Spice Things Up with Milk Street’s Chris Kimball
February 25 at noon

Milk Street’s Chris Kimball joins KQED for a lunchtime conversation about spicing up your home cooking routine! He’s elevated home cooking and transformed mealtime from stressful to simple. Now he is coming to your kitchen (virtually)! Savor this conversation with Christopher Kimball, the James Beard Award-winning host of the popular PBS series Milk Street and founder of the downtown Boston cooking school and food media hub of the same name.

Join Christopher and KQED’s Carly Severn to inspire your adventures in the kitchen and refresh your homemade cuisine. He’ll share imaginative ways to work with spices, discuss his new book “Cookish: Throw it Together” and serve up other kitchen wisdom. Bring your burning culinary questions and take away tips on ingredients, flavors, and cooking techniques to spice things up in your kitchen! From the number of cooking shows I shared with you in my “Events Around the Bay” columns, I am sure you will be a fab chef. I’ll be waiting for the invitation to your gourmet dinner!

Information
KQED.org/events

Photo courtesy of KQED

How to Make an Urban Bird Feeder
March 6 at 10 a.m.

Here is a fun class for the entire family, but recommended for ages 6 and up. Birdseed ornaments are a fun project to make year-round and a great gift to present to your teacher as you are getting ready to return to school. Hooray! Birds need to eat 365 days a year and bird feeders created out of seeds are the perfect ornaments for your backyard. They are made with ordinary cookie cutters so you can customize your gifts for every occasion. In this live, one-hour Zoom class, you will make your own bird feeder creations using unique seeds such as black sunflower seeds, nyjer seed, cracked corn, millet and mealworms. You will also learn about local bird species. Most supplies are included and can be picked up at Gamble Garden in Palo Alto. Elizabeth F. Gamble Garden is a non-profit community horticultural organization and is open to the public free of charge. The tours of the garden have been cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic but it is open for the pick-up of the bird feeder kit.

Information
$35 per household
650-329-1356
gamblegarden.org
Elizabeth F. Gamble Garden
1431 Waverley Street in Palo Alto

Photo courtesy of Gamble Garden

Festival Napa Valley Presents NOVACK Virtual Concerts for Kids
February 24 at 11:30 a.m.

The Sphinx Virtuosi is one of the nation’s most dynamic professional chamber orchestras, composed of 18 top Black and Latinx classical soloists as part of the Sphinx Organization which is dedicated to transforming lives through the power of diversity in the arts. Meet-the Musicians LIVE via Zoom- please INQUIRE to participate or submit questions in advance.

Information
Free admission
Ages 8-13
Program available in both Spanish and English
707-346-5052
festivalnapavalley.org

Photo courtesy of Festival Napa Valley

A Day and Night at the Movies

Has your home been converted into a mini movie theatre?? How many films have you watched since the invasion of Covid-19? Realizing that I am a movie fanatic and that I’ll be hibernating at home for at least a year, my son Mark gifted me with a brand new TV set with a large, slim screen. Fascinated not only by the story of the movie, I find it very interesting to know where the movie was filmed. Here are five popular movies filmed in Palm Springs, one of my favorite destinations in California which I have visited a number of times in the past and sincerely hope to visit again once the pandemic disappears.

Hollywood copied my infatuation with Palm Springs and has filmed many famous movies in this beautiful town with distinctive and iconic designs, stunning architecture, waving palms and an artificial drizzle of a cooling rain as you stroll along the intimate streets. So get comfy in your home movie theatre and search Netflix or other streaming movie sites to watch “Diamonds are Forever,” “Ocean’s 11,” “Mission Impossible III,” “Behind the Candelabra” and “Palm Springs” just to name a few filmed in Palm Springs.

Photo of Palm Spring’s City Hall, where some of the scenes of “Behind the Candelabra,” staring Oscar-winning actor Michael Douglas were filmed, courtesy of Palm Spring’s Office of Tourism

Lina Broydo immigrated from Russia, then the Soviet Union, to Israel where she was educated and got married. After working at the University in Birmingham, England, she and her husband immigrated to the United States. She lives in Los Altos Hills, CA and writes about travel, art, style, entertainment, and sports. She hardly cooks or bakes, with no borsch or piroshky on her home cooking menu. Therefore, she makes reservations and enjoys dining out, mostly sushi.