Moorhead Community Education has wanted to offer an authentic Italian cooking class for a long time. The problem is, there's never been anyone to teach it - until now.
Katia Coltrianari-Jordahl, of Barnesvile, Minn., will teach a new authentic Italian cooking class for Moorhead Community Education in late January and early February.
Coltrianari-Jordahl was born and raised in Italy. As a little girl, she used to help her mother in the kitchen and grew up making complicated home-made pasta and ravioli dishes.
"It just makes me happy to be able to share my culture and my food," she said.
In addition to teaching techniques for making ragu, bruschetta, tiramisu and a salad with homemade Italian dressing, Coltrianari-Jordahl will also talk about her country and give a small language lesson.
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This is just one of many new classes Moorhead Community Education is offering this winter. Classes on journaling, preplanning your funeral, line dancing, hip hop for adults, brewing a great cup of coffee, crocheting and photographing children and pets are also new this winter.
Brandi Spray of Spray Photography in West Fargo will offer tips on how to get children and pets to cooperate, lighting, positioning, collages and using items around the house for backgrounds and props.
"I've found a lot of people want to take more pictures of people and their pets in particular but they don't know how to do it," Spray said.
Other new offerings include a traditional healthy Mexican cooking series, a woman's perspective series on mother nature and a presentation on U.S. foreign policy by Thomas Hanson, Program Secretary of the St. Paul/Minneapolis Committee on foreign relations.
"We try to do a wide spectrum of what does our community need to hear about," said Karen Nitzkorski, Moorhead Community Education Program Coordinator.
Another new feature this winter is the addition of teen classes. Moorhead Community Education tried offering teen classes several years ago, but they were not very popular. Organizers hope cooking, knitting and self-defense classes for high-school students and guitar, knitting, hip hop, cooking pizza, sewing and yoga classes for middle-school students will make more of an impact.
A class will not run if it does not have enough interest to financially break even.
Nitzkorski says standard classes like pottery, beginners guitar, social dance and computer classes are always popular. Knitting and belly dancing seem to be a growing trend.
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Approximately 9,600 Fargo-Moorhead area residents enroll in more than 1,000 Community Education classes a year.
Adult education enrichment classes have always appealed to the 35-to-55-year-old crowd, Nitzkorski said. Now the classes are gaining popularity among 19-to-34-year-olds.
Programs and classes are also available for young children and their parents and adults with disabilities.
"Life-long learning is just something we believe, we believe in it as a philosophy," Nitzkorski said. "It's also important to build community, bringing people together, learning new skills together, making new friends."
Readers can reach Forum reporter Tracy Frank at (701) 241-5526
