New Thing #91 - Cooking Class

Month 3 - Learning

September 27, 2018 - Cooking Class

So, I've lived in StL for nearly 17 years, and I've never taken advantage of the variety of cooking classes it offers. There are quite a few, but this time I found a hands-on class at the Kitchen Conservatory. They offer about a billion different options from pizza and pasta to pastries, pumpkin pie and beyond. Joining is my friend, Sandi.

Nestled in Clayton.

Ready to get cookin'!

Since it's fall - despite StL's temperatures as of late telling us otherwise, I picked the "In the Autumn Orchard" class. Here's the lowdown on what we'd be tackling: "Before autumn turns to chilly nights, Robin Wheeler has gathered the bounty of rich fall ingredients for an enchanting experience for couples in the kitchen. This hands-on class will make a pear cider-bourbon cocktail shaken over ice with fresh ginger, brie bruschetta with plum-fig-apple compote, a trio of apples and spinach salad with blue cheese and toasted spiced walnuts and pomegranate vinaigrette, apple cider-glazed pork tenderloin medallions over sage and sweet potato gnocchi, roasted Brussels sprouts with crispy pancetta and plum glaze, plus an Asian pear-grape-plum galette with cinnamon whipped cream."

Get. In. My. Belly.

But, seriously though. How the heck are we going to make all of that in 2.5 hours?!

So, I have to admit that I was anticipating a class similar to that episode of Friends when Monica and Joey pass by a cooking class going on and Monica pretends she doesn't know how to cook. You know the one, where each couple has a little station and everyone cooks the same things at the same time? Yeah, this wasn't it.

I'm not necessarily complaining, but I set my expectations a bit too high. Or maybe not too high, but definitely skewed. Remember all that food I mentioned above? Yeah, we all made it at the same time, each person tackling a different task so we could have everything ready at the same time. While that was definitely more practical than what I was expecting, it was also more chaotic and less instructional.

I was hoping to learn new techniques (hello homemade sweet potato gnocchi), but it was difficult to concentrate on every single task, when you're trying not to burn the pork tenderloins or slice your hand open grating ginger on a dull zester. And we also wouldn't be learning by watching the instructor. She was there to give us tasks, watch over us to make sure we didn't lick any sharp objects and guide us along the way.

Okay, clearly, I didn't put much thought behind this, because I just picked a class and made assumptions. That being said, we still had a great time. And while I didn't make the gnocchi first hand, I caught bits and pieces of the process. So, if you're looking for a Friends-inspired cooking class, this wasn't it. But, if you want to make some food and have some fun, then sign up!

To start off with, each pair (did I mention this was a couple's course?) were given specific tasks to start our first courses or start prepping our second. A group was also specifically tasked with the entire dessert that would require making pie dough from scratch. Also missed that part. One pair cooked down the plug-fig-apple compote, another sliced the baguette for the bruschetta, another prepped the Brussels sprouts and made the spiced walnuts and pomegranate vinaigrette.

Sandi and I were tasked with making the rub for the pork tenderloin which consisted of some fresh rosemary, grated fresh ginger, orange zest, olive oil, minced garlic, and S&P: Sounds pretty simple, but I found the zester was rather dull and it took forever for us to actually grate the ginger and orange zest. The knives weren't particularly sharp either, so I really had to destroy the rosemary to chop it. I didn't realize until later there were other knives available to choose from, which we managed to snag later in the evening.

Our kitchen stations.

Sandi's cutting the ginger end off to start grating.

Just chopping rosemary...no big deal.

Mmmmm...pork rub.

Another pair cooking down the fruit & wine compote for the bruschetta.

Chopping Brussels sprouts and spicing some walnuts.

Heating the baguette.

This pair of ladies prepped and made the galette (a super fancy word for a pie made freeform without a pan.)

Once the rub was finished, we set that aside and prepped the spinach salad and sliced the apples. Waiting for another task, she had us start the Bourbon Pear Gingersnap Cocktail. We'd be taking a quick break shortly to try the bruschetta, salad and cocktails before continuing on with the main course.

