We had an interesting class last night by Cristina Baez of Bleu Bites, a private catering chef. She started out with parmesan cheese palmiers, a mixed green salad topped with hearts of palm wrapped in prosciutto, her chicken saltimbocca with shrimp and mango salsa and a curry sauce. It was finished with a decadent chocolate dessert with strawberry coulis.
Impressive. Chef Cristina is very soft-spoken and had a handful with neighbors who hadn’t seen each other in a while. We loved her meal, and her full dessert (we all ate the delicious fondant/mousse out of cups) we voted to send the rest to the staff, which I delivered first thing this morning.
I look forward to taking her to the local restaurant supply store, later this month. It was a nice evening capped off with a dog walk around the bayou with two singles we like very much and hope they might get together. We’re not playing matchmaker, but I did need to be the chaperone on our walk. Yes, you can laugh at that one.
Who knows where we’re going to be? Things change every day but we now have a three-day weekend with the markets closed so will take a break before hitting the ground running on Tuesday morning.
No photos today. I made a fantastic dinner tonight, my chicken saltimbocca with scalloped potatoes and a cucumber salad from my grandmother that is on this site on recipes. Cristina left a few slices of proscuitto and I already had chicken breasts and Emmentaler cheese from the quiche I made yesterday so we were good to go. I did pound them rather than opening them with a knife, like a book. It’s been a few years since I’ve done that.
I used practically every pot and pan, dish and cutting board in our home. A few hours ago I put all the drying stuff away. If we stay they’d like me to teach a class or two, which would be interesting and good. If not, we’ll see where we end up in a couple of weeks. As it is, Cristina and I are going to check out the local restaurant supply store in the next week or so. Happy Valentines’ Day! Cheers, Dee.
Cooking with Dee 