Well, my class went over very well- Everyone showed up, ate lots of goodies, asked interesting questions, and gave me great feedback. And all my co-workers really enjoyed cleaning up the leftover cake and cookies! I didn't anticipate the class being such hard work, though. Hauling my pans, mixer, and ingredients around, washing tons of dishes, and cleaning up the massive amount of frosting I managed to get on the floor took quite a while. Now I understand why Gabriele really wanted an assistant for her class Thursday night. Luckily, my best work friend Darci was there to whisk my ganache to and from the freezer down the hall when it wouldn't cool fast enough.

When I got home, I was so exhausted! But I wanted to eat something super healthy since I sampled a good deal of frosting and cake today. I was inspired by Vegan Dad's Holiday Stew that had chestnuts in it and decided to make a really easy soup with chestnuts. Of course this super easy soup ended up taking kind of a long time (as most of my meals do). Here's what I mixed up:


1 carrot, diced
2 small potatoes, diced
1 small turnip, diced
1 cup of squash, diced
About 10 roasted, peeled chestnuts
1 can Great Northern beans, drained
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp. thyme
2 bouillon cubes (Rapunzel's with salt and herbs)
6 cups water
4 cups baby spinach
salt and pepper to taste

I simmered everything together, except the spinach. I threw that in after the soup had simmered about 30 minutes and let it wilt.

Yum! This soup was really tasty and light and warming.