Thursday, April 30, 2009

Chinese food cooking class

Last night my sister and I went to a cooking class at a place called Sur La Table. Sara has been a few times and asked me about a month and a half ago if I wanted to go to the Wok Essentials class they offered. I've always wanted to be good at cooking Chinese food but honestly it intimidates the snot out of me. Probably not good to use the word snot in the same sentence as Chinese food but hey. This is my blog. We learned how to make several yummy dishes and even got to do some of the chopping and "wok-ing", as our instructor liked to say. Or maybe that's a real word. I don't know. But she said for the evening we would be using the word wok like a verb. I liked it! Multi-purpose words are fun!! I had a really great time and plan on doing more of those classes. There is a "date night" class that I'm going to see if I can get Brian to go to. Enjoy the pictures!!

Kind of blurry but here is Sara coating our beef in some sort of corn starch mixture. Its to keep it from sticking to the hot wok.

Posing again...she likes the camera. Either that or she gets nervous and immediately starts acting goofy. Could be both.

More posing by the sister. This was our little table of people we worked with. We were making our dumplings here.

This is what they were supposed to look like. I believe this one was our instructor's dumpling. Mine did not look like that.

She does take her job seriously!

She probably was sick of me snapping photos. Either that or she likes the camera. Wait...I already said that!

I think here is where we realized that we forgot to put in the lemon grass that was supposed to be in that dish. Oops. It was still yummy, though!!

I was nervous and excited all at the same time. Didn't want to mess it up for the whole class!!

Taking my wok-ing very seriously! But don't worry. I wasn't always so serious. I did have fun too...as seen in my next picture.


What is my deal? Why must I constantly embarrass myself? If you really want to know what I was doing I'll tell you. You know that chef dude on the old Sesame Street shows? You know the guy who could barely use his hands and made really strange throaty noises? I don't know his name. That's who I was. I CAN be normal.

Our finished products before we devoured it all. You have your Crunchy Szechuan Green Beans. Your fried rice. Your Chicken somthin' or 'nother. Can't remember the name and it isn't in my take home packet of recipes. What up with that?

Next we have your Beef and Broccoli with Oyster Sauce. Yummo!

Then we have my favorite. Dumplings with Mandarin Pork Filling with Dipping Sauce.

And lastly we have your Thai Scallops with Sesame Sauce Noodles.

Oh y'all. I was in Chinese food HEAVEN!!!!!

5 comments:

MattandSara said...

OK. Sue me for lovin' that camera! Actually I was a little perplexed on how you're supposed to pose for cooking pictures. I had a great time last night and can't wait to go again!

Tiffany said...

My mom and I took a class there once. It was a lot of fun! I love to get goofy in front of the camera! Y'all are too funny!

Kristi said...

We have a Sur La Table around here, but I had no idea they offered cooking classes. That looks like a LOT of fun! By the way, I'm pretty impressed with your dumplings!
Oh, and after all those pictures, now I'm hungry...

One other thought, I was totally serious about a New York blogging buddies trip. We'll have to see if we can drum up some interest!

ME said...

Ya'll are too cute! Looks like you are having so much fun. Also, you remind me of Melissa from Dancing with the Stars/The Bachelor. Everytime I see her I think cousin Amy.

Birdee said...

Oooh, that looks yummy.
I tried a real Chinese dish at home, it turned out delicious, but took about 1.5 hrs to prep/cook. that's when I realized I'll just order out.

Is that an apron you’re wearing? I LOVE IT!! Even if it's not, I’m going to try to make an apron that looks that cute.

You and your sis are both adorable.