A.C.E. Cooking Classes This Week and Thanksgiving Recap

Post Date: 2 December 2014

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.  In this post I will be discussing the two A.C.E. classes I am scheduled for this week and one of the dishes we had for Thanksgiving

 Two A.C.E. Classes This Week

On Thursday evening, December 4^th, I will be teaching a No Bake Desserts class at 7:00 PM at Woodson High.  On Saturday morning, December 6^th at 10:00 AM at the Plum Center, I will have the first of 3 sessions (6, 13, 20 December) of Getting Past Pasta, a class featuring Italian main dishes, and some sides and sauces as well.

For the No Bake Desserts, we will be making an Apricot Cheese Cake, Tiramisu, and Cannoli.  For the cannoli, I will be providing the shells and the class will make the filling. For the ricotta cheese in the filling, we will be using both store bought ricotta and ricotta I will make for the class so we can compare the two.  One of the supplemental recipes will be how to make ricotta.

For Getting Past Pasta, we will be doing a Quick Fire Chicken Parmesan made entirely on the stove top.  We will also make a Marinara Sauce to accompany it, as well as a Pesto to take home.

Thanksgiving Recap

I am not going to bore you by presenting a litany of the dishes we had last Thursday; they are most likely the same as what you had.  Instead, I’m going to discuss just one dish which not only tastes great but is an excellent choice for serving with a large, complex meal – Asparagus in Mustard Sauce.  Now I cannot take credit for this; it is from the cookbook Essential Pepin by Jacques Pepin (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Boston and New York, 2011, page 411).  What is especially appealing about this recipe is how it relates to timing your dishes for serving.  Things can get pretty hectic when you have dishes going in the oven and on all the burners and trying to get the timing right so everything is done at the same time.  This dish is served at room temperature, so it can be made 60 minutes or so ahead and allowed to cool.  The asparagus are blanched, then drained.  The mustard sauce consists of Dijon Mustard, Canola Oil, Olive Oil, White Wine Vinegar, and salt and pepper.  The sauce can be made ahead as well and then spread on your asparagus when ready to serve.

Upcoming Classes

The winter classes start in January, and I have one class in January

January 22 - Thursday Evening – Dinner in New York – Woodson High

To register for this class, or any ACE cooking classes, please go to:

http://www.fcps.edu/is/ace/specialinterest.shtml and scroll down to the Culinary section

While there, be sure to check out the other culinary courses offered by ACE’s excellent chef instructors.

Till next time, keep cooking.

Contact Chef Kevin at: KJBrady@fcps.edu