Cooking with Kelly

I thought it would be fun to take a cooking class with Kelly - so I made it a 101 goal, that way he'd agree to do it with me for the sake of helping me cross something off the list.

Of course, secretly I knew that he'd love the class. See how I work?

Once I started my transition phase from one job to the next, it made it a little easier to take a cooking class in the evening. I wasted no time in signing us up for a vegetarian cooking course with Chef Jason at our Whole Foods store in Plano.

The evening's menu:

Everyone has to sign a waiver before starting - lawsuit happy culture meets the "hazards" of cooking, like grease popping.

We all suited up in aprons and got ready to cook. In my case, I became the official observer and judge of technique. When I offered at one point to help, Kelly told me that I get to cook all the time so it was his turn.

He was having fun - I KNEW IT!!!

We started by flame-roasting a red pepper. Chef Jason had done all of the prep work for us.

Look at that concentration!

Then we pan fried lightly breaded tofu.

And prepped veggies. Kelly had great skill at chiffonade!

We also made our own marinade.

Which we tossed with udon noodles cooked al dente.

We stirred in the veg - uncooked - to the noodle mixture, then topped everything with the tofu and a garnish of toasted sesame seeds.

Beautiful! And delicious, as well as quick and easy to prepare. It's going on The List.

After we returned from eating our first dish, we got to work on our second item of the evening: Eggplant Sandwiches.

He's totally mastered knife skills.

We made our own marinade and tossed the slices to coat.

While sauteing the eggplant (you could grill or bake instead if you preferred), we sliced tomatoes and pulled the leaves off stems of fresh basil.

Then we built our sandwiches. This was my job and I did it masterfully.

We were too full to eat another meal, so we packed our sandwiches to take home. I might add that we had them for breakfast the next day and they were amazing.

Amazing enough that I'd have them for breakfast again.

Kelly's already talking about the next cooking class that we'll take together - he wants to do Chef Jason's sushi class.

This working in Plano and seeing my husband more often thing is going to be a-ma-zing.