What am I up to

Life is so busy but fun at the moment. As I grow my Kitchen Coach business, I am having a blast.

I thought I would let you all know a course will be available soon on the Udemy platform, on Kitchen Basics, all about cooking styles, food safety, health and safety, equipment. I will let you know as soon as that goes live. I am anticipating it will happen in September, then I can get back to my first cook book, for new or young chefs. That will be coming out and available through Amazon, I expect that to be live by the end of November.

I have been asked by a number of people if I could do an App for weekly recipes, using ingredients off of a shopping list I provide, so all ingredients are used up. Apparently that would be useful, some of you are fed up with throwing food away or having food go stale, as you only need part of it for a recipe. I had a great suggestion from a friend today, that I should trail this on my blog, to see if it is really something you would all like, before I go to trouble of creating an App!! What a brilliant suggestion. So from mid September, I will be posting a shopping list and a recipe, and if you want more then you can just sign up for free and get the weeks recipes, and I will throw in a list of Kitchen essential foods for your store cupboard.

In case you did not see my YouTube video on filling a Butter crock pot, I am including it here.
Butter Crock pot video

 I would appreciate each one of you subscribing to my YouTube channel, Kitchen Coach.  You can do that here .That would help me a lot, and you can comment and let me know what other videos you would like there on my Facebook page here.

Wishing you all a Fabulous day.

Freggies and Kitchen Coach meet again at Orange COworking

Discovering I still have a love/hate relationship with technology

I am busy putting lots of videos up on YouTube, trying to master Instagram, am Periscoping frequently( depends on your definition of frequently) and of course lets not forget facebook with three pages to manage and twitter. What have I left out.

Oh my goodness.

I really mean that, there are days when I wonder if I have time to cook. When I become rich and famous- because I know famous does not always mean rich!- I will be letting someone who loves technology deal with all this 'stuff'. my head wants to explode.

Then I add to my techno waterfall and start making videos, editing and publishing them. I mean really did I think this through!

The good news is I am getting better, you can not always see my chopping board, but most of the time you can, I no longer quickly make video's in a tankini- what was I thinking, apart from heading to the pool with the family as soon as I had finished.

The good news is, I do love to cook, and that had been my saving grace. I get to put lots of recipes down on paper, and publish them. My children, and any grandchildren that follow will always be able to see me cooking and have family recipes. I think that is really amazing. it actually gives me goosebumps knowing I am using technology to leave a reminder of me for family to come. Of course I now and again wonder if YouTube will be around or useable, the way technology is advancing and changing. But lets all pretend it will be here, and then all my swearing and crying over a keyboard and computer screen will not be in vain.

So feel free to check out the videos, feel free to subscribe to my channel, Kitchen Coach, and please leave me messages and suggested recipes. I will enjoying adding them into my repertoire and getting them out there for the world to also enjoy and create in their own kitchen.

Here i am doing a live cooking show at Orange COworking, in Austin TX, we periscope these now, it has been fun for sure. No escaping.

have a Fabulous day folks

getting all excited about cooking today

I have spent a lot of time rushing around this week, but today I will be in my kitchen actually making video's, which will be fun. I aim to upload a video a day next week, so my YouTube channel starts to have real content for me.

I am meeting with a friend today as well to get my apron embroidered with my name and company name. I love setting up businesses. So many aspects and angels, but always fun.

I have had some specific requests this week for recipes, so I am going to be putting those on my web site also this weekend. If you have any requests, please just comment.

I learned this week that a pinny means nothing in America, I have to keep explaining it is an apron, so watch this space, a new name is happening today. All decided and I will be excited to announce it later. No point in me doing all this work setting up a business and nobody understands what it is all about from my name, but looks confused and needs a lengthy explication.

