Starting in January of 2012 I will be conducting a series of cooking classes at Wild Goose Creative, called Embrace Cooking!

Each month we’ll cover a different topic and prepare foods around that topic.  This is an interactive class series which means that everyone will be helping to create the dishes that we taste later in the evening.

Classes are two hours long and if you have an apron and a chef’s knife, feel free to bring those along!

You can register and pay for classes via my website.  There’s a link at the top called Events.  That will take you to the main discription page and then you’ll see links to each class as well.

I hope you’ll join me for fun and fabulous cooking classes!

Last week I was invited to a women’s event to showcase a new organization in the food world called Common Ground. The goal of Common Ground is to connect people who provide food to those who purchase food. The target audience is women.

From the website:

Consumers aren’t getting the real story about American agriculture. We’re a group of farm women and we plan to change that by doing something extraordinary. Our program is called CommonGround and it’s all about starting a conversation between women who grow food, and the women who buy it. This is our chance to set the record straight and to help get you the facts about farming and your food. We hope you’ll join in the conversation.

The event was the first one for Columbus to introduce the local chapter of Common Ground and kick off discussions between farmers and consumers.

The event also put us in contact with people from The Soybean Council and Corn Growers of America.  The idea was to gather together over a meal and talk about the food industry and where our food comes from.

The dinner was held at Amelita Mirolo Barn in the Sunny 95 Park located in Upper Arlington.  The barn is one of the oldest buildings in the area that was taken over and repurposed to use as an event space.

The original beams and wood from the barn were used in recreating the new space and this space just finished construction recently.  It officially opened it’s doors in July.  It was a spectacular place for an event.

There was a small cocktail reception to welcome everyone and give everybody a chance to mingle and introduce themselves.

There were some Ohio cheeses and crackers to nibble on, along with a chilled cucumber soup that was garnished with roasted corn kernels.  And later they brought out what seemed to be beef in a puff pastry.  The appetizers were great! However everyone was scrambling around for napkins, those somehow got overlooked!

It was nice to see some familiar faces at this event and I also got an opportunity to meet some new people.

Hello to all!

We got called to dinner and sat down for an evening of conversation and family style dining.  They had us seated at a long table with the best centerpieces.

How perfect! A huge glass vase full of all kinds of vegetables.  Another woman sitting close to me mentioned how much she wanted to take one home. I agreed! I would gladly take those veggies off your hands.

We started off with a mixed green salad in a parmasen crisp.  The salad was very refreshing though the parmasen crisp was a little challenging to eat.  I ended up having to abandon it much to my dismay.  That much crispy cheese needed to be eaten!

The dinner had rice, veggie mix, and a chicken saltimbocca that was drizzled with a cream sauce.  There was also lamb chops served as well but I’m not a huge fan of lamb so I passed on that.  For those that are vegetarians, there was a vegetarian dish available which I believe contained portabella mushrooms.

Dessert was an apple handpie with fresh vanilla ice cream.  The dough for the handpie was fluffy and delish.  It reminded me of a fluffy donut.  The ice cream was also delicious.

There were a lot of women there each representing different aspects of the agricultural community.  Three ladies were there who were farmers, one raised hogs, one raised sheep, and the other was a seed farmer.

There were members there from Common Ground itself along with various folks from the Soybean Council.

It was an interesting event to chat with these ladies who are working and living the Ag business.

As the evening wrapped up, the ladies informed us that they had some goodies for us to take home.

They really went all out and provided us with some Ohio based food items.

• Goat Cheese
• Peaches
• Honey
• Quick Bread
• Bottle of Rose

I thank the folks of The Soybean Council and Common Ground for inviting me to the dinner and providing me with a chance to meet and chat with everyone.

Check out Common Ground for more information and to find a local chapter in your area.

Last week was the second annual Taste Of Hilliard event. Local restaurants and businesses who are members of the Chamber of Commerce gather together at the Makoy Center for an evening of nibbles and chatting.

The great thing about The Taste of Hilliard is that it doesn’t just focus on food but also showcases local businesses as well so that community members get a chance to see exactly what their town has to offer.

You would be surprised by how many businesses are local to Hilliard and the wide variety of services that are offered.

I didn’t stay too long at the event because it was getting packed and fast.  The event started at 4:30 and I got there around that time.  My plan was to get there early to be able to take plenty of pictures without being in anyone’s way.

Best laid plans right? I arrived to a very packed parking lot.  I was kind of surprised actually that it was so packed so early.  People had to park far away and walk to the event, that’s how many people were there at the start.

Which is fantastic news! That means that the word is getting out and more people are attending the event.  Win win!

There were many restaurants there with samples of their food, I’m only highlighting a few.

First up is The Heritage Golf Club, they had the creme brulee pictured first and also this little crab cake.  There was a tartar style sauce on top but I’m not sure what the sauce on the bottom was.  It was quite tasty though and was going fast once people heard there were crab cakes.  I didn’t try the brulee, but if Scott had been with me I know he would have tried some for sure.

Cupcake Yum Yum was there showing off their gorgeous little two-bite cupcakes.  I don’t remember the flavors of the cupcakes, however I do know that one featured bacon.

These little nuggets can be found at Kitamu Coffee or you can place an order directly.

Be forewarned that the site has music that starts playing.

Speaking of Kitamu, they were there as well sampling their coffee and offering up some cookies.

Last up was Olive Tree Mediterranean Cafe. They had fresh pitas to go along side their chicken and hummus dish.  The chicken was marinaded in spices and then sauteed up with onions and peppers.  This dish was fantastic.

Olive Tree has also announced that they are starting to serve Sunday Breakfast now as well.

Olive Tree and Kitamu are in the same shopping center so you can grab yourself some coffee after having your meal.

The event was a huge success and rumor has it that the number of folks who attended this year was very high.

Attending a taste like this in your town or a neighboring town helps you learn more about what your area has to offer.  Plus it exposes you to new items you might not otherwise have tried.  If you have an event like this around where you live, I highly encourage you to attend!

Congrats to The Hilliard Chamber of Commerce for putting on a great event!