Thanks for the memories Florida!

Hey there! Well, it's my last night in Florida on what is my first ever cooking demo tour. Take a look out my window at a pretty bridge in Jacksonville, FL ...
What a pretty vision out my hotel window. Florida's been great! I ate at Bern's Steakhouse, saw several gators in the swamps on the ride from Sarasota to Boca Raton and I had 3 slices of key lime pie from 3 different hotels! If only I could stay longer, but I'm headed to the Peachtree State in the morning for the final day of the tour. I can't wait to catch the flight and cook up some dinner for the class there! If you've signed up, send a comment so I can look for you in the class!

Here's a pic from Boca Raton, FL on Sunday night ...
That's Michele and Aprons' Chef Graham after the class. Thanks for sending the picture Michele! I had so much fun chatting after class was over and Graham, thanks for the mise en place and everything else!!

Then I headed up to Jacksonville Monday and decided I finally needed to get some crowd shots, here's the whole class ...
I had to take two pictures to fit everyone in ...
A special thanks to "Miss Perfect". Her and her girls had me laughing the whole night between recipes and after class. Also thanks to the entire chef staff in Jacksonville, you guys were great and I appreciate the smiles on a Monday!!

Ok, well it's on to Georgia in the morning! I still have a bit of work to do before I go to sleep. I've found when magazines can't track you down on the phone, they ask for an email interview, so I have two of those to finish tonight for Ladies Home Journal and First for Women Magazine. Hope you catch the articles when they get published. Speaking of, I did an interview a couple of months ago for Essence Magazine and provided some recipes, so look for that on stands soon as well.

Ok, Georgia you're on my mind :-) ... see you soon!!!

Publix Tour-tastic

Tour-tastic ... tour+fantastic :-) ...

I'm in the middle of my mini tour of Publix Aprons locations in Florida and I end up in Georgia. Yesterday I hung out in Tampa and Sarasota and in a few minutes I'm making the trip to Boca Raton for a class tonight! I'm having fun and imagine I'm enjoying a teeny trip that is a window into what bands must go through when on the road. I'm in and out of town before I get to even enjoy it! I'm doing my best though ...

I went to Bern's Steakhouse in Tampa. In a great little piece of foodie fortune, I met the owner David Laxer at the Sobe Food and Wine Festvial. He stopped by my booth at the Burger Bash with his wife and invited me to his restaurant if I were ever in town. I immediately said I'd be in town in just a few days! I say foodie fortune because just that morning I was looking at my weeks ahead on the road thinking ... "Where am I going to eat?". So, for David to walk in and pass me his biz card and say come on by ... well, I felt it was foodie fortune. After making my rsvp and asking around about the place I was told the food was great, but the real treat was making it to the dessert room ... so here's my yummy dessert ...

Yes, I ordered two. One was a peanut butter pie surrounded by and Oreo crust and the other was a yummy coffee ice cream that has to be the smoothest ever.

That was Friday night, Saturday morning I hung out in Tampa and Shelisa from Big2Beautiful came by and took some pics ...




Then, I headed down to Sarasota and hung out, I didn't get any pictures, but before I left I wanted to get a picture of me and the logo just for the memories so that's the pic at the top of this post.

I'm headed to Boca Raton now! If you are coming to the class tonight, I can't wait to meet ya! Come hungry!!

Get Closer To Your Food @ Publix w/ Viva Towels and Me!

Hey there! I just wanted to give you a list of dates and locations to catch me in the next few days if you are in Florida or Georgia. I'm in Tampa now getting ready for the start tomorrow of a series of cooking classes I'm teaching with Publix and their popular Aprons classes. Here's a list with hyperlinks ...

Saturday, March 6

Tampa, FL

Publix at Shoppes of Citrus Park @ 11am

Saturday, March 6

Sarasota, FL

Publix at University Walk @ 630pm

Sunday, March 7

Boca Raton, FL

Publix at Polo Club Shoppes @ 630pm

Monday, March 8

Jacksonville, FL

Publix at San Jose Boulevard @ 630pm

Tuesday, March 9

Alpharetta, GA

Publix at Alpharetta Commons @ 7pm

Click the links for directions and addresses. Click here for a list of all dates and online ticketing. Only a few of the dates have tickets left. See you there!!!

Don't forget Best Thing I Ever Ate tonight at 10pm on Food Network!