I Heart Beef

I am not gonna lie to you folks - I had a good time today. The stars aligned and 4 grade schoolers went off to school without a hitch and two Mimi's stepped up to the plate and kept 3 preschoolers (at their own houses but it sounds so much better when I say that we were able to ditch er I mean find someone to care for 7 kids) so that my friend Stephanie and I could head off to Milestone Culinary Arts Center with a bunch of other DFW area bloggers. (Feels quite official that the author of little old I Heart Bowheads can refer to herself as a DFW area blogger.)

Anyhoo - we were there for this.....

The Texas Beef Council threw a big old Moms Day out/education/cooking experience thing and if you ask me it was great. I am a sucker for anything with folders and neat labels - they pretty much had me as I walked in the door saying that this was the best day ever. Now I am linking up to a lot of stuff today (I am trying to keep organized and put all links to other sites in red by the way.) So that you guys can go check out the cool stuff I learned today. Seriously go visit the Beef Council link - it is one of the websites that I have been to since I have been home that I am most excited about. A lot of good stuff there.

Anyway - I digress......

I FINALLY got to meet Holly from June Cleaver Nirvana - I sort of felt like I already knew her but in real life - we had never met. It was great to meet her and we greeted one another with a big old - bear hug long lost relation - kind of thing that was fun. :)

We all introduced ourselves and then we had our first speaker. Angela of Mommy Dietitian Blog spoke to us about feeding our kids! She was really nice and provided a lot of great info. I was able to ask her a question about my 8 year old and she had some great ideas. I was so sort of caught up in the moment at this point that I totally forgot to take her picture. (I did take a picture of the cool folders and stuff cuz I'm a nerd like that you know.)

Then we got to learn from Chef Richard Chamberlain.

The whole thing was very Top Chef

I kept wanting to say - utensils down - hands up - oh who am I kidding - I said that at least twice

The coolest thing was after each thing he showed us - we got a little yummy plate.

This was a very lovely and well-timed surprise because I believe at one point I turned to Stephanie and mumbled something along the lines of "

this smells so good and I am so hungry I am about to start gnawing my arm off"

or something like that

anyway

I now own a WONDERFUL cookbook - signed by Chef Chamberlain himself.

Check out all my awesome stuff

and a meat thermometer - I REALLY needed a new meat thermometer - one of those things like floss - you only think about buying when you need it.....

Now I am a hair out of order here but this is the FABULOUS dish that our group made. I am TOTALLY making this again - totally - do I sound hip and young?

oh well - you can't win every time - back to the story

Here is Chef Chamberlain putting the finishing touches on our plate with Trista

So this picture was taken because I was cooking our squash and asparagus and Lee Ann and Holly were just chatting and taking pictures like mad and I busted my phone out of my pocket and said, "hey girls - let me take a picture of you two watching me cook"

Now it is possible that Lee Ann has a video out there somewhere with me allegedly joking that I wondered if I dropped the AWESOME knife that I was cutting with in my bag if anyone would notice - allegedly I might have said that - in jest.....

Anyway - carrying on

Me and Stephanie - having an awesome time

The very cool Top Chef er I mean Milestone Kitchen

This was our recipe card and "work station" not Top Chefish at all though. No way I cracked another Top Chef comparison here - not at all. (and no way I was totally pretending that I was a contestant in my head all day - no way)

Long story short - it was an AWESOME day and I really want to thank Holly and the Texas Beef Council again. I had the greatest time and I can't wait to cook dinner tomorrow night! (I am not going to lie - tonight I ate a veggie burger from Mooyah and felt a little blasphemous. Tomorrow for sure though I am going to make a beef recipe that my family will drool over!)