Cooking Challenge

Last night Mike and I ventured into new territory together by going to a cooking class in Naperville. The theme was 'A Night in Italy' and Mike had gotten me this class as an anniversary gift. We had thought it was going to be a demonstration class (since that is was the title of the course said!!) but upon getting there (late of course because I cannot manage to get out of work at an early time ever) we discovered we would indeed be cooking some of the dishes ourselves. Now we really want to learn more cooking ideas especially with our excitement over the kitchen in the new house but the things we would be tackling were much more complicated than the mac and cheese and hot dog gourmet cooking we do now. On the menu was a roasted pepper and tomato sauce, polenta with wild mushrooms, parmesan gnocchi, and some sort of chicken (since we were late we didn't see what that was called). Mike and I were assigned to the polenta station with 2 older ladies who were content with letting us do all the work. So we charged ahead with Mike cleaning and slicing mushrooms and me taking on the polenta challenge (it was basically like making cream of wheat - milk and water and adding the polenta very slowly - glad I picked up how to make that Mom!!). While the old ladies continued to watch what we did and the others in the class were busily working on their own dishes, Mike and I were waiting for things to simmer and pots to get hot so the mushrooms and onions could be sauteed. We took in all the different personalities of those in the class and as usual with me in settings of people, I find myself annoyed with at least 1 person. In this situation, there was an older lady (most of the class was well over 60) who seemed to know everything about cooking and was extremely vocal about this. However she couldn't quite master the art of boiling water and cooking gnocchi. So I tried to ignore her incessant talking about nothing but of course that didn't work. So anyway, the pots were hot and Mike and I got to cooking. I received good comments on my stirring skills (I think the chef was just being nice or grasping for any positive thing to say to this poor excuse for a cook) and Mike sauteed away. Meanwhile, the little old ladies continued to hang out and chat and pretend to be useful. I should say that 1 of the ladies did spend a considerable amount of time buttering the baking sheet that the polenta would be placed on. We finished all our work and put the whole thing together only to find out that the chef already had made the polenta we would actually be eating - guess she didn't trust these inexperienced cooks to mess up the polenta! Everything that needed to be baked was baked and everything that needed to be warmed up was warmed up and then we got to feast on all of our hard labor. Everything was very tasty - the chicken was fabulous, the gnocchi was a little doughy though, and the polenta was extremely tasty (if you like mushrooms, you would love this dish). I even tried the asparagus - didn't really like it but glad I tried it. Overall it was a really fun experience and Mike and I are already looking into future classes to see what might be of interest. I know I will never be a great cook but I am hopeful that I can begin to master some more complicated dishes than the usual easy fare we make every day (stir fry is probably our most challenging dish). We came away from the class with new ideas and I really think the chicken dish may make an appearance at Christmas Eve (if I can still hold it with the whole house thing still in the air). I am also glad that Mike and I got our butts off the couch and did something different together (although we made sure to tape all the shows we were missing!)