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Friday, February 25, 2005
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All in good taste Cooking school proves palatable for large crowd Staff Writer What's for dinner?
How about making Tropical Teriyaki Pita Pockets with Spring Greens and Berry Pecan Salad?
These two easy and delicious dishes were prepared during the Taste of Home Cooking School Thursday in Tornstrom Auditorium in Washington Middle School. About 930 people attended the event, sponsored by The Dispatch, to watch the cooking demonstration. Four lucky winners got to sit at a table on stage to watch the show.
During the cooking demonstration, home economist Lea Anne Dea prepared two crowd-pleasing brunch ideas, four weeknight meal solutions and four recipes for easy entertaining.
Dea also shared several cooking tips, including how to make a perfect garnish with an apple.
Each year, hundreds of cooking schools are sponsored across the country. Taste of Home has cooking magazines that many audience members have been subscribing to for years.
Nancy Kegler of Motley came to the cooking demonstration early and landed a seat in the front row. Before she sat in her seat, she went to the gymnasium at the school to explore the 28 booths hosted by various exhibitors.
Kegler said she was surprised when she was able to buy the tickets for the event.
"You usually have to call right away," she said. "Luckily when I called they had extra tickets."
Kegler said she likes the Taste of Home because she lived on a farm and the recipes are the same type of dishes you would use on a farm -- old-fashioned and not complicated.
Common dishes from the magazine Kegler makes a lot are chicken hot dish, taco soup and steak soup.
This was the second time Mary and Dave Peterson of Riverton attended the school in Brainerd. The Dispatch sponsored the school for the first time in 2003.
Mary Peterson said Dave likes to cook and he makes great soup. She said their son will call just to see if he made soup. If he did, his son comes to visit.
Dave Peterson did admit he likes to cook but said, "If my wife didn't get the tickets, I wouldn't be here."
When Peterson retired a couple years ago, he began cooking supper every night for when his wife got home from work.
"What I like about cooking is the challenge of making something that tastes good," he said. "But I don't like the mess."
The Petersons both said they like the easy and delicious recipes in the magazines.
Barbara Miles of Fort Ripley, who has been to the cooking schools in Little Falls, brought her daughter and granddaughter to the event. She said her granddaughter likes to cook and was excited to attend.
Miles takes care of her mother-in-law and she said she has to do the cooking so she likes to make quick and easy meals. She likes the recipes from the Taste of Home because they have the basic ingredients most people already have in their kitchen.
Miles, who has subscribed to the magazine for the past 10 years, said one of the recipes she makes a lot is the monkey bread.
Sisters Sharon Buschmann, Pequot Lakes, and Kay Bodle, Baxter, and their daughters, Julie Buschmann, Pequot Lakes, and Rhonda Craigie, Baxter, attended the school.
Bodle attended the cooking school two years ago in Brainerd and thought it would be a fun event for the girls. Bodle said she likes to cook and learn new things.
Her daughter, Craigie, said she thought the school would be fun and she wanted to find out more about Crisco's simple spout and measuring cup. She also wanted to know what the plastic lemon was for that she found in her bag. She ended up winning a bag of groceries from Cub Foods. Twenty grocery bags of food were given away.
Those who attended the event received a free copy of the Taste of Home Cooking School Cookbook, which included the recipes Dea prepared during the demonstration. Gift bags with coupons from national food companies, product brochures and promotional items from local retailers were also available. Door prizes and each of the completed dishes were raffled off.
Connie Jenson, coordinator of the event for the Dispatch, said the tickets for the school sold out in less than a week. Tickets were $8 and the proceeds from the event will be used for the Newspapers in Education program.
Other sponsors helping the Dispatch were Cub Foods, Schroeder's TV and Appliance, Floor to Ceiling, Christmas Point, Kinetico and Sammi J's Stone House Roastery.
JENNIFER STOCKINGER can be reached at jennifer.stockinger@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5851.
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