Taste of Home Cooking School

I have been a fan of Taste of Home for a while.  My Papou (Greek for grandfather) introduced me to some of their cookbooks and magazines a while back.  He liked their Cooking for 2 recipes, and also subscribed to their Light & Tasty (now Healthy Cooking) magazine.  He got a gift subscription for me for the Light & Tasty magazine for a few years, plus, he gave me a few of their Best of and Cooking for 2 cookbooks.  So, when my friend Diana asked if I would be interested in attending a Taste of Home Cooking School show, the obvious answer was yes.  I have seen them advertised for the last few years, but never got around to getting tickets to go.  I am so thankful to her for inviting me to go and getting the tickets, it was a great opportunity to learn some new things and to have a night out with friends.  Especially the night out without my kids, which has become a rare thing for me.  As luck would have it, the night of the show was the night before our move to a new house in town, but that wasn’t going to stop me from going!

Before the actual show starts, there were vendor displays outside the theater.  Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get there early enough to see the vendor displays, but from what I saw, there were some neat things.  After entering the theater, I got a goodie bag full of coupons, a bottle of mustard, a couple clips, a wooden spoon, and ads for some of the vendors there that night.

Some of the nice things in the goodie bag from the show

Once I sat down, I filled out my info card for the drawings for prizes.  Yes, in addition to getting to see cooking demonstrations, they had all kinds of prizes to give away too, including the recipes that were made that night!  Awesome!  I did win a prize, I won a 3 month membership plus 3 personal training sessions to a gym here in town.  I guess that’s my hint that after making and eating all this yummy food, I need to get my butt to the gym!

This show, the host was Kristi Larson.  She demonstrated 9 recipes during the show, all of which looked very delicious.  This is definitely not a show to go to hungry, eat well before you go, or for the 3 hours you are sitting there watching recipes being made, you will be starving!  Kristi was very energetic, explained things very well, and made the show very enjoyable.  She had some neat kitchen gadgets, 2 of which I will be looking to get, salt & pepper mills you squeeze with magnets and flexible cutting mats.  I hope to get to try out the recipes we saw and to get to use the tips we learned, and then share them here on the blog.

Kristi having some fun with the emcees for the night

It was a very fun night, and I am so glad I got to go.  If you have a Cooking School show coming to a venue near you, I highly recommend that you go.  Very fun and informative.  Thank you again to Diana, I hope we get to go again next year!