I've got that joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart ...

Find something to do that you would do for free.
That is often the advice given to people looking for jobs or trying to figure out a career path. It's a great thing to say, but sometimes not as easy in practice. It would be hard to make a living if what you love the most is ... sleeping, for example.
Over the years, I've found a couple of those things that I would do for free. One of them is feeding people. The other is teaching people to cook. Clearly, the whole food thing works for me.
I love it all: shopping, chopping, cleaning, preparing, serving. I am happy when I am in a kitchen, especially when I'm surrounded by other people who feel the same way I do about cooking.

Fresh berries were the main ingredient of my
"Easy Peasy Berry Desserts" class
at Your Kitchen Store this week.

I started teaching cooking classes in Keene last year throught the Community Education program at Keene High School. I taught five classes there and each one was a blast. We made all sorts of food and laughed a lot during class.
To me, food is always going to be better if you have some role in the preparation process. In other words, get your hands in there. So during classes, I try and get people to let go of the fear and embrace the process of preparing food. Some folks grow up in homes where the mom didn't want anyone in the kitchen. Other folks just didn't have any interest in learning to cook.
In my family, we all helped out in the kitchen and we all love to cook.
This week, I taught a class at Your Kitchen Store. First of all, the staff there is wonderful and helped make the class really easy. And, there are a gazillion gadgets to use during the class. But also, there is this amazingly lovely, well stocked kitchen there. It's a dreamy kitchen.
And then, I had a dreamy group of students come for the class: fun, interested, excited to be there.
We had a ball making a fresh strawberry-basil galette and a vanilla panna cotta with a berry coulis.
This is the thing I would do for free. I love preaching the gospel of good food to a group of people to go to that same food-loving church.
I've been invited to teach more classes and we have four more scheduled. The next class is on Wednesday, July 11, from noon-2 and it's all about salads and homemade dressing. It's time to step out of the bottled dressing thrown on a bagged salad mix zone.
Go to the website for more info or message me and I'll get you the details.
When you come to class, I'll be the one with a big smile on my face.

Well, lookie here.

My shiny new crockpot. Yay!

During the recent heatwave, I didn't cook. I planned well. A roasted chicken, salads, hard-boiled eggs and a bucket of American chop suey were all packed into the fridge. There were popsicles in the freezer, plenty of cold drinks on hand and crackers and granola bars in the cabinet. But I realized that something was missing. I wasn't actually craving hot food, but I saw a few people posting on Facebook that they had dinner in the crockpot. And as ... easy ... as that sounds, I typically only use a crockpot in the winter. It was, I confess, a bit of an a-ha moment.
I went out and bought a crockpot on Saturday. It was a splurge only because I'm currently unemployed ($20), otherwise, such a deal. My old one died last winter.
And for so many reasons, I'm excited. I always look forward to a new cooking challenge. Truthfully, I don't think I've ever put a thing in a crockpot in the warmer months. There was a small cookbook stuck inside the box. Rosemary Pork with Mushrooms and Shallots? Chicken Casablanca? African style Turkey on Couscous?
I can't wait to crank it up.

This is the perfect yellow bowl

This yellow melamine mixing bowl came in the mail yesterday,
a gift from my sister.

Now I confess, I have many bowls to use for mixing. But I get kind of in a groove with one bowl and use it for years. Most recently, I've had great success with a white plastic bowl made by Martha Stewart Living that was great for a few reasons: It had wide handle, it had a rubber rim around the bottom that kept it from sliding on the counter and it was deep enough so that food didn't come flying out the top when I used a hand mixer. But it has gotten kind of beaten up after years of use.
On a visit to see my sister in New Jersey, we visited a fun kitchen store and I was looking at all the mixing bowls, hoping to replace mine. I didn't find the perfect bowl but she continued the search after I left. The bowl in the photo arrived yesterday in the mail. It's a great bowl. It's got a nice handle, a rubber rim on the bottom, and it's a lovely shade of yellow.
I made a quiche for dinner last night and whipped up all of the ingredients in the new yellow bowl. Later today I'm practicing my pie crusts so I'll use the bowl again.
In fact, I have a whole list of things I want to use the bowl for. That's how we are, right? Some people see just a bowl ... but we foodies see endless possibilities.

Bring back the corn fritters

Oh, the lovely corn fritter. Words cannot do this magnificence justice.

A restaurant my family frequented when I was a kid, The Black Lantern, in Keene, N.H., served corn fritters with real maple syrup along with the bread basket before the meal came. It was like having dessert first.
My mother used to make them at home every once in a while, lovely little soft fried balls of dough dotted with kernels of corn. She'd fry them in one of her cast iron skillets -- or the electric frying pan if she was making a big batch.
Later, I remember hearing someone describe making corn fritters with cornmeal. Really? You don't make them with corn? They are called corn fritters because they are made with cornmeal? Doesn't that make them more like a hush puppy? Wikipedia says that corn fritters are often mistaken for johnnycake. I've not made that mistake.
Okay, enough with the complications. Here's the crux of the matter: Corn fritters should be back on the front burner, so to speak. Everyone needs a little corn fritter love. Is it good for you? Yes. It's delicious. It's homemade, it's sweet, it's savory, it's fried. It's good for you. It's not good for your body. It's good for your soul and your brain. It's a comfort food.
I made some corn fritters last night. I hadn't eaten a fritter in years. I had two. They were hot and fluffy and I ate them in my favorite bowl with some (real) maple syrup swirled on the top. As I ate, I was reminded of Sunday nights when we would have breakfast for dinner when I was young. My mother would cook pancakes and bacon or eggs and homefries. And sometimes she would make corn fritters. It's likely that my mom didn't have the makings for dinner on hand so she made due with what she had. There's pretty much always breakfast food in the house, right? Some eggs, bread, cheese ..
I didn't have a rough day or anything yesterday. But I felt so much better after my fritter dinner.
You can make them with Bisquick if you like, but I've included a traditional recipe as well. And corn fritters made with fresh corn? Well, that's just crazy good.

Corn Fritters
¾ cups flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 whole eggs
½ cups milk, more to thin, if necessary
1 teaspoon salt
4 cups corn kernels, fresh, frozen or canned 
Oil, for frying - vegetable or canola
Maple syrup

Mix flour, sugar, and baking powder. Add eggs, milk and salt. Stir together to make a batter.
Add corn and mix to combine.
Heat 2 inches of oil in a pan to 365 degrees. When oil is heated, drop spoonfuls of batter and cook, flipping to the other side, until golden brown.
Drain on a towel-lined plate. Serve while hot, drizzled with maple syrup.

Fast Corn Fritters

1 egg
1/4 cup milk
1 cup Bisquick
1 can whole kernel corn, drained
Blend together egg, milk, and Bisquick. Stir in corn.

In a frying pan, heat 2 inches vegetable oil. Using 2 teaspoons, gently drop a rounded teaspoon of fritter batter into hot oil. Fry 6-8 fritters at a time, turning until golden brown. Drain on paper towels.

Serve hot, with maple syrup.