Recipes, ingredients, tools and appliances at the ready.

I taught my first cooking class in five years this week. My first recreational cooking class in almost 15 years. I overestimated how long it would take to prepare the ambitious menu I devised. My students were three lovely teenage young ladies and a lively ten-year old boy. Fortunately the kids were game for the six hours we cooked!

To start, they each made a dessert: brownies, triple berry crisp, sour cream coffee cake and s’mores biscotti.

Licking the brownie batter!

We then tackled parboiling, blanching, caramelizing, deglazing, seasoning and knife skills by preparing onion soup with Gruyere toasts, bruschetta, pizza dough, steak fajitas with an ancho-lime marinade, guacamole, grilled corn and black bean salad, lemonade and Shirley Temples. The roasted chicken and root vegetables fell to the wayside.

It was a great learning experience for me as well. Teaching in a small kitchen vs. the University lab with multiple stations, tools and appliances, I realize I need to pare back on the quantity, which will also increase the quality of the lessons.

Check out the “Classes” page to see the schedule for the remainder of this year.