Published: November 07, 2008 12:03 am         

Thousands turn out for magazine’s traveling cooking show

“Let’s get cooking!” the crowd in Hulman Center shouted in unison.

The Taste of Home Cooking School showed area residents how homemade holidays can be a happening Thursday night.

“It just sounded like it would be so much fun,” WTWO-TV’s Dana Winklepleck said before the show.

Winklepleck served as master of ceremonies for the event, which began at 7:30 p.m. after more than a thousand cooking enthusiasts browsed the vendor booths in the lobby.

Down onstage, the cooking platform was decorated with Christmas trees and other holiday fare, with a table set up for the guest cooking team to demonstrate recipes on big-screen television sets.

Celebrity chef Dana Elliott led a team of Indiana State University senior dietetic students in the display.

Elliott, of Taste of Home magazine, took the audience through the step-by-step process of making such dishes as pork tenderloin with sesame seeds, chicken won ton rolls, Mediterranean pizza bread, crab cakes, Christmas tortellini soup, lemon truffles, chocolate caramel tart and chai.

“Are there Taste of Home fans here?” the Danville, Ind., native asked the crowd to cheering response. “Let’s get cooking!”

Door prizes were given to audience members throughout the evening, and Elliott added bits of trivia into her instruction.

The old saying “open sesame” has literal origins, she said, explaining that sesame seeds grow within coconut-sized pods “that won’t open for anything.”

Once ready, however, the pods spread forth in an opening that inspired the saying, she said.

Sesame seeds were among the ingredients in her pork tenderloin dish, one of many “homemade for the holidays” she was there to demonstrate.

Erin Macke of Clabber Girl participated in the evening and noted that “it was a great turnout.”

Clabber Girl hosted a booth in the lobby with their chef demonstrating almond short bread, Expresso truffles and pumpkin bread pudding.

“Clabber Girl went very nicely tonight,” she said.

About 1,200 tickets were sold in advance with more at the door, she said.

Brian Boyce can be reached at 812-231-4253 or brian.boyce@tribstar.com.