Happy first Monday in January!  How was your first weekend in 2015?

Brian and I arrived back in Denver on Friday night after our two week trip to visit our families for Christmas and New Years in Indiana.  We were tired and anxious to get to bed so that we could wake up for a fun day date the next morning!  For Christmas this year, Brian purchased me a Sur La Table cooking class with the theme of “Healthy, Flavorful Cooking.”  I couldn’t wait to get there 🙂

Just before class, we popped over to Aviano Coffee for a little caffeine pick-me-up.  Brian opted for his go-to:  Vanilla Latte while I opted for something new.

The first thing that caught my eye on the menu was the “housemade almond macademia nut milk.”  Does that not sound fantastic!?  I got that special milk in a cortado and loved every sip of it.

We took our coffees to go and headed over to Sur La Table so we could get cookin’!

The class started at 10am, so Brian and I arrived at 9:45am to find that the doors were still locked (oops!).  Luckily, the store manager noticed us standing in the cold and let us in early.

We went straight to the kitchen in the back of the store to see a place for everyone participating in the class.

In addition to our cooking utensils, all of our ingredients were pre-measured and ready to go.

The first dish we cooked was a warm herbed quinoa salad (which can be served cold too!) with grilled chicken.  It was super tasty!  I loved the addition of fresh herbs and lemon juice to the quinoa. It tasted so fresh!

We also made candied pecans and a delicious vinaigrette to go over a kale salad with butternut squash.  (I think this was my favorite dish!)

Skylar, our chef for the day, demonstrated a great way to cut butternut squash without compromising any fingers.  So helpful!

Doesn’t this salad look beautiful?

We also made Moroccan Chicken in a tagine (which is basically a fancy Moroccan Dutch oven).  It tasted amazing, and doesn’t have to be made in a tagine! (thank goodness, because I don’t have any room for another huge kitchen appliance!)

And last but not least, we made a cedar planked salmon with a dijon maple glaze.  YUM!  The salmon was cooked to perfection.

There were about 12 people participating in the class with us, so the room was definitely full but I felt like we were all given an equal amount of attention.  The class was very hands on  (which was fun for me!), but Skylar was available to answer our questions and help us out when needed.  Despite my “experience” in the kitchen, I felt like I learned a lot (how to cut a butternut?) and I am super inspired to cook with different herbs that I just don’t use on a regular basis (saffron and mint anyone?).  I highly recommend doing this cooking class if you want to get more comfortable in the kitchen or if you just love to cook.  I would definitely do a Sur La Table cooking class again 🙂  Thanks for the awesome gift Brian!!

Questions of the Day:

• Have you ever done a cooking class?
• What did you make!?