I just returned from an incredible and inspiring week of Mediterranean Cooking Culinary Boot Camp at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park NY.   One of the week-long continuing education courses that they run there is Mediterranean Cooking.  It was unbelievably cool to be in a professional kitchen for a week with our professional lead Chef, Michael Skibitcky, and my 9 new kitchen best friends.   Every day, we went into our classroom for a quick lecture and recipe review at 7 am with Chef, then into the kitchen to prepare our  15-20 course lunch for that day.

Each day was a different Mediterranean region - Southern France, Southern Italy, Greece & Turkey, the Middle East and Northern Africa,  Coastal Spain. Each of us got the chance to cook 1-3 dishes per day, and Chef always did some demos for us.   We had cheese tastings, wine tastings, and of course, dinner most nights in the CIA’s signature restaurants, Caterina d’Medici, Escoffier, and American Bounty.   The campus is a absolutely beautiful, set in the lush Hudson River Valley.

So what did I learn at Boot Camp?  I’ll share recipes and photos in the next couple of weeks - so come back and visit the blog often.  Here are some other things I learned:

1. It’s really fun to be in a professional kitchen and to have a big rack to put all of your dirty dishes on (no dish washing on vacation!!), several student helpers to get things for you and help with technique, and new friends who are just as excited as you about being in the kitchen.  It’s also really nerve wracking.

2. You don’t need fancy knives, pots and pans, or equipment.  You do need the right equipment, but it doesn’t have to be new and shiny and fancy.  You also don’t need fancy, expensive spices, oils, or vinegars.  What you need is technique, great recipes, and practice practice practice.

3. It’s even more fun when you have a friend who works there.  My friend, Lynne Gigliotti, one of Season 7’s Top Chef contestants, is an assistant professior at the CIA.

4. Having this kind of experience isn’t cheap, but it is absolutely positively worth the price of admission.  It was a super fun week, one that I highly recommend!!! An absolute must-do if you love to cook and eat.

Recipes and more photos to follow - check the blog during the next couple of weeks.

Help end childhood hunger by making virtual toast!

Nearly 17 million children in America – almost one in four – struggle with hunger. The families of these children have a hard time putting food on the table. The non-profit Grain Foods Foundation has teamed up with Food Network host Melissa d’Arabian and Share Our Strength®, a non-profit leading the charge to end childhood hunger in America by 2015, to help give hungry children in our country access to nutritious meals.

Shocking. And Surprising. Thankfully, there is something you can do to help. You can participate in the Bread Art Project - from the comfort of your computer!  The Bread Art Project was created in 2009 by the Grain Foods Foundation to help increase awareness of the growing hunger problem in our country. Last year, visitors to breadartproject.com created more than 25,000 pieces of Bread Art to raise more than $25,000. This year, goal is to double that amount.

Now through June 30, 2010, you can create a personalized piece of bread art – at no cost – by uploading a favorite drawing or photo, or designing a new one using a digital slice of bread as the canvas. It’s fun. And a great project to do on your own or with a youngster.

For each piece of bread art created, the Grain Foods Foundation will donate $1 to Share Our Strength*. One dollar can help provide three nutritious meals to a hungry child; $25 can help feed one child three healthy meals every day for a month; and $100 can help provide 25 children facing hunger backpacks full of healthy food to feed them and their families over the weekend.

It’s just that simple to lend a helping hand: www.breadartproject.com

Food Network host Melissa d’Arabian was in Atlanta last week to talk about the program. “Our children deserve healthy meals,” d’Arabian said. “As a mother of four, I understand a parent’s desire to properly nourish their children. It’s heartbreaking to know there are families in our own country struggling for the basics. Staples like bread and grains provide many essential nutrients our bodies need to stay healthy.”

For families looking for help with their own kitchen cutbacks, d’Arabian has developed recipes and tips to help us save time and money in the kitchen:

• My kids like sandwiches without crusts, so I am constantly cutting them off sliced bread. Instead of throwing them away, I save them in resealable freezer bags. I turn them into “dippers” which my kids use for dunking in jam (crusts are apparently completely delicious, just not on a sandwich when you are five), or I use the crusts to make fresh and fluffy bread crumbs.
• Keep different varieties of pasta in your pantry for weeknight meals that are as nutritious as they are quick. Your weeknight strategy: get the pasta started and while it’s cooking, pull out a large sauté pan. Add a little olive oil and then check your crisper drawer, freezer and pantry for aromatics, herbs, veggies or meats to sauté in the olive oil. You can always go simple with just minced garlic, red pepper flakes and some slivers of broccoli, for instance. Once the pasta is cooked, toss it into your sauté pan, adding a little of the pasta water and some Parmesan cheese to make a light sauce.

Mama Says: Thank you for taking a minute to create a work of art while providing nutritious meals to a hungry child. Enjoy playing with your food.

Thank you to Jennifer James of the Mom Bloggers Club for the invitation.

As far as I’m concerned, the most fun thing to do in Paris is wander around and taste something from every single fabulous looking boulangerie and pastisserie.  On a stop over last week, we found the most unbelievable pastisserie called Pierre Herme on rue Bonaparte.

It was like walking into a gem of a jewelry shop, only everything was baked - and baked to perfection.  the macaroons are world famous, and come in flavors like :

• Arabesque: Apricot and Pistachio, that is a Pistachio Macaroon with an Apricot filling
• Mogador: Macaroon with a Passion Fruit ganache and Milk chocolate
• Americano Pamplemousse: Macaroon with a Campari and Grapefruit ganache
• Plénitude: Chocolate and Caramel, Chocolate Macaroon, with a Caramel Chocolate ganache with Fleur de sel
• Rose: Pink Macaroon with a Rose Petal ganache

And the croissants, wait, did i tell you about the croissants??? there must have been a pound of butter in each one - we ate one that had a smidge of rosehips jam on the inside and crystallized rosehips petals on the outside.  We devoured it long before i could get my camera out!!

if you are lucky  enough to live in western europe, you can get these delightful treats shipped to you. sadly, we do not.  so we’re just going to have to wait until our next visit.  I can guarantee you, it will be our first stop.

Don’t miss our guest blogger Lynne Gigliotti

Season 7 of Top Chef begins on June 16 9pm est - and one of our favorite guest bloggers is one of the contestants!  You may remember Lynne Gigliotti from her very funny blog “They Call Her Chef” on our very own Mama Says website.

From the Top Chef website:

This season captures the varied tastes of Washington D.C. and features appearances by some of the town’s top names including Apollo Astronaut Buzz Aldrin, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, White House chef Sam Kass, MSNBC host Joe Scarborough, Congressman Aaron Schock of Illinois, Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, CIA Director Leon Panetta and NBC White House Correspondent Savannah Guthrie. The challenges featured will be some of the most creative and inventive yet: the chefs take over the concession stands at the Nationals stadium, go inside the CIA’s closely guarded headquarters and literally receive out of this world direction on one challenge from a NASA astronaut orbiting Earth .

Don’t miss the show, and support one of our own, Lynne Gigliotti!! (PS - she said she can’t tell me who wins, otherwise she’d have to kill me, so yes, we ALL have to watch EVERY episode!)

One of my all time favorite summer salad recipes is the Mojito Salad.  It combines sweet juicy summer fruits with a few vegetables, and a great lime based dressing. Enjoy!

INGREDIENTS