1st day of Japanese Cooking school

Today was my 1st lesson at Japanese cooking school. I figure I should look the part of housewife to be at cooking school, so I got all ready, even put some make-up on and an argyle sweater. It was time to cook!

I show up and I am ready for class. I get my recipe and its all in Japanese. RATS. I so thought it would be in English, but no. Then I found out that I have to bring my own apron, towel, and house shoes for when I cook. No one told me that, so I felt a little unprepared, and I don't like that feeling. Anywho, I just borrowed theirs and will buy my own apron this weekend. The teacher also read off the ingredients in English, so I was able to write everything down and make notes. There were 4 courses, 2 of which were more like main courses and then the salad and small appetizer. There were 3 of us in class, including myself and I made a friend of one of them. Her name is Helen Tso and she is Taiwanese, but speaks great English. Bad thing is, she will be leaving back to Taiwan in April. I make a friend and then they leave me, damn.

So each one of us participated in making the meal. The teacher would tell us what to do and then we would do it. We started out with making fresh butter from cream and that butter really, really tasted good. As the teacher was working on the making some cheese, each of us were working on cutting the veggies for everything. Next we started cooking the soup and the noodles.

We ended with putting together the gratin that we baked. Dividing it up between us

Putting the broccoli and then the cheese

Right out of the oven, nice and hot, ready for my tummy

And here are the finshed products starting from upper left going clockwise:
appetizer - cracker with fresh butter, 2 raisins, 1 walnut and some maple syrup drizzle
salad with a semi-hard boiled egg, fresh cheese (what she called cottage cheese, yuck), fresh dressing made with mayo, powdered cheese, salt, pepper, anchovy paste
entrees - shrimp gratin with fresh wine sauce, macaroni, mushrooms, lots of onions, broccoli, topped with cheese and bread crumbs
soup made with celery, carrots, endive, onions, pork, and chicken


After all of that work, it was time to eat and boy did I enjoy it. The soup and the au gratin were really good. The salad was ok, but I didn't really eat much of it and the crackers were surprisingly good, really good. I will definitely be making the entrees again and the crackers. Mike asked what I made and then asked why I didn't make any of it for dinner. Simple response: I can't eat the same thing for lunch and dinner. Next lesson is on Tuesday.