Monday, April 23, 2012

Do as the French do.

Since i used last week to lay around the house sick and not run at all, it seemed to be the perfect timing to take advantage of my Christmas present from Matt.  (That and, you know, it's almost May...)  So we decided to take a french cooking class at Cook au Vin!


Saturday was my last training run with the CARA winter marathon training group, and despite still feeling crappy, i was super happy to have one last run with the crew.  I think waking up before dawn and running in freezing temps every saturday really brings people together.
One of our first runs together!
I ended up losing my voice as a result of running, so i spent saturday night curled up and napping, and it was glorious.


Our cooking class was from 10am to 2pm, so we were up bright and early on Sunday morning and ready to drink red wine!
Breakfast of champions!
It was a three course meal, consisting of a scallop in a bechamel(?) sauce and wrapped in puff pastry
A rustic french countryside chicken stew
And my favorite, plum pudding!
All of this of course accompanied by 8,000 baguettes.
I have never really done any french cooking before, so i learned how to chop properly, and a lot about sauces, and french techniques.
The shallots were brutal, i was crying so hard from the smell that the chef thought i had cut a finger off.  
The one thing that amazed me about french cooking was the amount of butter.  Holy crap do the french eat a lot of butter.  After leaving the class all i could do was nap!  I don't think i normally consume that  much butter in a month.  It was delicious though.


I hope your weekend was also quite tasty, and that you felt better than i did and hopefully got more miles in!  (although i am feeling much better thanks to all that butter and sleep.  The french know what they are doing!!)



20 comments:

  1. HOW FUN! Max got me a gift certificate to take a cooking class at the chopping block for xmas! of course by myself, which doesn't seem as much fun as doing it with Matt. Will Matt come to my cooking class with me too?

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    1. I have heard awesome things about Chopping Block, but never been. Matt would totally go to your cooking class, just be warned he will probably fling butter onto you because of his lack of coordination.

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  2. AAAAANNNNNNDDDDDD now I'm hungry. Yum!

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  3. YUM! Also, you look adorable in that hat! :)

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  4. Have you seen Julie and Julia? They talk about how much butter is in French Cooking - Holy Cow! Everything you ate looks so good. And that nap SOUNDS so good :)

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    1. i LOVE that movie, and matt was doing a Julia Childs impersonation the entire time, haha

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  5. Omg, that all looks so good! And let's be honest, the French do know what they're doing. Butter makes everything better! Well, most things...

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    1. I am going to incorporate butter rations into all further training.

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  6. That sounds like an awesome experience!!!! I would love to take a cooking class :)

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  7. YUM!!! I want all of that food ASAP, now that you know how to cook it for me. Thanks :) I hope you continue to get better, being sick is no fun.

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    1. I actually feel confident that i could do the scallops on my own :)

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  8. Looks fun! Of course, any activity which includes drinking wine for breakfast would be nice in my book!

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    1. I thought it would be a challenge, but you know, i love a challenge.

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  9. Butter, wine, nap. That is exactly how I want to spend my day! :-)

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