Appetizer,  Bread,  Chicken,  Dessert,  Food

Sur La Table Cooking Class

March 13, 2012 /

As promised, here is the post about the class that I took at Sur La Table. It was called Date Night: Cozy French Dinner, and here is what was on the menu:

This meal was designed to be a rustic hearty meal. It definitely was! From the moist and crisp gougeres to the tart salad and the savory coq a vin…it was an all around stellar meal.

I will definitely be making some of these recipes again. Although I would change some of them around just a tad. What good foodie doesn’t do that, eh?

I have linked similar recipes above that we made in the class so that you all can try them out for yourselves!

I think that for me personally, I would use Parmesan in the gougeres instead of gruyere. Not that I have anything against ANY kind of cheese. I love it all! I just feel like the texture would be more what I am looking for.

Btdubs, *Kudos* to Patrick for doing a great job with the gougeres. I was so proud to see how he was using a pastry bag to pipe the little puffs onto the baking pan. Nice job mister!

The salad dressing was great! I will definitely be making that again. All the flavors in it were very good! I can’t wait to make it with fresh herbs from my garden at home.

We also made what was like a walnut brittle to break and put over the top of the pots de créme. That was very good. Would be a good thing to have around for holdiay time for any kind of nut really. Would be a great cocktail hour snack or a gift for family and friends!

Personal reflections on the class:

It was interesting for me to kind of sit back and watch everyone in the class do their thing. When you cook as often as most of us food bloggers do, you get accustomed to a certain way of doing things.

With this class, I watched people do things as simple as cutting their vegetables and noticed what a difference there was in my style versus theirs.

This seemed like a class for more of a beginners crowd. Not that I am still not learning, but I do spend a lot of time in the kitchen and with the help of my VERY talented mother I noticed that I am more advanced than I thought I was.

Have you ever had that feeling?

I remember the first time I cooked myself a meal in my early high school years and it was groooooosss! And I mean gross. Like throw in the trash, never think of again kind of meal. I don’t think our dog would have even touched what I made and that is saying a lot!

As the years have gone on…I started branching out and challenging myself, and you know what? It has made me a better cook. 🙂

Imagine that…practice does make perfect (well maybe not perfect, but definitely better than it was before!)

While this class wasn’t quite as advanced as I was hoping, I was really happy to realize how far I have come personally as a cook and I did have a very nice time.

I mean even since I first started this blog I have improved and I have you all to thank for that. Every one of you that I follow regularly are always doing such AMAZING things and that pushes me to try and do the same. So thank you!

Also, if I had to give anyone who is a new cook advice…cook with someone in your family. I guarantee that your Mom, Dad, grandparents, uncles, aunts…someone will have tips to give you on shortcuts for cooking. Or have stories about their cooking adventures that will teach you.

My mom has taught me SO much about cooking I couldn’t even try to explain. Watching her as a kid and cooking with her as I got older taught me so much that I wasn’t even realizing that I was learning. How cool is that?

Anyways, I hope you all are having a great week so far!

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