In-Home Class cooking for a Grandmother's Birthday!

What a great way to celebrate Grandma's birthday
or anyone's birthday for that matter!

Spend time together learning a few food, kitchen tips and tricks
while enjoying and eating the easy fruits of your labor.

We had a family---- get together to have a fully hands-on
In-Home Cooking Class cooking up a Dumplings menu.

Sometimes, more often than not- kids love to get involved 

just as much as the adults!

Learning to tuck your fingers in as we cut some shiitake mushrooms for the 

mixed mushroom and parsley dumpling.

Dicing the good 'ole onion...

"YES! We made our first dumpling!"

This family loves winning and creating things!  Winner of food trivia tonight!

Zestfully,  Let's Cultivate Food

Occasions occasions occasions....

Zestfully,  Let's Cultivate Food

Cooking the 'Tapas and Apps' menu

Another completed In-Home Cooking Class.

This wonderful group gathered  together to celebrate
a birthday. The menu that they chose was the
"Tapas and Apps" menu which consisted of:

Vietnamese summer rolls
Mozzarella cheese egg rolls w marinara sauce
Roasted garlic cheesy pull apart bread
Veggie Dumplings  and
Strawberry and basil crostinis

 

 

Zestfully,  Let's Cultivate Food

Enjoy lunch at work. Catered style.

Let's Cultivate Food caters lunches for offices!
Individually wrapped boxes of delicious, healthy food.

If your office or department has at least 8 people and would
like to have food delivered to you in the comforts of your work area...

just let me know!   oh!  fruit and herb drinks are included.
AND little sayings on the boxes are free of charge!  haha.
I'm proud to say that every quote thus far has been a different quote!

Zestfully,  Let's Cultivate Food

I come 'berrying' gifts...

Cranberry Orange bread or you can make muffins...
whatever style pan you want and have!

Ingredients:
2 cups of all purpose flour
3/4 cup of sugar or alternative
3/4 teaspoon of baking soda
3/4 teaspoon of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of salt
3/4 cup of orange juice (fresh squeezed if possible)
1/2 orange zest
2 TBSP of canola or veggie oil
1 egg
3/4 - 1 cup frozen cranberries (thawed)

bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes on the middle rack in the center
to get even baking heat all around these muffins or bread.

These have never disappointed anyone who has tried them.
Great for breakfast, brunch, or dessert...
what more could  you ask for..  yum!


Zestfully,  Let's Cultivate Food

Happy last day of August!

Although technically it's still summer-ish
I always have the mind set that once September
rolls around- it's pretty much Fall.
Well, at least the beginning of it for sure.

Most school's are back in session, pretty soon
many tv shows will be airing their Fall season openers
and the leaves will be changing colors as the days get
shorter and shorter.

Hey, summer of 2014- it was pretty good.
I participated in 3 different Food Festivals
along with catering company lunches and dinners.

I look forward to the Fall and all things apples,
pumpkins and hearty Autumn veggies!

Zestfully,  Let's Cultivate Food.........  day 31 of 31 days

Bang Bang Cauliflower

Ever have bang bang shrimp?

I am a self pronounced  'flexitarian'.
What the heck is a flexitarian?  It's when you're
not a fully committed vegetarian but you love
vegetables enough that you can totally go for
all veggie days but you also need other days
where all you want is BBQ  galore!

Cauliflower is great to eat in place of chicken
because it is a super hearty veggie where you can
deep fry or saute or steam or boil or bake and
it stays together without falling apart and
keeps great flavor.  yum!

Take the head of a cauliflower and cut it into a quarter (for 2)

and cut the quarter into small bite sized florets.  You can just bake it 

in the oven on 350 for 30 minutes or you can batter it just like chicken 

or shrimp.  I like to cook things on the quicker side because there are

just too many things to do and not enough time in the day!

I like to boil the cauliflower first for about 5-7 minutes so it gets

a head start in the cooking and getting a little softer.

Then, I strain the cauliflower florets in a strainer and then let it sit

on some paper towels to get the excess water off.

I mix the sauce which is Frank's hot sauce 

(to your liking of spiciness) and 2 TBSP of melted butter and 

1 heaping TBSP of mayo to thicken the sauce a little.

Then I lay the cauliflower on a baking tray and bake it until 

it gets a brown hue and charred on the tops.  

350-375 degrees for about 15 minutes.   

Even the meat lovers will enjoy this!

You can simply use ranch dressing as a dipping sauce.

Zestfully,  Let's Cultivate Food.........  day 29 of 31 days