2010…
What do you think? Should we say “twenty ten” or “two thousand ten”? And don’t you agree that either way, the year somehow sounds impressively solid and dependable? Like it’s arrived to offer us a certain presence of mind. So that’s what I thought this new season of classes should provide—a wide range of tried and true Mother Recipes for us all to keep counting on. Year after year after year. These versatile classics work to support our lives while helping us master core culinary concepts. What a delicious way to invest in our long-term health and happiness. It’s so good to know we’re in this together. Why not come take your place around my table?
Winter-Spring Season 2010 Class Schedule
Click a class link and you will jump down to the full description in the Class Descriptions section below. NOTE: Some scheduled recipes or menus may need to be altered to accommodate unexpected changes in seasonal availability or other circumstances.
- CLASS 64 • Wed, Feb 10 [1-5pm]: HEARTS & TARTS
- CLASS 65 • Wed, Feb 24 [10am-2pm]: SLOW COOKING
- CLASS 66 • Wed, Mar 10 [10am-2pm]: THE EGG & YOU
- CLASS 67 • Fri, Mar 26 [5-9pm]: SPRING LAMB & BABY VEGETABLES
- CLASS 68 • Wed, Apr 28 [10am-2pm]: SPRING GARDEN SALAD BASKET
- CLASS 69 • Wed, May 12 [10am-2pm]: ESSENTIAL SAUCES
- CLASS 70 • Wed, May 26 [10am-2pm]: HEALTHY STARTS & SNACKS
To Sign Up and find out more about how classes work, please see Class Information
Private Party Group Classes
You initiate the gathering and we'll take care of the rest! Hassle-free and easily Dutch treat, this is a great way to enrich your life by making it simple to get together with your own group of friends, family or co-workers for a shared and joyful experience.
EITHER pick the current schedule class subject that suits you best and arrange to book it for sometime that same class week -OR- inquire about alternative available menu options. Please contact me to discuss all possible dates and times. (refer to Contact Us)
Current Class Descriptions
CLASS 64 • Wed, Feb 10 [1-5pm]: HEARTS & TARTS
Chocolate passion, strawberry kisses, fertility almonds, and the promise of spring cream & eggs. For the first class in this new season, we’ll embrace Cupid’s inspiration in more than a few of my favorite things: Bittersweet Chocolate Profiteroles filled with an ethereal Grand Marnier pastry cream, Early Strawberry Tart in a lavender shortbread crust [the dough for which could also be rolled out for cookies], and a simply moist and delicious Almond Cloud Cake that can easily be dressed up or down. I consider all three of these lovelies a must in my repertoire because they offer many, many mix and match, quick or more ambitious possibilities, depending on your time and energy at any given moment. So I hope you’ll both treat yourself and come be my Valentine. Afternoon Tea will be served.[Please note class time.]
CLASS 65 • Wed, Feb 24 [10am-2pm]: SLOW COOKING
Every time I walked in the door after another marathon night into day into night again at the restaurant and was greeted by the glorious aromas of dinner ready in my very own home, I couldn’t help but smile and sigh, “What’s not to get about this?” No wonder centuries of women have been tethered to the hearth so their tired and hungry families would have reason to give thanks. Well, in this case it was my beloved husband providing when I could not, but then there’s also my grandmother’s extended family and ranch hands’ solution. Just before sunrise they’d bury their stew pot in the earth to cook under a smoldering fire until they finally returned after sunset, weary and famished, for dinner out on the range. While this paints a very romantic picture in our minds, the electric crock-pot can accomplish essentially the same result for you—and it’s a whole lot easier. This class will expand your at-home horizons with slow cooking concepts for crock-pot vegetable, bean & meaty dishes that can simmer all day on their own to be ready for dinner when you are. Consider this your time savour and try a little tenderness.
CLASS 66 • Wed, Mar 10 [10am-2pm]: THE EGG & YOU
In 1927, Betty MacDonald followed her husband and his dream of quitting the reliable office job to earn their living on a small chicken ranch. She had no idea how isolated and overworked she would soon find herself. She also had no idea she would much later end up telling the tale of their misadventures in “The Egg and I,” her charming and humorous book that became an immediate best-seller in 1945. About three decades after that when my own husband and I were similarly young and dumb [a.k.a. “idealistic”], we also moved back to the land and a small organic farm with two milking goats and thirty chickens. The chicks were so cute, we even named them and let the flock swell to one hundred and thirty. For two of us. We now live in a renowned chicken town with an annual parade to prove it. At the turn of the last century, the egg business even gave Petaluma the highest per capita income in the United States. There are some recurring themes here, but with different versions of plenty. One way or another, eggs can provide for you. Right before springing our daylight clocks forward, we’ll branch out with more time savour techniques as we whip up omelets, frittatas and bread puddings. With both instant and make-ahead options, as well as sweet and savory variations, these ever-accommodating and economical recipes can be easily made any time of day, simply augmented for a complete meal or turned into a protein-rich dessert. Come learn how to create your own nest egg.
