I’m just going to throw up the bare bones outline. For a more detailed recipe, you’ll have to buy the book when it comes out. One day.

1. take 2 butternut squash, peel, and then medium dice them.

2. take 1 sweet potato or yam and peel and dice, also medium.

Roast them together at 350 in a preheated oven for about 1/2 hour or until they start to brown on the edges. This is a light roast.

3. Buy Alan Benton’s hams and dice them also medium dice. I use about 1/4 – 1/2 of a pound. Take the ham and saute it in a T of EVO. Then put in Kahlua and apple jack. About 1/4 – 1/3 cup combined. Flambe it. When the flames go out, set aside. Sometimes, I also use his bacon. It’s fantastic. If you add his bacon use about 1/4 – 1/2 a pound. Play with it.

4. Sweat 1/2 diced, small, onion in some butter, and then add about 6-8 oz of mushrooms, sliced thin. You can add more if you like.

5. Combine the roasted veggies with the mushrooms and onion and heat lightly. Add the ham, drained, and then top with toasted sunflower seeds. I used about 1/2 a cup. Season with white pepper. No need for salt the ham has it.

For vegetarians, leave out the ham and add cranberries instead and season with the white pepper and some sea salt. I like to use smoke sea salt.

I gotta go cook. Enjoy.

You know, I still do Life by Chocolate, the cheese cake, the various ice creams, the Big Moose, sabayon, elephant ears, etc. I’ve just added more individual pastries and chocolates. So. Tonight, for example, I’ll be doing my orange cinnamon ice cream with the 25 year old balsamic vinegar. Yummer. I didn’t do any of the individual pastries this week, just the cheese cake, the warm chocolate foam, the quad of hand made confections, the ice cream and the cheese and chocolate spring rolls.

Sigh. So many desserts, so few dinners! 😉

Yup. We are going to be in the Washington Post. They were interested in our great art and quilt art library. We’ve been in USA Today and Country Magazine just to name a few publications. Just another day in the life, if you know what I mean.

I have more pictures coming. We’ll get more classroom pictures.

Well, you’re missing a great workshop. Plenty of people on this waiting list. Everyone loves Melody.

And if you haven’t signed up this year at all, you’re going to be missing warm chocolate foam as well and artisan chocolates.

The weather was great and everyone had a fun time. Here’s Kenn, the intrepid winter painter, demoing. Notice that people are dressed warmly but not bundled to the nth. Boy, did you miss an opportunity of a lifetime. Too bad. Maybe we’ll have another plein air winter workshop in 2010. Can’t guarantee that the weather will be this good though.

And don’t forget the food. They had many delicacies and lots of spirit as well as spirits or at least wine and beer.

Did I mention the oysters?

Both raw and baked with a pepper sauce! Yum! The winter painters, especially the plein air painters, get the treats. Well, actually, everyone gets treats. You missed this fantastic class. Everyone had more fun and more excitement and learned more… more… more… and ate more!

Such as COOKIES!

And what do you have to do for those treats, shovel snow! 😉 Well, only if you wanted to!

Here’s John, a painter, having fun shoveling. Kim shoveled, I shoveled, Kenn shoveled and John shoveled. Did we have fun. The last day, it snowed 1 1/2 feet of snow. Breath taking! Everyone painted inside, the only day where they painted inside.

Well, should we open a cafe? And then, what would the name be? The Living Room? The Parlor? The Hidden Room? What?

Here are some photos of some of the pastries and confections that I made. I’m still working on them so we wont be opening any cafe this year. But, lucky you, if you come to a workshop, you get to eat them.

I’ve been making molded chocolate, nougats, Torrone, caramels dipped in dark chocolate, nougats dipped in white chocolate, cinnamon stacks, and for the pastries, dacquoises, tarts, eggs in snow (oeuf a la neige), eclairs and mouses.

This was a fun group. They had a blast. Here are some sample pictures. Oh, and as you can see, we finally got some snow.

First the Maestro teaching.

And now, everyone having a great time!

And again, the Maestro teaching. We had a great time in this class, as you can see.

Finally, Winter arrived after this workshop. It waited till late in the season. What fun we had in the snow.