I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do on Saturday night of my girls’ weekend. I knew what I didn’t want to do. I didn’t want to dress slutty and drink from penis straws and barhop around downtown. No way. So what do you do? I started researching a few alternate things and decided to do a cooking class at The Chopping Block.

Who could it be now?

Jess?

Jess?

Jeannette, Jessica, Rachelle

The recipes

Jessica, Jeannette & Amanda picking out a wine

This was really good! Gougenheim Malbec 2009

Cooking is something I’m really interested in and that I do a lot, so it was fun to do it with 8 of my closest friends. The class we took was actually supposed to be a couples cooking class, but we totally crashed that. The Chopping Block was awesome. They gave us two large tables in the class and pushed them together with 4 people working at each table. Kristin, Kelly, Amanda and Caroline were working at one table and Jessica B, Jeannette, Cory and I were at another table. Jessica G. brought the magic to both teams, helping out wherever needed.

For dinner we made:

• White Bean and Swiss Chard Soup With Sage
• Sweet Potato and Gruyere Cheese Gratin
• Roasted Pork Tenderloin with Dried Fruit and Port Wine Reduction
• Spiced Apple Bread Pudding

Here is a link to all of the recipes (PDF).

By “we,” I mean, most of the rest of my team! I did stuff, but Jess and Jeannette really held it together while I talked a lot, floated around and drank a lot of wine out of whatever glass was the nearest to my hand.

Luckily The Chopping Block made it easy by pre-measuring a lot of things and by having 3 instructors going around making sure everything goes smoothly. At the end we all got to sit down and eat the meal we prepared. I loved the potatoes we made. The soup and pork were very good too.

Most people did not really care for the bread pudding, though. I don’t know if we made it wrong or what. At the end of the night we were getting our group photo taken and Jess G said “bread pudding face!” and we all made a horrible face!
The Chopping Block class was a great time. Everyone was saying how much fun they had. I think it’s good for parties or couples or anyone. Any occasion .. or even just a random night. Check it out.