Greenwood and The Viking Cooking School

The Taste Buds decided to take a trip over to Greenwood for a class at The Viking Cooking School and a night at The Alluvian.  After all the planning and reservations, only 4 of us were able to go. What a fun time.  I'm ready to go again.  We missed you Martha, Lynn, Peggy and Anne.

Beth, Patricia, Jennifer and me checking into The Alluvian.

Glass of wine at The Alluvian before class starts.

Patricia's friend, Gage, who lives in Greenwood also joined us for
wine and the cooking class.  She is lots of fun and gave Beth some
competition on who remembers and knows the most people.

The Viking Cooking School.

Here we are with our chef/instructor Becky, in the middle, just
before class started.

Beth, Patricia & Gage--now that is some serious cooking!

Jennifer, Beth, Patricia, & me--we are multi-tasking--cooking,
drinking wine, and posing for pictures.

Our finished product: Tournedos of Beef with Champagne Sauce,
Dauphinoise Potatoes, and Oven Roasted Asparagus.

Now it is time to chow down.  In the background you can see
some of the other folks in our class. Great group of people.  For
dessert we had Mousse au Chocolat in Tuile Cups with a Raspberry
Sauce.  I was sooo busy devouring it that I forgot to take photos.
Sorry!  Delicious!!

What a fun 2 days of shopping, eating, cooking, eating, shopping
and eating.  It was a treat to be with these women that I call my friends.

patti

This Week in My Kitchen

Sorry, but I have been a slacker on my posting and cooking the past 2 weeks.  My mother and sister came to visit and spent a night with me.  We decided to go to a local restaurant instead of cooking. I was also preparing to go and visit my friends, who recently bought a condo in Auburn, Alabama,  their beloved alma mater.  I tell you all this to explain why I only cooked one thing last week.  I wanted to take something with me to Auburn so I made Muffuletta Dip. This is a Southern Living recipe.  My sister made this for a Super Bowl party and suggested I try it.  Great recommendation sis.  It was delicious!!!

Muffuletta Dip 

Thought you might like to see a few of the pictures from the weekend in Auburn.  

The Wilcoxes Condo.  So Nice!!!!!

What a great welcome mat

Little did I know that when I planned my trip to Auburn, it would be the week the news about the poisoned trees was released.  What a sicko that would poison 2 trees that were over 100 years old over the score of a football game.

The site of a very old tradition and according to the experts there is only a 10% chance the trees will survive the actions of a very sick man.

Fans gathering to remember happier times.

Could not resist getting my picture made in front of this tribute on the side of Tomer's Corner Drug Store

This was my first time back to Auburn since Harrison graduated.  What a treat!!!  A great place to be with some great friends.  Thanks Linda and Sammy for a wonderful weekend!  WAR EAGLE!

patti

The Taste Buds

Cooking our way thru the Dallas Dish

Just left the February meeting of The Taste Buds.  I ate so much I can hardly breathe.  Another great meal. So far the Dallas Dish is a great cookbook.  This month Martha hosted Taste Buds.  We got about 4 inches of snow last night so the day started with worries of not being able to get up Martha's driveway, but never fear we all like to drink, cook, eat, and share so much that we found a way--all but one and she lives in the country and had some icy bridges to cross.  We missed you Beth and we sure missed the appetizer that we would have enjoyed.  Let us know how it turned out.

Our menu:

Specialty Drink:  Bloody Mary
Appetizer:           Snowed in, in the country.
Soup:                   Carrot Bisque
Salad:                   Arugula and Parmesan Salad
Main Course:       Basil-Stuffed Chicken with Caper Sauce
Side:                     Corn Souffle
Dessert:                Chocolate Souffles with Creme Anglaise
Wine - White:       Kendall Jackson Grand Reserve Chardonnay
             Red:         Root, 1 Cabernet Sauvignon

Now for a few pics:

Martha's gorgeous table.  Perfect since Valentine's Day is in 4 days.

 Peggy preparing the Bloody Marys

Posing for this pic--Martha, Peggy, Me and Patricia

Me and Jennifer enjoying our Bloody Marys by the fire

Peggy, Patricia, Lynn and Jennifer

Meet Anne(left) sitting with Lynn.  Anne could not be with us last month but she makes the 8th member of the Taste Buds

 Me pouring wine and the only picture of our delicious Carrot Bisque

 Me getting the wine and Jennifer, Peggy & Martha

Once again Me pouring wine and Patricia, Anne and Sarah Virden.  Since Beth could not be with us Martha's daughter, Sarah Virden, joined us.  Thank goodness--she saved my cork on one of the bottles of wine, since I absolutely did not know how to use their wine opener.  I am much better at pouring as you can see.  We sure enjoyed Sarah Virden!!!!

 Jennifer and Martha preparing to plate our food

Lynn, Patricia and Anne.  (Wish I knew what they were talking about.)

Basil-Stuffed Chicken with Caper Sauce, Arugula and Parmesan Salad, and Corn Souffle.

All delicious!!!

Chocolate Souffle with Creme Anglaise.  Delicious!!

Not a great photo, but a great dessert.

To accompany the souffles, Lynn also brought these darling cookies.  They were made by Diane, a local baker.  Also delicious.

Now take a look at these cute boxes of toffee.  Martha made the toffee and prepared these little boxes for each of us.  OMG, another delicious treat!! I'm not eating again until Friday.(haha)

Before we depart, we critique the recipes. We all agreed, they were all delicious.

Sorry, I did not take enough photos of the food, but I get so wrapped up in the food and fellowship with this great group of women that I just forget.  I will try to do better.  Can't wait til March.  See you then.

patti

This Week in My Kitchen

Ok folks.  This is what I am cooking this week.  I have a new Barefoot Contessa cookbook,
 How Easy Is That, so all but one of the recipes come from this book.

 From top left:  

Mustard Chicken Salad:  This looked so good and I needed something to have for lunch this week.
Results:  Very Tasty and a new slant on chicken salad.  Love the tomatoes and broccoli in this salad.

Lemon Chicken Breasts:  I love chicken and this recipe looked easy and somewhat healthy.
Results:  Good.  Lot of trouble for just good.

Garlic Roasted Cauliflower:  I have been wanting to try my hand at roasting cauliflower so here goes.  I'll let you know how it turns out.
Results:  Fabulous!!! I loved this.  So much better than steaming.  

Roasted Tomatoes and Individual Meatloaves: This sounds like a great combo.  Can't wait to try. These two recipes came from Food Network.
Results:  Great!!  I loved both the tomatoes and the meatloaves.  Lots of flavor in both.