Cooler temperatures mean we’re craving comfort food. Enjoy a night of inspiration to celebrate seasonal vegetables and warm, cozy flavors without tipping the scale.

SEARHC Health Educator Holly Marban, MS, will teach a virtual class, Cozy Seasonal Salads, from 5:30-7 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 10, using Zoom. Due to the recent spike in local COVID-19 cases, the Sitka Kitch community rental commercial kitchen is back to teaching virtual classes. This class is a fundraiser for the Sitka Kitch, and it is sponsored by the SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium (SEARHC), in partnership with the Sitka Kitch.

Holly works in the SEARHC Health Promotion Department as the clinical program coordinator for the SEARHC WISEWOMAN Women’s Health Program in Sitka, where she supports women in making healthy lifestyle changes to reduce cardiovascular risk factors and prevent breast and cervical cancers. Holly holds a master’s degree in nutrition, has a background in health and wellness coaching, and feels passionate about good food and cooking. She enjoys sharing her love of food, nutrition, and wellness with others through cooking classes, community presentations, or individual coaching.

A nutrition educator and certified health coach, Holly will walk you through creative salad recipes that you can feel good about adding to your workweek lunch rotation or proudly displaying on your holiday dinner table. These recipes are full of winter greens and sweet-savory roasted vegetables, brightened with fresh herbs, sparkling with dried fruits or toasted nuts and seeds, and elevated by a balanced and flavorful dressing. Cook along from the comfort of your own kitchen.

Holly plans to teach three different salads in this class. The menu includes:

• Winter tabbouleh salad with roasted squash, walnuts, and chard
• Citrus, fennel, and radicchio salad
• Kale salad with winter squash, pumpkin seeds, and roasted shallot vinaigrette

The cost per person for this virtual class is $30 (our regular price for in-person classes is $40). This includes a package of most of the ingredients (students will need to provide some staple items), plus access to the class. Ingredients will be delivered to your door, so make sure to give us your home address with your other contact information when you register. Some ingredients will be measured out in smaller portions.

Please have the following staple ingredients at home, as they will not be included in the ingredients delivery — salt, pepper, olive oil, Dijon mustard, vinegar (apple cider, white wine, red wine). You also can have the following optional ingredients if you’d like — feta cheese, goat cheese, and/or one avocado.

Current (paid) members of the Sitka Food Co-Op are now able to attend the online classes for $20 each (the co-op will cover the other $10 of your class fee). Please use the Sitka Food Co-Op ticket when you register and send an email to sitkafoodcoop@gmail.com letting them know you’re in the class. (NOTE, Only one person per Co-op household may use the Co-op discount per class. Please name that person when you register so the name can be checked against the Co-op membership list.)

Also, registered SEARHC WISEWOMAN participants may sign up for the class for the discounted rate of $5 (the WISEWOMAN program will cover the other $25).

The registration deadline is 11:30 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 7. Space is limited, so register early to secure your place in the class. You can register and pre-pay using credit/debit cards or PayPal on the Sitka Kitch EventSmart online registration page, http://sitkakitch.eventsmart.com (click on class title). For those wanting to pre-pay with cash or check, please call Chandler O’Connell or Clarice Johnson at Sitka Conservation Society (747-7509) to arrange a payment.

For more information about the class, contact Jasmine Shaw at 747-9440. We do offer one potential scholarship spot per class for people with limited incomes, so long as we have enough students registered to make the class happen. Contact Chandler at SCS for more details about the scholarship. This class is a fundraiser for the Sitka Kitch.

The Sitka Kitch also has a new class cancelation policy. If you register for a class, then find out you can’t attend, please email us at sitkakitch@sitkawild.org and we may be able to help fill your slot through our waiting list. If you cancel from the class at least five days in advance (eg, by Wednesday the week before for a Monday class), you are eligible for a partial refund of your class fee, minus $5 for processing (in this case, $25). If you need to cancel with less than five days advance notice, there is no refund.