With holidays coming up, why not surprise your friends and family with delicious home-made chocolate truffles? It's easier than you think! Recipes will be sent in advance so you can cook along, or watch and try later.

For as long as people have cooked, there have been recipes. But they weren't always written down, instead kept safe inside the cook's memory. And when they were written down, they might have only made sense to a few in-the-know people. Today's cookbooks are dramatically different from those put together just 50 or 100 years ago, for many reasons. In four interactive sessions, we'll explore the history of written recipes and the influences on their evolution. We'll also share favorite cookbooks, get organized, befriend technology, and even  play "recipe detective".

"A party without cake is just a meeting," Julia Child famously said. And she's right! Nothing makes the party like a lovingly home-baked and creatively decorated cake. Why not be the cake person this holiday season? In this four-week cake extravaganza, we'll make layer cake, Bundt cake, mini cakes and cupcakes, and rolled cakes. The focus is on techniques and tools  that can be applied to any number of recipes. Recipes covered will be seasonal flavors and designs. Note: If you've taken my cake classes before, this is a bundle of those plus a new segment on rolled cakes.

He was a young chef from France who started cooking in his family's restaurant as a child and eventually became personal chef to Charles de Gaulle. She earned a diploma from Le Cordon Bleu, collaborated with two Frenchwomen to write cookbook bringing French cooking to American kitchens, and became The French Chef on public television. They met in New York, became friends and later collaborated on multiple projects; we'll explore their unique and delightful rapport on their Cooking in Concert specials and the series Julia & Jacques Cooking at Home.