Time to Make the Bagels

Sundays are the day we usually have bagels for breakfast, sometimes with lox, sometimes with cream cheese... sometimes in the car on the way out of town...and sometimes at Murray's, our favorite bagel place in Manhattan. This past Sunday we learned how to make our own bagels and cream cheese at The Brooklyn Kitchen in Williamsburg. So fun! We took home extra dough and enough information to try this baking experiment on our own.

Haven's Kitchen

Pasta-Making Machines

For our mom's 60th birthday Rachel and I treated her (and ourselves) to a Homemade Pasta workshop at the Viking Cooking School in Peapack-Gladstone, NJ. I know, I know, this blog is where Ronak and I write only about our joint culinary experiences, but on this occasion we're making an exception because 1) this workshop was far too amazing not to record and 2) I recreated two of the dishes for Ronak so he has already benefited from the recipes learned. Here's what we made that day:

Lobster Bolognese Sauce with Fettucine
Pansotti with Tomato, Onion, Basil Sauce
Lasagna with Tomatoes, Mushrooms and Bechamel Sauce
Fennel Salad with Red Peppers and Cerignola Olives
Lemon Walnut Biscotti

We had our hands in preparing all the dishes on the menu, though some more than others. For instance, we were more than happy to pass off the job of shelling the lobsters to the Fish Monger on staff. The class was 3 hours long and because we were making our own lunch (and were very hungry), we felt motivated to produce quickly and boost the quantities wherever possible- especially when it came to the pansotti. Once the dishes were plated and served, we ate every last bit but still yearned for a just a small hunk of bread to wipe our plates clean. The lack of bread however did not prevent us from resorting to use our fingers to get those last drops of sauce.

Savoring the Salt

For our 1 year anniversary I signed Ron and myself up for a cooking class at the Institute of Culinary Education. We took the Savor the Salt class which focuses on dishes that use salt in a variety of cooking techniques. Chef Renée Marton explained to us the history of salt and brought in salts from various regions for us to taste. The truffle-infused salt was by far our favorite. Eleven of us were divided into teams and had the opportunity to cook Moroccan Chicken with Preserved Lemons, Spiced-Salt Rubbed Rib Eye Steak, Whole Red Snapper Baked in a Salt Crust and the reason I chose this class... Caramel Ice Cream topped with flaky pink Australian sea salt in homemade tuiles. Ron was especially hands on in making the ice cream. Hmm, I wonder why?