Suppertime!

Tonight, Heidi, Brent, and I took a cooking class at our local Sur La Table. The class was entitled "Early Summer Farmer's Market Dinner"; essentially, a full meal you can make using mostly produce found at local markets. I've been looking forward to the reopening of the city farmer's market, so I thought this class would be apropos. I also though I would share my experience with the blogging world, being inspired by my sister's awesome food and photos. Although, as a disclaimer, I need to say that I was shooting with the camera on my cell phone, so the photos aren't nearly as pretty as the food was. The dishes, especially the carrot soup, were really terrifically colorful.

There were twelve students all together, and we were divided up into pairs or groups of three to make the different courses. Before we started cooking, the chef (who was aptly named Scot Rice) gave us appetizers to tide us over during the introductions - a Spanish frittata with a tomato-almond remoulade, two cheese selections with garlic crackers, and, my favorite, watermelon and cantaloupe cubes sprinkled with cilantro, lime juice, and rum (whoops).

Here's the dinner:
We made
- Roasted Grape Tomato Crostini with Green Garlic and Goat Cheese (my favorite dish of the night)
- Carrot Soup with Parsley, Shallot, and Orange Peel Gremolata (my other favorite dish)
- Lemon Risotto with Prosciutto and Thyme
- Garlic-Roasted Broccoli and Cauliflower and
- Prosciutto-Wrapped Halibut with Fava Beans, Sugar Snap Peas, and Pea Shoots


Here I am, enjoying the soup (I liked the chef's presentation idea of putting the soup in drinking glasses - it looked nice and worked well for a buffet).


These two people, Brent (Heidi's husband) and Noelle (a microbiologist from Pennsylvania I met tonight), and I were in charge of the dessert: Orange Muscat Zabaglione with Raspberries and Thyme Shortbread Cookies. The alcohol was a little strong in the Zabaglione for my taste, but I loved the cookies and will definitely make them again.



Here's the chef dishing up the dessert and here's Heidi enjoying it:

All in all, it was a fun and delicious evening. I'll be meeting Janelle at the farmer's market tomorrow morning for some shopping. It's a little early in the season for produce, but I feel inspired to do some baking tomorrow night. Mmm!