Date Night ~ Autumn in Italy Cooking Class

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My husband and I are trying to incorporate different activities into our lives. The children are growing up and we are now in a time where we really don’t need a sitter anymore.

So we recently decided to take a cooking class at Sur La Table. We have one location here in our city and we booked a date night called “Autumn in Italy”. It was wonderful I tell you!

We had such a good time!!!

We showed up for our class at 6:30 and they had the room ready to go. There were stations for each couple and you shared a station with another couple.
Both couples share the tasks. So we put on our aprons, washed our hands and started having fun!

Our station

The first thing that we made was prosciutto wrapped dates stuffed with gorgonzola. It was delish and very simple. We opened the dates down the middle and stuffed them with gorgonzola cheese crumbs. After that we wrapped them in strips of proscuitto. Put them on cocktail toothpicks and placed them in the oven for 5-7 minutes at 425 degrees. The dates were sweet and the proscuitto gave that perfect amount of salt taste. Wonderful….
The next thing that we made was the Tuscan herb rub for our chicken breast.
First we salted our chicken and put finely chopped rosemary leaves, parsley, olive oil and toasted fennel seeds. 
The sauce was 3 tbls of unsalted butter, 1 large shallot, 1 large garlic clove minced, 1/2 of Chianti or red wine and 1 cup of low-sodium chicken broth. We mixed that all in a bowl and poured it into a skillet. We browned the chicken then put it in the oven a 425 degrees. 
Very tasty!!!

My husband cutting up the squash for the next dish which was winter squash risotto with walnut gremolato. 
This was my favorite!!!
The ingredients for this was:
So wonderful! I could not stop eating it!
The last item was dessert and it was called maple budino.
It was so creamy and delicious! Budino is an Italian word for custard or pudding. 
–Recipe for Budino-
-3 cups heavy cream
-1 1/2 cups milk
-1 large egg
-3 egg yolk
-5 tablespoons cornstarch
-1 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
-1/1/8 cups brown sugar
-3/4 cup of maple syrup


After all the hard work it was time to enjoy our meal….

I had a wonderful time and we will be doing this again soon!!!

(photos via Mrs. Shockley)