November 23, 2014

Thanksgiving Bootcamp

As most people know, I'm quite smitten with all things Tom Douglas. Each of his restaurants are carefully considered and the head chef spot on. They really are Seattle institutions in and of themselves. 

So it's no surprise that when his cooking class, Hot Stove Society, opened up this summer, I made sure to get B and I signed up for a lesson. For his belated birthday, B and I took the Thanksgiving Bootcamp class last week with mouth-watering results. The biggest takeaways from the class was the timeline- when you should start preparing dishes for Thanksgiving, what can stay in the refrigerator, etc. - and of course, seeing how a professional chef made the turkey.

We watched and took notes on two different techniques for making a perfect Thanksgiving bird: Option 1: The "Bone & Roll". Option 2: The Butterfly. As the main dish slowly roasted in the oven, the class was divided up into teams to make classic side dishes and appetizers. 

My team made a crab dip and hand made potato chips. De-lish! 
Even though we were in charge of making one specific dish, we were able to float around (drinking the complementary beer, wine, coffee, or tea) to the other stations to see what they were making. Chef Bridget, our instructor, was very hands on and explained a lot of interesting techniques.
 
When lunch was served, there was a huge buffet of options to go with our turkey: the crab dip on russet potato chips, cranberry chutney with dried apricots and currants, green beans with lemon and parsley, green beans with toasted almonds and shallots, brown butter kale, and red bliss mashed potatoes. 


Between the recipes, the drinks, the cooking and the amazing lessons learned from Chef Bridget, it was such a fun way to spend the afternoon. And now we're way more prepared for Thanksgiving than we ever were! xx

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