Food magic

I'm currently at In-service training in Portland for my Americorps position.
The sessions have been quite informative and engaging. Yesterday afternoon I learned about effective meeting facilitation. This morning I learned about "Shopping on the Edge" from Nutrition Magician, Tom Ohling. He advocates shopping from the perimeter of the grocery store where the fresh produce, dairy and whole grains can be found, rather than buying the prepackaged stuff in the center aisles of the store. We also learned the benefits of washing and blanching produce as soon as it comes home from the store to facilitate the speedy preparation of future meals. And he taught us to make quick and easy vinagrette and mayonaise.
Vinagrette: 1 part acid (lemon juice, pickle juice, vinegar, tomato juice, etc) plus 3 parts oil, and a littl mustard powder as an emulsifier, plus salt to taste. Voila! Vinagrette!

Also, it's notable to mention that the food at this training session is about a zillion times better than it was at the training in July. And there are actually options for the poor vegetarians this time.