Cooking class!

 Who knew I could learn a thing or two after cooking regularly for 50+ years.....

We had such a good time tasting local wines at Wanderlust Delicato last week that Jesse and Erin suggested we all take one of their cooking classes.    It sounded like fun and something we've never, ever done before,  so we all signed up.     This Friday evenings class was entitled "Sauced Up. the five French mother sauces".     We're suckers for French food so it was right up our alley.

The "kitchen" is in back of the wine/cheese shop so whatever we needed was just "up front" !  The four of us shared one of their small  charcuterie plates for sustenance while we cooked.

The class was from 5:30 to 7:30 and it included a discussion of the sauces and then hands on making of each in small teams.    We (Jesse, Erin, Dave and I) were given Espanole Sauce, a basic brown sauce.  Basic in the sense that it can be  the base for many other more complicated sauces, but it's complex flavors stand on their own.   We would later use this sauce over Filet Mignon as part of the collective meal.     Dave took on the task of chopping the vegetables, Jesse sauteed the meat scraps and made the roux and Erin and I worked on getting all the ingredients measured, assembled and placed within reach of the actual preparation area as well as taking turns with the near constant stirring and ladling.      There was a decent amount of decent wine consumed, an important part of any good French cooking.

we weren't concerned about wearing masks with the intense exhaust fans moving the air

Other groups made different sauces, and then used those sauces in  dinner preparations for us all.   We had a Tomato sauce turned into a beautiful Ratatouille, a Veloute sauce turned into a wonderful Chicken Pot Pie topped with puff pastry, a Bechamel sauce made into tiny macaroni and cheese ramikins, a Hollandaise sauce drizzled over cooked asparagus and our Espanole sauce poured over  perfectly cooked Filet Mignons.

We had such a fun time cooking, laughing and watching each other prepare this feast and then eating til we could barely walk.    

We all look forward to taking another class there next summer.