Team building facilitation
Come enjoy a Saturday night out, don’t forget to bring some amazing wine, pull your sleeves up, and get cookin’
We will make the classic beef wellington, premium cut of beef wrapped in puff pastry and mushroom doxelle served with Hasselback potatoes. Chocolate soufflé for dessert.
With clear, specific instruction, in our relaxed atmosphere, you will find yourself giggling while cooking, get to know some others in town and have a delicious comforting meal.
Use your bounty from the market in creative and delicious ways.
Wednesdays are market days in Asheville. let’s celebrate this fresh bounty with a delicious meal.
Muscatine grapes, cherry tomatoes, pears and fennel are beginning to appear in the markets at the end of August. We will utilize them in a creative way to cook a complete meal. Its going to be creative and delicious!!
Mezze dishes are common throughout the Mediterranean and Mid-Eastern region. Despite being served as appetizers, they are often a meal in itself. The mezze dishes are served in small plates for sharing and contain legumes and vegetables that are eaten with bread. They are assembled on the table to form a patchwork of colors, textures and flavors. We will learn how to make pita bread, stuffed grape leaves, falafel, tabbouleh and more. A great class for vegans and vegetarians
We will make Baklava for dessert- This rich filo dough dessert is filled w nuts and coated in honey syrup.
Whenever I talk to people about cooking and ask them from time to time what they would have liked to learn in a cooking school, the response is often “I would like to extend my repertoire of dishes, I feel like I am constantly repeating myself.” If you think the same thought, than this class is for you! We will make Four!!! different entrees and one dessert. We will learn how to combine different products to easily create different flavors.
Extend your time travel and come join us for a cooking class after you return from a visit to our local Biltmore estate.
Mrs. Patmore has shared her kitchen secrets with me and all you have to do is put your apron on and pretend you belong in with the Crawley’s. We will make lady Mary’s crab canapés, the Crawley sisters stuffed mushrooms and zesty mussels in tomato and garlic. Dessert is a surprise!
The Indian kitchen on all its many variations, offers a very unique way of cooking. The principles are completely different to the European style of cooking. Get to know some new spices and liven up your vegetarian cooking.
In this class we will learn some of its fundamental cooking techniques and explore some of the classic dishes from the north of the sub-continent, like chicken tikka masala, keema rice, baingan bartha and daal and roti. We will finish w hot Chai. Once you understand this way of cooking, it becomes natural and you can make those dishes part of your go to recipes. At the end of the class you will get an Indian spice box starter kit.
Quiche is probably the most versatile dish out there. Have it for breakfast with your hot beverage, lunch with a side salad or dinner with a bowl of soup. A quiche can be a well planned meal or a crust receptacle for all you loose-ends cheese left-overs and lonely fridge vegetables. You can easily freeze a cooked quiche or a ready made crust for a quick meal.
In this class we will make crust- less and crusted quiches, mostly vegetarian and a bunch of side salads for a satisfying and colorful summer meal or a party.
So, what are you waiting for??
The Quinoa Project-split personalities
Is it a grain? Bird food? Or a delicious, most versatile and easy to prep legume?
If I try and stick to my promise with this blog and help all of you transition into this optimized diet,
Where 100% of the fuel you put into your body will energize you and enrich you, than one of the absolute top staples is quinoa.
In the quinoa project I will explore a variety of ways to approach this grain ingredient, share some of yours if you have it!
The population is divided between those who never heard about it, those who tried it but really didn’t like it and the last group, which I belong to who enjoys it in many different ways.
So, here it is once and for all, the proper way to cook it. If you have had a bad experience give this another shot.
Quinoa comes in many colors, white, red, black, orange, pink and purple. The different varieties have slightly different nutritional value, the darker shades have higher protein content.
How to cook basic quinoa?
So, no excuses anymore, if you have not tried it, please do. If you tried it and hated it, then try again, using my method.
Quinoa Pilaf
Finely chopped onions of any kind, shallots could work well.
