I want to learn to cook – really cook food with flavor, fresh ingredients, and enjoy the process.  I have gone to some demonstration classes in the past and it helped, but I was still  a mediocre cook.  It could be because I hate reading and following recipes.  Now my husband reads recipes religiously. If it said to add old tennis shoes, he’d add old tennis shoes.

We’re both a bit extreme which can make dinner a bit entertaining.  I’ll experiment with recipes in my language – about this much, something like an egg (we have several food allergies so I am always trying to find ways to replace key ingredients), a bit of this to taste…Drives him nuts!  I found an answer – a cooking class.  A real hands-on cooking class at The Learning Kitchen.  He said he’d go, especially since he knew there would be food.  I’m so glad he did- we had a blast!

We show up and our station is just fab!  An induction cooktop, fresh herbs, plenty of tools, and the recipes (which Dave will use and I will probably not). They got all the supplies ready, they cleaned up everything.  Yeah!

This class was all about pan sauces (which were new to us).  While making the recipes we also learned about herbs, cutting the meat, segmenting the oranges, and more.  The chicken and oranges were delicious.  My plating skills aren’t up to Chef Gordon Ramsey’s standards but the chef here was so much nicer and more patient than he ever is on a show.  We asked so many beginner questions and she answered every one patiently!

The salmon was a treat to make- I have made salmon before and well, let’s just say I felt it was huge waste of money.  This time it was tender, flaky, and full of flavor.  The final dish was a recipe I NEVER would have tried before. It just sounded not me – grapes in sauce with pork.  It became my favorite – wow just like with my doodle horse!

We had so much fun – we signed up for more classes before we left!  The kitchen just might be our friend after all!

Happy Paint Party Friday! Painting with my fingers is pure joy. Using bright colors and seeing the paints blend is just happiness.     My inner critic was getting too loud, so I decided to finger paint.   No plan, no expectations, no goals.  Just fun.  After a few swirls and smudges, I saw a head.  An imaginary camel like creature came to mind.

Since this is just play for the sake of play, I played.   A quick, judgement free sketch of an animal body inspired by Carla Sonheim‘s wonderful animals & my fingers were back in the paint.  The blue smudged for the sky.  The orange for the ground.

I’m in the zone – it’s all going well- I’m just going with it. Then it happens. I screw it up.  The gesso was supposed to be a much thinner layer so the colors and shapes were still very visible.  Oh well, the Universe said go in another direction.

Watercolored over the gesso to try to bring the shapes back.

Outlined it, doodled in it, painted in the doodles, still didn’t like it at all!

While visiting blogs, I happened into one that told about how 2 friends workded hard on a painting but it just didn’t come together – so they gesso’d over parts they didn’t like.  Wish I could find that blog again so I could share that link.

I kept the parts I liked with no idea where it was going.  Then dipped my fingers in paint and just let go.  Turns out that I was a bit influenced by the song on the Ipod – Forget You by The Muppets.  If you’ve seen the latest Muppet movie you might remember the chickens singing Forget You – I think that chicken music influenced me a bit because I saw a bird in this.

Mind you, this isn’t a normal bird- and I didn’t plan the egg it was laying there…A bit of outlining and I was almost happy.

The lines were too timid, so more lines, and now I was happy with my strange camel turned egg laying bird creature.