Cooking by the Season
4 classes – $45 each or $160 for all 4
Learn how to buy/harvest, store and prepare the vegetables in your garden or at the farmers’ markets. Classes are scheduled to highlight vegetables that are just coming into season, so you’ll be ready when they do. Recipes included.
Summer: July
Schedule is flexible! Please call and let me know what’s best for YOU.
Summer brings the best garden bounty. Starting with new potatoes early in the season, we move into the zucchini, cucumbers, green beans and other colorful offerings, culminating with the peppers, eggplant, corn and every gardeners gold – the tomato.
This class will deal with cooking summer squash, green beans, eggplants and tomatoes. We’ll cover harvesting and buying, storing and various cooking methods for all.
Planned recipes are:
Green Beans in Vinaigrette
Roasted eggplant Three Ways
Zucchini Salad with Yogurt Dressing
Summer Sisters Saute
Roasted Tomatoes
Fresh Pasta Sauce
Caprese Salad and variations
Fall: August TBS
Winter: October TBS
How to Boil Water – Basic Cooking for the Uninitiated
3 classes (2-3 hours each) $30, $80 for all 3
June 23, 30 and July 14
11:00 am – 2:00 pm
(Other dates and times available)
Is microwaving your go-to cooking method? Does everything you eat come from a box, jar or can (not counting take-out!)? If so, this is the class for you. Relying on restaurant and packaged food is expensive. If you’re setting out on your own for the first time, you can stretch your budget dollars if you learn to cook for yourself. Here’s the rundown:
I. Stocking Your First Kitchen
Don’t go kitchen-shopping without a list! Save money by not buying cookware you won’t use. This class will cover the basic tools needed, explain the benefits and drawbacks of various materials, and explain the use of each item.
We’ll also look at stocking the refrigerator and pantry. You will want to buy certain ingredients based on what you are planning to cook that day or week, but a number of staples kept on hand can help you avoid running to store every day.
We’ll talk about some of the universal ingredients that are used most often (things like oils and vinegars, herbs and spices), how to buy, how to store and how to use them. We will also talk about food safety.
II. Basic Skills
Knowing how to properly use a knife is one of the most important skills a cook can have. You don’t need to be able to chop an onion in 10 seconds flat, or know how to dice a carrot into perfect, uniform cubes. But you do need to know how to safely hold and employ your knives, and how to care for them.
It will also help to understand some basic cooking terms, such as sauté, boil, whip, etc. You will learn the basic cooking methods and when they are used.
III. How to Read a Recipe
Here’s where you’ll put it all together. You will read and follow a number of recipes from start to finish, using all your newly acquired knowledge. You’ll learn the second most important skill, the ability to understand and follow a recipe. As long as you can do that, you can cook anything!
Preserving the Bounty – Intro to Canning
2-3 hour class $30
July or August
Hoping to put up your surplus garden harvest? Want to save money by making your own? This class will introduce you to home canning. We’ll talk about the equipment, safe methods, basic food safety and the steps involved. The class will also cover planning your pantry – no sense in buying more produce than you can process, or canning food your family won’t eat.
Learn when to harvest if you’ll be preserving the food you grow, or how to buy if you’ll be relying on others to produce if for you.
Making Preserves
3 hour class $45
August
Introductory class recommended if you’ve never canned before. This class will cover the various types of fruit and vegetable preserves that can be made and canned at home. Examples are jam, jelly and chutneys.
You will learn how to make preserves with or without sugar, with or without pectin. We will make at least one batch in class, with samples of other products for tasting.
Gifts from the Kitchen
2 hour class $45
September
This class will go beyond fruit spreads covered in the Preserves class. Learn to make flavored vinegars, cordials, and herb products, and how to package them as gifts.
