Graduation and JCC Cooking Class

Not only was it my birthday the other week, but I also graduated culinary school and taught a cooking class for 20 hungry Jews at our JCC. Boo yeah! Heck of a weekend, I tell ya. Both were a total success (minus a slight cooking class injury. No biggie. Luckily about 16 out of the 20 attendees were doctors).

A little housekeeping…Austin friends, anyone else going to the Kosher Chili Cookoff this Sunday? I’ll be judging (it’s a tough job) and would love to meet you! You should definitely go- it’s only $12 for all the chili you can stuff your face with! There is still time to sign up if you want to compete too!

There is also still time to sign up for my Central Market Deli cooking class. There will be mimosas!! Anyhoo, I shared some of these birthday extravaganza weekend photos on The Facebook, but thought I would share here as well.

Here is me walking to the graduation stage, me on the stage, and a shot outside my school! Most of these photos are courtesy of my parents who came to celebrate, enjoy a little Texas wine country and be my sous chefs in my class!

Some of my favorite chefs- not a dog in the bunch, us putting on our big hats, and an unofficial graduation portrait. The whole experience was a lot more emotional and exciting than I thought it would be, and this is coming from someone who prides herself on a lack of emotions. It really did feel like a big accomplishment! Wheee!

The very next day I woke up at the crack of dawn (aka 6:30am) to prep for my cooking class. Here is just some of the prep!

It was insane. All in all I think the class went great. Some of the attendees are probably reading this right now- shalom! We ate some great food and learned a lot. I pretty much blacked out during the class and don’t remember a thing, but I heard I was fairly entertaining to boot! These photos don’t really show all the attendees who weren’t in camera view. There were some winning ensembles for sure!

Oops how did that get in there?! Well the rest of my birthday was spent snuggled up to one of these fellows, and I was in bed by 9. Darn you aging! Of course one day of celebrating was not enough, we continued into the next week with an epic jarty. Naturally those photos are not internet appropriate. Take my word for it- 30 is off to a good start for sure!

What’s the best theme party you have ever been to?

Mazel!

Amy