Grayson College fall cooking classes

BJ Kirkpatrick News 10/14/201507/23/2025Cooking Classes

Grayson College’s just-for-fun and family cooking classes are under way for the fall semester. Herbs, pasta, soufflés, pie baking, easy dinners and holiday cookie-baking are the themes as Grayson College’s Hospitality Management & Culinary Arts Center partners with its Center for Workplace Learning to offer 10 recreational cooking classes this semester. Open to the public, classes take place at the Culinary Arts Center on Grayson College’s Main Campus in Denison, east of the Viking Residence Hall. Participants must be at least 16 years old to enroll in the classes, except where noted.

Taught by Grayson College’s chef instructors and guest chefs, courses provide hands-on training, demonstrations, and interactive learning in the college’s state-of-the-art facility. Participants experience cuisines, explore cooking methods, and learn disciplines and knife skills as they prepare and consume foods that range from the familiar to the unexpected. In some of the classes, participants prepare goodies to take home as well.

“Pasta 101” teaches participants to cook like a real Italian. The menu includes cheese-filled ravioli with tomato cream sauce, fettuccine with chicken Alfredo, and homemade spaghetti with roasted garlic and cherry tomatoes. Class meets Oct. 10 from 9 a.m. to noon. Tuition is $29 per person.

“Easy Weeknight Dinner” gives participants the how-to on a delicious meal they’ll go to time and time again. The menu includes romaine salad with chive dressing, rosemary potatoes and carrots, and flash-marinated, grilled flank steak. Class meets Oct. 15 from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Tuition is $29 per person.

“Halloween Cookie Decorating” is a family-cooking class for children age 5 and above who are accompanied by an adult. Participants bake and take home a baker’s dozen of decorated Halloween cookies. Class meets Oct. 24 from 1 to 4 p.m. Tuition is $39 and covers one adult and one child.

“Soufflés, Soufflés, Soufflés!” shows participants how versatile this puffed, egg-based dish can be. The menu includes fresh herb and cheese soufflé, Cajun-flavored crab soufflé, and chocolate soufflé. Class meets Nov. 12 from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Tuition is $29 per person.

“3-Ingredient Dishes” is a family-cooking class for children age 8 and above who are accompanied by an adult. The menu includes gruyere and basil tortillas, creamy coriander chicken, cauliflower with garlic crumbs, and rich chocolate brownies. Class meets Nov. 14 from 1 to 4 p.m. Tuition is $49 and covers one adult and one child.

“Holiday Pie Baking” exposes the secrets of making a perfect pie: crust, filling and decoration. Menu includes bourbon pecan, pumpkin and apple pies. Class meets Nov. 21 from 1 to 5 p.m. Tuition is $29 per person.

“Cooking with Herbs” is an informational course sponsored and facilitated by the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service. Participants learn how fresh herbs can transform ordinary into extraordinary. Topics include types of herbs, health benefits, and planting, growing and cooking as well as popular fresh herb/food combinations. Class meets Dec. 3 from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Tuition is $10 per person.

“Knife Skills 101” teaches participants how to properly chop, mince, chiffonade, dice, slice, brunoise, segment, and make the cut “mise en place.” The menu includes chicken tortilla soup, guacamole and fresh salad. Class meets Dec. 10 from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Tuition is $29 per person.

“Holiday Cookie Decorating” is a family-cooking class for children age 5 and above who are accompanied by an adult. Participants bake and take home a baker’s dozen of holiday-decorated sugar cookies. Class meets Dec. 12 from 1 to 4 p.m. Tuition is $39 and covers one adult and one child.

In addition to the fall cooking classes, private cooking classes and children’s birthday cooking classes are available as well. For more information or to register for the fall recreational and private classes, visit the GRAYSON COLLEGE Center for Workplace Learning website at www.grayson.edu/continuingeducation. Registration may be also completed in person weekdays from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the CWL on the college’s Main Campus in Denison, or by phone at 903-463-8765 if paying with MasterCard, Discover or Visa credit cards.

Fall in Texoma

BJ Kirkpatrick News 10/13/201507/23/2025Things to do

If you are in Texoma in the fall, there is a festival near you!

