With just a few days before Christmas, I thought it would be nice to share a few recipes and ideas with you for your holiday baking and entertaining.  You may have seen some of these recipes before while some were just recently posted.  Here’s some of our favorites for baking and your holiday entertaining

Preparing your holiday turkey and meal

               When to defrost your turkey

               Turkey brining   

               Creamed corn

Entertaining

               Affordable holiday entertaining options

               Using store bought ingredients for quick fix ideas

               Five minute crab dip

               Tomato and Jarlsberg Swiss mini tarts

Gifts from the kitchen

               Garlic basil vinegar

               Brown sugar shortbread cookies

               Pecan tassies/nut cups

               Scottish shortbread cookies

               Moose munch copycat

Have a wonderful holiday season and a happy and healthy new year.

Gift Certificates – We also want to remind you that it’s not too late to purchase gift certificates for your friends and families.  Gift certificates for Simply Impressive classes make the perfect gift.  We will also offer gift certificates for our upcoming beginner and advanced beginner series scheduled in 2011.  Gift certificates for cooking classes with us make great gifts not only for the holidays, but for birthdays, showers, going away to college or just an ‘I love you’.  It’s a great way to give a gift lasting a lifetime. 

We can do everything by e-mail if you want, so you do not have to go out in traffic.  Just let us know and we will issue you a PayPal invoice to get started.

Beginner Series – Our third (and possibly final for a while) offering of our beginner series cooking class begins on Saturday, January 15 (NOTE DATE CHANGE) and runs every other Saturday for five Saturdays. This class is a series and individual classes are not offered.  To see the topics covered each week, go to November calendar and ‘mouse over’ the class name.  This entire series is only $299 and is perfect for those wanting a great foundation in cooking.  This makes a perfect gift for the holidays and is also perfect for those on your list that are getting married, going to college or even leaving on their mission.

Advanced Beginner Series -- We have finally scheduled our advanced beginner series.  It is scheduled on four consecutive weeks from 3/19 thru 4/9.  The topics are grilling, soups and stews, breakfast and baking basics.  We will schedule this series as individual classes or the entire series.

Upcoming Classes for January 2011 –We are offering classes on Tuesday, 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., Thursday 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. and Saturday 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. 

On Saturday 1/8/2011 we will be offering our Salmon class featuring a Moroccan-inspired meal.  The menu will be posted shortly, but includes salmon, couscous and other Moroccan-inspired dishes.  Cost per person is $63.

On Tuesday 1/18, we will be offering our Chili 3 Ways class where you will make several types of chili that are perfect for our Arizona winters.  $63 per person

On Saturday 1/22 attend our Healthy Cooking with pork where we will be making a meal featuring pork tenderloin that will be healthy and delicious.  $63 per person

On Thursday 1/27 we will be doing some more canning.  This time we will be offering a Canning -- Preserves class where we will make several different types of preserves and can them using the waterbath canning method.  Class is $63 per perso

Special Offers – For December, we are offering a great gift idea.  If you purchase a gift certificate for four classes for someone else, you can receive a fifth class for free.  The free class can be for you or anybody else you choose.

Another offer for December -- Purchase a gift certificate for someone to attend our next beginner series and receive a personalized apron.  This must be ordered by December 10 to receive by Christmas.