What better way to usher in the new season at the Market by the White House than with a HUGE batch of paella?  Famed chef Jose Andres was present at the opening day of the FreshFarm market in the shadow of the White House…along with a paella pan the size of a Buick.  The market, which opened in October last year, was a welcome sight on Vermont Avenue on such a lovely afternoon.  The market boasts new vendors this year, including my 14th & U favorite, Panorama Bakery, and Gryffon’s Aerie, purveyors of heritage breed, pasture based artisan meats. And it just so happens Gryffon’s Aerie supplies Bourbon Steak DC with their AMAZING steaks and ground beef (I’m a HUGE fan of Bourbon Steak…HUGE).

Rhubarb was front and center at Blueberry Hill, along with arugula flowers! I had never tried arugula flowers before, but gave them a little taste test and loved them! The lovely, peppery bite of arugula leaves are the first thing you taste when you pop the flowers into your mouth.  I had no idea what to do with the flowers, but I picked up a bag anyway.

Spring Valley had rows of luscious strawberries, which you could smell from a mile away! Dotted along the strawberries were asparagus, kale, spring onions and these lovely salad greens.

I was happy to see some other familiar vendors that were new to the market, including Dolcezza Gelato, Potomac Vegetable Farms and Buster’s Seafood!

I was particularly happy to see Keswick Creamery at the market, especially since they are no longer at 14th & U on Saturdays.  I’m not gonna lie…I was giddy to get my hands on a tub of their Quark cheese.

After I snapped up the Quark, I headed over to Gryffon’s Aerie to scope out the farm that raises my hands down favorite steaks in DC.  Although I was tempted to buy a few steaks for the weekend, I decided to start small and picked up a package of their ground beef.  Ann Yonkers, co-director of FreshFarm Markets, strongly suggested I use the ground beef for burgers and well, I’m easily swayed when it comes to beef.

In need of milk, I headed over to Clear Spring Creamery and tried some of their drinkable chocolate yogurt. A woman standing next to me was also giving the drinkable yogurt a taste test.  “This tastes just like liquid chocolate pudding!” she exclaimed as she licked the sides of the cup.  As I was deciding what to get, I noticed Clear Spring also sells eggs! This market really does have everything, I thought as I got a quart of milk.

There were carbs galore around the market: baguettes and loaves of sandwich bread at Panorama; French pastries and cookies from Praline (a new-to-me vendor); and mounds of artisan breads at Quail Creek Farm!

I ran into One Bite at a Time and her wonderful friend while staring at the paella. We all had a sample of the huge dish…a great primer for our upcoming workouts!

Before I bought more than my little arms could carry, I bid the Market by the White House good day, vowing to come back often.  The FreshFarm Market by the White House is open every Thursday from 3 to 7 pm until November 18!

Much to my sheer and utter excitement, the 14th & U Farmers Market opened for the season this past Saturday.  To say I’ve missed the familiar sights and sounds of this little market would be an understatement.  Some of my favorite Chesapeake foodshed farmers sell their amazing fruits, veggies, meats and cheeses at the corner of 14th & U.  And I’ve been dying for some of Panorama Bakery’s fresh, sliced multigrain deli bread all Winter long.  So on Saturday morning, I was more than eager to grab my shopping bags and head down 14th Street to mingle among my favorite vendors.

We got to the market a bit early because I was anxious to get my hands on the seasons first crop of strawberries from Garner’s Produce.  The brief spurt of Summer like weather in the beginning of Spring led to an earlier-than-usual bounty of my favorite berries.  As we walked up to Garner’s table, I could smell the fragrant aroma of the berries wafting towards me.  I wanted to dive right into the table of red jewels, but decided to show a bit of restraint.  Garner’s Produce also had some big, floral bouquets of spinach that instantly inspired an idea for a simple, cool spinach salad (more about that later).

I had resolved to pick up a bag of stinging nettles in an attempt to be more adventurous (yes, I consider trying new produce adventurous) and found some at Mountain View.  Rich in iron and calcium, stinging nettles have been touted as a wonder food, especially for women.  Unfortunately, the word “stinging” doesn’t really make people jump to cook with this plant.  When touched with bare hands, raw stinging nettles have tiny hairs (called trichomes) that turn into needles and can release several chemicals that result in a stinging sensation.  These stinging agents are neutralized once they are cooked, even for only a few minutes.  So it was with care that The Boy and I picked out two bags of them and placed them in our shopping totes.  While chatting with one of the Mountain View vendors, she suggested a recipe for French Nettle Soup.  I filed it away along with her recipe for a Nettle-Walnut Pesto Crostini.

Asparagus was at almost every vendor table, much to my delight, as were radishes:

And just when I thought I was going to faint from farmers market happiness, I stumbled upon sunchokes AND the season’s first rhubarb at Kuhn Orchards!

Kuhn also had fragrant and delicate lilac stems and my favorite pink lady apples.  I couldn’t resist the lilacs, especially after inhaling their hypnotic scent.

And speaking of plants, there were plenty of herb and vegetable plants for the urban gardener.  Still a little gun shy after last Spring’s failed windowsill herb garden, I opted to wait before buying any more plants.

We picked up some eggs from Pecan Meadows, who also had duck and goose eggs for sale.  Even though I was tempted by the duck eggs (lately they seem to be on every restaurant menu in DC), I knew I needed chicken eggs for some whole wheat pasta I planned to make.

