Hello faithful few who are still reading this blog for whatever reason.  I know it seems like I do this often, but I become MIA for a while when life gets hectic and I become unmotivated to cook and post up pictures.  If you’ve been following, I hurt my right arm… badly… which prevented me from cooking at all whatsoever, even for my poor hungry husband… and then I just became all out lazy about it even as I started to heal.

But I’m coming back full force.  Let’s see.  I will be catering 3 upcoming events in December, so I’ve been menu-writing and planning for that.  I also plan on filming short cooking lessons and posting them on the web via youtube or directly onto this site…but that requires me to borrow a camcorder, but in any case…look out for more future freebies.  I am also in the works of recruiting some friends, who own their own businesses, to do a big blow-out event in March, showcasing food, jewelry, artistic clay flowers, event planning etc.  So if you’re in the LA/OC area, look out for the promotions of this event as it gets closer to it and come on out.  It will be a free, no obligation to buy anything event.  It’s more for a chance for all of us to be able to market ourselves more and throw a little trade-show.  More information  to come later as we hash out the details.

I’m also going to go back to posting up some more recipes once I fully get back into the swing of things.  Luckily and thankfully my arm has healed and I can manage to chop again, but I do notice it being weaker.  So I started cooking again and started out making simple things for the husband like pasta sauce and stir-fry… nothing too exciting to post… or maybe it is.  In either case, thanks for still checking in.  My husband told me we’re still getting a consistent amount of hits to this blog so thank you!  I promise I didn’t fall off the face of this earth.  Just got busy, then hurt, then depressed.  But I’m coming back… and will be better than ever!

Hi Julie,

I thought I’d put the things I learned from your Simple Fancy French class to the test and did some cooking of my own yesterday. I’ve attached a couple pictures of the ones I made.

The cookies are upside down but they tasted great. I added the juice of a second lemon to give it a little more of the lemony tanginess that I love. The dough was so sticky that it was rather hard to handle and I ended up not worrying about making them look very round.

The crepes came out amazing. The leek was surprisingly easy to work with and the whole thing tasted great. I did have to throw away my first crepe attempt, but you were so right about the pan having to learn what on Earth I was doing.

I did cheat a little and decided not to finish the butter sage sauce for the ravioli. I had been cooking for far too long and decided I could eat the ravioli myself without the butter sage sauce because they tasted great anyways. The sundried tomatoes made the ravioli absolutely delicious.

The hardest part throughout the whole thing was probably sautéing the shallots because I forgot to do it ahead of time and ended up doing it as fast as I could with everything else sitting on pause.

Your class really was amazing. Everything tasted wonderful, cooking really was simple and I can’t wait to do it all again.

Good luck with your future classes!

-Andy

Stuff like this makes teaching and recipe developing worthwhile!  Thanks Andy for such nice words, allowing me to post your email and for sending me the pictures of your hard work.  Happy cooking!

This entry is a bit overdue, but I was busy being a bridesmaid over on the east coast and on top of that, I recently sprained or fractured my arm and it’s in a sling.  So I’m typing this very slowly with my left hand.  This unfortunately means I won’t be able to have my “Dinner for 10″ this month (September), but that just means I’ll be more pumped for October!

Joe forgot to take pictures of the food, but I taught the attentive class how to make French-influenced ravioli, crepes and beef bourguignon.  I think the meal was a success esp. because one student even re-created a few of the recipes at home and sent me pictures-which will be featured in my next entry.

i’m gonna stop typing for now b/c this is more exhausting than I thought with only one hand.  But enjoy the pictures!  Bon Appetit!

(Testimonies from students below):

“Very informative!  Simply amazing!  Everything was so delicious!” -Anonymous

“This was a really fantastic class- and a great bargain for 2 people for the class & dinner.  It was a great deal.  Julie was very personable, fun to watch and listen to, and very knowledgeable about food!  The environment that was set up also was really cozy and friendly- and just like bunch of friends gathered together- even though we didn’t know each other.  Also, of course- the food was amazing.  I was so impressed with everything- my favorite was the beef stew.  Yum.  Thanks for accepting us even on such late notice.” -Grace Y.

“Thanks so much for everything.  You did great!  And the meat was tender too for us average people…don’t worry!” -Amy P.

“Thanks Julie!  You were a wonderful teacher.  I felt like I was watching a Food Network episode catered just for me.  And!  The lemon ricotta crackers were amazing!” -Andy

“Thanks for the great lesson!  The recipes were awesome (especially the ravioli) & I really appreciated all the practical cooking tips!” -Alice C.

“Julie!  Great job!  You’re a natural.  You need to bump up your price big time. Cheers.” -Brian P.

