Culinary Masters

Have you ever watched the Food Network and thought, "Wow, I want to do that!" Well ladies and gentlemen, that is my boyfriend. He LOVES cooking, and I'm not complaining. So when his birthday rolled around his gift was a no-brainer - a cooking class.

I had taken a cooking class at Sur La Table before with some friends, and I knew he would love it. Sur La Table has a variety of classes from knife skills to date nights. We signed up for the Romantic French Dinner date night class.

Try not to drool as you read this yummy menu:

Mixed Green Salad with Goat Cheese and an Olive Vinaigrette 
Peppercorn Steak with Cognac Sauce
Potato Leek Gratin
Fallen Toasted Almond Souffles with Cocoa-Nib Cream


We first started out by preparing the leeks for the gratin, because this would take the longest to cook. After cooking the leeks and layering the potatoes, we were ready to move onto the salad portion of our meal.

We whipped up a delicious olive vinaigrette and poured it over some beautiful greens. We, along with all our fellow classmates, raved about this vinaigrette. Speaking of classmates, another wonderful perk to the class is the size. We had 4 instructors and only 5 other couples other than us. Since my culinary confidence isn't high, having a great amount of one on one attention helped ease my nervousness.

After the salad, we prepared the steaks. We also need to address at this time the teacher's pet - Sterling. I felt like every second that man was called up to perform some task in front of the group. It was fine by me, because I always enjoy watching him cook :) Sterling was able to coat the steaks in the peppercorns before they cooked and cut the meat.

The steaks were served with the potato leek gratin. And if Sterling and I had to choose our favorite part of the meal, it would have been the potato leek gratin. We could have easily eaten our own dish, but we had to save room for our final course, the fallen toasted almond souffles.

The dessert was beyond delicious. It was light and fluffy, but it was sweet at the same time. I am normally a heavy dessert girl, but this was outstanding. I didn't feel like I had just eaten a brick. {By the way, that is the feeling you have after eating a large dessert}

Needless to say, Sterling and I LOVED the cooking class, and we are already planning on when we can attend another one. I will say they are not cheap. For a date night, they cost around $69-$79 a person, but it was worth the experience and the yummy food. You also get the recipes to take home so you can recreate your tasty meal.