Cocktails!

I mixed pear cider with bourbon, some fresh lemon juice and a few grates of ginger in the cocktail shaker and it promptly sealed shut on me. I poured out the first few cocktails, and it took 4 people to get the lid back off. For time sake, she suggested we just make a big bucket of it and then divvy it up.

Sounds easier said than done. We just had a big ol' tub of boozy gingersnaps to dole out. Needless to say, this cocktail was everywhere. From rogue lemon juice squirts to spilled cider, it was ridiculous. I'm not sure if the cocktail wasn't that great because I don't like bourbon or because we suck at being bartenders. I'll blame it on not liking to go heavy on the bourbon.

Once the first course was ready, we all sat down to taste our concoctions, and I was smitten with that brie bruschetta. While we didn't have enough time to truly simmer the fruit compote, it was delish mixed with the salty brie and crusty bread. I ate way too many slices. The salad and vinaigrette

were also quite tasty, though I did request that some of the spinach be left without the blue cheese. I feel like that is one of those foods that people either love or hate. Turns out I wasn't the only one who hated it because the uncovered portion of the salad was gone in record time.

This was AMAZING!! We had some extra walnuts left over from the salad, so she threw them on there. I could have eaten this entire plate.

Delicious salad (minus the blue cheese).

Not pictured: the extra slices of bruschetta I ate.

While we ate, our instructor gave us some information regarding the next steps for the main course. The gnocchi would take the longest, so she threw the majority of the couples on that. Sandi and I proceeded with the pork tenderloin since we had already made the rub.

Step 1: Rub the Pork

Step 2. Sear the pork. (In a really hot pan w/ olive oil.)

Step 3. Remove pork. Let it rest. (10-15 minutes while we start with the cooking liquid.)

In the meantime, here's what everyone else was working on.

Chopping fruit for the gallete (on the left), mashing sweet potatoes and grating cheese for the gnocchi (on the right).

Cooking the pancetta (oh yeah, we had to slice that earlier....that fat is really tough to cut with a dull knife. I don't recommend it.)

Step 4. Simmer apple cider, pork stock and a bay leaf. (We were supposed to cook this down and really reduce it to a thicker consistency, but time wasn't on our side. It was still pretty runny when we added the pork. Hey, the instructor told us to do so!)

Natural.

Born to cook pork medallions.

Finishing up the dough for the sweet potato gnocchi!

Step 5. Slice pork into medallions.

Step 6. Cook the medallions in the liquid.

They're getting ready to knead the gnocchi dough.

They're cooking the Brussels sprouts down and adding the pancetta.

Rollin' rollin' rollin'.

Step 7 & 8. Remove the pork once it's cooked and continue to simmer the liquid down. Sandi combined both of our pans to make a bit more room on the stove.

This damn butter...I'll get back to that shortly.

Gnocchi bits!

SO. MUCH. GNOCCHI.

Step 9. Remove sauce and strain. Once again, this was runnier that it should have been due to the time constraints and lack of enough stove space.

 Once our pork was done, we tented it with some foil to stay warm, and watched while everyone finished their dishes.

Boiling the gnocchi on the left and waiting to brown the butter on the right.

Galettes straight from the oven!

Our work here is done!

While we finished up our pork & the sauce, the bigger group finalized all the gnocchi and got to boiling. Unfortunately, we had a few pounds of gnocchi and only one pot of water had managed to come up to a boil. So that took forever to finish cooking. But that wasn't what we were waiting on. It was the damn butter. We waited for 20 minutes for that damn butter to brown before we could finally pour it over the gnocchi. Good grief, but that took too damn long.

I'm sounding a bit hangry...

SO MUCH GNOCCHI!

FINALLY POURING THE BUTTER ON!

Look at what I/we made!!

Drink up little piggies!

YUM

Our group.

