Thursday, April 21, 2016

Thursday, April 21, 2016

What the Beck???

     I was so excited about the gift card I received to Sur la table for my 60th birthday/retirement. I was able to take two cooking classes thanks to the generosity of the Burgers, our dearest family friends.

     The first class I took was called "Learn to Cut like a Pro."  My best friend, Donna Dowd, took it with me.  We had a wonderful time and were surprised by all that we learned.  Who knew that I always held my knife incorrectly?

     Here are the photos from this first basic class.

The ladies are preparing for our class.  The staff was great! 

This is our individual work station.  

 Chef Kelly Bailey, our instructor

The first thing we learned was to cut the fruit or vegetable,
 so that we are cutting on a flat surface.
We began by cutting the onion horizontally...
(Donna - this picture helped me remember the technique)

 and then we cut vertically, and the goal is 
for the diced pieces to be the same size.

A perfect cut!  

These are amazing cutting boards.  I

purchased two: one for veggies and fruit 

and the other for meat.

The rubber edges grip the counter for no slippage.

Donna is using the disposal bowl to 
remove unwanted onion ends 

 I already had purchased the knife and have used it 
throughout this blog. The tool on the right on the photo is for scooping the onion off of the board. We learned to NEVER use your knife to scrap with as it harms the edge. 
You can also use the tool to cut things that are softer.

 Here come the potatoes!

 Donna demos the method we were learning.

 I was very proud of my two types of potatoes.

I only wish I could fry'em up and eat'em!

 I am so glad that I purchased this tool.
Mine has measurements on the sides which is helpful.

 The next thing we chopped was garlic.

 The final items were fruit: oranges and grapes.

 Taking a class with Donna...

made it so much fun!!!