Dining in Cumberland, Maryland; ACE Cooking Class – Cooking Basics 101 concludes; Next ACE Class – Dolci Italiani II/Italian Desserts; Juicy Orange Cake

Post Date: 30 May 2018

 

Last week 3 friends and I went on our annual bike trip, this year along the Great Allegany Passage bike trail that runs from Pittsburgh to Cumberland, Maryland, staying in Cumberland for 2 nights.  The highlights of the trip were crossing the Eastern Continental Divide (who knew?) and the Mason-Dixon Line. And while in Cumberland we ate dinner at 2 great restaurants, the Crabby Pig and the Baltimore Street Grill.

 

The Crabby Pig is located right at the stat of the C&O Bike Trail, which runs 184 miles to Washington, DC.  We all had sandwiches, a Pulled Pork, a Grouper, and a Crab Cake.  Prices were reasonable.

 

The Baltimore Street Grill located in the pedestrian mall along (surprise) Baltimore Street was a bit more upscale than the Cabby pig, with prices to match and a more extensive menu.  I would not hesitate to recommend either one.

 

 

ACE Class – Cooking Basics 101 Concluded

The third and final session of this class was on Saturday morning May 19.   We made a Quick Vegetable Soup, a Classic French Vinaigrette, Salisbury Streaks with Onions in a Pan Sauce, Sautéed Sesame and Soy Asparagus, and personal size Lemon Olive Oil Pound Cakes.

 

 

There are 2 iterations of this class on the summer schedule; one geared for young adults, such as college students and recent graduates, which runs for 3 straight nights, August 1, 2, and 3.  The other, for the general audience, runs on Friday evenings July 7, 13, and 20.

 

 

Next ACE Class – Dolci Italiani II/Italian Desserts

 

This 2 session class is a follow up to one I did last November.  It meets on Saturday mornings June 23 and 30 at Woodson High School.  I plan it as a follow up to the November class.  The full menu is not yet set, but so far I plan to do an Italian Style Banana Pudding (pictured above) using Marscapone Cheese and Amaretto Cookies.  We will also do Cannoli again, but this time we will be making the shells as well as the filling.  We will bake the shells instead of deep frying them, a much more civilized way to go.

 

Juicy Orange Cake

 

I love desserts with oranges in them, so when I saw this recipe in The New York Times Food Section a few weeks ago I had to try it.  I have made it twice since then, once as dessert for a dinner party last weekend.  It was a big hit.  Here is the link to the recipe:

 

https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1019287-juicy-orange-cake

 The same week this recipe was published The Washington Post Food Section had one for Orange Dreamsicle Cookies.  I plan to make them in the next week or so and will write about them in a future post.

 

 

Reminder – Instagam

 

Follow me on Instagram at #senseichef.  I look forward to your comments on my posts, culinary and otherwise.

Upcoming Classes

 

Here is my schedule for the rest of the spring and summer terms.

June 23 and 30 – Saturday Morning – Dolci Italiani II/Italian Desserts – Woodson High School

July 7, 13, and 20 – Friday Evening – Cooking Basics 101 – Plum Center

 

July 21 and 28 – Saturday Morning – Summer Soups - Plum Center

 

August 1, 2, and 3 – Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday Evening – Cooking Basics for Young Adults – Plum Center

 

August 8 and 15 – Wednesday Evening – Japanese Cooking in Your American Kitchen v2.0 – Plum Center

 

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

http://www.fcps.edu/is/ace/

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                          

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ACE Cooking Class – Cooking Basics 101 concludes; Next ACE Class – Off the Beaten Track in Provence – Recipe Testing; Summer Catalogue Out.

Post Date: 16 May 2018

 

Well, it looks like April showers have arrived a month late, but historically May is wetter than April in our area.  We’ll be pushing the envelope a bit in this week’s final session of Cooking Basics 101, making both a soup and a salad and baking small pound cakes, in addition to a main course and vegetable.  I made 1 of the 2 mussels recipes my friend sent from France; it was quick and easy to make. Details are below.

