Water Week | Craig Stuart

The warm, dry climate of the Ranch has always enticed water lovers to our three outdoor pools. Craig's special summer program includes:

The Wave

Discover how fun and invigorating it is to create wave action in the pool. Harness the power of liquid resistance and experience a body-friendly workout that truly feels good. Our low-impact, shallow water class targets aerobic endurance, muscular strength, balance and flexibility.
M, W, F at 11:00am

HYDRO-FIT Deep Water Training

Deep water training is an ideal non-impact addition to your Ranch week. Use specialized HYDRO-FIT buoyancy and resistance equipment to strengthen and tone your entire body while pushing fat-burning systems into high gear. No swimming skill is required, although comfort in deep water is recommended.
Su, Tu, Th at 11:00am and M, W, at 2:00pm

H2O Pool Pilates

Experience Pilates inspired training in the pool. Use simple buoyancy equipment and water’s natural assistance & resistance to train the deepest muscle layers in your body. Develop core strength for improved posture, balance and coordination.
Su, Tu, Th at 2:00pm

Aqua Ease

Experience soothing exercise in the pool. Ease muscle soreness and body aches as you discover how water provides support, assistance and resistance. Improve balance, enhance flexibility and restore mobility through gentle movement in the water.
Su, Tu, Th at 3:00pm

H2O Sport Conditioning

Learn how to improve physical function and enhance your natural abilities in our playful, deep-water "boot camp" workout. Rediscover your inner child and have fun as you achieve a great cardiovascular, strength, and agility workout that will leave you feeling good, not sore and exhausted.
M, W, F at 10:00am

Swim Conditioning

Improve your stroke technique and enjoy a great swim conditioning workout Our coach is on deck to help you get the most from your swimming experience. All levels are welcome—from beginner to masters level. This class is 30-minutes.
Tu, Th at 12:00noon

Craig is a certified fitness instructor, and the creator and director of HYDRO-FIT in Eugene, Oregon. He presents water workshops nationally and internationally. His innovative workouts range from easy to challenging. On the Web:www.hydrofit.com.

Culinary Experiences at La Cocina Que Canta | Visiting Teacher Joanna Pruess

Along with inheriting genes, our cultural legacy influences our whole life. Join author and culinary anthropologist Joanna Pruess and learn how exploring your roots and passing the information forward can enlighten you and enrich future generations.

Her talk will include techniques for gathering records, creating oral histories, locating cultural documents from early immigrant groups, and using online resources like the Mormon genealogy software. You will learn how organizations like Fundación la Puerta, in Tecate, and UNESCO’s World Heritage Sites, are helping to preserve the material and cultural histories of different ethnic groups.

Understanding your cultural legacy will help you appreciate your family’s unique style of observing birthdays and weddings as well as traditional holidays such as Easter and Hanukah, and national holidays like Cinco de Mayo in Puebla, Mexico. For many of us, one of our most cherished cultural legacies is the special food of our family. “Cooking from Memory’s Kitchen” was created by Joanna Pruess to help capture and preserve beloved recipes in a format that can be used by everyone.

PART II: Cooking from Memory’s Kitchen: Writing a Cookbook to Preserve Family Recipes

Many people think that to write a cookbook all you have to do is collect a bunch of recipes, put them in your computer, and go from there. But, if you want future generations to be able to recreate dishes that taste and look as they did originally, it's not that simple, as Joanna Pruess can tell you after writing ten cookbooks.

Two sequential workshops:

Workshop 1: Documenting recipes
You'll learn the professional way to accurately measure ingredients, describe cooking techniques, and write recipes in a user-friendly style, as well as how a recipe should be tested. Together we will look at a list of ingredients that need to be compiled into a workable format and we will write them up as a recipe. Additionally, we will discuss organizing recipes into chapters and making a table of contents.

Workshop 2: Embellishing recipes and turning them into a book
You'll learn the importance of adding an introduction, headnotes, and sidebars to give readers information about the origins, tastes, textures, unique ingredients and the special personalities that figure into the recipes. How do you credit the contributors and do you need an appendix or glossary? You will practice writing headnotes and sidebars that relate to a recipe.

Workshop 3: Historical Feasts from Memory’s Kitchens
For amateur culinary sleuths, this stand-alone workshop illustrates how researching social history enables present-day writers and cooks to recreate feasts in the style of a certain time and location. Imagine feasting à la Cinco de Mayo Puebla-style in 1862, serving a Victorian dinner reminiscent of late 19th century London, or dining with Thomas Jefferson at Monticello.

Joanna Pruess is an award-winning author of ten cookbooks, including Harney & Sons’ The Tea Cookbook, her Cast-Iron Cookbook: Simple and Delicious Comfort Food and Seduced by Bacon: Recipes and Lore about America’s Favorite Indulgence. She is a contributor to PBS’ NextAvenue.org (a new online magazine for “boomers” and has written extensively on food for publications including The New York Times Sunday Magazine, Washington Post, Food Arts, Saveur, Fine Cooking, Food & Wine and the Associated Press syndicate. Pruess has spoken about food and cultural anthropology at The Smithsonian Museum in Washington, DC, on board the Crystal Serenity, and at many venues in Turkey and America.

