Taste of Home Cooking School - Waukesha

I grew up on Taste of Home recipes with my mom and my grandma always reading the magazines and using the cookbooks for great dinner ideas. I have been to their outlet in Greendale village and own quite a few of their cookbooks myself. So when the Taste of Home Cooking School was announced, I didn't want to pass up the opportunity.

I was lucky enough to get some free tickets to the event and even if I couldn't get them, $20 at the door was an OK price for me considering everything that we were given. The recipe knowledge alone was worth more than that!

The Cooking School was held at the Waukesha Expo Center. We entered a littler after 5 pm and received a swag bag and "chair saver" sign - such a smart idea. We found a few seats, put our name on the paper, taped it to the seat, and got in the already growing lines to check out the booths before the cooking began.

Many local vendors were sharing samples of their products and services with us. Unfortunately the rooms were really crowded and I couldn't get my phone out to take pictures.

I was able to try a sample of Red Elephant Chocolate from Milwaukee's 3rd Ward. It literally melted in my mouth and was so delicious. La Coppa Gelato was also there and I tried Pumpkin Gelato that she suggested I pair with the Cinnamon Gelato - it was a wonderful Fall flavor explosion in my mouth.

Simma's Bakery was there with samples of their decadent cheesecake, as well as toffee. I think I might get some of the toffee for the holidays! Weissgerber's was there with some of the options for banquets and the rice pilaf with chicken and asparagus in a white sauce was so yummy. I wanted to go back for more!

There are so many vendors there that I am not going to be able to name them all but Woodman's supplied us a bag to hold all our goodies as well as coupons, Jif Hazelnut spread, cook books, flyers and more.


The one fatal error that my friend Tiffany and I had was that we didn't look through our bags first and we missed that there was a grand prize giveaway and about a million other giveaways throughout the event. We didn't fill out the cards and thus we weren't eligible for any of the goodies, including Electrolux appliance giveaways from Colder's! Oh well - we still had a blast.

From 7 until about 9 pm we were walked through 10 different Taste of Home recipes by Karen Davis of Taste of Home. These recipes were submitted by Taste of Home readers around the nation. We were provided a Cooking School magazine to take notes in and follow along with the recipe. Taste of Home takes fabulous photos of their finished products. I just hope mine turn out looking that nice.

I had actually made the crescent wreath last year for a holiday party but she even put a twist on it to change it up.

The cooking school was presented on stage with a camera pointing down at the work surface and two jumbo screens provided that video to us. Here are a few shots of the other items in the works.

The tricks of the trade, the fact that complicated recipes seemed so simple to put together, and the beautiful end products made the night completely worthwhile. Taste of Home has the Cooking School program down to an art and I can't wait for the next one to come to the area in maybe spring?

In the meantime, I was told to watch for a day when Taste of Home will offer a lot of their cookbooks for just $5 online. The outlet in Greendale Village is another option if you want to pick up some cooking stuff for the holidays.

November is Busy!

With the holidays right around the corner, I feel the amount of foodie opportunities seem to increase. I don't mind it one bit - but the wallet gets a little upset. So here is a recap and moving forward of some of my experiences.

Friday I had a meeting on the east side of Waukesha and after, I introduced my coworkers to Andrea's Red Rooster. I used to work there way back in the day and have gone a few times for drinks on the patio over the summer, but never for lunch. The food was great and we found another great spot. More on this place soon!

Then, Friday evening, I convinced my parents to check out Jackson's Blue Ribbon Pub in Waukesha and we were very impressed. It's new and has a few kinks to work out, but those kinks don't affect the food (which is the whole point of me going.) I'll write more on that soon, but here is my fish fry from Friday.

Saturday, I went to the Best of the Best Bridal Show with my friend Shauna that is getting married in August (and I'm her Maid of Honor!!!). I tried a mini almond flavored cupcake with raspberry filling and it was heavenly. I have to seek out the name of the vendor and then I will share it with you all - definitely recommend her desserts.

After the show, I met my boyfriend and his friends at Fox Run Lanes, a little bar off of Sunset that we used to go to all the time when I worked at Fox Run Sentry Liquor. Now we go maybe once every few weeks, but I have made quite a few appearances lately (Thursday, Saturday and going again tonight!)

