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.