Sunday, March 8, 2009

Gaspar's Cooking class and dinner

My neighbor friend, Yami, took me to Gaspar's cooking class and full course dinner in Tuesday evening. Gaspar’s is the construction company specializing design/build/remodel houses. The attendants of the class were the employees, friends and their customers. The class was held at Gaspar’s office. There is a model kitchen installed in the office to show their customers appliances and building materials Gaspar’s use for their construction business.
When Yami and I entered to the Gaspar’s office, we were asked if we like to have red or white wine. I asked for red and Yami for white. The chef and instructor of the class was Incredible chef, Karen Rosenzweig ,(See http://www.incrediblechef.com/index.html) who is personnel chef. Karen offered us appetizer to start. It was baked Brie with Caramel with Walnuts or with cranberries served with crackers and slices of apples. The appetizer was very rich and delicious. She showed us how to prepare it. I already tried this appetizer recipe with my first home made puff pastry and brought it to the Irish dinner party. Every one who tasted it loved it very much. I thank Karen for this recipe.
After the instruction of this delicious appetizer, we learned about energy efficient and high BTU stove with the grill on the top. The next lesson was how to cook the entrée, baked chicken with tomatoes, olives and Mushrooms, Herbed couscous, and Grilled Zucchini with Feta and Mint. While we wait the dishes were ready to be served, we learned about the rest of the kitchen appliances, lighting, and environment friendly building materials. Karen grilled zucchini on the stove top grill and fry and baked the chicken using the stove and the oven installed at Gaspar’s.
Finally it was the dessert time! The dessert was old fashioned-shortbread. Karen showed how quickly the tasty short bread was prepared. We had hot freshly baked short bread. It was very tender and buttery bread. We could not resist several servings. I will try this recipe soon.
Karen was very knowledgeable and a good teacher. I liked her style of teaching and cooking.
I appreciate Gaspar’s and Yami who provided me a great time and opportunity to experience full course dinner with valuable cooking instructions from professional chef.

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