Back in the Saddle

PCC Cooks

With burn marks still visible on my hands and wrists from the unfortunate Cinco De Mayo tart debacle, I bravely attended my first PCC cooking class last night. With the kicky name of "Spring Fling" and an instructor that reminded me of the perky doctor on Greys Anatomy - I couldn't pass it up. Besides, I had pre-paid and God knows I need some instruction in the kitchen.

The menu for the night: Lamb Shanks with Pomegranate sauce, Sweet Pea and Mint Risotto, Fresh Corn Salad, Mediterranean Lentil Salad, Roasted Veggies with Feta, and Strawberries with a Balsamic Reduction and Cracked Pepper. We were split into teams of 3 and I luckily got placed on the "lamb" team - lucky because we received the lions share of the instruction and because I am even worse at cooking main courses than I am at deserts. The instructor mentioned that she brings her class from the Seattle Culinary Academy out to a farm in Washington to learn how to slaughter lamb - to better understand their relationship with the food they prepare. I momentarily thought how cool this would be - wouldn't it be so "Omnivores Dilemma" of me, so in now with the food awareness wave - then I woke up and realized that I wouldn't make it one minute in a slaughterhouse. As soon as the knives came out - I would hitching my way home.

The class was made up of mostly people in their 40's+ with a couple 20-somethings that appeared to be the children of some of the other students. This is not one of those cooking classes you go to if you want to meet people or get a date- but everyone was nice and pretty knowledgeable about food and cooking. We finished all the dishes in about 2 hours and then sat down to enjoy the meal. Afterwards, I hit the store to stock up on groceries - well, actually I stocked up on all things delicious mentioned in the class, not all of which went into the dishes (hazelnut smoked blue cheese from the Oregon Rouge Valley, french mustard, ice cream)- and the $10 coupon towards groceries you receive from the class helped me out a bit.

I made it out of the 2 hour class with no cuts, burns, and with my pride intact - so it was a pretty successful night.