Sensational Summer Cooking Class - A True Success

I really do love to cook - but I love teaching people how to cook even more!

My new series of cooking classes have started off great!
A wonderful group of five lively and lovely ladies joined me for a wonderful evening of delicious summer recipes.

Everyone was greeted with a fresh glass of ginger-goji berry lemonade and then sat down to watch a demo of a creamy guacomole being prepared with fresh green garden peas, to be dipped in by organic blue corn chips. This is a delicious and nutritious twist to a traditional guacamole recipe. The peas add some depth, flavour and some good quality protein as well! The bowl was empty within seconds.

We then got into a discussion of the natural and fresh ingredients that were going to be used in the class. Everyone had questions to be answered.

Most questions were stemmed around what the difference is between some conventional ingredients such as soy sauce and sugar and what the natural alternatives were that we would be using in this class.

So I did my fair share of explaining that Tamari is a naturally fermented source of Soy Sauce that does not contain any wheat or additives. The sources of sugar we used in the class were either brown rice syrup, maple syrup or agave nectar, which are all from natural plant or food sources. Whichs means they contain some vitamins and minerals that would not be found in traditional white sugar. It was also pertanent to mention that brown rice syrup and agave nectar do not spike blood sugar levels as rapidly as processed sugar does.

It is always so great and rewarding to educate people on basic things that they can take home and bring into thier own cooking and daily eating. There are so many questions around food, and I am always more than happy to bridge this gap, and make clear what is confusing.

So the evening carried on with everyone making one of the many recipes that were to be prepared in the class. Everyone got to choose between making either: Tangy Thai Lettuce Wraps, Apple-Fennel salad with a Lemon-Thyme Vinaigrette, Quinoa Tabule, Green Beans with Hazelnuts, White Bean Dip with Dill, Citrus Tempeh Skewers or Creamy Lemon Tarts. A tough decision to make, I know!

But everyone chose the recipe that made them eager and excited to prepare .
The recipes turned out fantastic and everyone learned a new technique or two to make things easier for them in the kitchen, whethter it was how slice fennel on a mandoline, processing quick dressings in a blender or vitamix or blanching broccoli to get crisp and tender floret, everyone got something helpful and useful out of the class.

Then after two hours of fun in the kitchen, we all sat down to enjoy the wonderful sampling of all the recipes together, plus there was plenty of leftovers to take home!

After such a great experience, I am really looking forward to my next upcoming summer classes and I hope you can make it to one of them!