This is the first blog entry that I am writing that doesn’t have a recipe attached to it.  I hope you will forgive me but at the moment I have two strangers in my kitchen and so, I have no way to bake or cook for me or you.  Well, I know who they are, they are working for me.

July was such a busy month and it just slipped on by me.  The beginning of the month, I found myself as a tour guide with my dear cousin’s two sons plus one girlfriend.  It was great fun as we went through Harry Potter World, Disneyland, Solvang, San Francisco, Napa and all the local attractions around Sacramento. They kept me hopping as we all stayed up late talking and watching movies.  I truly enjoyed their visit.

A few days before they left, the California State Fair opened.  I was scheduled to work in the Olive Oil Education Classroom the weekend before they left.  When I agreed to do this, I did it, of course, for the love of olive oil and to get the word out on what a good quality oil is.  I didn’t really think through the hours of this commitment.  I had to arrive by 10:30 and stayed until 8:30 or so.  I did have little mini-breaks throughout the day. The weekend classes were packed.  It was a lot of work.  I didn’t work all through the 17 days but I did put in ten 11-hour days, all the weekends.  Some days I was in charge of getting the classroom set up with the necessary papers, pamphlets and the correct oils poured, announcing the instructor.  Then, cleaning everything up in 15 minutes, washing the cups and setting up all over again within an hour.  Some days, I taught up to five classes a day.  Other days, I did both set up, clean up and teach.  It was crazy and much fun.  I met some young people who opted to volunteer in our Olive Oil Classroom and enjoyed getting to know them. I came home very night pretty exhausted.

I did get my Five Seconds of Fame!  KCRA Channel 3 with Leticia Ordaz came to interview me about the classes.  I was on the 6:00 News that Sunday.  I was working and couldn’t see it.  They didn’t show it at 11:00 but my neighbor, Eileen, actually recorded it for me to see.  I don’t know how they found any cohesive sentence because I stuttered and made no sense when I saw the camera on me.  Ha ha.  What an experience and now I can say that I’ve been on TV.  I’ll make sure to put it on my resume.  (Wink!)

On two days, I offered a cooking class.  Boy, do people show up when there is free food.  People were lining up outside the classroom to watch and wait to sample.  I baked one Celebration Cake for each class, slicing paper thin pieces and I barely had enough for everyone.  Unfortunately, the first day I was in such a hurry that I wrote “Celebrity Cake” on the white board and told everyone that if they didn’t get all the instructions they could look it up.  Well, when you search Celebrity Cake on this site, it doesn’t show up!  Dang!  I felt terrible.  I’m hoping people will search for cake and see that it shows up.

I love teaching, so doing the classes was great!  If you came to visit me at the State Fair, thank you!  I saw a few former students and friends while I was there.

That was July.  Now August, I am having my kitchen cabinets painted.  They are looking wonderful.  I can’t wait to get everything put back and see how it looks.  It’s a great time to deep clean all my small appliances and cooking utensils.  I’m very tempted to buy a few new things.  I’ve got the shopping bug.  I’ll let you know how it all turns out.

There are a few recipes that I am excited to try out.  As soon as I get the kitchen put together again, I will experiment and blog about them.

Until then, eat well, drink well and live well.