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Thursday, March 5, 2009

Cooking Like a Star


My mom loves to cook. She loves it. My whole life I've watched her in the kitchen working her magic making dishes and treats and snacks that wow the taste buds, lift the heart and make you come back for more and more and more.

My mom loves to cook so much that she takes classes, tries new recipes and discusses food a lot. She also cooks incredible food and feeds her whole family every Sunday. That means seven of her eight children and five of their spouses, plus 16 grandchildren. That's 30 people every week. That's a lot of people to cook food for each week. When my baby brother is in town with his family our numbers bump up to 33 at dinner.

A couple of months ago, Mom took a class by a girl named Kelsey Nixon who is a minor celebrity around here for having competed on The Next Food Network Star reality show last year. Ms. Nixon is young--only 24 years old--but she is bubbly and cute and full of energy. And she likes to cook and talk about it.




Well, I was invited with some of my family to attend a cooking class with Ms. Nixon the other night. We got to watch her cook some amazing food and we got to talk about food. A lot. We chatted about knives and knife sharpening and how to cut an onion and how to let meat rest when you pull it out of the oven. We talked about culinary school and the Food Network show Kelsey was on. We had a great time. She made Greek grilled veggie panini sandwiches, a roast pork, a veggie orzo salad, and a lemon curd and berry dessert. Good food.

The amazing thing to me was that Kelsey could cook and talk for the whole two hours. I think I would have poured lemon curd into the pork roast and put berries in the panini sandwiches if I was up there. She didn't have problem though and chatted away merrily throughout the class. 

And then we got to partake of her labors. Yummy. It was all food that we call "girl food" around our house and all the girls thoroughly enjoyed it. I even saw my dad and my brother sneak in and steal some bites of each dish. 

Mostly, just a fun night that reminded me that I really like food and it is a lot of fun to talk about it with a group of like-minded women. 

7 comments:

HDH. said...

Kelsey married Luke's American brother, Rob.

Did your mom remodel her kitchen? I seem to remember wallpaper.

Mary Jane said...

How did you swing getting her to come to your own house? Looks like your mom was the 2nd in command! I wish I could get passionate about cooking. It ebbs and flows with me. Right now I'm in an eff cycle.

Mary Jane said...

Okay, I can't spell! I mean I'm in an EBB cycle. Good grief! Thanks for the response. You're inspiring.

Eden said...

Hadley--Yes, she remodeled the cabinets and put in new countertops about a year ago. Do you like? And I remember now that you and Luke are connected to the Egan family.

MJ-Loved the misspell though. It was a fun and inspiring night of cooking.

Elyse said...

I love her! She's married to Andrew's friend. I think she is just darling.

The Ashtons said...

Do you know why she isn't teaching out at TKP anymore? It looks like you had a BLAST!

Eden said...

Elyse--She is a sweetheart, isn't she? She was sure a lot of fun to watch as she cooked.

Annie--I do not know why she isn't teaching at TKP anymore. I know that is where my mom took her classes and she loved them.

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