I’m lucky to have a family that likes to cook and eat together. Our tastes range, for sure–some of us do not like kale or Brussels sprouts, some don’t like red meat, some will not eat hazelnuts. When we splurge on ice cream in New York City (at Grom or Van Leeuwen), our choices range from salted caramel to pistachio to coffee to chocolate. We have our specialties in the kitchen–one is a great baker, one makes incredible fresh pastas, one is the tortilla and bs’tilla hand, one the experimenter with tagines and tingas. It makes for a rich and interesting eating and cooking experience. We learn from one another about taste combinations and cultural roots of our food. We grow closer as we experiment in the kitchen, laugh over our cooking failures and devour the successes!
Making Fresh Flower-and-Herb Pasta
And now, my daughter Elizabeth, who recently graduated from college where she focused on Food Studies and Italian Studies, is home for a couple of months (waiting for her Italian visa to come through), working at Open View Gardens’ teaching arm, Open View Kitchens. Check out her new bio page! Lucky me! She is a skilled cook who has studied Italian cooking by taking classes in Italy, working alongside her Sicilian boyfriend’s mother, watching Stacie cook, and experimenting and practicing on her own. Her raviolis are cloud-like, her almond cake astonishing, her ice creams out of this world.
Basil Pot de Crème.....photo by Tim Case
To take full advantage of this short time she will be here, I am offering a series of five classes with her from the end of June to August, and additional classes upon request. We’re focusing our offerings on the garden’s bounty in such classes as Cooking Creatively with Herbs and Flowers and Beyond Pie: Unusual Desserts with Small Fruits and Berries and on exploration of cuisines from around the world in Moroccan Memories, All Things Lemongrass, and Peppers: Sweet to Spicy. It’s hands-on learning (no demonstrations by famous chefs here while you look on, intimidated!) and the dishes are designed to be delicious, unusual and yet very approachable for both cook and eater!
If you’re in Vermont this July, do join us for one of scheduled class sessions, or contact us to arrange a private class or to give a cooking class as a gift. Download our flyer or our brochure, call or email (openviewgardens@gmail.com) to sign up or if you have questions. We look forward to hearing from you!
Open View Gardens 
Wish I were there. I’d take ALL of these classes!