As you may have seen in my last post, I just returned from a glorious week at the beach (Harbor Island, to be exact). I'm suffering from a bit of a vacation hangover and thought it might be fun to reminisce about a fun little date night from a few weeks ago!
For my birthday, Torsten signed us up for a cooking class at Chef Alyssa's Kitchen at Atherton Market in Charlotte. I've heard lots about her cooking classes on the interwebs and was very excited to try it out for myself! The classes focus on healthy and approachable meals and they offer classes for every level.
We attended a cooking class centered around local tomatoes (summertime!) that I believe was an "intermediate" class. The class was $65/person and you could BYOB (the best).
We ended up grabbing beers at Good Bottle Co. beforehand instead, but will definitely bring a bottle of wine next time! [Of note: Good Bottle Co. has started carrying pumpkin beers and I can hardly contain myself. I may have already purchased 4 for my October Pumpkin Beer Tasting 2k15 but please don't tell anyone because it's definitely still August...]
When we arrived, there was a little appetizer waiting for us and cucumber water to sip on. I need to add cucumber to all of my water! So refreshing. We were also provided with a fancy chef knife, a recipe book that we could take home featuring all of the recipes from the evening, and a cutting board.
Torsten and I were at a table with another couple who were our cooking buddies for the evening. For the next 2-ish hours we worked together, with instruction from Chef Alyssa, to prepare a 4-course meal!
At one point, we filled local zucchini blossoms with a mixture of ricotta, garlic, parmesan goodness. Apparently, it required the utmost concentration...
Even though we were cooking for 2 hours (about 4 times longer than I usually spend cooking dinner...) we had a blast learning new techniques and chatting with our table mates.
The best part.... EATING! After we had prepared everything, we sat down to taste the fruits of our labors. (This is punny because tomatoes are fruits).
We made ricotta stuffed zucchini blossoms with tomato jam (tomato jam is a revelation), eggplant involtini with buckwheat groats and tomato sauce, and a caramelized onion tart with a fresh tomato topping. For dessert we had a watermelon tomato sorbet!
Everything was so delicious. Many others in attendance needed take home boxes for their leftovers but, needless to say, Torsten and I left our class empty handed and bellies oh-so-full.
I'm already eyeing future classes at Chef Alyssa's. Game Day Favorites and Dim Sum are the current front-runners!
Have you ever taken a cooking class? What did you make?!
Yummy! The recipes you made look and sound delicious. Alex and I took a cooking course at Sur Le Table last winter. We made homemade pasta (which was super fun!) I wasn't a fan of having to 'share' responsibilities with strangers at first (selfish) but it ended up being great!
ReplyDeleteI've been eyeing the Sur Le Table classes for a while! If all of these classes were more affordable I would probably go every week. Sharing prep work was a struggle and I had to keep reminding myself to back off sometimes, whoops!
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