The Food Placebo

Raspberries, Blackberries, Blueberries Greek Yogurt and Granola

A delicious treat to bring the day to an end. It is only Tuesday and it feels like it should be Friday. I am more ready for the beach than ever.

I've taught three class in the last 2 days and all three were spectacular.

Monday night is Snack Attack. The class is for ages 6-11 years old.
Recipe: cheesy bread = homemade pesto, tomatoes and fresh mozzarella on whole wheat bread french bread

YUM! The kids loved it. For over half it was their first time to eat basil or pesto. Of course they did make some faces about the vibrant green color (the basil came straight from our new Tower gardens: www.mytowergarden.com = very strange contraptions, but they are really coming along).

While the cheesy bread was cooking up, we got down and dirty/smelly with our herbs from the garden. I cut a sample of each herb and the kids got to touch, smell and taste them. We smelled: lavender, chocolate mint, spearmint, lemon balm, oregano, thyme, rosemary, chives and basil. Then we voted on which was our fave. Overwhelming majority for the Chocolate Mint. Then we tasted: spearmint in Lemon Mint Water and Basil in the Cheesy Bread.

Tuesday Morning is now our Seasonal Cooking Class/Farmer's Market Class. Since Cheesy Bread was perfect for today's market, I made the recipe a repeat! It is crazy how some classes work perfect for both kids and adults. The adults were just as inquisitive and excited to touch and smell the herbs as the kids were. I made a bunch for this class and had quite a bit of left-overs. (We just give small samples). After class, everyone came up begging for seconds.

A few quotes:
"I'll make this at home for sure."
"This tasted way better than I thought it would"
"Show me where that basil is b/c I NEED some"
"This is better than pizza"..."I'd put this on a pizza"
"This fresh mozzarella is really different."
"It was different...good...but different."

And if there were any bad remarks I made sure to block them out. I had enough to deal with today. I immetately left class to greet our Farmers. Today we had Tommy Bennett from Bennett-Burk's Farm. They brought some great stuff: onions, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, peaches, 3 kinds of squash, zucchini and new potatoes. I got some peaches and new potatoes. The peaches were good, but it is still early you can tell. I can't wait to cook up the new potatoes!

The day ended with Meals in a Snap, a class for families. Tonight we made Turkey Sliders with fresh basil and oregano and made our own Honey Mustard Dressing. Not my cup of tea, but I seemed to have done a good job researching and pulling different recipes together to make an original recipe--they loved it! They really like the sauce, which to me was the most important part. Most likely, they won't go home and change up how they cook their burgers--burgers are burgers, don't mess with them, but Honey Mustard?? it isn't that good anyway, so maybe, just maybe they will make their own and add a little Esther Pizazz to the BBQ.

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