Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Strawberry Rhubarb Coffee Cake

Perfect Pairing:  Food processor

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About five or six years ago (it could have been more) my mom called me one morning to ask if I was watching GMA.  They were doing a segment on a new fitness craze called Zumba.  It was a high energy cardio class that was mainly composed of Latin music and Latin dancing.  I was immediately intrigued.  I started in dance class when I was 3 years old, and continued to dance through high school on the dance team.  I was also a huge fan of Latin music and Latin dancing, so Zumba seemed like a great fit for me.  I did some research and found a Zumba class in Chicago and tried it out one Saturday morning. I was completely hooked.  It was such a great workout (you can burn up to 700 calories in a class) and it was truly fun. 

Through the years I visited many many many Zumba classes in Chicago.  When I say many, I mean in the 100s.  I kept trying new instructors until I found one that was a good fit, which meant I liked their music, energy, and style.  Even though there were free Zumba classes offered at my gym I was still paying a hefty amount to take classes from my favorite instructors.  Somewhere along the way I started thinking maybe I could be an instructor. 

Last November I became official.  I was a certified Zumba instructor!  I spent the next few months coming up with routines and practicing.  I practiced a lot in my living room, which was definitely not as fun as a class environment!  I finally worked up the nerve to apply at a gym in March. Within one week I had an audition, and later that day I was offered a teaching job teaching two classes a week!  I was going to start the following week!  I was pumped!  And terrified!

It was so surreal to walk into the class as the instructor and not the student.  After that first class I knew I had made the right decision, and all the hard work was totally worth it.  I loved it.  If you’re interested you can find out more about my classes at http://lindsayrodgers.zumba.com/. 

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After my mom took one of my classes in Chicago (see above) her wheels started spinning on how to have me teach where she lives.  So she organized a class for some of our family friends on her dock.  One morning a few weeks ago we had 9 lovely ladies down on the dock at 8 AM for a Zumba class!  It was a blast.  It was definitely the best view I have ever had during a class!  I think there were a few boaters passing by that had a hard time not staring at this strange occurrence. 

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I am pretty sure everyone had a great time, and I have received requests for another dock Zumba class later this summer.  To thank everyone for coming, and to reward them for the great workout, I made this Strawberry Rhubarb Coffee Cake. 

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I followed this recipe.  The only changes I made were to use the food processor to make the crumb topping and the cake.  It was so much easier than cutting in the butter manually.  I would suggest using up the last of the season’s rhubarb with this recipe.  It was amazing.  Seriously. 

As long as we’re talking about rhubarb, you could also make this super simple, super yummy, Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp.  Why not have the perfect combination strawberry and rhubarb for breakfast (coffee cake) and dessert (crisp)!?

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