We ran long on time. Actually, really long on time, being nearly 9pm when we sat down to eat. This was a bummer, not only because I was full from eating too many bruschettas, but it was too late for me to be chowing down on such rich food. We didn't get to take any leftovers home either, so I was bummed that it was so late to be eating.

The pork was phenomenal. So tender and bathed in the sauce (would love to try making it with the correct consistency next time). I didn't know what to expect with the sweet potato gnocchi. I'm not a big fan of plain sweet potatoes, but when you mash it, add some cheese and flour, cook and smother in butter, THEY'RE FREAKING DELICIOUS. This. THIS is what I wanted to take home. I should have brought a ziploc bag and smuggled some home. I definitely went overboard on eating these little delightful nuggets. Not sure I have the patience to make them at home, but I just might try it one day!

And the Brussels sprouts. Even simmered in a sweet jam, nestled under crispy bacon, I still couldn't do it. They're just way too bitter for me. I will happily oblige some sliced raw sprouts in a salad, but I just can't eat them cooked. But, if this is the only thing I didn't like today, I'm good with that.

At this point, I'm not sure how I hadn't curled up into a food coma in the corner. Every inch of my stomach was crammed and stretched with fall delights. Yet, dessert awaits. These ladies made this from scratch! I have to at least try it.

Holy. Crap. With the addition of the cinnamon whipped cream, THIS WAS SO GOOD. I'm not sure where I managed to store all of it, but I wedged it in there along with about 3 pounds of other food.

It was after 9 when we finally finished, so Sandi and I chose to hit the road. We got a 10% off coupon for anything in the store, but it was only good for that day, and I didn't have the energy to search the racks.

If my stomach could give a review, I'd say it would give two very hearty thumbs up. While I didn't like being left out of some of the tasks I would have liked to learn, I did enjoy the class and making our dinner. Next time, I hope it doesn't take 3 hours though. :)

New Thing #90 - Axe Throwing

Month 2 - Stress Relief

August 12, 2018 - Axe Throwing

I've become a big fan of self-care as of late. Taking mental time to sort yourself out. Whether it's a spa day, a cozy day reading on the couch, drinks with friends, vegging with some Netflix or throwing axes. Whatever ya need to just let go of all the BS going on in life.

Groupon to the rescue again for Month #2. As with most random fads, axe throwing has become really popular. I was able to find a Groupon for 4 for 2 hours of throwing axes at a wooden target. I invited my friends Jen, Sandi and Julee because when it comes to hurling sharp objects, I knew each one of them would love it as much as I would.

We headed to the Axe House in Valley Park (a little suburb near StL), got a quick 60 second tutorial on the do's and don'ts of axe throwing and were quickly assigned to a lane. Our instructor, who may or not have been older than 12, showed us the one-handed or two-handed methods and then left us to our own devices.

We each took a few practice turns, and I WAS TERRIBLE. I never once got it on the damn board. While I did manage to get it all the way down the lane, it just never stuck in the board. Sandi was a natural and kept nailing the board time and time again. Jen started off slow like me, but she picked it up quicker than I did. After our practice rounds, we started right off into a game, all 4 pitted against one another, with the winner being the first to score 21.

Sandi came out swinging (haha...literally) and dominated that first round. I finally found my groove and actually started sticking the axe in the damn board. It still wasn't enough to catch her though, and she killed us.

Second round and Jen's competitive nature came out. She started to heat up, and while I kept pace with her, she ultimately pulled it out in the end. And then MY competitive streak (which I don't normally have, it just decides to show up occasionally) kicked in and I killed the 3rd round in only three turns. BOOM!

By the time we finished those 3 games, we still hadn't been throwing for a full hour. And we had another hour to go! I didn't pay attention to the website that said we could bring beer or wine in, so Julee headed next door to pick up some beer for us. I guess I just assumed mixing booze and the hurling of sharp objects in the air would be frowned upon. Not in StL apparently.

