Wednesday, October 10th - Class # 4 wrapped up

It's a milder 10' this morning, although only reaching 12' later with a 40% chance of showers later this afternoon. Yesterday turned out to be not a bad day - sunny for the most part but started off cooler in the morning, at only 6' when I got up.

Our 4th class went well last night. We made 3 pasta dishes:

1.  Fettuccine Alfredo
2.  Penne with Red Pepper Sauce and Spinach (almost forgot the spinach)
3.  Garlic Lemon Shrimp with Orzo and Dill

Everyone loved the Fettuccine Alfredo, although some are not used to eating pasta 'al dente' and prefer it a bit softer, and that's totally the diner's choice. The penne was equally good, having been made with a sauce of pureed roasted red peppers, onions, garlic and fennel seeds. Once they were fully roasted and soft, we pureed them with an immersion blender to make an instant sauce - a nice change from tomato sauce. I added a little bit of red pepper flakes but some found it a little too spicy. I sometimes forget not everyone likes things hot! We did forget to add the spinach until we'd already sampled it so that just meant we had to have two servings. The last dish was the shrimp with orzo. We cut the quantity down to 1 lemon as opposed to the 2 lemons that were called for and it was still very lemony. But it was equally delicious. All three dishes were a hit and everyone was impressed with how quickly they all came together. So a big thank you to Chef Michael Smith once again, as these were all recipes from two of his books.

We changed up the format a bit last night. With so many students it's difficult to have enough for them all to have something to do. So I assigned each a prep task and then I used an induction burner on the table to prepare the dish in front of everyone. There was less participation but on the other hand, we were cleaned up and I was on the road by 8:45. I don't think anyone minded being home a little earlier. Doing it this style made  it easier to talk about what I was doing and they could all see what was going on. It's easier to explain things each step of the way and everyone can see whats happening in the pan  and are able to ask questions if they have any. We'll try it that way again next week and see what happens.

We were pleased to have Caitlin join us again this week. She has only two more classes before she leaves for Edmonton and has asked for a class on making curry. It's not something I've done much of (well, none really) but I can learn along with everyone else.