Cooking Class

        Gabe's birthday was back right after Christmas and I had no idea what to get him. At his holiday party earlier in December, one of the prizes they gave away was a gift certificate to the New York Wine and Culinary Center. Gabe said that he really would like to win it.....so I had an idea for his birthday! I ended up signing us up for the Ultimate Couple's Cooking Class. They were booked pretty far out so the first class we could attend was tonight-2 months later!

    My Mom came out to babysit the kids and we left our house around 5...the class started at 6 and it was a good 40min. drive there.  When we got there, we walked around a little bit and looked in the gift shop and wine shop before heading to where our class was.

     We saw the menu for the night ahead of time-we were going to prepare an appetizer and 3 different entrees. We went in thinking we were going to learn how to do all of them, but that's not how it works. 

      The room had 3 huge islands set up and 4 couples were at each island.  Each couple was responsible for making one thing. We decided to choose a station that we might actually cook again at home, which was the stuffed chicken station.

     When the class started, the chef went over a few knife techniques with us, talked a little bit about the "lay of the land" in the room, and then briefly reviewed each recipe that we were doing. Then we were set free to cook!

      Our dish was pretty easy-it was breaded chicken breasts stuffed with prosciutto and mozzarella cheese that was served with a white wine sauce. And it turned out delicious!  After about an hour of cooking or so, we then got to grab a plate and do a family style dinner of everything our island made!  The appetizer was vegetable spring rolls and the entrees were tuna steak, duck breast, and our chicken of course. One station also made a very simple salad and another station made a vegetable strudel.  The dessert (baklava) was pre-made by the chef for us. They also had both red and white wine to accompany the dinner.

     I will say that all of the food was fantastic! It was my first time trying duck and it was really good-I even had a second helping!  We were a little disappointed that we only learned how to do one meal, but it would have been impossible to do all of them in only a 2 hour class. But they did send us home with all of the recipes so we could try them at home if we really wanted to! 

     Overall I think it was a lot of fun!  Definitely something different to try and a night away from the kids!