Sunday, February 13, 2011

Early Morning Eel

It's 7am Sunday morning and I'm sitting in the shop listening to Peter Gabriel and eating a salad made of leftovers from Friday and Saturday's classes, Sushi and Mayos and Vinaigrettes. So an unagi, avocado, cucumber green salad with daikon sprouts and a sambal aioli. Some may say it's too early in the morning for unagi but I say, Never!

In a couple of short hours the place is going to fill up with people taking the Knife Techniques class. For me it's such a simple class to teach and yet it's one of my favorite. I love the way that people light up when they learn something that is going to make cooking more enjoyable for them. We both live to take the work out of cooking for others. People might learn a new way to cut garlic, peel ginger, or tackle a vegetable they've been avoiding at the grocery store, and everyone and I mean everyone, is better with a knife then when they came in. It's a very satisfying class.

This afternoon Susana is teaching her Nutrition 101: Feed Your Body. Sitting next to me on the desk are some of her props. People you are in for a treat. Our LCD projector arrived on Friday so Susana is really excited to be able to use her PowerPoint prowess on our presentation wall.

Next weekend amoung other things I get to breakdown half a hog and walk people through the process explaining about meat breakdown in general, pork in particular and how you get from a whole pig to a pork chop, blade roast, piece of bacon or a spare rib. I can't wait! And people taking the class are going to get to leave with armloads of pork. Really compared to other classes in town, this is half the price, you can't beat the deal.

I'm off to finish the class set up, steal another piece of eel and make a pot of coffee.

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Snout to Tail on the Horizon!

We have a busy weekend ahead of us. Sushi making on Friday which I am really excited about since I adore sushi and can happily eat it all day. On Saturday we have a Mayo and vinaigrettes class, which is a great way to understand how to balance taste. Sunday with have another Knife Techniques class as well as a Nutrition 101: Feed Your Body lecture which I’m looking forward to sitting in on since I love watching Susana teach.
The details are filling up our space, we have another peg board for our “We Support Local Businesses” and small retail equipment. Our induction burners are arriving on Valentine’s Day. The best V-day present two knife wielders could ever want. Our copier should be arriving about that time and our compost bin is in time for this weekend’s classes! We might even have the coat rack finished, though our carpenter and tool man extraordinaire had to leave town to get away from all the work we were having him do. Thanks Pop!
Next weekend we have the premier Snout to Tail: Pork! We are getting in a half a hog and showing the breakdown of the whole animal and discussing all the ways of utilizing the entire things from head to trotters. There are a few slots left so sign up soon!

Sunday, February 6, 2011

First Class and Our Doors Are Open!

Yesterday was our first class! Unbelievable! Our Knife Techniques class ran yesterday from 9am-12pm and the great thing for us was that we didn’t know anyone in the class. That was very satisfying. I took the lead on that class and Susana is teaching the Raw Foods class as I write this.

People kept asking me if I was nervous, and no, not at all, it was just great to be doing what we love in our own space. It went incredibly smoothly and everyone had a great time as well as promising they would be back for more. We had several new suggestions for other classes they would like to see and the great thing about owning your own school is we don’t have to ask anyone else if it would be ok, we can run with it or dump it to our liking.

One of the couples that took our class purchase a whole pig and lamb every year and would like us to have a class where they get to break down their own purchase instead of paying to have it done. And wanted to know if I would be interested in hosting that. Hell yeah I would, bring it on.

Our space is filling up and we are completing all the little details that make a house a home. We have pegboards up displaying various implements and we will have another one this week for coats and our tiny retail section. We had two wine barrels delivered yesterday afternoon from our friend at Le Bete Winery. We are getting more tract lighting, induction burners have been ordered, our copier and LCD projector will be arriving this week, it’s all coming together Mwwaahahaha.

Next week we have a “Sushi!” class on Friday, “Mind Your Meat Mistress” on Saturday, another “Knife Techniques” class on Sunday as well as a “Feed Your Body: Nutrition 101 Lecture”. Whew we are rolling along.

We had another blog post from Kathleen Bauer and we shot a video for Thrillist, which should be out in the next week or two.

We hope to see you soon!

http://www.goodstuffnw.com