I've taken two classes—a floral class and a baking class—not at the same
time. This doesn’t include the various
number of workout classes. Let’s just
stick to the floral and baking classes for now.
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| I imagine fairies would hang out here. |
There was a “Woodland Stump” class with Bloom Florist Collective
at pot & box several weeks ago that I took.
I’m never sure how it all comes about, but I’m given various floral and
after thoughtfully placing each floral, magically the arrangement is
beautiful. It helps that Bloom Florist
Collective chooses amazing flowers and greeneries. They also demonstrate—they start off with a
bare container or in this case, a small wood stump. Sue from PassionFlower was the florist
teaching the class. She puts some moss
around the trunk, adds various flowers and VOILA—beautiful arrangement.
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| handmade bird's nest added by my girl |
I basically make an attempt to copy hers and somehow it
looks fabulous too! I’m always proud how
it turns out and very surprised that it works out. There is a possibility that my designs aren’t
that great and it’s only in my imagination, but it still feels good.
Second class was a pizza making class at Zingerman’s
BAKE. As my friend told me, “what you
know how to make pizza, you could teach a class” What flattering words. I’m a self-taught (via various tv cooking
shows and cookbooks). It never hurts to
learn more about something I love—making and eating pizza.
Three years ago, I took a croissant making class with my
husband at Zingerman’s BAKE! It’s a fun
activity to do together or alone. My
husband is my sous-chef, so it’s beneficially to have him take the class with
me.
Our friend’s husband took the “Pizza:
The Other American Pie” class last year and I love that he had a
wonderful end product and was able to reproduce it.
We went with another couple.
My girlfriend, C, who is not a cook.
I don’t think she’s even the sous-chef in her house. The pizza she made looked gorgeous and I’m
sure it tasted yummy. It’s how I feel
from my floral classes, I’m amazed that I created that!
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| our finished deep dish pizzas |
We made two different types of pizza: New York crust and
Chicago deep-dish crust.
Zingerman’s BAKE! Has everything set-up and
pre-measured. Firstly, the instructor
(in our case was Nikki) demonstrates – mixing all the ingredients and showing
us the technique for the Chicago-style crust.
After she’s done, we do the same thing.
It’s hands-on. It’s hilarious
that C thought her and her hubby were going to work as a team. We aren’t.
We each do our own.
We put the mixed dough in a container so it can rise and we
start the next crust—NY-style—after watching Nikki demonstrate. Once again, everything is pre-measured. It makes things go quickly and in all
probability ensure the recipe will turn out correctly. Since baking is a science, accurate measuring
is crucial.
We let that dough rise, Nikki’s dough is done rising, so she
starts to stretch the pizza dough with her two hands. That’s the most intimidating portion of the
class—really? Stretching the dough without it tearing? Watching experienced people doing something always
makes it appear easy. I was very
doubtful that I would be able to stretch the pizza dough so easily. I was sure that I would tear it. She
stretched the dough and topped it with fresh mozzarella, homemade tomato sauce,
fresh basil. There are three different “cooking” methods—two
are baked in a conventional oven: one on a screen and one on a pizza stone and
the last one in a brick fired oven.
Eleven minutes pass, after all of them were baked, we sample
all three baking methods of the NY-style crust.
They are all delicious.
We took half of our Chicago crust dough and made our
own. This is a crazy recipe, 1# of
low-moisture mozzarella cheese and ½-lb of raw sausage. The woman next to me who looked like she was
in her 20’s maybe even 30’s and was with her husband (maybe) who looks like he
was well over 40-y.o. the age difference
wasn’t so startling, the sunburn she had and the fact that they’ve been
together for 22-years cringed at the 1-pound of cheese. She might have even vocalize, “yuck.” Yes, I kept looking over to see if she was
in her 40’s. I know, I even say 40 is
the new 30, but I’m sure I couldn’t even pass as a young 30-year-old.
Amazingly, we each baked 2 pizzas in class that we got to
take home and dough to make 3 more pizzas!
Since we both took the class that was 4 cooked pizzas and dough to make
6. Crazy, but that’s why I take the
class—some knowledge and all the grub to take home. These were wickedly awesome pizzas too. We gave some to our lovely neighbors and to
our lovely babysitter.
