Congratulations to Shashi at Savory Spin (formerly, Runnin’ Sri Lankan)! You’re the winner of the Rouxbe online cooking class. Please contact me at gonnacookthat@gmail.com for details on how to claim your prize.
Thanks so much for entering!
Tools & Technology
Kitchen Tech Saturday: Online Cooking Classes
Happy Weekend, my lovelies!
The big grocery store chain in the Chicago area, Jewel-Osco, is running a Monopoly game promotion right now. The cashier hands out game pieces according to how much you spend at check-out, with some items in the store being worth bonus pieces. Of course, we’ve probably all played a Monopoly game like this before. I know that the big prize, in this case, $1 million dollars, is likely not going to happen for me. Buuuut, since they’re handing me those game pieces anyway, I always pop them open to see if any of them are instant winners or have any good coupons. So far, I’ve won a free tub of potato salad, a free Shutterfly photo book, and two online cooking courses from Rouxbe Cooking School.
Kinda crazy, right? I’d never heard of Rouxbe, so of course I went poking around the interwebs for some reviews (here, here, and here, to name just a few). Turns out, Rouxbe has a pretty good reputation for offering great classes that cover a broad range of topics, from a beginner level plant-based cooking course, to basic knife skills, to food safety. A lot of the courses for home cooks are definitely things we covered in culinary school, but for home cooks who are looking to step up their game in the kitchen, I can definitely see the benefit in investing the time and money to really dig in. If you’re interested in checking out Rouxbe, they do offer a free trial, so you can see what you’re getting into before you drop the cash for the membership fee.
Obviously, this became a big ole rabbit hole for me, and I started looking around at other online cooking schools. A lot of the big names you’d expect to see came up in my search… Allrecipes.com, Sur la Table, America’s Test Kitchen, and one of the newest, Gordon Ramsay’s Master Class. Of the first three, Allrecipes.com and America’s Test Kitchen both offer some sort of free trial period, and Sur la Table provides a short preview of each class. The Rouxbe classes, as well as the other three mentioned have discussion boards available to bounce ideas and questions off of fellow students, and the Rouxbe classes offer instructor feedback, quizzes, and an actual grade at the end, which is nice if you really need the accountability to stay on track. All of them are self-paced, which means you can fit the classes into your week at your convenience. The Gordon Ramsay version is a set of 20 lessons for one set price, but the likelihood of getting direct feedback from Ramsay himself seems pretty slim.
If you’re ready for a little more of a challenge, want to dive deeper into a particular style of cuisine, or you’re looking to fine tune your basic kitchen skills, online cooking classes might be the next step for you. I guess my advice, as someone who’s shelled out a LOT of money for culinary school, would be to really do your research to find the online classes that best fit your budget, your learning style, and the amount of time you’re willing to commit. Some programs offer full access to all their classes for a membership fee up front that let you see the full course catalog, and then an additional cost associated with each class. Others will let you pay for classes as you take them. Some will provide a good amount of instructor feedback, and for others, the feedback comes primarily through discussions with other students. This can be a great way to really hone your skills, as long as you choose the program that’s right for you.
If you’ve taken any online cooking classes in the past, I’d love to hear your feedback. What site did you use? What class(es) did you take? What the experience beneficial? Do you still use what you learned?
I’d also like to offer one of my readers the chance to take a Rouxbe class, using one of my Monopoly prize codes. You’ll have to use the code by May 30th, and then you have 60 days from redemption to complete the course. To enter the giveaway, all you need to do is leave a comment here on this blog post telling me which one of the three available courses interests you most:
The Cook’s Roadmap
Wake up! Becoming a better cook doesn’t have to be a nightmare of sifting through endless online and offline content. Let Rouxbe’s guided instruction open your eyes to understanding the “world of cooking” — a set of puzzle pieces that can be rearranged to unlock the code to tastier, healthier and more nutritious food.
Plant-Based Cooking: Level 1
As kids, we’re told to eat our veggies as an important part of a healthy lifestyle. But what about quality and taste? Don’t panic. Take a step back and look at the big picture of cooking and health. This course will guide you through essential techniques and ingredients to help you incorporate more high-quality and surprisingly delicious plant-based dishes into your life.
Knife Skills
Start chopping! Learning to use a knife will radically change your kitchen experience and your health. The more comfortable you are cutting food, the more you will cut. The more you cut, the more you cook. The more you cook, the better you feel, so get chopping and change your life.
I’ll draw the winner on Friday, March 17th, St. Patrick’s Day, and announce it both here and on Facebook (So make sure you follow me there, too!) on Saturday, March 18th by Noon, Central Standard Time. The winner will have 48 hours to contact me, or the prize is forfeit.
I’ve just signed up for the Plant-Based Cooking class. We’re headed into Spring, and that means all those delicious seasonal vegetables are about to start showing up in grocery stores and farmer’s market. What better way to get in that veggie state of mind?
Good luck to everyone who enters!
Kitchen Tech Saturday: New York Public Library Digital Collections
Normally, when we’re talking technology, we think of the future, as in, new technology. The latest digital, computerized whatchamacallit that will change the way we cook, or shop, or go out to eat.
