Work & Play

Absolutely knackered from a hectic week at work, I am so glad its Friday tomorrow. Not just because it’s Friday, but because I’ve begun counting down the days until we go on holiday next week. We haven’t taken time off for a few months now, add that with the cold weather and anybody would be frantic with anticipation. Fingers crossed the weather will be good.

Made the Italian wedding soup again last night for dinner. It turned out ok, though I think I may have used a little too much parsley in the meatballs – I didn’t bother measuring the ¼ cup and in retrospect it was more like ½ a cup!! It really did take 20 minutes to prepare which was great, especially after coming home late from work. Though I have to admit I did have some help this time around.

Actually to be honest John did most of the cooking and I didn’t mind one bit. After all, he has to practice the skills he learnt from the cooking course we went to last week.

Cooking course??

Yes, a cooking course!

I thought it would be great to do a “couples bonding” kind of thing since we have both been so busy with work lately, so a few weeks ago I signed us up for a cooking course at the Institute of Culinary Education. They have a great Recreational Division that offers a variety of courses ranging from knife skills to lobster workshops. John had no idea about this of course *grin*, so last Friday I took/dragged him to a course called Easy Entertaining for Couples. Sounds kind of kitschy and I suppose in a way it was – 6 couples all in their 20’s and 30’s learning how to cook on a Friday night!

We made:
Crostini with Ragout of Oyster Mushrooms and Black Forest Ham
Mesclun & Arugula Salad with Frizzled Shallots and Sunflower Seeds in Raspberry Vinaigrette
Porc Mignon Roasted with Sweet-Hot Caramelized Shallot Glaze
Spaghetti Squash Carbonara with Smoky Bacon and Onions
Banana-Chocolate Chip Croissant Bread Pudding with Godiva Chocolate Liqueur

In a nutshell it was a good night, we prepared the food and milled about with a few glasses of wine, then sat down and enjoyed the fruits of our labour. The class was for four hours which seems long but wasn’t as long as I thought it would be, given that there was wine involved. My favourite dishes were the crostini and salad which I would make again. The frizzled shallots were fun to make and delicious. You can find more details about the course from the Institute’s website.

Unfortunately the photos I took didn’t turn out as well as I hoped they would so I’ll just post one for now.