If it is fall in North Texas there is a festival, fair, art tour, and carnival close by as the communities surrounding Lake Texoma celebrate their heritage with uniquely themed events. From September thru November, Saturdays are dedicated to fair food, strolls along Main Street America, benefit golf tournaments, air shows and fundraising events that are just too much fun!

The National Aerobatic Championships are held in September at the North Texas Regional Airport at Perrin Field, so the clear blue autumn skies of Texoma will be alive with airplanes looping and diving as pilots show off their skills at this judged event.

Celina and Gainesville light up the skies in early September with Hot Air Balloon Festivals featuring live entertainment, helicopter rides, balloon rides, and fun for kids of all ages. Ivanhoe, home of Homestead Winery, holds its Wine and Music Festival in late September.

Later in the month The Sherman Municipal Lawn turns into a glorious hub of activity for this annual welcome to autumn. “Autumn Arts Fest” begins with a 5K, 10K and Fun Run and Pancake breakfast, and then a day of festivities for all ages begins! Art Shows, theatre productions, Museum tours, youth activities, and continual live entertainment fill the downtown Sherman area. Up to 100 Arts & Crafts and food vendors fill the Sherman Municipal lawn. The festival ends with a concert.

Speaking of fall events, put these two on your “must do list” – The Blue Ribbon Ball, held at the Mayor Arena at Loy Lake Park in Denison benefits the Ag programs in Grayson County and the Boot Scootin Ball, held at the Bar K R Ranch in Pottsboro is the major fundraiser for the Pottsboro Volunteer Emergency Services. These are diamond and denim events that offer live entertainment, dinner, auctions and dancing. Order tickets early these sell out quickly!

Every county in the area has a Fair with food vendors, carnival rides, livestock shows, tractor pulls, live music, beauty pageants, and all kinds of contest for homemade foods, arts and crafts. In addition to the Autumn and Arts Festival, Sherman celebrates the season with the Stroll, a wine tasting and Best Bites of Texoma competition in the historic area of downtown. The evening winds up with a blues concert.

In October The Whitesboro Peanut Festival is a crowd favorite – winning the Best of Texoma Award for several years. Denison’s Main Street Fall Festival, Eisenhower Birthday Celebration and. “I Like Ike” 5K/Fun Run, and the Pottsboro Frontier Days offer tons of festival food, vendor booths and carnivals. If you love gardening in the fall the Grayson County Master Gardeners Fall Home Show at Loy Lake Park is a must do! Neil Sperry is often the keynote speaker.

The whole season wraps up with Denison’s Fall Art Walk, a two day event held on the first weekend of November. Celebrating the Holiday of Dia de los Muertos or Day of the Dead through a wide variety of Gallery Exhibits, live Art Demonstrations, Parades, Live Music, a bustling Mercado, International Foods and Beverages and events for all ages and interests!

For dates, times, locations and event schedules check out the Events Calendar.

Hagerman NWR Butterfly Garden Certified Monarch Waystation

BJ Kirkpatrick News 10/05/201507/23/2025

By Friends of Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge | Oct. 5, 2015

The new Butterfly Garden at Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge has been certified as a Monarch Waystation, with the program Monarch Watch.

Monarch Waystations are places that provide resources necessary for monarchs to produce successive generations and sustain their migration. Without milkweeds throughout their spring and summer breeding areas in North America, monarchs would not be able to produce the successive generations that culminate in the migration each fall.

Similarly, without nectar from flowers these fall migratory monarch butterflies would be unable to make their long journey to overwintering grounds in Mexico. The need for host plants for larvae and energy sources for adults applies to all monarch and butterfly populations around the world.

The new garden is open to the public daily and features Texas native plants

Funds for the garden were obtained with grants from the National Fish & Wildlife Foundation, Oliver Dewey Mayor Foundation, the Clara Blackford Smith & W. Aubrey Smith Charitable Foundation, Texas Audubon Society and Prairie and Timbers Audubon Society, as well as gifts from Friends of Hagerman members and other grants. The garden is maintained by volunteers.

A Garden Walk, with docents on hand to identify plants and butterflies is scheduled for October 17, at 10:00 a.m., weather permitting.

A grand opening celebration is set for 3:00 p.m., October 11, and the public is invited to stroll the garden and enjoy refreshments, as well as favors for children.