Wow! What a slacker I have been with my resolution to keep my blog up-to-date. I got busy and lazy all at the same time. So, let’s catch up on the past few weeks.
My seat, learning materials, and mixer for the day.
My cake all boxed up and ready to take home.
A couple of Sundays ago, Sean and I made the trek up to Norwich, VT to take a cake baking class at King Arthur Flour. We took a class there about a year-and-a-half ago and we liked it so much that Sean got me this class as a Christmas gift this year. I love driving to King Arthur Flour. They have a great baker’s store where they offer loads of baking supplies which you can also order from their catalog — but I think it’s way more fun to browse the shop. Exciting news: they are building an addition that will upgrade their teaching facilities and increase the size of their shop! Our instructor said it’s schedule to be complete in May.
Sean's mixing it up!
Our class was a good one. We learned some great tips about baking cakes (did you know that you should really cream your butter and sugar until it gets really fluffy and white in color — this takes a lot longer than I’ll bet you ever spent on the creaming step) and basic frosting tips. There’s a more advanced decorating class that I’d love to take some time in the future.
Just a few days after our cake class, we celebrated Valentine’s Day. I really enjoy celebrating Valentine’s Day — not for the cheesy Hallmark cards (though I do love my annual Valentine’s Day flower delivery!) — but because it is a reason to really do it up in the kitchen. We don’t go out to dinner for Valentine’s Day because I strongly believe you get subpar food and service on heavy dining out holidays. I’ve also sworn off restaurant week for the same reason.
Fried smelts topped with fried cilantro, chiles, and red onion and nuoc cham on the side -- I'm pretty sure I would have won a Quickfire with this one.
But who needs a restaurant when you’ve earned a very expensive and under utilized culinary degree? This year, we went with a seafood theme: Vietnamese-style fried smelts served with homemade nuoc cham sauce, oysters on the half shell (also tasty with a bit of nuoc cham!), and pan seared sea bass with orange rum beurre blanc sauce and roasted root vegetables. It was all heavenly and decadent. I won’t lie. I literally licked my plate clean of orange rum beurre blanc!
So, that sums up the first half of February — last weekend I had my parents over for dinner and cooked an amazing cajun pasta dish while Sean totally showed me up with a ridiculously delicious and gigantic loaf of Italian bread. But that deserves its own post with recipe. Stay tuned!
Only on holidays can I feel ok with eating a sauce that's mostly just flavored butter.
Who needs to go out to find fine dining when oysters are on sale at Whole Foods for only 0.99 each?
