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I am SUCH a bad blogger! Last week was the third of my cooking classes at Mission Hill. The first class, I managed to take some good pics and made you all insanely jealous. BUT, the second class (Channeling Julia Child) I forgot to take my camera. It was good. You’ll have to take my word for it. This third class was the 100 Mile Diet – and you can see the photo results!

So I got the menu…

Then, well……..

That was wash. Let’s just say it was all pretty tasty. Minus the cake, which was pasty. But the rest? Delish.

There is a long break in the middle, and my favorite thing (other than chatting to my new aquaintence/friend the sous-chef,) is sitting in the adjoining room and staring at the Chagall tapestry. I could sit there all day. Once, when we went to San Fran, we stumbled on a gallery with 20 or so original Chagall paintings and it was an amazing delight. Just this one is pretty fun, though.

I did get some cool pics of the kitchen, if you’re into such things. (I am.) They have a wonderful store of the most lovely preserves – I keep telling Riley (the chef) that he has to do a preserves class…

Duck Prosciutto, Enderby Trout, Forest Mushroom Bisque, Nicola Valley Bison Flat Iron and Sugarpie Pumpkin Cake. Not shabby. This class was with my favorite of the two chefs. He’s a young guy and pretty fun. I learn new things from him each time! This is what I learned this class:

• Don’t put salt in a meat marinade. It dries out the meat. Add salt later.
• Prosciutto is actually pretty darn easy to make! I am totally going to try out curing some of my own meat.
• Blanching herbs for a sec in boiling water then plunging them in icewater makes them really really green and pretty.
• What the devil to do with those sunchokes (Jerusalem aartichokes) that my friend gave me last summer.
• Use a spoon to take the filaments off the bottom of portabello mushrooms - the black stuff is bitter and stains everything black. Well, I knew that, but I didn’t know how to take it off. Grilling mushrooms on the BBQ will never be the same! 

OK, so for the good news. My mom is coming up at the end of the month, and she decided she wanted to go to another of the classes with me! So we’re going to learn how to cook LOBSTER! Not that I can’t already cook a decent lobster… (I was married for 6 years to a Nova Scotian. Not Jrock. He’s a keeper. The other one.) But we get to cook Bisque, Ceviche, Thermador, Ravioli and Surf & Turf. YUMMERS>

So have I got you all excited, Mom? (And jealous, other readers?!?) You will be sitting right here: