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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

3 Things To Do in Vancouver BC

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Vancouver, BC is hosting the 2010 Olympic Winter Games (February 12 – 28). This city and surrounding area is an ideal spot for an active getaway. Vancouver is consistently voted one of the greatest places to live. The region has plenty to offer residents and visitors with year-round outdoor activities (skiing, water sports, hiking, biking), breathtaking mountains and vistas, hip urban neighborhoods, markets and a cosmopolitan food community. During the late summer, my husband and I spent an enchanting weekend in Vancouver, here our favorite things to do to experience in this multifaceted city:

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Worth-Standing-in-Line-For: Vij’s

Ask locals and visitors for a restaurant suggestion in and you’ll hear rave reviews for Vij’s Indian cuisine. Follow their lead to this not-to-be-missed dining experience. They don’t take reservations, so plan to arrive early to make the first seating or come a little later to mix and mingle with Vikram Vij, owner, while waiting for a table. The menu changes frequently and is skillfully prepared each day by an all female cadre of cooks. The spices are fresh and on the mark, ingredients local and the menu mouthwatering. Details: Vij’s Restaurant Inc, 1480 West 11th Avenue Vancouver, BC, (604) 736-6664

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Browse-Away-An-Afternoon: Granville Island Public Market

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Stretch your legs and amuse your senses at this walkable island. Check out the covered market with a varieties of deli offerings, fish, meat, cheese, fruit and bakery stalls, It’s a great place to pick up items for a picnic or make plans to spend some time in the area –there are several places to sit and enjoy. Continue to walk around the island to view the wares of local crafters, artists and other fascinating shopkeepers or checkout a show. There is something for every age in this artistic community.

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Fresh-Air-And-Stunning-Vistas: Stanley Park

Consider bringing your picnic fixings to Stanley Park. It’s recognized as one of the great parks of the world. Vancouver’s first park and one of the city’s main tourist attractions, it’s an evergreen oasis of 1,000 acres in the metro area. There is always something happening in the Park, so check their website to plan your visit. The park abounds in plants, walking and biking trails, gardens and plenty of space to explore.

Do you have a favorite Vancouver experience? If so, please leave a comment below to share with others.

Bring your walking shoes and sense of adventure – enjoy Vancouver, BC.

I sat down in my seat for the flight from JFK to Atlanta (thank goodness, it was a bulkhead, a real treat after a 13 flight from Israel!) and stretched my legs, thinking I was in for a nice 2 hour nap.  Little did I know that I would be totally engaged by the young woman who sat down next to me.

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My modus operandi on an airplane is to stick my headphones in, take out my book, and generally be as unsocial as possible.  Somehow, that morning, it felt wrong.  My gut instinct was right – I had a great seatmate who was returning to Atlanta after a very successful book launch. Debra Shigley,  author of the Go-Getter Girl’s Guide, clearly knows how to get what she wants in work and life (and look great while she’s at it). We talked about all kinds of things – publishing, PR, social media, her new marriage, my old marriage, how to get ahead, how to have fun. We also both pulled out our mac laptops and went on line using gogoinflight, where we promptly added each other to our Facebook friends lists. It was a really fun couple of hours, and a real treat and surprise for me.

If you have a daughter, or know a young woman who is starting her young adult life, you’ve got to buy a copy The Go-Getter Girl’s Guide: Get What You Want in Work and Life (and Look Great While You’re at It) for her. It’s smart, clever, funny, and practical. And for those of us who grew up in the time of “it’s a man’s world” and “you’ve got to act like a man to get ahead”, this book is a real breath of fresh air.

I had the really good fortune of being on the island of Nantucket a week or so ago.  The weather was perfect, and even the 9 passenger plane ride on CapeAir from Boston to the island wasn’t bad.   We were visiting family, and had the great opportunity to get the insider’s view, not the touristy view, of Nantucket.

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Nothing quite sums up summer anywhere on the Northeastern US shore better than locally caught and grown lobster and corn on the cob.     We soaked the corn for about an hour before popping it on the grill to get some of the sugars good and wet so they wouldn’t burn off.  The corn was sweet and delicious, and didn’t need even a hint of butter.

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We picked 1 1/2 lb lobsters out of the tank.  Quickly immersing them in boiling water (i know, i know, its cruel but thats how you cook lobsters!), they turned to a bright red in minutes.

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Dinner on the deck as the sun was setting was a perfect ending to a perfect Nantucket day. Visiting Nantucket in the summertime should definitely be up there on your “gotta get to it one day” list.

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I’ve now tasted a little bit of heaven.  Charleston, SC is home to many, many , many fine restaurants.

But as far as I’m concerned, Hominy Grill on Rutledge Street DEFINITELY lives up to – and beyond –  its press!! We arrived around 1:30 pm, and were seated out on the terrace, under a great looking very SC typical tin roof.

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It was tough deciding what to order, but I decided to be a purist and ordered the shrimp and grits. ( (Yes, cheese grits. They were unbelievable – here’s the recipe.)

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Honey, there’s nothing better.  I savored every last morsel.  And you should too.  Definitely worth a trip to Charleston.