 

 

ACE Class – Cooking Basics 101

 

This class concludes with session 3 this Saturday morning, May 19.  Pictured above is a student dish from session 2 – Roasted Lemon Thyme Carrots with a Balsamic Glaze.  We also made Orange Couscous Salad and Citrus Salmon.  To finish we made a no bake dessert with Marscapone Cheese, Strawberries, and Chocolate Wafers.

 

For this week’s final session, we will be baking instead of doing a no bake dessert.  We will be making individual size Lemon Olive Oil Pound Cakes, which are great when topped with fresh summer berries. We will cover the basics of making a classic French Vinaigrette; we will also see how to build a soup from scratch, then make a quick vegetable soup.  Our main dish will be Salisbury Steak.  We will start them on the stove top, then finish in the oven while we use the pan juices to make a reduction sauce.  Our vegetable will have a Japanese twist, sautéed asparagus with sesame oil and seeds and soy sauce.

 

Next ACE Class – Provence off the Beaten Track

 

I wrote in my last post that I had received 2 new mussels recipe possibilities for this class from my friend in Provence.  I tried out one of them for our Mother’s Day dinner, and it was excellent. (I also made a Lasagne, but that’s another story.)

 

For the recipe I selected, you start by sautéing onion and garlic in olive oil, then add to the pan 2 chopped tomatoes.  Next is dry white wine.  After that reduces, you add the mussels, cover, and cook for about 5-6 minutes, until they are open.  It is quite easy to make, and the result was delicious, and what I found surprising was how sweet the mussels were.

Reminder – Instagam

 

Follow me on Instagram at #senseichef.  I look forward to your comments on my posts, culinary and otherwise.

 

Upcoming Classes

 

Here is my schedule for the rest of the spring and summer terms.

 

June 1 and 8 – Friday Evening – Off the Beaten Track in Provence – Plum Center

 

June 23 and 30 – Saturday Morning – Dolci Italiani II/Italian Desserts – Woodson High School

 

July 7, 13, and 20 – Friday Evening – Cooking Basics 101 – Plum Center

 

July 21 and 28 – Saturday Morning – Summer Soups - Plum Center

 

August 1, 2, and 3 – Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday Evening – Cooking Basics for Young Adults – Plum Center

 

August 8 and 15 – Wednesday Evening – Japanese Cooking in Your American Kitchen v2.0 – Plum Center

 

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

 

http://www.fcps.edu/is/ace/

 

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                          

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ACE Cooking Class – Cooking Basics 101 continues; Japanese Bento Box; Next ACE Class – Off the Beaten Track in Provence

Post Date: 9 May 2018

 

Well, it looks like spring has finally settled in quite nicely this week.  It won’t be long before we have plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables.  I have not done any new Mediterranean Diet dishes this past week, just practicing some of the dishes I have already made to get more comfortable with them, like Mussels in Ouzo, Chicken Calabrese, and Pork Tenderloin with Pearl Onions and Brussels Sprouts.  I’m looking forward to adding a Mediterranean Diet class to my repertoire at ACE.

ACE Class – Cooking Basics 101

This class continues with session 2 this Saturday morning, May 12.  Pictured above are the main dishes from session 1 – Chickpea Salad and Pan Fried Chicken Italiano with Blanched Broccoli.  The dessert was a no bake Ricotta Blueberry Parfait.

This Saturday our focus will be on citrus.  We will make an Orange Couscous Salad, Tilapia with Citrus, and Lemon Thyme Carrots. Dessert will once again be of the no bake variety, using Marscapone cheese, another soft Italian one.  We will make either a Strawberry/Chocolate/Marscapone treat or a personal sized Tiramisu. I will decide by Friday when I shop for the class.

Bento Box

Last Friday I attended a cooking class on making Bento boxes at the Japanese American Society of Washington DC.  Pictured above is the finished product.

In the compartment of the left are grilled salmon and Inari-zushi, tofu pouches filled with seasoned rice.  The salmon was cooked with just sake and mirin, a sweet rice wine.   We were told these would prevent it from getting hard when eaten cold.  For the Inari-zushi, the rice was seasoned with Dashi, Soy Sauce, Sugar, Sake, Rice Vinegar, and Sugar, then placed in the tofu pouches over which boiling water had been poured first.

