Cooking Class

 
The day of our cooking class began with a breakfast of cafe con leche, orange juice and croissants at a table with a dramatic mountain view.  


 
Our hostess Evelyne does mostly French cooking so she had asked a friend of hers, Juan Carlos to conduct the class.  She had invited several friends to join us, so we were a group of about seven.

Juan Carlos sautes vegetables observed by Collette and others

 
We began at 11, and Juan Carlos directed us in making four different Spanish dishes -- meatballs of beef and pork served in a vegetable sauce, pork cheeks (!) (yes they were tender and delicious), some cod fish in a cream sauce stuffed into cooked red peppers, and grilled chiroso and blood sausages with a tomato-onion salsa served on toast points. 

As we chopped and cooked the various dishes, we sipped on white wine.  We discovered that wine is an important element in European cooking, as much in the cook as in the food.   It added to our enthusiasm if not our competence.  

 
At lunch we were joined by Evelyne's mother and we had a lively conversation in a mixture of Spanish, French and English as we enjoyed the dishes we had made followed by fresh mandarin oranges for desert.  Even though our Spanish lacks a lot, we all managed to communicate and have a good time together.