Orange County Museum of Art: Junior Chef

Our latest Junior Chef class with the Orange County Museum of Art was a success! Junior chefs put together a healthy meal with fresh produce from the Irvine Farmer’s Market under the direction of Chef Jeff. They learned how to select the best fruits and vegetables and why it’s important to support local food.

Junior chefs at the Farmer’s Market

When they returned from their shopping trip, they began to prepare their food starting with some sour dough bread. Their menu also included cold fruit soup, salad, sourdough pancakes, sourdough banana bread, and sourdough pizza.

Chef Jeff demonstrates how to knead dough

The kids prepared their food, covering their hands in sticky dough, and mixing Chef Jeff’s super secret salad dressing. After a morning of cooking like gourmet chefs they sat down to enjoy their feast.

Junior chefs enjoying their meal

The next Junior Chef will take place August 8th from 10:00am to 12:00pm and is redeemable for our Build-Your-Own Summer Camp class package. The package allows you to mix and match classes from   our Smiling Monkey Yoga, Orange County Museum of Art, and The Ecology Center classes.

For more information, visit the event page on our website.

Good Happens.

Peace Grl Out!

Live Peace with Human Options

Each week we highlight great organizations making good happen! They truly demonstrate how much each of us can do to help our communities and those in need. Live Peace by finding and supporting a cause that you believe in through the work of organizations like Human Options.

Human Options is a women’s shelter  in Irvine, CA with a mission to help battered women, their families, and their communities end the cycle of domestic violence. It offers a variety of resources such as an emergency shelter and transitional living programs with included counseling, legal advocacy, case management, and job readiness training. They also run a 24 hour emergency, bilingual hotline. Women and their children have access to a Children and Families Counseling Center, K-12 community education, and violence prevention training programs. It also runs a community education program in which their educators present to various schools, organizations, and agencies about issues surrounding domestic violence.

Human Option’s long term assistance and prevention approach has helped thousands of women and children to lead more healthy and violence free lives since they started their work in 1981. Support Human Options by donating fresh produce and spices every Saturday of July, during the Irvine Farmer’s Market, at the Center. Also refer to Human Option’s wish list for donated items or volunteer to help out. Volunteers must be 18  or 16 to work with children’s programs and go through a training workshop.

For more details on the organization’s work, visit their website!

Good Happens.

Peace Grl Out!

Good Food Happens.

In his workshop, “Artful Eating,” Orange County Museum of Art‘s very own Jeff Venier, M.F.A. leads the group in a drawing exercise based on the techniques of the old masters.  This art class, though technical, is also designed to be a means of practicing mindfulness.  Appreciating the beauty of our food leads to a richer, and more mindful eating experience, and can give us time to think about where our food comes from, what form it takes.  Before sitting down to draw, Jeff leads the group in touring the Irvine Farmer’s Market to gather the ingredients for their still life (and their lunch!).

Jeff’s workshops always feature exciting new recipes, sure to broaden your knowledge of delicious ingredients.  Past recipes have included:  Black and Brown sweet rice salad with Eggplant and Tomatoes with Pecorino, and Beet and Carrot Asian remoulade.

The hands on cooking portion (utilizing elements from the still life) of the class has been a favorite aspect of the class for adults and children alike.  Jeff transforms cooking from being a chore to something fun and joyful.

The shared meal is the finale of the class.  Not only does the food taste amazing, but eating feels different after so much time spent studying, appreciating, arranging, and working with the food.  ”Artful Eating” seems to refer not only to the practice of combining drawing and cooking, but to a transformed way of nourishing our bodies and minds.

Wondering what to do now that your mouth is watering?  Start by making sure you don’t miss Cheff Jeff’s last Artful Eating workshop:

this Saturday

August 28th

(class starts promptly at 11:30, ends at 2:30)

Reserve your place now!

And, check out Jeff’s Food Blog to see photos and find recipes for more of his out-of-this-world (homemade) cuisine.

Good (and good food!) Happens.

Peace Grl Out.

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