creative birthday celebration

Shari C, Ronda and Joan all have birthdays in May and early June.

Shari T sends out an email last week that reads, in part:

Hi Friends -

We will be cooking and eating together with CHEF SARA:

Below you'll find the ingredient list for May 27th at 6:00 pm

Menu: 

Israeli Cous-Cous Panzanella Salad 

w/ Spinach & Herbs 

Baked Fries 

w/ Truffle Aioli 

Hazelnut Crusted Dijon Salmon 

A cooking class with ten people on Zoom? This should be interesting.

I get my ingredients together.

Our lesson/celebration begins at six. Our teacher (Sara Frost) is amazing: energetic, knowledgeable, fun and patient. She has a great cooking site with lots of recipes.

And while I won't take you through all the steps in our two-hour session, here are some things I learned:

• Parchment paper is a great item to have on hand. It works particularly well for getting things crispy.

• Making great, baked french fries is actually pretty easy.. Roast them with olive oil and seasoning and bake at 415 degrees. I'm almost sorry I know this.

• Aioli is easy to make ingredient-wise, but requires substantial muscle. Not sure I love it enough to make again.

•  Whisking together a 1/4 cup of olive oil, 1/4 cup red wine vinegar, a spoonful of dijon mustard, a bit of honey, and a pinch of salt makes a great dressing.

• I doubt I'll buy croutons again when making them is simple: break apart a piece of sourdough bread, sprinkle with olive oil, and put in toaster oven at 400 degrees  (on parchment paper).

The meal is incredible. My favorites are the fries and salad. Here's a photo of the salad that Janice took. As good as it looks, it tastes even better.

And here's a photo of my dinner. Since it's just me eating, I don't bother with making it pretty. And though I used a little too much oil on the fries, they were still pretty great.

So now I know. Cooking together via Zoom is a great way to celebrate birthdays.

It's a novel, fun way to do something with good friends when doing anything in person is still not an option.