Category: Uncategorized

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Starting to Schedule Zoom Cooking Classes

I’ve had some requests for Zoom cooking classes, so as we start thinking about promo events for Vegan Serendib, I’m going to start scheduling these. Questions:

a) We used some system for scheduling classes a few years ago, and I feel like it was sort of clunky and not ideal. What are people using for event-scheduling these days? Something that can smoothly accept credit cards, etc.

b) If I were teaching Sri Lankan cooking classes via Zoom, any particular recipes you’d like to request? I’m thinking the classes will be 1.5 hrs, $30, and you’d know the menu when signing up, and get a list of ingredients in advance, so you can shop and be ready to cook along.

Class would be recorded in my kitchen, Kevin probably not included. 🙂

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Give a Girl a Knife

Recently finished reading _Give a Girl a Knife_. Interesting for women in the professional kitchen, for Minnesota cultural and food details, for the tension between city ambitions and country life, for homesteading practicalities. Enjoyed it.

This paragraph was one of my favorites, although possibly that’s because it’s freezing cold in Chicago right now too.

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What Kind of Cooking Classes Would People Like?

Locals, I occasionally teach cooking classes out of my home; will probably start that up again in April. If you’re interested, let me know — I’d love to know what kind of classes people would like.

Basic cooking skills, easy recipes to feed a family, an intro to Sri Lankan cooking, what else?

Classes are usually $25 / hr, so $50 for a 2-hr class, which includes eating a meal together, including your choice of an alcoholic or non-alcoholic beverage. Mango mimosas, for example, if we’re doing brunch. 🙂

Picture of my daughter in our kitchen, when we were prepping to be on a Sunday morning TV show teaching cooking.

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George Loaned Me His Chef

George is really very sweet about helping to promote other writers’ work — even if that writer is writing a cookbook and not an epic fantasy novel. 🙂 He even loaned me his personal chef for the party — I’ve never worked with a professional chef before, and it was really interesting seeing Andrea Abedi’s approach to food prep.

We were all a little harried, so we didn’t get to talk food quite as much as I would’ve liked, but I’m hoping to go back to Santa Fe soon, maybe at the end of the summer — Andrea and her partner are opening a community kitchen, The Kitchen Table Santa Fe, so we thought we’d do an event there for Vegan Serendib when it launches. That’d be fun!

Funny side note: Kavi helped make the passionfruit marshmallows for the party, and was amused to tell her friends that she had made marshmallows for George R.R. Martin . 🙂

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Feast at Carnivore

Swung by Carnivore Oak Park to drop off some more copies of Feast — they’d sold out of the ones I brought before. It really is a great holiday gift!

They have the last of my paperbacks for now; I’ve ordered more, but doubt they’ll arrive before Christmas. So stop by Carnivore if you want one, locals — someone bought one when I was there (!), so there’s just four left. 🙂

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Still Technically Autumn, Right?

Finished up the Earth tier treat boxes and sent them out today. It’s supposed to be an autumn dragons theme — it’s still technically autumn, right? Until the solstice? Am I making that up? Shhh…

This is what goes in the Earth tier this time around:

• smoke marshmallow
• passionfruit / dragonfruit marshmallow
• tamarind-chili marshmallow
• rose, vanilla, and cardamom leaf cookies
• gruyere-crusted butternut squash scone
• spiced pumpkin muffins with cashew and crystallized ginger
• Sri Lankan rich cake (vegan)
• Neapolitan chocolate
• dragonfruit chocolate
• lime shortbread
• cashew-cranberry milk toffee
• autumn fennel candy
• botanical wood ornament

• botanical fairy tale bookmark

Whew!