But today’s Kitchen Tech Saturday is actually kind of a time machine… one that only goes backwards.
A few years ago, the New York Public Library put all of it’s digital collections online, for free, and available to the public. The collections grow all the time, and you can look up everything from old political campaign pins to pin-ups, but today, we’re talking about a couple of search terms I’ve been using lately: recipe and cookbook. I’ll warn you up front– this website can become quite the rabbit hole.
Right off the bat, the word “recipe” will get you not only cool, old images from, oddly enough, a tobacco company, but also their corresponding recipes. Decades ago, tobacco companies were the source of a lot of collectibles… things like baseball cards, and obviously, recipes.
But as you dive deeper into the search results, you’ll see everything from old advertisements for a variety of products, handwritten recipes, snippets from old cookbooks, recipe collection brochures and their covers.
For a real treat, also add “menu” to your list of search terms. You’ll see some really great menus from restaurants, events, and even hotel room service menus!
If you’re a big culinary history nerd like me, you’ll find that this time machine also has the odd effect of also speeding up time. You sat down for a quick little poke around in the archives, and before you know it, it’s 2am, your tea’s gone cold, and some random infomercial for people who have a hard time with pancakes is playing in the background. Seriously. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
Online digital archives are a real treasure trove of information, and the NYPL collection is definitely my favorite. There’s material in there on a huge array of subjects, although, obviously, this is the one I come back to time and time again for not only a NerdyFunGoodTime, but also some serious culinary inspiration.
Kitchen Tech Saturday – Reduce food waste with the foodkeepr app!
I’m going to try this cool (?) thing for Saturdays, and I’d love some feedback. Every Saturday, I’m going to introduce you to a piece of tech designed to help you out in the kitchen, doing your shopping, keeping track of recipes, etc.
I’m not so clever with the names. If you can think of a better name for all this *waves hand around the post*, please speak up! I haven’t designed a graphic to go with the series because I’m sincerely hoping someone far more clever than me can help.
Anyhoots, this week’s technological wonder is the foodkeepr app. It’s a simple little app that helps you create a shopping list, then, once you’ve made your purchases, keeps track of the expiration dates of all perishables and will remind you to use them up before they go bad. It’ll even connect you to Food Network to help you find recipes to use up those last little bits of things before they’re past their prime.
$200 BILLION (!) dollars worth of food, or about $1100 per household, is wasted in this country… Thrown away because we didn’t get around to using it before it went bad. That’s both horrifying, and preventable. Little things, like shopping lists based on what you really need, meal planning, and getting over that weird fear you have of leftovers (ok, maybe those of you who have been subjected to 4 day old tuna noodle surprise might not find that so easy) can help.
Join me in the fight against food waste by using foodkeepr grocery list!
Android: http://goo.gl/t0QBZJ
iOS: http://goo.gl/zMIWLq
Hatchery Happiness
If you don’t already know what a Hatchery box is, let me explain.
It’s 5-6 sample sized, carefully sourced artisanal cooking products that come to you in the cutest red box. For food/cooking enthusiasts, it’s like Christmas and your birthday all wrapped up in one box, but it comes EVERY MONTH! For just $20/month (FREE SHIPPING!) you get a new set of samples to taste and experiment with.
I have enrolled in services similar to this in the past, but I was honestly a little less than enthused about the products I was getting and always ended up cancelling. However, I was cautiously optimistic, based on all the wonderful reviews I read from actual Hatchery members on various social media sites, that Hatchery would be different. It seems my willingness to give this kind of thing just one more chance has been rewarded.
First of all, can we just take a minute to appreciate the fact that each item is individually wrapped? First you get to open the box, and then you get to unwrap each individual item. It’s possible I’m being a little ridiculous about how happy that makes me, but it’s the little things, you know?
January’s box held such variety, each absolutely tickling a different part of my very single-minded… erm… mind. You guys, I think about food and cooking a lot, and the items in this box have my noggin’ going overtime, in the best way possible.
The January box contains:
* Meso Nutso Blueberry Extract
* Maui Maid Spicy Teriyaki Marinade
* Noble Handcrafted Tonic 02 Vanilla and Chamomile Infused Maple Syrup
* Fogg City Spice Co. Sicilian Blend
If you’re interested in trying out Hatchery, just go here and click the “Request an Invite” button. They tell you it’ll take about a week, but I got my invite in three days. Boxes ship out on the 15th of every month, and if you decide after your first box that you’re just not into it, you can cancel. Somehow, I don’t think you will. Often, all a tired, over-used recipe needs is just that one, special ingredient to liven things up and make it new again, so even if you don’t feel inspired enough to turn any of these products into something brand new, you might just find it’s the little spark you need to get your kitchen mojo back.
Of course, you have to know that as I’m playing around with the products in these boxes, I’ll be sharing my ideas with you. If any of you decide to sign up for a Hatchery subscription, I’d love to do a little “cook-along” with one of the items every month, so be sure to let me know in the comments if that’s something you’d like to do.
Happy Weekend, everyone! I’m off to play.