Finely chopped mushrooms of choice
Chopped garlic
Olive oil
Sauté onions and garlics on medium heat, once the onions become translucent, add the garlic and the mushrooms sauté till the mushrooms soften up. When ready spoon some of the quinoa in and mix it up. Garnish with chopped parsley, chives or any other herb you like.
Eat as a main or side dish.
Quinoa porridge
Quinoa Tabouli with cranberries
Quinoa salmon patties
Sauté onions and garlics on medium heat, once the onions become translucent, add the garlic and the mushrooms sauté till the mushrooms soften up. When ready spoon some of the quinoa in and mix it up. Garnish with chopped parsley, chives or any other herb of choice.
Eat as a main or side dish.
Quinoa porridge
You can use either pre-cooked quinoa or raw one.
1 cup cooked quinoa
1/2 almond milk or other liquid of choice, you can use hemp milk, coconut milk or dairy
Pinch of cinnamon
1 tsp of honey
Cook togetehr until the quinoa dissolves and thickens the liquid, add cinnamon and honey or maple syrup
You can use either pre-cooked quinoa or a raw one.
1 cup cooked quinoa
1/2 almond milk or other liquid of choice, you can use hemp milk, coconut milk or dairy
Pinch of cinnamon
1 tsp of honey
Cook together until the quinoa dissolves and thickens the liquid, add cinnamon and honey or maple syrup
Quinoa Tabouli with cranberries
Quinoa salmon patties
Quinoa w coconut, lime, almonds and mango
Nutella- Is that a healthy breakfast?
Have you noticed those Nutella commercials? Or the labels on the Nutella jar, declaring it “An example of a tasty and balanced breakfast”
“Breakfast never tasted this good”- true, but is it healthy?
So what’s in it? Sugar 21g per serving, palm oil, hazelnuts, cocoa, skim milk, cocoa. The most dominant ingredients are sugar, followed closely by palm oil, both not mentioned in the commercial.
When inspecting food labels, it is important to be aware that the listing of ingredients is arranged from the main ingredient (greatest amount) to the smallest one, which means that the product contains the largest amount of the first ingredient on the list and the minimum amount of the last ingredient on the list. Sugar and palm oil are mentioned first, but are NOT mentioned in the commercial.
If you simplify the list, you realize that 50% of Nutella is simple sugar and 30% is fat – do you consider that healthy??
Its true – “Breakfast never tasted so good”, but healthy it is NOT.
Here is my version of homemade Nutella-like spread. This IS good for you, and it is tasty too, but hey, don’t overdo it.
1 cup raw hazelnuts 2 tbsp raw cacao powder
2 tbsp hemp seeds 2 tbsp raw honey or 6 dates 1/2 cup almond milk Directions: Grind hazelnuts to a fine powder using your food processor. Add cocoa powder, hemp seeds, dates and honey, and a little bit of the water or almond milk. Blend to a thick and creamy consistency, adding liquid as needed.
Hemptella choc balls
½ cup Hemptella
¼ cup almond meal
¼ cup shredded unsweetened coconut
2 tbs oat flour
Mix together to a dough-like consistency, add more flour if it feels too soft, roll into balls and coat with shredded coconut. Enjoy!
Hemptella drink
1 tbs Hemptella
Crushed ice
Almond milk
Chocolate power balls
My first cook book was called ‘Children Cook’. It was Israel in the early 80’s and most households had one of those yellow cookbooks. The plethora of illustrations and pictures made it very easy to follow the kid friendly recipes. Although it wasn’t a very sophisticated book, It is probably the reason I cook today.
Common ingredients at the time included margarine, ready-made sweetened cocoa powder and a bunch of other over processed finds. As a natural born chocoholic, one of my favorite recipes has always been the ‘chocolate balls’, a favorite of both the young and young at heart. Here is my very healthy recipe for chocolate power ball
Green powder
Hemp
Raw cocoa
Coconut oil
Almond butter
Almond meal
Dates/ carob
Coconut flakes
Vanilla
Mix it all up, keep refrigerated, preferably in a locked box so you don’t finish it all at once