It’s Saturday evening and tonight was Date Night. Normally, our typical date nights would consist of eating dinner at the type of restaurant that we wouldn’t want to tote our kids to and then catching a movie that we’ve been wanting to see. Date nights are usually spontaneous for us… and what I mean by spontaneous is that we usually don’t plan date nights until a few days prior. I mean you’ll never know what could happen when life hits you! But this time, we made sure that we had a sitter locked in ahead of time to ensure that our babies were well cared for! I mean…tonight’s date night had been planned since mid-December, since it was Shane’s christmas gift. Haha! Every year I struggle to find him the perfect gift, and every year we get each other things that we mess with for a while and then we get tired of. I wanted something different… something that’s hard to come by as parents. I’ve got it!
What better gift to surprise my other half with than some good ‘ole Quality Time? This was absolutely perfect, considering that we don’t get much of it lately. Upon thinking of what we could do together that was outside-of-the-box from our typical nights out, I remembered those times when we had spoken about the cooking classes that we had seen in movies. I found the perfect place that offered exactly what I was looking for… it’s called Sur La Table. This place does not only sell cookware, kitchenware and such… they also offer all sorts of cooking classes covering themes from all over the globe.
The theme for tonight was New England’s Chef Table. We were paired in groups of four, basically pairing up two couples per group, to prepare the dishes listed on the menu. When you think of New England, what type of food would you think of?
That’s right…seafood! I know that when New England cuisine comes to mind, I tend to think of lobster, for some reason. But that sort of thinking really hit the nail on the head, because we were in for a real treat with this menu. The plan for the night was to make:
- Lobster Ravioli with White Wine Beurre Blanc
- Fennel and Blood Orange Salad
- Crostini with Burrata, Caramelized Shallots, and Balsamic-Fig Jam
- Salted Dark Chocolate Maple Truffles
- Fresh Pasta Dough
It was awesome that we got to learn how to make all of these delectable dishes. It was even more exciting that we got to make it all from scratch…even the pasta.
It took a lot of time to press the dough, but it gave me a new perspective on cooking. Not to mention, it definitely gave me a newfound respect for those people who have to make this dish on a daily basis. A lot of hard work and love definitely went into this Lobster Ravioli, but I knew from the start that it would be worth every drip of sweat that would roll down my face from the worries on whether it would turn out or not. In this part of our class… TEAMWORK definitely made the dream work!
Throughout the class, our entire experience was outstanding, and the instructor and other staff were very patient and helpful when it came to all of our questions. Believe me… it is not easy being asked the same question over and over again without me blowing a fuse, so major props to them! All in all, I could definitely tell that Shane was enjoying himself and seemed very eager to learn. Haha! Yup, you guessed it… he was one of those, out of the 16 adults, who asked a bunch of questions. I don’t blame him though… he loves cooking, and he really seemed into learning new techniques in the kitchen.
It took us about 2 hours to complete all of our dishes. We had first made the dessert and let it set. We then moved onto caramelizing the shallots, preparing the lobster filling, making the dressing for the blood orange salad, pressing the dough, making the lobster ravioli, tossing the salad and making the crostini side dish. I don’t remember the exact order that we went in to ensure that we were using our time wisely in the kitchen, but I’m so glad that they gave us the recipes for all of them. It all turned out as good as it had smelt from the first time we turned that stove on. It was delicious!!! I definitely think that everyone in the Oklahoma City area, should pay Sur La Table and their amazing cooking classes a visit, especially if you are major foodies just like us!
One of the things that I truly do appreciate with taking a class like this is that for those of you who love to cook…this store definitely has what you may need to add to your collection. And guess what??? When you attend one of their classes, you get a coupon for 10% OFF, if you buy something that same day. And even better… if you end up having a fun experience with them, and you’d like to sign up for another class with them…then you’ll get 20% OFF of your next class. How cool is that? I know for us, we jumped on that second class… Date Night: Sushi for Two!!
Thanks for tuning in! Until next time… Bon Appétit!!