They also had throwing stars that we could try out for free, but I didn't really enjoy that. I didn't get a single one in. We all struggled with the technique,  jumping out of the way when the damn things bounced back at us! Julee eventually mastered them and proceeded to play against the three of us throwing axes. It made for a much better game, since her axe throwing was a bit rusty!

Two more games before we quit, and I managed to put up Ws in both, coming home the victor for the day with 3 games to Jen and Sandi's 1 apiece. I feel very braggy right now. Sorry not sorry.

While we were taking turns throwing at the end, Jen asked one of the workers how often they have to change out the wooden target. When the big guys come in, it could be as soon as 15-20 minutes, and after league play, it's usually after each game. Damn!! Ours were both looking pretty wretched, but he assured us they'd get some more games out of it. We decided to help them along (and we didn't want to let the big guys have all the fun), so we just started hammering the one board. One of the boards was really loose and we were damned determined to rip the thing off the wall. So the three of us just pummeled it one after the other until our time was up. It might not have popped off the wall right then, but the next group would have a sad looking target!

We had an absolute blast, and I would totally do that again! Great times with some great peeps.

Jen makes it look so easy. :)

This girl was a natural!

Subtle brag. :)

Crushing it.

Lumberjack in training?

Julee was the only one who threw one-handed. I found it awkward and ineffective. So glad I did the two-handed method!

She's excited.

Well this is embarrassing...

Warmer...

Hotter...

FAIL

That little guy? Don't worry about that little guy.

Okay, so you can't throw an axe when there's already one on the board, but I forgot to take a picture of my bullseye the throw before. I wanted to document it in case I didn't get anymore! (I needn't be worried though.)

We work out...

Awww yisssss....BULLSEYE!

Sandi killed it.

I lost count of all my bullseyes...hahaha

Jen's turn to crush it.

Winner winner chicken dinner!

What's that you say? Win the game in 3 rounds? Don't mind if I do!

This seems excessive.

How did I go from 0 to winning the game in the next two rounds?

Beer and axes...what could possibly go wrong?

Don't try this at home, kids.

Totally normal for the two of us.

Love these ladies!

She was totally joking when she did this. Turns out it was a pretty solid strategy.

Don't mess with Julee and throwing stars.

Collecting her spoils.

Julee put up a strong fight with her throwing stars, but I pulled out the third and final W!

New Thing #89 - Hypnosis

Month 1 - Fresh start 

July 10, 2018 - Hypnosis Session #1

Yup, you read that right. I tried hypnosis, y’all. But to be clear, I wasn’t on a stage, and I’m not going to cluck like a chicken whenever anyone says rutabaga. At least I don’t think I will. Please don’t call me and leave me rutabaga voice mails.

Just to be safe.

In getting ready for my new year of bucket list items, I wanted a theme. Something to build my new things around. I’ve done a lot of different things in the last 10 years since my first bucket list (oh good lawd, it’s been 10 years!), so picking things at random didn’t seem to be a good fit this time around. Not to mention I've already done a good chunk of the standard bucket list fare (skydiving...check....hot air ballooning, check...) So, I’m going to be doing things that are good for me. Good for my soul, my head and my heart. Things that challenge me, make me a better person or just plain make me happy.

At least that’s my goal. Who knows what this could evolve into over the next 12 months. And while I plan on doing at least 1 thing per month, it could be 3, 6, 25, who knows? I plan on taking this journey wherever the wind blows me.

So yeah, hypnosis. I’ll admit that my experience with hypnosis is limited to what I’ve seen on TV and movies, with a preconceived notion that it’s cheesy and probably fake. But, you know me, I’ll try all kinds of stuff for the sake of the blog. Plus, I found a Groupon with a hell of a deal, so I figured why the hell not.

Fast forward to today, and I’ll admit that I was hella nervous. Not necessarily for the actual hypnosis part, but for the conversation leading up to it. I’m not great about opening up to people about things, let alone a stranger I’ve met for .00004 seconds. But, these sessions aren’t just for shits and giggles. He wasn’t going to hypnotize me to break dance whenever it’s 4:48pm. I had to have a reason. Something I was looking to change in my life. Or fix. Or improve. Or whatever it might be. So, yeah, digging into what I want to "fix", what I want to get out of this was tough. Tougher than I ever thought it would be.