The drinks are made usually decently strong, the beer selection is a solid variety and the food is excellent. It's not just your typical bar food. Sure they have mozzarella sticks and cheese curds, but they have burgers, chili, pizza, wings, chicken wraps and more. We got a pizza and the crust and sauce are excellent. It seemed to have a lot of cheese on it, but we didn't complain. We had plenty of leftovers as well to enjoy later in the day.

Sunday, I made a veggie pasta dish for during the Packer game, and although I make this meal a lot, I think I need to add the cheese later in the process as it all melts away and you lose the flavor. But Tim really enjoyed it and that is what matters. More on this recipe soon!

 

And I picked up some of my favorite cookies from my childhood - Melody Cookies from Milwaukee's south side. The spritz cookies bring me back to stealing them out of my grandma's cookie jar when I would visit her. They have a nice buttery taste. People might be getting these from me for the holidays :)

Tonight, I'm heading to Fox Run again for wings and saying goodbye to a friend as she moves back up to Green Bay. We will definitely be staying in touch and road trips are already being planned.

Tuesday, I scored two tickets to the Taste of Home Cooking School at Waukesha Expo tomorrow. My friend Tiffany and I are going to learn some holiday recipes and try some food.

Wednesday, I am meeting up with my grade school girls at BW3s in New Berlin. I haven't seen some of them since Confirmation retreat and maybe even earlier. We have about 6 of us going and I'm so excited for fun conversation, good eats and plentiful drinks :)

November 26, I'm attending a Special Holiday Cheese Event at Clock Shadow Creamery (Hello yummy  Quark cheese!!) I'm going to learn how to create the best holiday cheese spread for my guests and more! So excited. 

Then, in just a few weeks is the MKEFoodies, Cookies for Kids Cancer Bake Sale. Mark down Dec. 7 as the date to some buy treats from Milwaukee's blogger community and support a great cause.

From the Books Thursday: Shrimp w/ Snow Peas

 

We sure do like our Taste of Home cookbooks in this house, and today's recipe comes from the 2003 Light & Tasty book. We had some shrimp to use up in the freezer and the Shrimp w/ Snow Peas recipe sounded the best.

I gathered all the ingredients that I needed and any extras I could think of. We had an entire package of sliced mushrooms, but they were put too far back in the fridge and froze :(  So we had to use the brand new package and chop them up ourselves. No biggie, but sad we had to toss the rest out.

Mom took on the job of peeling the shrimp. They were deveined and not too hard to peel, but I'm not a fan of peeling the shrimp. I had already cut a fingertip earlier in the week by reaching in a drawer blind and catching a serrated knife, I didn't need a shrimp tail to cut that back open.

While she was doing that, I grabbed the lemon, dill and other ingredients and mixed away. Don't be shocked by the amount of lemon as it's nice and mellow in the final dish.

Chop, chop, chop the veggies I did!

Mom took care of the sweating of the veggies

I interrupted with photos of us - sheesh that kitchen light is bright!

And then I took it upon myself to open that bag from photo one and cook with wine. This one was just ok - it had a little musty smell once I let it breathe. But it had a screw cap so I'm not sure where the musty came from. I guess you get what you pay for as it was well under $10.

Here is me supervising while the veggies sweated out.

After about 10 minutes, it was time to add the snow peas and for added yum, edamame! I was so excited to use some of these. A coworker turned me onto edamame years ago at a holiday party and I have been addicted ever since.

I gave my lemon-dill sauce a stir and added it to the veggies and it immediately thickened. About two more minutes on the stove and we were set to eat. This meal takes the length of time to cook rice on the stove, so our timing was impeccable. (However, we did have two people cooking this one!)

This was a very refreshing and healthy stir-fry dish that surprisingly doesn't use soy sauce. At only 322 calories, 6 g fat and 4 g fiber per HUGE serving (including the rice), this is going to become a regular in the family repertoire.

After dinner, I put on my comfy holiday socks with workout capris and relaxed on the couch before a Barre3 video was in order. I know how to keep it classy! :) This is just the first of my many pairs of holiday socks!