I have heard from Channahon resident Nicole Puraccio multiple times before. As the administrative assistant for the Will County Center for Economic Development, I see her name in my email and her phone number in my voice mail list a number of times. But, I don’t think we had ever met.

That was, until I put a call out on Channahon-Minooka Patch Facebook for someone to join me for the French-themed lunch at the Rennessaince Center in downtown Joliet.

Now I have written about the weekly, themed buffets at the Renn center before. But, when the French-themed one was approaching and I had no Dining with Dawn partner, I felt the need to invite someone else to enjoy the culinary creations that are so close to home.

In case you all have forgotten, the Renn Center is the City Center campus for Joliet Junior College. The buffet lunches and the special events are prepared by students in the culinary arts program at the college. And, the culinary arts program is taught by real-life chefs, so the food is ordinarily phenomenal.

The French-themed lunch was no exception, but you will have to wait until Monday for those details.

Suffice it to say that Puraccio and I found many new favorites to brag about and only one dish that we decided might be too exotic – for me, that is a rare occasion.

What Puraccio and I did while we ate our French-themed food was talk about Channahon, our differing school districts and our attempts (and sometimes successes) to add fitness to our lives.

Turns out that Puraccio loves where she lives. Every year, there is a party in her block in her subdivision that has more than 100 people in attendance and they are all having fun.

“If we win the lottery, we’ll just upgrade  a couple things, but we’re not leaving,” she said.

Puraccio has four children – so my hat is already off to her. Her 14, 12 and 4 year olds are boys and the 2-year-old is a girl. She has lived in Channahon for seven years and has worked in her current position with the Will County CED for five.

Although we both live in Channahon, our children attend different schools, as we live on different ends of town. Hers go to Minooka Community Consolidated District 201 and she had nothing but good things to say about it.

It was about three quarters of the way through lunch that Puraccio said that she works out at Bombshell Movement Studio. I loved to hear that. A long time ago, I did a story about the owner of that studio – a pole dancing fitness studio. She was in a different location at the time, but as part of the story, I took the class. I was sore for a week and I burned so many calories in the time I was there I thought my monitor might be broken. It was a great workout and the owner made the whole thing fun. And Puraccio said that was what brings her back. Like me, she hates to workout, but Bombshell is more like just having fun.

I may have to go back myself.

Stay tuned on Feb. 13 when I write a restaurant profile of the food we ate.