Reflecting on teaching / video archive!!

inc. YOUR FAVORITE CLASSES!!!

I started teaching online cooking classes in 2021. I sort-of stumbled into them when I was promoting Simply Julia, my last cookbook which came out in March 2021. I found that I LOVED doing cooking demos and classes from my home kitchen because…I didn’t have to leave my house. But more importantly, everyone joining in wasn’t there to merely watch. They could cook with me. I found that I was looser and sillier in these classes than I am in writing, whether in my books or in this newsletter. I just have a lot of fun. And I love that they’re live classes, not videos I record and then share. There’s more energy in the room, even if the room is virtual. Everyone who is there wants to be there. There are no unsolicited comments. There is no judgment. I’ve joked that my cooking classes are the safest place on the internet but it’s not a joke at all. It’s amazing.

I’m so grateful to all of you who come once, twice, a hundred times for making it possible for me to keep doing this work I enjoy so much.

Teaching has helped me remember why I love what I do. I love helping people enjoy cooking. I love helping people feel less scared of cooking. I love getting to normalize queer day-to-day stuff (I got to write about this for Bon Appétit a couple of years ago). I love cooking at home on Sunday afternoons so why not do it in community?

Here’s a fun photo Natalie Chitwood took of me setting up for class in my kitchen. The photo will be in my new cookbook WHAT GOES WITH WHAT next to an essay I wrote about teaching. Fun fact: I made the wooden iPad contraption myself. I contain multitudes!

This has all turned into a true teaching love affair and I started teaching weekly online classes at the end of 2021. In January 2022, Haley Scarpino came on board to be my support in class — she moderates the chat and just makes everything more fun (hi Haley!).

Teaching has also been a sweet thing for me and my family. My parents and grandmother tune in to nearly every single class and my mom started making the most beautiful illustrated notes that I share on IG after class. Her notes are not only great artwork, they also feel like this tangible way she shows me how much attention she’s paying. I might be close to 40, but receiving this from my mom just makes me feel really loved. Here are some recent ones of hers:

I’ve continued to teach regularly, albeit a little less frequently this year, but still at least a couple classes a month. And since then I have taken the summers off from teaching.

This past Sunday, June 30th, was my last class before my summer teaching break. It was SUCH A FUN CLASS. I truly had a wonderful time and was laughing for most of it. I felt sad that I wouldn’t be doing it again this coming weekend. And then I shared that that’s exactly why I take my summer break: I don’t want to burnout from teaching. I love it and want to keep loving it. So here I am…writing about it instead of taking a break…lol!

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Anyway, what I really came here to tell you is that I RECORD ALL OF MY CLASSES SO THAT YOU CAN TAKE TAKE THEM ANYTIME YOU WANT!

• You can revisit a class you wanted to come to but couldn’t attend live.

• You can try something new!

• You can enjoy the ability to pause a recording anytime and come back to it whenever you want.

• You can have me join you in your kitchen anytime!

You might already know I offer these recordings, but every time I share it I always hear from folks who are like “you do?!?!” so I just wanted to shout it loudly here so you know, especially while I’m on this break I keep telling you about….

»»»»» ALL OF MY CLASSES LIVE RIGHT HERE IN MY VIDEO ARCHIVE!!! «««««

There are over 100 classes in the archive!!!

• Recorded classes include the class document with recipes, grocery list, etc.

• Recorded classes are priced the same as live classes, but as always if there’s a class you want to attend and money is a barrier, just drop me a line and we’ll figure it out.

• If you are taking a recorded class and have a question, I’m not there live to answer it but I’m on the other side of my email all the time, so just ask me!

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So which classes should you take? I can’t choose favorites, so instead I asked all of you during my last class and via Instagram! Thanks to

Tory Stroker

for encouraging me to put all of these suggestions in a newsletter!

Here’s what folks said in class:

• A couple weeks ago Julia’s rotisserie chicken was amazing! Highly recommend for anyone looking for cheap meal planning

• I love the cook and eat together classes, so glad they’re coming back

• We also go back to the three soups class with the sausage farro soup

• No Judgment with Virginia Sole-Smith was so good!

  • note from me: here’s Tory’s review of that class!

• Cook once, eat many times! One of my favorites! :) Also loved the picnic class last year! Also a great cucumber salad! :)

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And here are some of the responses I got on IG — if you go to my video archive, you can just search/find the class names since I can’t link to each suggestion in these images.

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Hope you enjoy browsing the video archive! xoxooxoxooxox