an afternoon cooking class

Recipes

The caretaker came over and made dinner with the group.  


Kitchen
It was a simple meal but fun to cook
with everyone. 
Chopping
We chopped, we
baked. 

Pasta
We made pasta.  I cut out
of the festivities half way through.   As Josh said to me, I know how to do all this stuff, I
want to learn how to gut a pig. 
Note to camp counselor, oh, that’s me, teach Josh how to cut up a whole
pig.

 
Brushetta
For dins, we drank ample wine and started with a tomato
brushetta served over a crispy toast. 
She had them chop the tomatoes in the cuisinart after squeezing out all
the seeds.  I might be making some
of this when the tomato season kicks into gear come August.

Mushroom
Our next course was long strands of home made pasta with a
mushroom sauce.  She used local
fresh mushrooms and porchinis that were frozen but were picked locally up in the hills earlier in the year.  Olive oil, onions, garlic
and mushrooms.  She didn’t continue
to sauté the mushrooms but basically put a lid on the pot and let them soften.  Oh, olive oil here was very key.  When the mushrooms were done, lots of
oil and salt.  This over the pasta
was pretty damn good. 

I never make fresh pasta at home.  Not that I serve it that often but in NYC you can get
unbelievable fresh pasta for a few bucks a bag so no need to really make it
fresh.  Raffetto's on Houston and Macdougal rocks and is about as close to an Italian store as you can get.

Beef
Next course was thinly sliced steak with gobs of shaved Parm
and super spicy arugula over the top. 
Heavy handed but very nice. 

Zucchini
A side of zucchinis that had been sauteed and then roasted with
lots of cheese.  Zucchini gratin
basically.

Apple
Last course was an apple cake.  A very nice meal, fun to cook with everyone. 

Outside
Afterward, we sat outside, had a few glasses of after dinner
drinks.  


Sunsetting
Cigars were smoked and we
watched the sun set.  Pretty
perfect.