Hi guys, and happy Friday to you!

Here’s another installment of the Vermont Culinary Weekend getaway from President’s Day Weekend.  When we arrived on Friday night, we took a group cooking class.  The theme of our class was “Cote D’Azur Dreams,” and here is what we learned to cook (all French themed):

• Salad Nicoise
• Pissaladiere (caramelized onion & anchovy tart)
• Bouillabaise (seafood stew)
• Crepes Suzette

I took a ton of pictures, and feel like these capture the night better than me writing about it can.

The way this class was structured was that everyone got a packet of all the recipes we were going to be making, and these listed out the ingredients and directions.  However, we didn’t really reference them much!  The chefs had each of us contributing here and there for each dish, rather than splitting up the couples to put each couple in charge of one dish like they had us do when Tim and I took a cooking class at the Cambridge School of Culinary Arts last year.  Both ways were fine, and both were fun, but I found I didn’t learn as much during this cooking class as I did during the Cambridge one because I only learned a couple things based on what my duties were.  So I didn’t really get “the bigger picture,” if that makes sense.

Here are the finished products!

Salad Nicoise

This was AMAZING.  I’m usually a bit hesitant to eat such raw seafood, but I figured if I were to try it anywhere a culinary resort would be a pretty safe bet.  All these ingredients tasted amazing together.  And I actually liked the anchovy included on this!

Caramelized Onion & Anchovy Tart

This one?  Not so much a fan of.  Didn’t really do much for me.  It was fine, but I wouldn’t make it again on my own.

Bouillabaise

Uh-maze-ing!  So much flavor.  I’m hoping Tim will want to give this a go sometime.  🙂

Crepes Suzette

We all had fun flipping the crepes (except for me who couldn’t do it right and felt embarrassed).  This was so tasty too, but put me WAY over the edge after eating each course.  Definitely had to unzip my pants for the rest of the night!

We enjoyed a nice sit down dinner with each course after the class was done.  With wine, of course!

Oh, and I almost forgot something.

Vinnie’s Mario Batali-esque orange crocs were the perfect addition to the night.

Ever taken a cooking class before?  What did you learn to make?

Only one more of these Vermont Culinary Weekend installments to go!