Coming up This Week!

If you missed my guest appearance on Paula Deen’s Best Dishes, it airs again today, November 7th at 5:00 Eastern (Please check times in your area) and again November 14th at 12:00 PM Eastern on Food Network.

This is gonna be a hectic week, but in a good way! I have to do a little filming Monday and Tuesday and then I’ll be prepping all day Wednesday for my big Holiday Cooking Show in Florence, Alabama. I’m so excited to get to see many of y’all at that show and I just can’t wait to feed you! If you didn’t come to my cooking show last year, I thought I’d tell you a little about the format.

I modeled my cooking show after the Southern Living Cooking Schools that I grew up with, but I changed it up a bit. Thanks to the help of a few hundred Culinary Students at the University of North Alabama, led by the amazing Chef Ogun, after I get finished cooking each item the entire audience gets to sample it! In between setting up for the next recipe my dad and son then go up to the microphone and call out ticket numbers for door prizes. Last year we had so many door prizes that they actually ended up having to call them out even after the show was over! This year I’m especially thrilled with all of the wonderful prizes we have to offer, I feel like Santa Claus! I asked a few companies personally to donate and Hamilton Beach, Calphalon, Terra Bacio, Southern Living, Rubbermaid, and many others came through in a big way! Home Depot custom built my kitchen set just for this holiday cooking show and the Marriott Conference Center in Florence was kind enough to let us use their facilities for it.

There will be a special section for kids where Home Depot will be hosting a building workshop and Bob and Larry from VeggieTales will be there to meet everyone.

The Holiday Market Place opens up at 4:00 but if you can’t make it until 5:00 or so you’ll still have plenty of time. My cooking show begins at 7:00 and generally runs about an hour. After the show I’d love for anyone who likes to come up on the stage for pictures and chatting. Of course, I’d be honored to sign anything you’d like.

Attendees will receive a program which includes all recipes I cook during the show and I can’t wait for you to taste my Faux Pecan Pie!

There are so many volunteers who have worked for months to pull this show together and all proceeds go to benefit the HES Department of UNA.

If you would like to help with my Santa’s for Seniors project, I will have a Southern Plate Table in the vendor area and will be thrilled to accept any Suave Body Wash you’d like to bring to help us adopt more nursing homes at christmas Time.

If you haven’t purchased your tickets yet and would like to come, they are available at the door. For more information, please click here. This is a one of a kind cooking show that only takes place in Muscle Shoals (I couldn’t possibly pull it off without all of the help from UNA) so I hope to see you there if you can make it!

Next time you’re stressed:

Take a step back, inhale and laugh.

Remember who you are and why you’re here.

You’re never given anything in this world that you can’t handle.

Be strong, be flexible, love yourself, and love others.

Always remember, just keep moving forward. 

~Found on Pinterest