Sunset Celebration Weekend & Martin Yan

Sunset Magazine - full of monthly recipes, trip reports, and good Western living ideas - is one of my favorites. This weekend they are having their annual Sunset Weekend Celebration festival full of cooking and gardening demos, wine tasting, and vendor booths. 

This year it's a little bittersweet since it's the last event they will hold so close to my house. Real estate prices being what they are in the Silicon Valley, the magazine sold their land in Menlo Park (in the heart of the Valley) and is moving across the Bay to Oakland. But we still had our last hurrah and it was a great festival.

Here are three things I learned from the cooking demos:

• If you want larger shavings of parmesan cheese in a salad, use a vegetable peeler. 
• Thinly sliced green onion tossed in ice water curls up to make a great garnish for soups
• Meat needs to be room temperature to cook evenly. Even if it's just been refrigerated, steak needs to rest in room temp for at least an hour. 

I also got to meet one of my favorite TV Chefs of all time - Martin Yan of Yan Can Cook. He's such a wonderful entertainer and just plain scary with a knife. He claimed to be 88 years old during the presentation - it was the youngest 88 that I've ever seen. 

Here's Martin talking about the importance of sharp knives: 

Here's Martin deboning a chicken in under 18 seconds:

Martin signed an apron for me:

Here's the recipe they have out at the Sunset Test Kitchen from California Avocado Commission. 

Overall, it's a wonderful event. Thank you Sunset Magazine for so many wonderful Celebration weekends in Menlo Park. I hope the tradition continues in Oakland after the move.