Cooking with Kristen and Kingsolver a Delicious Success
By Shirley Gilbert
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Chef Kristen Desmond
The stars, the weather and the guests were in perfect alignment on July 16th for dinner and July 17th for lunch when Chef Kristen Desmond donned her white apron and demonstrated how to make a most delicious dinner and lunch chock full of fresh produce from principally local ingredients.
The idea was to create two menus that were inspired by the book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle as the last activity associated with this year-long exploration of the ideas and passion of author Barbara Kingsolver, who moved her family from Arizona to a farm in West Virginia to grow her own food and become a locavore.
“I want to thank you all for coming to cook together,” said co-chair of the One Book, One Community program Margery Leonard, “and also for helping make the Kingsolver choice so successful this year. I think this is a perfect ending to a wonderful experience.” Margery added that some 17 discussion sessions were held and over 256 AAUW and community members discussed the book throughout the year.
Margery also thanked Chef Kristen Desmond who came from Santa Barbara to donate her time and her energy to bring the most delightful dinner and luncheon to AAUW members. Kristen is a professional chef who doesn’t believe we need to choose between being fit or being a foodie and she proved it by creating two mouth watering and healthy meals. Visit her website Get your Yummy back! to see some other examples.
The cooking classes were offered to a little band of greeters, discussion leaders and frequent AAUW Fremont Branch attendees. Some 25 members and helpers were invited and 17 came to the two meals.
The dinner was held at the home of Shirley Gilbert in Fremont. The highlight of the meal was the grilling of individual pizzas which guest/students decorated and embellished with loads of Italian goodies. Everyone joined in to create zucchini fritters with a piquant sauce. The guests learned how to make them and then ate them with the rest of the meal — cucumber soup, pizzas, and blueberry ice for dessert on the patio.
The lunch was held in Kathy Garfinkle’s kitchen and served at poolside on her patio. Guests watched as Chef Kristin put together an exciting menu that centered around a quiche-like main course of spinach, gruyere and shiitake mushrooms. The basil-blackberry crisp served for dessert was a direct steal from the menu created by Camille, daughter of Barbara Kingsolver.
Wonder of wonders – three gentlemen joined the two sessions. John Skarpelos, who helped with his wonderful flyers and graphic arts expertise for the book talks, Arnold Gilbert, husband of Shirley, who came on Friday evening, and Pete Angelides, who attended lunch on Saturday. Pete represented both himself and co-chair Genevieve Angelides who is recovering from an auto accident.
Kudos, congratulations and thanks flowed after the dinner and lunch. “Thank you,” wrote one happy eater, “for staging such a great experience.” “Wonderful seasonal meal deliciously done,” wrote another. “Last night,” offered a diner, “was absolutely one of the best times I’ve had in years.”
Kathy Garfinkle, who attended both cooking classes, had the final word on the experience. “I felt wonderfully full,” she said, “in a very healthy and contented way.”
Please enjoy the recipes from various sources that Kristen put together for us.
Here are the Lunch and Dinner Menus and Recipes and here are a few Pictures