cooking classes
Join my Zoom Cooking Classes
Some are sold out. First available one coming up September 23, 5pm CDT:
Old-Fashioned Lasagna and Cinnamon Buns
Classes are only $35 and take about 2 hours or less. I send you the recipe needs about a week before and the Zoom link a couple of days before.
Let me know if you want to join me in a comment or by email (see About & Contact tab). I love cooking together! And I’ll take you through step by step as we cook side by side in our own kitchens. Mmmmmmm!!
More classes on the schedule coming up!
Make My Galette Mini
I’m a galette lover. They are oh, so, splendidly free-form. Roll out your pastry dough into a rough circle, or oval, or oblong, or isosceles triangle (remember those?)–almost any shape works. Place your filling roughly in the center and fold over the dough borders. Bake. Tastes as wonderful as any pie you worked at fitting into a pan. Actually. It may even taste better. It’s non-conformist nature adds a taste of the wild.
Me and my love of the itty-bitty, took a galette a step further and made mini-galettes. Individual serving galettes. This takes a bit more time (as anything in many small shapes will) but I LOVE the results.
We make them in my classes and the thrill mounts as the little darlings of a pie come together.
Choose your fruit filling to go with the season. Peaches would be lovely now. Or berries and cherries. We’ve baked them with pears and apples, apricots and plums, blackberries and strawberries. ALL GOOD. Add a spoonful of whipped cream or ice cream to your own little fresh-baked galette and relax in the galette glow.
Mini-Galettes
For the crust:
2 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
pinch salt
10 tablespoons cold butter, cut into cubes
1/3 cup cold white wine
For the filling:
2-3 peaches or pears
1/3 cup walnuts, broken into small pieces
1/3 cup dried cranberries or blueberries
1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 teaspoons flour
1 egg, beaten in a small bowl with a tablespoon of water
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
For the crust: In the bowl of a food processor, pulse the flour, sugar and salt. Add the butter and pulse until butter is broken up but not totally blended— still some small chunks. Add the wine, process until a dough forms in a clump. Take dough out onto a sheet of plastic wrap. Shape into a thick disk, wrap and refrigerate for about an hour.
For the filling: Peel the pears, cut into quarters, cut each quarter in half width-wise, and cut each piece into small chunks. In a mixing bowl stir together the pears, nuts, cranberries, sugar, cinnamon, and flour.
Make the galettes: Roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface to a large circle or oblong, about 1/8” thick. Cut 6-inch circles of dough. Roll up scraps and cut out more circles. In the center of each circle, leaving a 1-inch border, place 2-3 tablespoons of filling. Fold over the border edges like a galette, making folds and flattening slightly. Brush dough with egg wash. Bake for about 30 minutes until the dough is golden, and filling is bubbling.
A Peek into My Italian Cooking Classes
Here’s a short video that may give you an idea of what my cooking classes are like!
Cooking Class on the Italian-French Border
Well, actually, we were in Nashville. But the menu was both French and Italian: fresh ravioli stuffed with ricotta-gorgonzola-arugula in a pomodoro crudo sauce, coq au vin, and roasted zucchini flecked with bite-sized lemon pieces (peel and all).
The local Jr. League Transfer Chapter came by for the class and dinner for their dining club night. A terrific bunch of cooks! They were meeting as a pals-get-together, but they were all strangers to me. By the end of the evening they adopted me as an honorary member. Then the limoncello was poured. (Well, no one was interested in espresso!)