Tag Archives: food

Cooking Class–you're invited!

First of all, happy Valentine’s Day to one and all! For us here in the Windy City it’s business as usual–work for me, school for my husband, yoga in the evening, leftovers for dinner–but Friday we had a little date to see “The King’s Speech” and indulge in some burgers and fries from Five Guys, so I consider our duty to Mr. Valentine as completed. Phew. He’s a demanding guy, this Valentine fellow, and with a little instigation from him, the presence or absence of flowers, chocolates, and/or pink-and-red falderal can become a subject of much stress to many individuals. So. All that to say, I hope this Monday morning finds you all pleased with your plans, your lack of plans, your whirlwind celebrations, or your abstinence from the festivities.

But enough about lovey-dovey stuff, and onto a subject of great general interest: food. The unthinkable has happened–this Friday February 18th at 6:30pm, I will be co-teaching a cooking class with my friend and blogging foodie Cassia.

We were asked by our lovely friend Traci, who also happens to be our pastor’s wife. She works at HGTV and has the most fabulous kitchen (which she designed herself). When she first proposed the idea of having me co-teach a class in her home, I briefly choked on my own tongue. And then my left knee starting jerking back and forth uncontrollably. But when I regained control of my faculties, I squeaked out an excited ‘yes!’ See, I just can’t wait to splatter her gorgeous kitchen with olive oil and crank up both ovens at the same time! Plus it will be such fun to hang out with the lovely ladies who are coming–many of them excellent cooks themselves. Traci also has two of the cutest girls the world has ever seen, and I had the privilege of photographing them last year.

Oh man, Bronagh’s freckles and Ashling’s mop of curls get me every time.

If any of you lovely people are in Chicago and want to come, just shoot me an email and I’ll send you the details. Oh, and you do have to be a girl–because this is part of our church’s Women’s Ministry series.

While I don’t feel qualified to teach anyone anything, it should be a fun time and there will be–hopefully, barring disaster, knock on wood, say a prayer for me–good food to feast on. We’re so excited about the menu! It’s a Mediterranean theme, with citrus and herbs tying it all together. Here’s what we’re looking at:

Roasted Red Pepper Soup with Broiled Corn and Lime Cilantro Sour Cream

Butterflied Mediterranean Roasted Chicken with Olive Tapenade

Butterflied Roasted Chicken with Lemon, Garlic, and Rosemary

Polenta with Goat Cheese and Rosemary

Shredded Brussel Sprouts with Nutmeg and Bacon

Fruit Pizza

Cassia and I got together on Saturday to cook through the whole menu and work out any kinks. After 3 hot and busy and sweaty and utterly delightful hours of work, we served up our creations to the boys (our patiently enduring husbands). For anyone inclined against brussel sprouts, I’ll have you know that was my husband’s favorite dish of the evening.

Here’s a peak at the little green guys . . . I could devour them at any time of the day or night.

I also learned an important lesson about serving the polenta as soon as it’s done. Preparing it in advance and then abandoning it on a back burner for 30 minutes resulted in a clumpy, lumpy, and a very unattractive texture.

Lesson learned! (just in time)

Cassia worked at a winery in California for years, so she’ll also be sharing her wisdom regarding wine pairings, which to me is a complete mystery. My shamefully backwards attitude has been: if the bottle says ‘wine,’ it will somehow go with whatever is making an appearance on the table. So I’m excited to expand my knowledge and get some sophistication up in here, after failing to learn a thing at Cassia’s wine tasting party last fall. I love second chances.

We’ll also be talking about the importance of good knives, and going over how to butterfly a chicken. Wish me luck as I grapple with its knobby old backbone and wrestle it from the pink carcass–I wish to do this unscathed. No severed thumbs, or flying chicken pieces.

Of course, every recipe we make will also be making an appearance here with step by step pictures and printable versions and all that fun stuff.

I love you guys! And I wish you could all come, if only to laugh at me as I pretend to know how to do stuff! I mean laugh with me. Laugh with me. Right.

And she tasted

Today we’re going to keep things simple around here. Instead of taking a deeper look at my childhood escapades, the novels I’ve authored over the years, or the love I had for my now trashed blue Eddie Bauer sweat pants (though all fascinating topics, I know), today I’m making a special appearance to share the one thing I’ve learned about cooking. Because I’ve only learned one thing. That’s right. And it is:

TASTE!

(Thanks Christy–I snagged this photo from facebook.)

