Session 3 Cooking Basics 101 Class at the Plum Center, Session 2 of Quick Weeknight Dinners at the Plum Center, Quick Vegetable Soup

Post Date: 2 March 2016

I have two classes coming up, Session 3 of Cooking Basics 101 at the Plum Center in Springfield on Friday evening March 4, and Session 2 of Quick Weeknight Dinners on Tuesday, March 8, also at the Plum Center.  In prepping for the Cooking Basics 101 class I went through a Vegetable Soup recipe we will be doing.

Cooking Basics 101 at the Plum Center – Session 3

The final session of this class meets Friday evening, March 4^th. This week we will be working on expanding our skills even further.  Instead of a salad, we will be making a Quick Vegetable soup (see below for details) which will give us plenty of opportunity to practice knife skills.  And instead of a no bake dessert, we will be baking a Lemon Olive Oil Pound Cake.  For our vegetable, we will be making Baked Stuffed Zucchini, and the entrée will be a Salisbury Steak with a reduction sauce.

Quick Weeknight Dinners – Session 2

The second session of this class will meet on Tuesday evening March 8^th.  The main dish for this session will be a Quick Fire Chicken Parmesan, which is made exclusively on the stove top in about 30 minutes.  We will need a sauce for this, so we will start off with a basic Marinara Sauce which can also be used in a variety of recipes.  We will also be making a Tuscan White Bean Salad and possibly a Baked Stuffed Zucchini.

Quick Vegetable Soup

This is a good soup for the windy March days.  It is rather easy to make and can be used as the starting point for more elaborate dishes.  For instance, if you have any leftover chicken, you can add it and make chicken soup.  It starts with a mirepoix (onion, celery and carrot) cooked in olive oil, then add minced garlic, then add and wilt baby spinach.  To this I added low sodium chicken broth.  In a separate pot, I cooked a cup of Orzo pasta until it was almost al dente – the inside was still “raw.”  I then drained the Orzo and added it to the soup pot for10 minutes where it finished cooking and picked up some of the broth.   Had I cooked the Orzo entirely in the soup broth it would have absorbed so much of the liquid that just a porridge-like dish would have remained.

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Upcoming Classes

Spring schedule and catalogue is out.  Here are my classes for the spring term.

April 12, 19, and 26 – Tuesday Evening – Cooking Basics 101 – Plum Center

April 15 – Friday Morning – No Bake Desserts – Plum Center

May 10 – Tuesday Evening – Holiday in Sicily – Woodson High School

May 19, 26, June 2 – Thursday Evening – Cooking Basics 101 – Herndon High School

May 27 – Friday Evening – Date Night Cooking for Novice Cooks – Plum Center

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