing a lot of cooking. They were super excited and totally willing to help out!
Friday:
On Friday I needed a quick and easy recipe and looked again at the sauce section of the cookbook. I knew the Bacon and Mushroom Cream Sauce (pg. 270) would be perfect. It would be quick and easy and we could put it over pasta. Husband isn’t a huge fan of mushrooms and I knew he’d appreciate it if I made this without him. It was so, so good and just as simple as the other sauces. Another Super Sauce!
Saturday:
Since I was at home in my seaside town, I knew one recipe this weekend would involve seafood. I headed to my favorite seafood place and got some tuna steaks for Jamie’s Italian pan-seared tuna (pg. 262). We couldn’t believe how good this one turned out too!
Check out the link and give it a try:
http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/home-cooking-skills/italian-pan-seared-tuna
Sunday:
Its Sunday morning and I’m still behind. I really like the stew recipe and I still have three more to make from that section, two toppings and one last stew. So, for dinner I picked the chicken and white wine stew again but this time put the hot pot topping (pg. 186) on it, which is like sliced potatoes. I thought it would be fun to make a dessert too since I hadn’t done one in awhile and decided to make Jamie’s Chocolate Fruit and Nut Tart (pg. 344) which also meant I could check off another recipe, the Sweet shortcrust pastry (pg. 346). This brought my weekend recipe grand total to 5!
Mom and Dad were such a huge help and I had a great time cooking for them. I think they were in a bit of shock that their daughter had made them so many meals. They were happy and I headed home very relieved that I had checked so many recipes off my list. Now it was time to get ready for my cooking class on Tuesday….
Recipes cooked: 127
Recipes left: 46
Days left: 41
Resolutions 2016
It is said that one in three people will ditch their New Year’s Resolution before the end of January. This is the time of year when I usually write and tell you about the only time I kept my New Year’s Resolution. In January of 2010, I made three New Year’s resolutions. I decided that each would have a positive spin and not include negative words. One of them was to “cook more,” how to accomplish it though completely stumped me. I had tried it before and had failed miserably and I was worried I would have to abandon this resolution yet again. That’s when I saw the movie, Julie and Julia and the inspiration for how I would “cook more” hit me. After letting the idea sit in my brain awhile and mustering up the courage to do this crazy thing, I went to the bookstore to browse the cooking section. I stumbled upon Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution Cookbook and I knew that it was the key. So, I started to cook more. I challenged myself to cook every recipe in the book in 365 days. To keep myself accountable, I started this blog and wrote about my adventure and the journey to “cook more.” I not only “cooked more” but I also taught cooking classes, became a Food Revolution Hero and later a Food Revolution Ambassador. I even had the chance to visit the White House. Now, six years later, cooking more has been a journey that outlived its New Year’s Resolution status.
I hope for 2016 you will resolve to spend more time cooking. To help you with that, I’ll be starting a new series in the coming weeks on how to start a Food Revolution in your own kitchen. Make sure you are following me on social media so you can get timely updates on when it will start. Who knows, you might find out that it is the easiest and best resolution you ever kept!
Happy Cooking!
Amy
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