Taste your ingredients raw if possible, taste them in combinations, taste them halfway through cooking, and taste them before serving.

By the way, that picture up yonder was taken during the notorious Pioneer Woman weekend trip of yesteryear. Yes, I am licking the Pioneer Woman’s bowl. And you can’t make me say I’m sorry.

As I was scrolling through past blog posts, I realized I have been trying to convey the importance of tasting for a while now. Just look at the pictorial proof:

A little freshly ground chili powder that I used for my seared salmon recipe . . .

Sugar encrusted batter from those delectable mini pumpkin muffins . . .

Cranberry sauce with bourbon that my sister Erica made for Thanksgiving . . .

Raw meat for the Tuscan Soup . . .

Okay, maybe not the raw meat.

But let’s proceed.

Black peppercorns from the Pasta Fresca . . .

Creamy tomato sauce from a half-finished pot of Penne Rosa . . .

Biltong seasoning freshly arrived from South Africa . . .

A torn-off hunk of bread and parmesan sneaked away during the making of a creamy and perfect garlic soup . . .

And that’s all I’ll subject you to for today. I think we’ve just seen enough pictures of my fingers to last a lifetime.

But I figured I’d bring all these pictures together just to drive the point home. Now I’m no creative culinary genius–in fact just weeks ago I actually had to throw away a horribly failed attempt at homemade ravioli (think slimy; think greasy; think vomitous)–but tasting spices, vegetables, and herbs has given me a better sense of how to combine them. It gives me insight into what their ‘true nature’ is. And the best cooking is based on an understanding of the essence of an ingredient, and how to highlight and preserve it in the final dish.

Plus, on the level of personal motivation, getting up close and personal with my food is a 100% stimulating experience. It makes me excited to hop on over to the cutting board and thrilled to turn on my gas range. If I know I can nibble at the hunk of parmesan, I will be that much more enthusiastic about starting dinner. Get to know the food you are cooking–and get to know it in all its stages. And of course, always taste your finished dish before serving it; this will allow you to adjust seasonings and add a little more of this or that, which can be the difference between a mediocre dish and a stellar dish.

And just in case you think I’m a freak of nature and this is totally ill advised, look!

Erica does it too.

And Heidi! Whaddya know. It’s like we all came from the same family. And were sired by the same . . . um, loins. Forgive me, my son, for I have sinned. I didn’t mean to say the word ‘loins’ in connection with my parents.

Deleting word from short term memory–deleting—deleting–deleting.

Phew! Deleted.

And because I’m not ready to stop talking yet, let me go ahead and share Culinary Lesson #2. Just a couple more minutes on the soap box and my need to preach it should be satiated for at least the next 2 weeks . . . or 2 days. Whatever.

It’s called the ‘blogging high horse,’ and it’s the next best thing to being here:

On an actual horse, living the dream.

Culinary lesson #2 is: use sharp knives.

I can’t emphasize the importance of this enough, folks, friends, and frenemies.

By the way, what the heck is a ‘frenemy’?

First of all, dull knives are more dangerous–you have to push on the knife harder and sometimes even saw back and forth to get it to cut through. This only creates further opportunity for a finger to get in the way. Plus, if you do cut yourself, a very sharp knife will leave a nice clean cut, but a dull knife will leave an ugly, jagged cut. Ugly and jagged = not a doctor’s dream.

Second, it just ain’t no fun to cut things with dull knives. It makes me lazy even thinking of chopping up an onion with a serrated old piece of crap–it takes too long! With a sharp knife, dicing and mincing and chopping is fun, easy, and quick. Drop the money and buy a nice knife. That was the voice of your conscience speaking.

I SAID DROP THE MONEY AND BUY A KNIFE.

Okay, Conscience! You can take it down a notch–I think they got the point the first time.

I distinctly remember–back in our college days–the emotional pain of watching our friend Tyler cut up bell peppers with a serrated dinner table knife. He patiently sawed off piece after piece of those peppers in an immeeeeeeensely long process as I watched, desperate and starving. See, in college I was very hungry–all the time. And very desirous for those bell peppers to be off the cutting board and on my plate. Tyler, I hope that you now have a sharp blade to aid you in making your famous fajitas. By the way, do you still have the recipe for that Spicy Macaroni? Because the world needs it. But more importantly, I need it.

So are you guys tasters? Choppers? Tasters and choppers? Anti-tasters? Proponents of the dull knife for some mysterious but enlightened reason? Tell me everything. I want to know.