While visiting family in North Carolina the weekend before Christmas, my sister, Tiffany Lowe-Payne, led my wife, Mira, and me into a kitchenware store new to us, Sur La Table, at the Streets at Southpoint shopping center in Durham. In a back room we saw several couples enjoying a date night cooking class. "I'm so into that," I told Mira.
Guess what Mira got for Christmas! That's right, a gift certificate for "Date Night: New Year's Eve Dinner" at the Sur La Table at Phipps Plaza in Atlanta. Last night, we joined six other couples and two girlfriends in a two-hour class led by Chef Nealey Dozier and three cooking assistants. Coincidentally, Mira and I were paired with a couple also named the Lowes (no relation). Here's what Mira posted on Facebook as soon as we got home:
Guess what Mira got for Christmas! That's right, a gift certificate for "Date Night: New Year's Eve Dinner" at the Sur La Table at Phipps Plaza in Atlanta. Last night, we joined six other couples and two girlfriends in a two-hour class led by Chef Nealey Dozier and three cooking assistants. Coincidentally, Mira and I were paired with a couple also named the Lowes (no relation). Here's what Mira posted on Facebook as soon as we got home:
Date night with Chef Nealey at Sur La Table. In tonight's class we prepared crab cakes with horseradish and dill cream, pork loin stuffed with spinach and feta, asparagus with tomato-caper vinaigrette, and honey panna cotta with fig compote. Good tips. Good food. Good time.
Now, I know you're wondering: What did Herb contribute? I applied taste and season to the horseradish and dill cream with salt and pepper; helped fold the crabmeat and placed batches of it on a baking sheet; sliced down the center of the pork loin through the middle to butterfly; quartered the tomatoes for the vinaigrette, among other things.
For Mira, Chef Nealey's "tip of the night" and "life changer" was using vanilla bean paste instead of vanilla extract. Why, I cannot explain. These tips from the chef suits me better: "I'm of the belief that if you pay a lot of money for a piece of meat, you should not overcook it" and "If you have no idea what I just did and you just watched me do it – I recommend YouTube." Anyway, no denying what Chef Nealey called "happy silences" as we ate ample portions of what we all had just made. One of the girlfriends had to cancel a dinner reservation, there was so much to eat.
This morning, Mira reported that there were four or five more Sur La Table cooking classes she must attend. I'm definitely interested in learning how to make four distinct homemade sauces for my pasta. Who wants some?
For Mira, Chef Nealey's "tip of the night" and "life changer" was using vanilla bean paste instead of vanilla extract. Why, I cannot explain. These tips from the chef suits me better: "I'm of the belief that if you pay a lot of money for a piece of meat, you should not overcook it" and "If you have no idea what I just did and you just watched me do it – I recommend YouTube." Anyway, no denying what Chef Nealey called "happy silences" as we ate ample portions of what we all had just made. One of the girlfriends had to cancel a dinner reservation, there was so much to eat.
This morning, Mira reported that there were four or five more Sur La Table cooking classes she must attend. I'm definitely interested in learning how to make four distinct homemade sauces for my pasta. Who wants some?
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