Cooking class
Yesterday I went to my first, of what will hopefully be many, cooking classes. It was held in the home economics class of a local junior high school, which was a well reasonably equipped room. I was impressed.
It was a low-carb cooking class, and there were high expectations all around. And then the teacher started talking. This was her first class -- ever. She was really impressed with her Masters in Nutrition and 10 years of experience, but we really just wanted recipes and suggestions for things to try.
We eventually got a couple of recipes and started working on our noodle-less lasagna, the meal for the night (along with an interesting salad that avoided). We used eggplant as the noodle replacement, which wasn't an obvious choice, but seemed reasonable after we saw how it all went together. For bulk we used chicken and green peppers, and for sauce we used salsa. This certainly wasn't going to be like any lasagna that I'd ever had before.
Everyone grabbed something and started working. I got the big knife and the chicken and started attempting to slice the skinless chicken breast into 1" strips. The knife was so dull that I could barely cut the chicken and was severely worried that if I slipped with this knife, it would somehow find a way to cut me. Luckily that didn't happen. However, I'm seriously considering taking my own knifes with me next time.
I and another lady, somewhere in her 60's I would guess, fried the eggplant after it had been cut into 1" thick rounds while a mother and daughter team cooked the chicken and bell peppers at another station. Somewhere in the middle of all of this, the amazingly attractive wife of a very picky chiropractor came over and wanted to know more about me and my story of why I moved out here to Minnesota.
Why does everyone think I'm crazy for moving here, but think they're perfectly sane for living here? She claims she's still here because her family is still here. But why are they still here? Perhaps organizing a mass move of 40 people is just too difficult for the average family? I tend to think that Minnesota isn't quite as horrible as they'd like you believe.
The lasagna actually turned out much better than I was expecting. Turns out that eggplant works a lot like tofu -- it tastes pretty much exactly like what it was cooked in. It was a reasonably passable meal. If I were to do it again, I'd cut the eggplant thinner and use ground turkey in a spaghetti sauce. A sauce thicker than salsa would definitely make it a better meal.
But then again, I've been eating out every night since I moved here. Why change a good thing now?
It was a low-carb cooking class, and there were high expectations all around. And then the teacher started talking. This was her first class -- ever. She was really impressed with her Masters in Nutrition and 10 years of experience, but we really just wanted recipes and suggestions for things to try.
We eventually got a couple of recipes and started working on our noodle-less lasagna, the meal for the night (along with an interesting salad that avoided). We used eggplant as the noodle replacement, which wasn't an obvious choice, but seemed reasonable after we saw how it all went together. For bulk we used chicken and green peppers, and for sauce we used salsa. This certainly wasn't going to be like any lasagna that I'd ever had before.
Everyone grabbed something and started working. I got the big knife and the chicken and started attempting to slice the skinless chicken breast into 1" strips. The knife was so dull that I could barely cut the chicken and was severely worried that if I slipped with this knife, it would somehow find a way to cut me. Luckily that didn't happen. However, I'm seriously considering taking my own knifes with me next time.
I and another lady, somewhere in her 60's I would guess, fried the eggplant after it had been cut into 1" thick rounds while a mother and daughter team cooked the chicken and bell peppers at another station. Somewhere in the middle of all of this, the amazingly attractive wife of a very picky chiropractor came over and wanted to know more about me and my story of why I moved out here to Minnesota.
Why does everyone think I'm crazy for moving here, but think they're perfectly sane for living here? She claims she's still here because her family is still here. But why are they still here? Perhaps organizing a mass move of 40 people is just too difficult for the average family? I tend to think that Minnesota isn't quite as horrible as they'd like you believe.
The lasagna actually turned out much better than I was expecting. Turns out that eggplant works a lot like tofu -- it tastes pretty much exactly like what it was cooked in. It was a reasonably passable meal. If I were to do it again, I'd cut the eggplant thinner and use ground turkey in a spaghetti sauce. A sauce thicker than salsa would definitely make it a better meal.
But then again, I've been eating out every night since I moved here. Why change a good thing now?
posted by Mark at 9:01 PM
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