Growing Myself Through a Cooking Class

First, big confession; before we get into growing myself through a cooking class.  I wouldn’t say that I am a person who has a lot of hobbies, per se.  Most of my adult life has consisted of working myself into the ground, which hasn’t left time for much else.  I am not artsy or crafty, and Pinterest just makes me feel bad about myself.  Although I have always appreciated a good chronicle of Pinterest Fails.  There was that one year on Thanksgiving that I really wanted to serve soup inside of these little squashes which meant cutting them and carving out the insides.  I literally cried to my mom when things started going sideways.  Luckily she was able to rescue me.  The soup was delicious, but never again…

Anyway…

When one of my dear friends asked me if I wanted to take a cooking class at Foodology, I jumped at the chance.  Cooking is in my DNA and is the one thing that I would consider to be a hobby.  I absolutely love starting with raw ingredients and bringing them together into a meal.  Some things turn out better than others, but that is all part of the learning process.  Luckily, I have a very patient husband.  Cooking especially relaxes me after a long day of work.  And since we have to eat anyway, it feels like a ‘productive use of time’ type hobby.  

While I love gathering recipes, I rarely follow them exactly as they are written.  I use them mostly for inspiration. Additionally,  I swap out ingredients based on what I have available.  I almost never measure.  And lately I’ve been learning more about the low histamine diet to support my husband’s health needs.  So this means having an awareness around what foods will trigger a reaction.  In my own journey of lactose intolerance, I’ve learned so much about how food can be medicine so I do my best to choose ingredients that are friendly to both of us as well as fresh and local.  

Pretty much everything I’ve learned about cooking has been self (or grandmother) taught.  So I could easily make the argument that I have no idea what I am doing.  Though I have made some damn good meals.  Taking a cooking class broadens my horizons and supports me in growing myself.  

In this particular class with Chef Christina Hart we made:

Ricotta Gnocchi with Sage Browned Butter Sauce

Fall Salad

Spumoni Cookies

So all my dietary needs went out the window.  That said, other than having a full belly there were not too many adverse effects.  Good ingredients make a difference!

I learned:

• That it is best to use Ricotta made without stabilizers.  This typically means that it does not contain carrageenan, which is an additive that has no nutritional value. 
• The kneading process creates gluten strands which binds everything together.  While I have tried to reduce my gluten intake, these gnocchi were oh so yummy.  
• Side note, I am not gluten intolerant but I am weary of glyphosate which has infiltrated the American food supply.  
• Why I always burn my brown butter sauce!  I love making brown butter with sage, especially when I have an abundance of sage in my herb garden.  Turns out that once your butter comes to a gentle boil, it’s best to remove it from the heat and then add the sage, shallots, and a bit of lemon juice for acidity.  This one I will remember.

• Making salad dressing is wayyyyyy better than buying it.  I actually already knew this and love making salad dressing.  But in this class I learned a new one – olive oil, apple cider vinegar, apple cider, maple syrup and that is it.  The salad was oh so dreamy.  
• A new twist on spumoni.  Ahh, the cookies of my childhood.  Typically these were picked up from the market for Christmas Eve.  They were literally the red, white, and green colors of the Italian flag.  In this iteration, they looked more like a chocolate chip cookie and included pistachios, dried cherries (important to reconstitute them before mixing in), and white chocolate chips.  And they were to die for.  Like I could have eaten 30 of them.

Watch this short video to dive deeper into growing myself through a cooking class.