Rouxbe Online Cooking School Tag

Despite my passion for chocolate, I have never been a huge Valentine's Day fan. I try to ignore it, not because I am cynical about love, but because I believe affection, gifts and surprises should be dictated by the heart, not the calendar. Or at least that's my normal stance. But Rouxbe Online Cooking School is having a limited-time-only Valentine's Day special and I think it's worth promoting. Why? Because: a) Life's too short to eat bad chocolate. Rouxbe has a fabulous section on chocolate, including how to read a label. Watch the trial video in the Rouxbe widget at the bottom of the post before you buy your sweetheart chocolate. I guarantee you and the recipient will be happy with the results. b) Unlike my gym membership, I actually visit Rouxbe's on a regular basis. I use it to refresh my memory, learn new skills and further my culinary education — which may be in part why I'm not at the gym as often as I should. c) I want to plug some of my old content using the Valentine's Day Chocolate theme as an excuse.
The fine print: I'm a Rouxbe affiliate. As such, I can offer you specials like the $100 off a Rouxbe Online Cooking School one-year membership or e-card. And hugs. Here's how it works. You sign up for the membership. They give you unlimited access to their site for a year. I give you a hug.
It's almost noon on the day before Christmas Eve and I'm not finished my shopping. Not by a long shot. I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess  I'm not the only one who needs the born-of-fear adrenaline to face the holiday crowds. Or maybe you're too disorganized busy to get it done during calm, shopper-sparce early November -- like some people I know and resent. So, for those who need some last-minute gift ideas for the cooks in your life, here are my suggestions. You can purchase them from the tranquility of your home, glass of spiked eggnog in one hand and a computer mouse in the other.
Happy Thanksgiving to my American friends! Since I can't join you in person and help out  with dinner, I thought I'd share a video that could make your holiday meal run a bit more smoothly -- or at least save your good table cloth from some unnecessary grease spots. While the turkey roasts, take 3 minutes and learn how to carve the bird like a pro. The poultry-phobic might want to bookmark this post since the instructions work perfectly for Christmas, birthdays, Sunday family dinners or any time you serve roasted poultry -- be it duck, turkey, goose, chicken or itty-bitty Cornish hens. So sharpen those knives and have a safe and very happy Thanksgiving! PS: For those who shun Black Friday, stay warm and cozy inside and take advantage of  Rouxbe Online Cooking School's Cyber Monday Deal. See below for details.
When Staples finally wakes up and realizes there's a fortune to be made with a "Harder Than It Looks" button, I'm buying a couple and mailing them out to the west coast. One's for Joe, co-founder of Rouxbe Online Cooking School, who came up with the video widget idea pictured above. The other is for Marcelo, the magician programmer who wrote the code that makes it work. As for me? For once, I'm smacking the Easy Button. My part in all this was a cinch. I just loaded up the final product. I won't get technical on you, but instead of drinking green beer on St. Patrick's Day, Marcelo ended up spending a lot of time getting the magic code into a format I could upload. Let me be clear. I don't mean a format "even I could upload." I mean a format I, me, Charmian, this blogger here, could upload on her specific site -- i.e: Christie's Corner. Yeah, that's right. Rouxbe wanted to test their widget before rolling it out to other affiliates. And they asked me. Someone should have warned them. The Christie curse followed that little widget around for a few days, but Marcelo managed to wrestle it into submission. As a result, after a lot of work on their end and very little on mine, the Magic Rouxbe Video Widget is up and running. (Joe calls it the Rouxbe Cooking Skill Widget, but it's pure magic to me.) So, what's this mean to you? Potentially a lot.
Winter has returned with a vengeance, Dumping great soggy clumps of slush on our heads. In the face of this penetrating cold, I don't want hot soup. I don't want great steaming mounds of comfort food. I want warm temperatures and sunshine. And I want it now. So I'm pretending they dishwater gray sky is brilliant blue and eating something that tastes like summer. Oranges. While I love oranges, I hate peeling them. Not only does it hurt my wonky thumb, somehow I always manage to squirt juice all over myself or anyone unlucky enough to be within spraying range. Sure, I can tackle tiny, loose-skinned clementines, but when faced with large navel oranges that might as well be bound in duct tape, I haul out the chef's knife and cut them into wedges. So, what do I do when faced with a fruit salad?