Cooking Classes

I love teaching! I really enjoy teaching cooking classes for all ages but my favorites are middle schoolers. You just never know what will happen or how much fun you might have.

I organized Wednesday for cooking class Thursday. Shopped, filled up the dining room table with equipment and lists. I prefer be ready without stress. I have no idea what I made for dinner Wednesday but I'm sure we ate!

Thursday at after school cooking we made soups. Broccoli cheddar, turkey vegetable and tomato basil. I didn't take pictures because I was enjoying working with the students. No stress, no problems, some questions, no rushing. Lovely time.

Pro tip - buy the already shredded carrots from produce. Especially if you are carrying burners, pots, pans, to school. There is no need to add a food processor to the lugging.

Dinner for us Thursday was also soup! Not what we made, the students were hungry and took some home for parents. I thawed a container of chicken broth and heated that while we did class dishes.

I added some sliced green cabbage, sliced green onions, soy sauce, fresh ginger slices, chili sauce and let it come to a boil. Then added frozen pork spinach dumplings and let them cook. Heated some chive pancakes we bought while grocery shopping and we had dinner done pretty quickly.

I was tired and husband had a zoom meeting at 7:30 so planning is key to eating something good. No picture, I was tired! But happily tired.

Since I spent approximately 12 minutes making dinner Thursday decided to make something more time consuming Friday.

Bacon and Goat Cheese Tart looked good. I spent my morning organizing recipes for next week's class and started dinner about 4:30. The recipe states that onions will take 35 to 45 minutes and that is realistic. Mine took longer, but I was in no rush.

I followed the recipe with the exception of the thyme, I used dried that I sprinkled in the onions while they cooked. The crust was great with the cornmeal crunch.

I served it with arugula tossed with fresh lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper. We each had a piece for dinner, it was plenty and Saturday breakfast was done too! Husband heated a piece before he left for a photography job and it came out nicely.

Yes, I did take a picture of this. Before and after.

Saturday morning is windy and rainy. A good friend's mom died late last night. She's been on home hospice for 12 days and it's been hard for my friend. Her mom made the decision and was ready to let go but still hard.

She's in Texas and also was a personal chef and her personal chef friends have a need to feed! Patti ordered food the beginning of the week, Patti is in New Hampshire. Diane in Maryland sent BBQ on Thursday.

My day was today and I placed an order at her Whole Foods. I was able to ask her the other day if she needed/wanted anything so was able to include things she needed/wanted. Food will be delivered this morning to her door.

My day will be spent relaxing. Breakfast just needs to be heated. Dinner will be deconstructed beef tacos with chips, cabbage slaw, tomatoes, cheese, avocado for me, salsa and probably some black beans. Easy cooking.