CLASS 67 • Fri, Mar 26 [5-9pm]: SPRING LAMB & BABY VEGETABLES
I can’t think of any dish more quintessentially “spring” than the classic French stew called “Navarin Printanier.” Whether you celebrate the Vernal Equinox, Passover or Easter, it all comes down to the budding out of hope and renewal. Gathering green from hillside pastures and dewy potagers, we’ll layer succulent braised Sonoma lamb with sweet baby vegetables for a bucolic feast that says it all. As the annual spring counterpart to our autumn Sonoma County Cassoulet event, this dinner menu class also revolves around the careful preparation of the season’s one-pot wonder. But when Vivaldi’s rite calls us to the table, we’ll round things out with fresh bread and sweet butter, a little field greens salad with lemon and roasted almond oil, and Russian cream with berries and rose petals. Just say, “Yes!”
CLASS 68 • Wed, Apr 28 [10am-2pm]: SPRING GARDEN SALAD BASKET
Twenty-five years ago when we first moved from our 6-acre farm to a house in town, I delighted in both planning and planting our comparatively diminutive kitchen garden for year-round vegetables, herbs and cutting flowers. In the one-hour break between lunch and dinner shifts, I’d race home from the restaurant on my bike to tend this precious bounty before returning to work until the midnight hour. Five or so years later, I was forced to accept the fact that tomatoes barely had a chance to ripen before the first frost took them out, and that our beautiful liquid amber trees had gradually taken over that plot with roots and shade. So we replaced the garden with a boules court and became grateful devotees of the farmers’ market. But my hands always ache for bread dough and soil, container gardens can be moved into sunlight, and now we have the Seed Bank in downtown Petaluma. So this class will start there with an illuminating heirloom seed and planting tutorial. Then we’ll Come Home to Cooking for a lettuce tasting of mesclun “spring mix” varieties before tossing green salads for a lunch in the garden with fresh bread and local cheeses. And you.
CLASS 69 • Wed, May 12 [10am-2pm]: ESSENTIAL SAUCES
Fresh, lively, pert, piquant, exuberant, spirited, sassy. Showing off a sense of irreverent gaiety and chic but easy manner. That’s what it means to be saucy. How come I’m not surprised the word “sauce” is French. I mean, how many different ways can you fold and wear a scarf? Although used in different forms in countless cuisines the world over, sauces were formally refined, categorized and celebrated by French masters of the culinary arts. By the early 1800’s, they had not only catapulted sauces out of the dark ages from masks for spoiled food to accompaniments that could enhance, but had also started elevating them into veils of magic that could help reveal the very essence of the foods they dressed. And with the more modern focus on a wearable lightness of being, it just keeps getting better. But you need to start with the basics. So we’ll steep ourselves in the history and methodology of the grand Mother Sauces for a fundamental understanding of how reduction, roux, emulsion & vegetable based preparations work before letting you loose on the path of their secondary sauces. It knows no bounds. Just this handful of tricks can give you an attitude that keeps coming back for more. Believe me. You don’t have to remodel your kitchen to start cooking like a pro.
CLASS 70 • Wed, May 26 [10am-2pm]: HEALTHY STARTS & SNACKS
Have you ever tasted wild hickory nuts? Apparently naturalist Euell Gibbons had before he made the 1974 Grape Nuts television commercial that was later satirized on Saturday Night Live with a family loudly crunching on their breakfast cereal of pulverized rocks. They called it “Quarry” and so now do we. Only our version won’t break your teeth and it’s not only nutritious, but it tastes great too. Made with freshly ground whole wheat, barley, amaranth, oat and brown rice flours in a dough with buttermilk, organic brown sugar and spices, this homemade cereal is the real deal. It’s baked like a sheet cake, ground up in the food processor, and then baked again until crispy but tender. Biscotti are twice-baked too. In fact, that’s what the word means. Shaped into logs for round one and then sliced to toast up in round two, these barely sweet cookies can be studded with dried fruits, nuts and even a little dark chocolate. Feel free to take liberties. Make them hard or soft, petite or grand. Eat them any time of day straight up or dunked in coffee, milk or wine. Your choice. They can be stored for longer than you’ll be able to resist them. So why not start your morning with a hearty laugh and then keep a smile on your face all day? Class begins at 10:00 and I’ll have the coffee ready.