I won’t really get into what I decided upon, because yeah, that’s between me and Mr. Hypnotist. But, we spent a good 30 minutes this time around talking through my thoughts, experiences and feelings regarding a few situations. He asked a ton of questions to try to get to the root of my “fix”; some were easy to answer, others required me to go deep into the vault of emotions I usually keep hidden away in that dusty corner of my mind. It was unpleasant, to be sure, but I tried to open up, knowing it could hopefully only benefit me in the process. If it really even works. He has incredible reviews, but I’m always the skeptic, and this time was no different.

After our conversation, he directed me to a recliner to make myself as comfortable as possible while he got everything prepped. He even added in a blanket and some beach sounds to set the relaxation mood. Anyone else think this is weird so far? Good, we’re on the same page then.

Be more open to things, Heather.

Got it.

But then I started to get nervous about the actual hypnotizing part. A sure fire physical way to determine if I’m nervous is to see if my legs are shaking. Particularly my hamstrings. It’s an involuntary muscle flexing that I can’t control when I’m super nervous. It happens with the rest of my body too, but starts mostly there. Yes, I realize this is weird, but also uncontrollable. Once I was reclined and tucked in with my blankie and he was prepping his notes, I tensed up, and the shaking began.

But I could not get it to stop. Not even when he’s doing his relaxation chatter. Or counting me down. Or encouraging me to relax everything. I’m not even fully sure I completely stopped, though it did slow down a great deal. I suppose maybe I relaxed somewhat, but probably not fully.

I’ll tell you hypnosis is not at all what I was expecting. I remember the entire thing. I guess maybe I was expecting to wake from a trance like state having no recollection of the past 30 minutes (like when they put you under to pull your wisdom teeth), but feel like a new better me. Instead, I somewhat subconsciously fought the relaxation exercise, zoned out to what he was saying a few times and kept waiting to “wake up”.

He asked me after if I felt heavy or light, and I told him neither. He was startled saying that when he lifted my hand it was really heavy. I remember him doing that and figured I was supposed to let it be heavy. He’s convinced I was hypnotized, though he chuckled that he had to change his tactics for the relaxation portion. He caught on pretty quickly that I like to be in control and obviously he could tell I was not taking those relaxation cues very well. Shocking.

I suppose it’s certainly possible that I was indeed hypnotized because maybe my preconceived opinion of what it would be like was utter bs. I mean, I have no experience, so it’s unfair to judge this one time on what I THOUGHT it would be like.

It didn’t last that long, but that’s likely because of the amount of time we spent in discussion first. He also had a tough time cracking this nut into relaxing, but I do remember his affirmations and suggestions for the concerns I was having. I remember all of it. He recorded it just in case I didn’t, and he wants me to listen to it every day for a few days (but not while driving or operating heavy machinery, obvi).

It was over before I knew it, and even though I was to have been fully relaxed, I was emotionally exhausted, just feeling very raw and exposed. And I felt exactly the same. He said most people can experience a change within minutes or up to 72 hours after a session. I suppose that can be a pretty standard response for people who don’t actually think this stuff is real.

He’s to call me in a few days and then he’ll see if it’s working or if we need to adjust the theme before the next session. Oh yeah, I bought the Groupon for 3 sessions, which were altogether cheaper than 1 normal session.

Until next time!

July 30, 2018 - Hypnosis Session #2

So, our schedules never meshed well to get this in within 2 weeks of the first session, so I'm hoping that's not a detriment to any "progress" to be made. But, I never truly felt like I "got" it from the previous session. I don't know how to describe it, but I'm going to mostly blame it on myself for not being able to relax. Hypnosis is all about reprogramming the mind and adjusting your mindset. Well, when you fight the reprogramming, it's not hard to understand why it didn't take.

