just the best Sunday with Virginia Sole-Smith!
recipes for paid subscribers: Americano Cocktails, Rigatoni + Sausage Ragu + Italian Chopped Salad!
Hi friends! It’s snowing at my house and I’m sitting at my computer in front of a window that makes me feel like I live in a tiny snow globe.
I want to dedicate today to telling you all about my class this past Sunday with
, but first a heads-up that my upcoming class this weekend will be all about baking! It’s going to be sweet + cozy. I hope you’ll join me.
This Sunday (1/21) my EASY BAKING CLASS will include: super gingery cookies, the simplest Greek yogurt cake with any type of jam you want swirled into it, and chocolate chunk muffins (which are basically cupcakes minus the frosting). This is a great class for any new or nervous bakers of any age! Tons of tips + tricks shared along the way. » SIGN UP HERE!! « Class is $40 but if you’d like to join and $ is a barrier, just let me know and I’ll get you sorted! If you have questions about my classes, check out the FAQs here!
Also, did you know I offer private classes for individuals and businesses? They’re great for team building and bonding, enhancing company culture, connecting family members/friends/employees regardless of geographic location. Some of my previous clients include Google, Mailchimp, Instagram, and MUJI. Classes include a PDF of recipes + the option to add a ‘fireside chat’ conversation focusing on anything from queerness to what powerlifting has taught me. If you’re interested in booking a private class, just send along a note here.
Okay, now all about last weekend. I spent the afternoon with the one-and-only Virginia Sole-Smith. I assume 99% of you are familiar with her work, but if you’re not, here’s a quick rundown:
Virginia Sole-Smith is the author of the NYT-bestselling FAT TALK: Parenting In The Age of Diet Culture and The Eating Instinct: Food Culture, Body Image and Guilt in America. As a journalist, she has reported from kitchen tables and grocery stores, graduated from beauty school, and gone swimming in a mermaid’s tail. Her work has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, Harper’s, Scientific American and many other publications. Virginia lives in New York’s Hudson Valley with her daughters, a cute dog, and too many houseplants.
She is also the person behind the incredibly popular and IMPORTANT newsletter BURNT TOAST, which is as much a community as it is a resource. Virginia describes Burnt Toast as an “anti-diet, fat positive community about body liberation.”
Virginia joined me in my kitchen and although we’ve been pals for a while, we’ve never actually cooked together which, to me, is the true test of friendship. Right after class the first thing I said to her was: “I feel like we’ve done that together a million times before.” We navigated making all the dishes and answering everyone’s questions so comfortably. I loved, loved, loved spending the afternoon with her in my kitchen and welcoming so many others via Zoom. It was as fun as it was healing.
For anyone who hasn’t been to one of my No Judgment classes before, I started teaching them semi-monthly in November 2022. The format has remained pretty much the same: everyone who joins cooks together and then we EAT together and during the time when everyone’s eating, there’s some kind-of conversation. The purpose of these classes is to offer a way to help us (myself included) repair and improve our relationships to our bodies and the food we cook and eat. Some people join because they’re recovering from an eating disorder, others because they’re dismantling body image issues, and many come just because the menu sounds fun. There’s no right or wrong reason to join class. My only rule is that discussion of weight loss/dieting techniques is strictly prohibited (and everyone has respected that). To read a first-hand account of what it’s like to take class, check out
’s lovely post from her recent newsletter right here:
The classes have become such a wonderful anchor in my own journey to find peace and power within my body and to work to dismantle the anti-fat bias that makes it all so hard in the first place.
How so? Because there’s just something about cooking and eating together with joy and boundless permission. Because there’s just something about not avoiding the difficult conversations and diving in headfirst. And mostly because there’s just something about doing all of this together and not alone. Everyone who shows up to class does so with a lot of bravery and vulnerability. I feel like we all meet each other exactly where we are. It’s all very special.
I am so grateful to Virginia for joining me for this one and for being so open to answering everyone’s questions. The group on Sunday was so thoughtful and asked about everything from ableism to how to feed yourself when you live alone to the best way to respond to your toddler when they only eat waffles and Goldfish (short answer: those are great choices!). We raised money for NAAFA (the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance) which works through education, advocacy + support to make the world safer for fat people.
My mom even attended and then sent along her wonderful illustrated notes (see below!).
If you want to watch us cook and talk to everyone, you can stream the recording of our class here. Just like the live class, this recorded version is sliding scale starting at $0 going up to whatever you want. My next ‘No Judgement’ class will be in March with Wendy + Jess from Food Heaven (see here!). Remember that even if you can’t attend live, signing up means you’ll get the class PDF and the recording right after class.
And now, without further ado, for my generous paid subscribers who I appreciate so much (THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING MY WORK!), here are all the recipes from Sunday’s class with Virginia:
Americano Cocktails
Italian Chopped Salad
Rigatoni with Sausage Ragu
Also note that I did not include a recipe for the brownies because we just used a box mix. Both Virginia and I agree the ‘Double Chocolate’ Ghiradelli brownies (the red box) are the best and any brownie recipe I’ve tried to develop has never come close.
AN AMERICANO COCKTAIL / Makes 1, easily multiplied
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