In the upper right compartment is Tamagoyaki, a Japanese omelet made in a rectangular pan and cooked in layers.  Ours included green onions.  In the lower right compartment is Dango a sweet made with 2 different kinds of rice flower.  The dough is rolled into balls, dropped in boiling water until the balls float, then cooled on an ice bath.  Three colors are traditional - red, green and white, obtained by adding food coloring or beet juice to the dough.

It was a fun evening, and I’m hoping to add a bento box segment to my summer class, Japanese Cooking in Your American Kitchen v2.0.

Next ACE Class – Provence off the Beaten Track

 

This 2 session class meets on Friday evenings June 1 and 8 at the Plum Center in Springfield.  While I have been getting the recipes in order for this class, I received 2 new mussels recipes from my friend Christine Blight in Provence.  They both look excellent and would be good fits for the class.  I will make them over the next week and see which is better suited for our class.

 

Reminder – Instagam

 

Follow me on Instagram at #senseichef.  I look forward to your comments on my posts, culinary and otherwise.

 

 

Upcoming Classes

 

Here is my schedule for the rest of the spring term.  The summer schedule will be put soon.

 

June 1 and 8 – Friday Evening – Off the Beaten Track in Provence – Plum Center

 

June 23 and 30 – Saturday Morning – Dolci Italiani II/Italian Desserts – Woodson High School

 

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

 

http://www.fcps.edu/is/ace/

 

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                          

 

 

 

 

ACE Cooking Class “Easy Gourmet Meals” concludes; Next ACE Class – Cooking Basics 101 begins this Saturday, May 5; Mediterranean Dish - Kofta.

Post Date 2 May 2018

 

As April concluded with a beautiful full moon rising on Sunday night and May is stating out like midsummer, it is time for me to start thinking about summer dishes and classes.  One of my summer classes at ACE is Summer Soups.  Two summers ago I assigned myself an ice cream project.  I did not make any last summer, but the Lemon Olive Oil Ice Cream I made a few weeks ago has inspired me to take up the project again this summer with a variety of new flavors, plus some old favorites.  I’ll be writing about them in future posts.

 

 

ACE Class- Easy Gourmet Meals

 

 

This class concluded last Friday, April 30.  Our featured dish was baked Tilapia Italiana with a warm Goat Cheese and Pear Salad (pictured above).  Our other salad was Orange Couscous and other entrée was Beef Teriyaki with Jasmine Rice.

 

I plan to offer v2.0 of this class in the Fall 2018 quarter with all new recipes.

 

 

Next ACE Class – Cooking Basics 101

 

This class begins Saturday morning, May 5, at the Plum Center.  For our first session our featured dish will be Pan Fried Chicken Italiano with Blanched Broccoli.  We will flour the chicken, season it with Italian Seasonings, dip it in an egg wash, then coat it with Panko Breadcrumbs. Our salad will be a Chickpea Salad, and for desert we will make a no bake Blueberry Ricotta Parfait.  We will also be covering basic knife skills and safe food handling techniques.

Mediterranean Dish - Turkey Kofta

 

This is another recipe I made from Prevention Magazine’s Mediterranean Table cookbook. It is a Middle Eastern dish that calls for ground lamb, but I could not find any at the supermarket so I used ground turkey.  I cooked them on skewers on my counter top griddle, along with Zucchini strips.  They are served with a cold sauce made from Plain Greek Yogurt, Tahini Paste, Lemon Juice, and Minced Garlic.  It is a great summer dish so will be making it again as the weather gets warmer.

 

 

Reminder – Instagam

 

Follow me on Instagram at #senseichef.  I look forward to your comments on my posts, culinary and otherwise.

 

Upcoming Classes

 

Here is my schedule for the rest of the spring term.  The summer schedule will be put soon.

 

June 1 and 8 – Friday Evening – Off the Beaten Track in Provence – Plum Center

 

June 23 and 30 – Saturday Morning – Dolci Italiani II/Italian Desserts – Woodson High School

 

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

 

http://www.fcps.edu/is/ace/

 

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