Inaugural holiday tasting event is Tuesday

Talk about it

WORTHINGTON — Julia Seykora admits she could use some cooking tips.

“I’m a casserole and hot dish cook,” said Seykora, who is the director of The Center. “I grew up on the farm, so if it has meat and vegetables and potatoes in it, I’ll put it together and put it in a pan.”

On Tuesday night, a new and traditional holiday tasting event will give a fresh perspective on holiday cooking.

The event will feature Christine Schmitz, who is a registered dietetic technician and nutrition manager at Sanford Worthington Medical Center.

Even Seykora, who organized the event, is looking for tips from Schmitz — who has been working at the hospital for 13 years and in the catering business for 20.

“Christine is very knowledgeable,” Seykora said. “She’s worked with seniors and I think she’s also currently working with high school students on healthier diets. Living with (husband and YMCA health and fitness director) Ryan and being very health-conscious, it would probably do me some good to cook healthier meals.”

The event begins at 5:30 p.m. at the Worthington Area YMCA, and is sponsored through the Worthington Regional Health Care Foundation grant. The cost of the event is $10, which includes instruction, recipes as well as samples of food and beverages.

“It’s going to be cool,” Seykora said. “The multi-purpose room will be decorated and we’ll have drinks for everybody to sample. The food will already be prepared so people can walk around and look at the food and sample the food. Everyone can take a recipe home with them and she will give some instruction on how she made it.”

Items on the menu include appetizers, main entrees and desserts.

“There are the free samples, there are free recipes — people love sharing recipes — this will be a little bit more in-depth,” Seykora said. “She can explain things better and show you how to do the presentation. It’s the social part of it too. The people who are looking for cooking for one, just because you’re cooking for one doesn’t mean you have to learn by yourself. You can come in and be with a bunch of other people who are cooking for one, or whatever the case may be.”

Schmitz will be preparing food such as: blue cheese and pear tartlets, horseradish crusted steak roulade and salted caramel apple pie — just to name a few.

And while this is organized by The Center, it’s open to people of all ages.

“You don’t have to be a senior,” Seykora said. “It’s considered senior programming, but you don’t have to be a senior; it’s for men, women and children of all ages. If you’re a single guy, you could go in there and learn how to make something impressive for a lady friend that would come over.”

To register for the event, call The Center at 376-6457 and leave a message.

Tags: news, worthington, ymca, food