For 23 years, Ms. Pruess has been regular contributor to NASFT’s Specialty Foods Magazine and taught seminars about standardizing recipes. She has developed recipes for clients including Bella Cucina Artful Food, Bigelow Tea, Stonewall Kitchen, Sarabeth’s Kitchen, More Than Gourmet, Dufour Pastry Kitchens, and Vanns Spices. The creator and first director of the Cookingstudio, a cooking school within Kings Super Market, in New Jersey, she had more than 15,000 students in five years. Among the many classes she personally taught were those created for students with visual or hearing impairments, and those with learning disabilities. She appeared regularly of WYNY’s “Good Day, New York” and was honored by NYU’s School of Food Service as Woman of the Year in Food Service, Merchandising and Promotion. She is married to restaurant critic Bob Lape and they reside in New York City.

Joanna offers three hands-on culinary experiences, 3.5 hours each, on Tuesday at 11 am and 4 pm and Thursday at 4 pm, during which you will enjoy preparing your own meal along with fellow cooks. Classes take place at La Cocina Que Canta, our new culinary center.

For more information and registration, please click here.

Writers' Week | Dan Wakefield, Anne Simpkinson and April Smith

Dan Wakefield: The Power of Place

Dan Wakefield presents:
THE POWER OF PLACE: How each of us has places on Earth that inspire, restore, and enliven us.

STORIES OF OUR LIVES: A WRITING WORKSHOP with DAN WAKEFIELD, whose own memoirs include "Returning: A Personal Journey" and "New York in the Fifties," which was made a documentary film. No experience is necessary.

NEW YORK IN THE FIFTIES. DAN WAKEFIELD will introduce this exciting documentary film based on his book and answer questions afterwards. It's the story of a unique time and place that shaped today's culture. Interviews with Robert Redford, Joan Didion, and Calvin Trillin, with archival footage of James Baldwin and Jack Kerouac give an inside look at the creativity of a remarkable era (DVD 72 MINUTES).

Dan Wakefield has been writing since he published his first article for his grade school newspaper in Indianapolis, and has gone on to write five novels, three screenplays, a television series, and 12 books of memoir and nonfiction, as well as articles, short stories, essays and reviews in publications ranging from The New York Times Magazine to The Atlantic Monthly and The Nation.

ALL ABOUT EDITING: Anne Simpkinson

Editors were once fiercesome guardians at the publishing gate, the ones you needed to win over if you want to get published. With the advent of blogs, one might think the editor's role is a thing of the past. Not so. This week we'll look at the role of editing: what needs to be done by the writer and what the professional editor contributes.

Anne Simpkinson has worn many editorial hats. For many years, she was the editor of Common Boundary, a magazine that looked at the relationship of psychology, spirituality and creativity. She has also edited two anthologies, "Sacred Stories" and "Nourishing the Soul" and, for the past 10 years, has worked on websites, including Beliefnet.com and Prevention.com. She is currently the online managing editor at Guideposts.

WHAT MAKES THE BAD GUY BAD?: April Smith

WHAT MAKES THE BAD GUY BAD? THE PSYCHOLOGICAL PROFILE OF VILLAINS. We are all fascinated by the criminal mind. Are terrorists and serial killers "just like us" or fundamentally different? Bestselling writer APRIL SMITH and DOUGLAS BRAYFIELD, MFT, a practicing psychotherapist, present a fascinating discussion of the psychological factors that produce criminal behavior, and how to turn that profile into a compelling fictional character. April Smith is the author of the FBI Special Agent Ana Grey series. Douglas Brayfield, MFT, treats individuals, couples, and families. They have been married thirty-one years.

THE WRITER'S TOOLBOX. Best-selling author of suspense novels and TV writer/producer APRIL SMITH will conduct hands-on workshops on the techniques of dramatic writing.

April Smith is proud to say she was born and raised in the Bronx, New York. She graduated from the Bronx High School of Science, and Boston University cum laude and With Distinction in Creative Writing. She holds a Master's Degree in Creative Writing from Stanford University. April is one of few women to work successfully and continuously as an Emmy-nominated writer-producer in television while also publishing literary novels of suspense. She attributes this stamina to swimming, weight-training, hiking, yoga, meditation, and Trader Joe's 2% Greek yogurt.

On the Web: www.aprilsmith.net

What's New with Happiness? | Arlene Matthews

THE HAPPIEST PLACES ON EARTH. Positive Psychology, the study of what makes people happy, was founded just over ten years ago, but the big question it tackles – the secret of happiness – has consumed humankind for millennia. Find out what the latest research shows about where on earth people are happiest, as well as what truly makes for lasting happiness. Arlene Matthews offers simple strategies to enhance your capacity for joy, wherever you find yourself.

THE PRACTICAL OPTIMIST. Optimists and pessimists have distinctly different ways of viewing the world. And, contrary to what you may think, optimism can be a learned skill. Find out all you need to know about switching modes: It's not about seeing "the glass half full." It's about being a practical optimist who knows how to make the best of even a bad situation and emerge strong and resilient.

LAUGHING MATTERS. Laughter is Nature's miracle drug – easing physical tension and emotional stress, boosting immunity, and building social bonds. Perhaps most significant of all, laughter helps us rise above our troubles, maintain perspective, and stay calm in the face of adversity. Do you have enough laughter in your life? Add some more in this very funny workshop.

Arlene Matthews is the author of numerous books on a variety of self-help subjects, including "The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Psychology of Happiness," "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Coping with Difficult People," and "The Seven Keys to Calm." Arlene's books have been published in Spanish, Portuguese, German, Chinese, Norwegian, and Danish. She's been a three-time guest on Oprah, and appeared on Today and Good Morning America.