Category Archives: Events

Holiday Classes: Cocktails and Bread-Making

Birmingham, Booze, Cooking, Events, , , , ,

Come learn with me! I’m teaching two classes this weekend, and I want you to sign up!

On Saturday, December 15, I’m running a holiday mixology workshop at Painted Shovel Mercantile in Avondale. For $25, you’ll learn three seasonal classics: Mulled Wine, Eggnog, and the French 75—plus a Painted Shovel Holiday Margarita I’ve created just for the class. (And yes, you get to try all the drinks!) To enroll, please call 205-593-2083 or email paintedshovel@gmail.com.

And on Sunday, December 16, my bread and rolls class returns to Freshfully. This lesson sold out last time, so make sure to grab your spot now. It’s just $15, and you’ll learn my foolproof bread-from-scratch recipe, sample some delicious bread and rolls, and go home with a batch of dough all ready to bake immediately (or to freeze and bake later). Enroll online here.

See you this weekend in Avondale!

Jason holding bread

Make Bread with Me!

Birmingham, Cooking, Events, Food, , , , ,

Jason holding bread

I love bread. I love eating bread, I love baking bread, I love kneading bread dough.

And I want you to, too.

So I’m working with awesome local-food-only grocery store Freshfully to put together a bread-making class on Sunday, October 21.

Look: People are afraid of baking their own bread. For some reason, they think it takes some kind of alchemy (plus a French accent) to bake a decent loaf. They are wrong. All it takes is four ingredients and a couple hours, and you can have as much fresh-from-the-oven bread as you want.

In the class, I’ll go over my pretty-much-foolproof method for making all kinds of bread and explain some of the science behind how bread-making works while you mix and knead your own batch of dough. Then, while the dough rises, we’ll sample a bunch of my own breads (including white-chocolate, olive-and-herb, and more), paired with some local cheeses.

At the end of the class, you’ll go home with a batch of bread dough ready for baking (sorry, Freshfully doesn’t have an oven) or freezing for later (yes, I’ll tell you how to do that as well).

Registration is $30, but for reading through this post, I’ll save you five bucks! Just use coupon code DOUGH at checkout.

See you Sunday!

Magic City Brewfest 2011

Birmingham, Booze, Events, Food, Products, , , , , , , , ,

A Good People keg at Magic City Brewfest

Last weekend marked my favorite Birmingham event: Magic City Brewfest. (Yeah, a beer festival doesn’t fit with my job, but until this town gets a world-class cocktail celebration, this is the best we got.)

And this year was an extra-special one: Avondale Brewing Co., the newest local brewery, got final permission to open the morning of the festival. This was literally the first time Avondale’s brews were served to the public, and I’m happy to report the company is very good at what it does (more on that below).

In fact, the 2011 Brewfest really seemed to shine a spotlight on Alabama breweries. Five of the state’s six legal beer-makers—Avondale and Good People from Birmingham, Blue Pants and Straight to Ale from Huntsville, and Back Forty from Gadsden—were on hand, and all sported the longest lines all day long. (The sixth Alabama brewery, Yellowhammer from Huntsville, missed out only because it suffered some damage in the April 27 tornadoes and is low on product, I’m told.)

Continue reading Magic City Brewfest 2011 →

National Food Blogger Bake Sale

Birmingham, Events, Food

Food Blogger Bake Sale logo

I’m proud to be hosting, with Alison Lewis of Ingredients, Inc., the Alabama edition of the National Food Blogger Bake Sale.

On Saturday, May 14, bloggers around the country will be hawking tasty treats to raise money for Share our Strength, a charity working to end childhood hunger in the US. If you’re in Birmingham, I hope you’ll come out and take advantage.

Our bake sale runs from 10 to 3 at the corner of 18th Street and 29th Avenue in downtown Homewood, across the street from Urban Cookhouse [map]. Besides goodies from some of Birmingham’s best food bloggers, we’ll have some special treats from Urban Standard, Dreamcakes, and more.

So please make plans to fight hunger by buying some cookies and cupcakes from me in Homewood on Saturday. And tell your friends!

But I also need some help: What would you like to have me bake for the sale? I’ll probably make a few loaves of bread, but what else? Cookies? Brownies? Make me a suggestion in the comments!

Middle Eastern Food Festival

Birmingham, Events, Food, , , , ,

Baklava at Birmingham's Middle Eastern Food Festival

Birmingham has exactly three excellent ethnic-food festivals, but they’re all oddly similar—there’s the Lebanese Food & Cultural Festival in the spring, the Greek Food Festival in September, and the Middle Eastern Food Festival, which started Thursday and continues through tonight. All benefit a local church, and all feature similar foods.

Good thing all three are entirely delicious. Continue reading Middle Eastern Food Festival →