110, 215, 340

Those are the course numbers of the cooking classes I'll be teaching at BYU starting fall 2020.

I have been at BYU since 2000. Even when I wasn't teaching on campus, I was teaching through BYU's Independent Study. I've primarily taught SFL 110, Food Preparation in the Home. I've also been helping with student teachers and interns for the last few years, as needed.

Well, Natalie Hancock, our director, got the approval to bring back SFL 215, Advanced Food Preparation, in the fall. I'll be developing and teaching it. Marci Smith taught it years ago. It was pulled due to cost. I'll be developing a less TA prep driven class. In other words, my class won't require our TA's to do hours of preparation for each lab. It will be heavy on baking and pastries since the state of Utah is rolling out a high school level class for baking and pastries and our teachers need to be prepared to teach it.

Nikki Sue Larkin, who has been teaching 340 for about 8 years, is leaving. It's sad to see her go. She's a fantastic woman and great co-worker, but the change is good for her family. That leaves a need for someone to teach 340 starting spring. I told Natalie I was confident I could do it. I've been looking at all of Nikki Sue's materials. I attended class a couple of times, until classes all went to remote learning due to the pandemic. I have a month to get ready to now teach it remotely. The great news is that 340 was authorized last semester to be written for online education, so starting tomorrow, I'll be working with an instructional designer to get the online version of 340 ready to pilot in spring. 110 is already online, so we're ready for that. I'm just re-writing some wording on some assignments. We feel that the translation from on campus class to online didn't come across too well in a few assignments. I'll go into work tomorrow to do that. I can go to work easily, as nobody is there, so there is no risk of contact.

I've been taking cooking classes to get some more skills. Jenny joined me in a French pastry class at Sur la Table. I also took a braising class. I purchased an online cake class that a friend of mine put together and I'm signed up for a Thai cooking class. It's supposed to be this week, but I'm pretty sure it's cancelled.

Recipe testing: roasted chicken thighs for fats and oils to teach them about the flavor in dark meat.

A Greek lemon soup that uses tempered eggs to thicken the soup. 

Microwave cake