Please tell me I'm not the only one who's scared of cooking for others. Yes, I cook for my family every day, but I don't really entertain over dinner. If you come over around dinnertime I will come up with clever ways of
not cooking that don't involve ordering pizza, or I will throw something together last-minute. But rarely will I fix an elaborate meal.
This isn't to say that I don't really enjoy cooking or that I don't want to be the dinner-party type, it's just that I'm never sure of my cooking and baking abilities. Well, Tom {yes, Douglas} and I had a chat last week and he told me I shouldn't be scared to cook and bake. He encouraged me enjoy cooking and entertaining this holiday season and to make it an important part of our celebrations.
Okay, okay, he didn't actually tell me this personally, he told me this along with 50+ other fans. Macy's Culinary Council hosted his Seattle cookbook release party and holiday cooking demo at the downtown Seattle store and it got me thinking about cooking and entertaining this holiday season.
Along with staff from his Dahlia restaurant in Seattle, Tom showcased three hard-to-prepare holiday dishes as well as showing his favorite way to make grilled cheese. All of these recipes can be found in Tom's new book, The Dahlia Bakery Cookbook, which should be on everyone's holiday wish list this year.
For all of you Seattleites, I would highly recommend seeing Tom speak if you can, but at the very least, I would urge you to check out his weekly radio show with Thierry Rautureau on KIRO 97.3 FM called Seattle Kitchen. It might just have you looking forward to holiday cooking and baking, too.
Seriously, check out a few podcasts and tell me I'm wrong that you didn't want to cook up something fancy as soon as the two hours are up. I think I could listen to Tom speak all day long, whether it was about food or simply what he did last weekend. In fact, I tweeted this during the event and it was met with a chorus of approval:
I had such a blast at the event and am looking forward to attending more Macy's Culinary Council shindigs in the future, which I have promised I will bring my husband to. He felt very left out, especially when he saw that The Maven and I got to take a {slightly blurry} picture with him.
I am a member of the Everywhere Society and
Everywhere provided me with compensation for this post about Macy's Culinary
Council. However, all thoughts and opinions expressed herein are 100% my
own. A big thank you to Alyssa of Distilled Creative for the great picture of Tom cooking {not the blurry one above, that was some woman who happened to be walking by}.