Always Believe This

In All Of Us

"...it is in all of us to defy expectations
to go into the world and 
to be brave
and to want, to need, to hunger for
adventures
to embrace change and chance and risk
so that we may breathe
and know what it is to be
free." 

Cooking Class April 3, 2014

We had a fun night out this past Thursday night. Our daughter and son-in-law gifted us with a cooking class at a local Gourmet Kitchen store in our area. The store is called PREP Kitchen Essentials and besides selling an assortment of kitchen goods they offer daily cooking classes with different themed meals. The one we chose was a Mediterranean cuisine menu. There were a  total  of nine participants.  A group of five woman were seated at one table. They were friends celebrating one of the women's birthdays. The other table was my husband and myself and a young couple.  The Chef was Rham Fama. We had a great evening of cooking and eating.   Here are some pictures of our cooking class adventure.

Lots of flavored balsamic vinegars to taste and olive oils too. 

We were the first to arrive and were happy to watch the assistant prepping the ingredients for the class. 

It was a nice big space with each person's place set with chopping board and knife.

Class started at 6:30. Just in time for happy hour!

Chef Famo greets us and then the cooking begins after he divides us into teams and gives us our recipes.

Our team gets right to work

We are making  a Swiss Chard and Feta Tart

Mike jumps right in and helps with a lot of jobs.  He's having a great time 

and as always a natural in the kitchen.

The party of five ladies celebrating one of their birthdays are having fun and 

are in charge of the olive oil cake.

Our team is ready to roast the fennel and lemons

After the quartered potatoes have boiled we'll be browning them with seasonings and olive oil

Mike is getting the pan nice and hot for the potatoes

In go the potatoes

After we have roasted the cumin seeds we place them in a mortar and add garlic and mash that into a paste. This is for a "Charmoula" sauce to go with our whole roasted fish.

Mike grates some hard cheese over the Broccoli with olives and grapes.

At last it's time to eat!  Mangiamo! Let's eat!

Here's what we made:

Swiss Chard and Feta Tart

Roasted Whole Fish 

Charmoula sauce to go over fish ( a delicious mixture of cumin seeds, fresh garlic, cilantro, parsley, lemon, paprika and cayenne and olive oil

                                                 Potatoes with fennel and lemon

                                                     Broccoli with olives and garlic

                                                      Almond, yogurt and Olive Oil cake

                           Everything tasted great and we  are looking forward to recreating these recipes at home.

     

 Here we are with Chef Fama at the end of a great evening.

                      Thanks to our daughter Aria and our son-in-law Daniele for a wonderful gift!

To The Sea

via bibbity bop

"I must go down to the seas again

to the lonely sea

and the sky

and all I ask is a tall ship

and a star to steer her by."   - John Masefield

Like Clouds

“Souls cross ages like clouds cross skies, an' tho' a cloud's shape nor hue nor size don't stay the same, it's still a cloud an' so is a soul. Who can say where the cloud's blowed from or who the soul'll be 'morrow? Only Sonmi the east an' the west an' the compass an' the atlas, yay, only the atlas o' clouds.” 
― David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas

Let There Be Music In The Air

My idea is that there is music in the air, music all around us; the world is full of it, and you simply take as much as you require.

Edward Elgar

Look Ahead

"It is better to look ahead and prepare
than to look back and regret."
— Jackie Joyner-Kersee,
first woman to win back-to-back gold medals in the Summer Olympics