I have a series of workshops coming up soon, The Wise Woman's  series, which I will be holding with a talent friend, Teresa Zapp, a Yoga teacher for a long time, who's heart is all about being calm and centered.
The first one is Wise Woman make the most of every minute.
Teresa will be giving tips on breathing and other ways to stay calm and get through our very hectic days, I will showing cooking tips, scheduling tips and tricks, discussing ways to help busy woman get through there day/week with out feeling so exhausted but achieving so much. This will be on Wednesday August 5th, 2015, 10-3pm, in Austin TX, please message me if you would like more details. the normal price is $79, but we are doing an early bird special of $69 until July 20th. All drinks, snack and lunch is included. A Workbook with everything we are teaching you will be provided so you can make notes, although we will have put our tips and tricks in to the book already.

If you live in Austin, I am also hosting some Lunch and learns at Orange COworking, so if you are a member there, come along on Wednesday at noon, and see quick  recipes for a healthier life.

photo's of the recent decorating

It was fun while it lasted, Allan and I had fun decorating. We do what we can do, and bring in the experts for the rest. Although Allan has sanded and re-stained wooden floors for us before, we have such a huge area of wooden floors, this time we are going to get help!! I will admit to be very grateful for that.

Our recent projects are coming along, painting all done, and here are a few photo's for you.

The family room, nearly all put back together, no more paint samples on the wall.

So close, you can see the kitchen nook as well from this angel

about to be painted.

I LOVE this area now, so fresh and inviting. The colour is called Reviving green.

and another angel, to help you see the colour.

We have actually done Ben;s room as well, and the back hallway, so I will make sure to post pictures once they are tidy ( Ben's room) or finished- the hallway. I am on mission to keep the house looking great, with a clan of children running a muck and visitors galore, I sometimes if we will ever be finished. My kitchen needs a major overhaul, but i want a permanent outside one before I do the inside one. although this year with all the rain, my back yard is not such a great place.

A talk at a local networking group SWING

Yesterday I did a talk to a local networking group I go to. It was a lot of fun. Of course I took some freshly made food and let them all eat while listening to me. A good plan for sure, as I got a good respomse to the food. I took some freshly made Rosemary bread(the rosemary was from my own garden), some fresh scones and home made lemon curd, and for any one with a gluten intolerance I took some meringue nests filled with some lime mascarpone cheese.

I am enjoying spreading the word on healthy eating, eating in moderation, nutrition  and cooking at home. I am so passionate about cooking, it is such fun for me, and I just want to spread that fun.

Do you have any favourite recipes? any memories from childhood of eating a set dish at set events? For me food has been a big part of my life, i learned to cook so young, it is a natural thing for me to do. I can cook in any mood. I recommend bread making if you are angry, muffins if it is the middle of the night, no mixer needed. I like to cook complete meals if I am in a thoughtful mood and need to mull over things.

Anyway, i thought I needed to get some photo's on here for you all. I know I am not so good at writing this blog, but believe me I am trying!!

Have a super weekend everyone.

Cooking each day makes me thoughtful

I keep cooking, and I enjoy it, but some days I do wonder if my kids will ever stop growing. I mean, they eat and eat, they have opinions on my cooking, they are happy some days to create in the kitchen ( something I must put on the schedule for them actually!) but they never seem to be full.

I am sure it is an age thing, but honestly some days it wears me out!! a loaf of bread just gone, snacks made and demolished, dinner cooked and plates clean. I wonder if I can keep up.

It is lucky I love cooking and do so daily, I am reminded that it is an activity that the boys will always know, and they will also know that anything is possible to make. maybe not in the shape that is is created in a store, but it can be made. They can ask for anything and it will be out on the weekly menu, if they really like it, then I teach them how to make it.

I am pondering if I should hold a summer camp for cooking for kids, I think it would be a lot of fun, and many children do not get to make dishes like my children do, and I should not take that for granted.

With all my years of training experience and my catering qualifications, this is an idea I should explore. I have thought of it before, but never been in the place in my life to make it happen, but now I am.

Food for thought for me..I will ponder this and see if I can pull it together this summer.