Emeril Look Out!

So sorry Chef Greg!! I kept referring to him as Chef Dave! Must have been the wine!! My apologies!!!

Just warning my followers, there are NO words or pictures of fiber art for this blog post. It's all about food today!!

Last night Carol and I took our cooking class from Chef Greg at the Artisinal Dish! What a great evening we had learning the fundamentals of cooking AND we got to taste test all the great food Chef Greg prepared for us!

I certainly picked up more tips and a better appreciation for cooking! Talk about inspiration! I love to cook and bake and now I'm really excited about trying some new recipes!

There were only five in our class but actually a perfect size to interact with Chef Greg. My friend Carol is on the left taking notes, then Kathy, Kim and I'm sorry but I didn't get the last lady's name.

We started off learning a basic chicken stock recipe, learning how to chop veggies properly as well as cutting up that whole chicken. Funny, I make Mandy poached chicken weekly and use the 'stock' to make her rice with. Big difference in Chef Greg's recipe and mine is I don't put veggies in Mandy's poached chicken...but I might start now!

This is chef Greg showing how to cut a 'tri tip' piece of meat. He made us Southwest Machaca Beef with Spicy Cream which was FANTASTIC!!
This was the Machaca Beef dish that he had braised for about 2-3 hours before our class. Here Chef Greg is using forks to shred the beef. He did mention we could use chicken in this dish instead of the beef. So guess what I'm cooking this week!!

The next dish Chef made was pan seared snapper with cherry tomatoes and black beans. YUM!!! Here chef is showing us how to fillet a fish. I'll just buy it from The Dish as they get fresh fish in each Thursday!

Here's our fish cooking! I do have a tendency to overcook my fish and I'm really pleased this was one of the dishes Chef Greg prepared for us. Now I can't wait for Thursday to pick up fish. Bob is going to eat well this week!

Chef is preparing our plates using the black beans that his assistance, Mary Katerine, blended with some of his chicken stock. The fish laid on top of the black bean sauce.

I forgot to take pictures of both Mary Katherine and Mary (she bakes the best cookies!) who helped out so much last night...serving the wine (of course, we had wine!) and plates and just being so friendly and pleasant.

The picture above is the 'trio' preparing our dessert plate which was Fried cinnamon crisps with mango raspberry salsa and habanero honey! Talk about a great ending to a great meal!! Who knew....honey and a habanero pepper! Delicious!!!

This dish tasted as good as it looks!! And no, I'm not sharing the recipes!! You'll have to take your own cooking class with Chef Greg! Believe me it's well worth the time and money!! Thank you Chef Greg!! It was a great evening and one I'll remember for quite sometime.

Of course, I just love going to The Dish and seeing all the organic dishes they have prepared for the day. Also, they carry so many natural products on their shelves for you to choose from! So for our local Ocala folks, if you haven't been to The Dish (Hwy 27 & CR80), stop by! You're in for a treat! Try Mary's double chocolate cookies, if there are any left! Or the crab cakes!! Or the broccoli salad or.......yes, I've tried lots of their foods and will until we have to head back to Michigan!! Boo hoo!