Let's Get Cooking

For my 31st birthday, Josh gave me a cooking class at a fantastic little restaurant, L'Escalier.  It was a wonderful idea at the time, little did we know I would be in my first trimester of pregnancy and a little squeamish, to say the least. We both still really enjoyed it, even though I had to cover my eyes at points, and learned quite a bit.  With a group of about 12 and a delightful chef named Dean, it was a very entertaining and lively evening.  We learned how to make salmon tar tare, butternut squash soup, black squid ink tortellini stuffed with crab and salmon mouse, basil tortellini stuffed with goats cheese and beat root, pate, stuffed Guinea Fowl and because it was approaching 10:30pm (class started at 6:00), we had to skip dessert. After all the cooking, we sat down to eat this never ending meal...and we finally crawled into bed at 12:30am.

The few times I almost lost it:

• Smelling the fresh salmon (about 20lbs of it)
• Making the pate- combining raw egg, chicken liver, mixed ground meat, and something else that was unidentifiable but definitely used to be alive.  And then watching everyone stick their finger in this fabulous, uncooked mixture to "season it to taste."
• Taking the Guinea Fowl and literally ripping off the two legs and dissecting the breasts so they could be stuffed. Let's just say, blood was flying.
• Finally, watching the tortellini noodles being soaked in "squids ink," the black liquid that squids actually spray - aparently a delicacy.

Although my senses were in massive overdrive, it really was an overall cool experience.  We now have a few new friends, a few new recipes and some pate in our freezer if you want to stop by for happy hour!