“Thanks for a wonderful cooking lesson Julie!  Your enthusiasm & teaching made it a joy to be here.  I hope I can cook and do it justice.” -Grace K.

As I develop my culinary point of view over time, I realize that I seriously enjoy simple foods done right.  I mean I really love complex plating and enriched sauces too, but at the end of the day, I find so much happiness in the way a nicely sauteed and browned mushroom tastes with just a little salt and pepper.

See, the thing is… if you’re gonna do simple food, you have to do it right.  That’s the part I enjoy the most… when simple foods are done in the proper techniques to bring out the maximum amount of flavor.  And you can’t beat seasonal cooking.  I used to think that EVERY chef would say, “I enjoy cooking seasonally,” just to say it because it was the thing to say to sound like you know what you’re talking about… but now I realize that I TRULY do enjoy cooking seasonally.  It just makes sense.  Whatever’s in season will be cheapest and taste the best.  So why not use it in your cooking and let that dictate your dinner or grocery list?  Why try to force a recipe or make something that requires ingredients that will be expensive or taste bland because they’re not in season?  Makes no sense.  And fresh herbs, people… embrace using fresh herbs!  I cannot say that enough.  Herbs are awesome!!!

When something is ripe, sweet, flavorful and juicy on its own, you don’t need much else but salt and pepper to enhance the taste.  I find that so interesting.  Don’t you?  Maybe you don’t, but simple food is so fascinating to me.   I decided to write this entry because yesterday, I made myself a perfectly cooked egg-white omelet with browned mushrooms, diced onions, ricotta cheese, salt and pepper, and it was so satisfying and deep.  Each earthy fluffy fork-full made me think and sit in awe of how awesome simple foods can be.  Maybe this is the direction of my future cookbook….

Our fabulous jewelery designer-friend, Easter Ahn-Lee (check our her designs on www.easterahn.com), opted to take a private group class with her husband, John (www.ocsandwichbox.com) and 8 of their friends.  I gave them a choice of 3 different classes they could take, but they chose to take “Pasta! Pasta!” This was good for me b/c the hard prep-work was already done from the first class I had in June.  The recipes were basically the same as my first class, but the interactions and experience as a whole was pretty different.  I also switched from baking banana bread for dessert, to roasting peaches with almond crumble to serve with vanilla ice cream, as a tribute to summer.

I can honestly say that in the beginning, this was a slightly tougher crowd to please because I knew not everyone was that interested in cooking, but came to the class just to hang out and eat…. which is fine…but it did add pressure on me to be more entertaining than normal.  However, towards the end of the lesson, every single person got their hands in the tomatoes or rolled up the meatballs and loosened up to have a good time.  They even stuck around for a few extra hours to relax, laugh, eat and chat, which was very fun and nice.  I ended up having a blast, and Joe was of course right there in the action, capturing the events of the night…

Am I saying something funny here?  I see some smiles…

I served an appetizer mid-way through the lesson, which helped the hungry crowd focus.

I LOVE  love  LOVE this picture of Ken’s note-taking.  What a great student!

Wow… sooooo intense!  That’s concentration!

Nikki perfectly “sweated” the onions to the correct consistency and color.

Here’s Easter at work.  Ok for this picture, I have to place Ken’s quote here so you understand what he’s talking about… haha…i love it!:

“I learned more about cooking in 2 hours from Chef Julie than I had all my life prior to taking this class.  To say she knows her stuff would be an understatement.  And the food was amazing.  Never thought I could like turkey meatballs!  I just wish Easter would have peeled off the pieces of bread w/ a little more love when she volunteered.” -Ken

Wow… Kathy and the boys… nice!

What are they looking at over here??

Pesto pasta with green beans and sundried tomatoes

Spaghetti with turkey meatballs and from-scratch tomato sauce.

Nice Bernie…

The feasting begins….

Thanks Easter for organizing your private group and taking our class.  We had a great time!

Class Testimonies:

“Thanks so much, Julie!!!  You’re a great chef & teacher.  The class was so much fun and the food was DELICIOUS!!  Hope to do this again soon =)” -Jennie & Ernie

“Chef Julie, Thank you for the cooking lesson! It was fun, easy to learn & nice tips on chopping & dicing!  Especially with the rolling the basil!” -Easter

“Chef Julie, I love you!” -Ludie Lee

“I don’t cook. Or at least I never saw the point of home cooked meals when you can easily pick up something from a restaurant and save time.  Boy, am I inspired to go home and try cooking myself!  Julie was an awesome instructor.  She gave us very easy steps to make dishes and be practical at the same time.  Thank you so much!  The turkey meatballs were amazing.” -Anonymous