I hoped for better things this time around, and also decided to focus our efforts on something else entirely. An energy boost. I've been feeling pretty sluggish lately – both emotionally and physically – so, I felt like a kick in the pants might do the trick. If he can even help with that.

He seemed pretty discouraged (and a bit unconvinced) when I told him that I didn't really feel all that different from the previous session. I'm sure he's used to having a pretty high success rate, but I still don't blame that entirely on him. So, I told him that I wanted to redirect my efforts. Not because what we talked about last time wasn't important, but I already have those affirmations recorded and can listen to them anytime. I wanted to try a new approach, and something that was a bit easier for my subconscious to tackle.

So, back to my lethargy. He suggested an energy boost session to help get me more motivated on my down time. With the new job (which I'm absolutely loving, btw), it's been a bit more mentally draining than I'm used to, so my nights and weekends have been more about catching up on sleep and relaxing than actually getting much accomplished. Hence today's session, which I now refer to as a B12 shot straight to the ol' noggin.

Our talk was much more brief this time around, and mainly he just asked me questions to see how I solve problems and attack projects. Turns out, I'm analytical, by the way. Probably pretty easy to figure that one out.

I headed back to the chair, settled in with the blanket and beachy wave sounds (he had other choices, but Amazonian frog chirps really don't put me into a relaxing mood). No nervous shakes this time around! I felt considerably more relaxed right from the get go, and it didn't take him nearly as long to put me "under".

Which felt SO WEIRD. Like, I knew where I was, what I was doing, etc., but when he suggested I try to open my eyes but wouldn't be able to because they were too heavy, I COULDN'T OPEN MY EYES. And in my brain, I knew that I could if I really wanted to, but yet I still couldn't. And I knew I was hypnotized. Or something was happening. And it was incredibly bizarre. Because I still didn't want to believe it. Even though it was literally happening to me right at that moment. (For the record, I always opened my eyes in Session #1)

He launched in to his affirmations about having energy when I come home from work, and that I'll feel energized to get more things done, blah blah blah. But, yet when my head hits the pillow, I'll know that it's time to shut it down and go to sleep (so very glad he added that in there or I might have turned in to the Energizer bunny!) He also suggested that red will be an energizing color for me, and that whenever I need an energy boost throughout the day, just seek out something red.

This one lasted just shy of 20 minutes, and I felt leaving refreshed, yet not really energetic just yet. My homework assignment was to listen to it three days in a row again to lock it in to memory. That night when I went to bed, I woke up inexplicably at 4:30am. This isn't entirely uncommon if I have to use the bathroom. But, it happened the next night and the next (the last one being at 1:30am and 4:30). Okay, this is not what I had in mind. I thought I was supposed to shut everything down when my head hit the pillow? Does my brain think that I need to take that literally. Like, I need to punch the pillow with my head? (Totally kidding here, I'm not going to head butt my pillow.)

I wasn't feeling 100% energized just yet, but it was also the end of the week when I'm usually drained. I chalked it up to maybe this stuff won't work for me. But then Saturday dawned, and I accomplished more in one day that I think I've accomplished in the last month. Besides numerous chores and working out, I painted my entire kitchen. Top to bottom. Two coats. By myself. And I didn't stop until the late night hours when it was all finished.

And then I started early the next morning, removed the tape, and touched up nearly every foot of trim with a tiny artist's paintbrush (the thing about old houses is that the molding isn't even, so it's impossible to tape it cleanly...and I'm a messy painter), not to mention a dozen or so other chores.

I realize that this may not sound like much to a lot of people. Parents out there do this much and more when their kids are running around. I'm not saying I did the most work in the entire world this weekend, I'm just saying that I did more than I have in a long time, and it felt great to get so much accomplished. I'm effing exhausted (still waking up in the middle of the night which is no bueno), but I feel so damn good about what I did.

So, perhaps, yes, his methods did work this time around. Perhaps because I actually let my guard down a little bit and let myself relax. Just one session left. I need to figure out what I want to work on the next time around!