A special thanks to Southern Home & Kitchen in Winston-Salem for inviting me to join them for a cooking class and for the awesome giveaway where a lucky triadfoodies fan won a FREE cooking class. Congratulations, Kristi Johnson Marion…I hear you are going to really enjoy “Breakfast With Mary”, as in Mary Haglund,  from Mary’s Gourmet Diner (of course!) 😉

I’m pretty comfortable in the kitchen. I can work out a recipe on my own and I’m very good at following them, with a few creative twists and turns. I wanted to take a seafood cooking class because I felt a lot of people probably feel like I do. I want to eat more seafood, especially at home. I love buying fresh NC seafood from The Shrimp Connection and (recently) Forsyth Seafood but I don’t do it very often because I feel like I just can’t make it as well as the restaurants, so why bother. Other than a great crab cake recipe (Louis Osteen’s) and a self-taught Asian marinade, I pretty much got zilch.

That’s me! Folding my parchment for catfish

Southern Home & Kitchen’s cooking classes feature a chef or professional cook, in a group environment. Our class was separated in groups of 4 or so and we each got a sea creature to cook. I was on Team Scallops. There was also Team Catfish in Parchment and Team Salmon. Everyone had a part, if they wanted one. I don’t think anybody sat back and just observed. We just sort of took turns, following a recipe, adding our own spin, which made it especially fun…”add more horseradish to the roumelade” or “add more basil to the orzo salad”. You get the idea. And I even got to assist Team Catfish (as you can see above). I wanted to learn how to make a purse out of parchment.

Chef Dianne McConnell, who’s a professional caterer and Food Coach, gave us 3 great, light recipes to try, with interesting tips, like add a touch of butter to the olive oil you’re cooking in and it will taste buttery without the added calories. Add some balsamic vinegar to the veggies you are roasting to add zip. Coach Dianne also encouraged us to look at labels and was sure to promote that shellfish should be bought LIVE when possible. All in all, it was great, helpful information.

Here are some photos of the class. I’ve captioned where I think there’s something to say. Oh and once you are finished cooking at SoHo, you get to eat what you made and what everyone else made too. A little taste for all. Oh and there’s wine. And 10% off your shopping experience at SoHo, which is like a cook’s amusement park, for sure.

Coach Dianne McConnell

Team Scallops’ Asparagus that I got to douse with Balsamic Vinegar…yum!

Ingredients for the Salmon recipe

For the Catfish in Parchment

Orzo salad

Building our Catfish in Parchment

Cute, right?

Seared Asian Salmon

And then you get to taste a little bit of everything…yum!

Be sure to check out all of Southern Home and Kitchen’s cooking classes. You’re sure to find something that meets your “tastes!”  Here’s the latest list for the upcoming weeks.

• Oct. 22, 6-8pm: “Soups with Mary” (taught by Chef Mary, Mary’s Gourmet Diner)
• Oct. 24, 6-8pm: “Holiday Cocktail Party Ideas” (taught by Chef Willard)
• Oct. 26, 11-12:30pm: “Everything Pumpkin” (taught by Chef Julia, Julia’s Take Away Gourmet & Catering)
• Nov. 5, 6-8pm: “Breakfast with Mary” (taught by Chef Mary, Mary’s Gourmet Diner)
• Nov. 10, 5-7pm: “A Moroccan Thanksgiving” (taught by Chef Dion, Chef Dion Sprenkle)
• Dec. 8, 5-7pm: “An Evening at Le Louis XV of the Hotel de Paris” (taught by Chef Dion, Chef Dion Sprenkle)

Southern Home and Kitchen
Thruway Shopping Center
200 South Stratford Road, #110
Winston-Salem, NC 27103
p: 336.777.3660
southernhomenc@gmail.com
Mon-Fri 10:00-7:00
Sat  10:00-6:00
Sun 12:00-5:00