After I picked up a fresh loaf of Panorama Bakery’s bread (and sniffed and squeezed it lovingly), I ran into Robin Shuster, the market manager.  That’s when I learned Keswick Creamery sadly had to bow out of all their Saturday farmers markets.  Robin assured me Keswick would be at the Bloomingdale Farmers Markets on Sunday and told me she was looking into finding another cheese vendor.  And just when I thought we were done, Robin insisted I pick up some pea shoots to try.  Since she’s never steered me wrong, I took her advice and bought a bag of them from Mountain View before heading home.  I decided to add the pea shoots to an asparagus and goat cheese pizza idea I had floating around in my head.

I know, I know…I usually post a Market to Table recipe at the beginning of the week. And well, technically this is still a market recipe – the asparagus came from Dupont Circle Farmers Market on Sunday.  But really, the star of this meal is the salmon.  And considering my once rabid dislike of seafood, that is saying a LOT.

Let me give you a little back story about me and seafood.  Until my twenties, I really wasn’t that much of a fan. In fact, my mother could only get me to eat fish if it was battered and deep fried beyond recognition (hello Long John Silver’s!).

On the rare occasions I did brave a nibble of seafood, it always tasted rubbery and fishy.  Why you may ask?  Well for one, it was often prepared in one of my hometown’s less than stellar restaurants.  And I’m almost positive I never had truly fresh seafood.  Then I moved up to DC…and started dating a boy from the Eastern Shore of Maryland.  Mind you, The Boy doesn’t like seafood either…but he knows where to get quality (and fin slappingly fresh) seafood.  When we decided to try cooking more seafood at home, he started picking up fish at Annapolis Seafood Markets.  Since then, I have come to love cooking with fish…and eating it!

For my first foray into salmon (yes, I had never cooked salmon before – much to the astonishment of several of my foodie Twitter pals), I decided to try a simple recipe using flavors I loved.  When I stumbled upon this recipe from Food and Wine magazine, I knew instantly I wanted to try it. I LOVE hoisin sauce…and may have been known to drink it straight from the bottle (don’t you dare judge me).  So any recipe that involves hoisin sauce is a winner in my book.  It didn’t hurt one bit that the total prep time clocked in at under 30 minutes.  It also didn’t hurt that this was the BEST FUCKING SALMON I EVER ATE.  Not that I’m bragging or anything…

Recipe: Hoisin Glazed Salmon (from Food and Wine magazine) 

Ingredients

• Four 6 ounce salmon fillets
• 2 tbsp hoisin sauce
• 1 tbs soy sauce
• 1 tbs dry white wine
• 1 tsp honey
• 1 garlic clove, finely diced
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• Salt and pepper

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
2. In a small bowl, combine the hoisin sauce, soy sauce, white wine, honey and garlic. Whisk the ingredients together to incorporate and set aside.
3. Season each fillet with salt and pepper on both sides.
4. Heat the olive oil over high heat in a large, oven-proof skillet. Place the fillets skin side up in the skillet, being careful not to crowd the pan. Allow the salmon to brown on the fleshy side – takes about 30 seconds.
5. Flip the salmon over and spoon half of the sauce over all of the fillets.
6. Transfer the skillet to the oven and bake for 3 minutes.
7. Pull out the oven rack slightly and spoon the remaining glaze evenly over all of the fillets.
8. Bake for another 3 minutes and then baste the salmon with the glaze oozing in the pan. Continue to cook until the salmon is done, about 2 more minutes.

For the roasted asparagus, I simply tossed 2 bunches of asparagus spears (with the ends cut off) with 2 tablespoons of olive oil, a tablespoon of good quality balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper.  I roasted them for 10 minutes at 450 degrees, then topped with a few shavings of a Parmesan cheese I got from Eastern Market!

P.S. I hadn’t planned on blogging this recipe, so I didn’t take any pictures of its preparation. However, after seeing the look on The Boy’s face after trying the salmon, I knew I had to blog it.  I snapped the above pictures with my lovely new point and shoot camera.  Oh yeah, those are point and shoot pictures!  And in BAD light!!

The Spring farmers markets are in full swing now!  When I hit up the Dupont Circle Farmers Market this past Sunday, asparagus was everywhere!  And that’s not an exaggeration…save for the dairy, meat and bread/baked goods vendors, asparagus was out on every vendor table.  And not just the lovely green asparagus either.  Spring Valley had asparagus the color of a deep lavendar dotted amongst the greenery.  Piles of the ‘gus jumped out from the tables, much to the delight of many market shoppers.  We picked up three bunches, one of which was the purple variety (how can I resist that color).

Ramps were also, well, rampant throughout the market.  Because of its limited growing season, ramps always get a huge push around this time.  Newspaper food sections, cooking/food magazines and the food media practically trip over themselves trying to give their readers ideas on how to use these lovely, pungent wild leeks.  As I was walking past Next Step Produce, I overheard a woman tell her friend to boil the ramps and use the resulting broth in a risotto.  While I must admit I was intrigued by the idea, the thought of boiling ramps seemed to be a waste of these gems.  I’ve made a sublime ramp risotto using homemade vegetable stock that threaded the rich flavor of the ramps throughout each rice grain.  No ramp “broth” needed.

Over at Sunnyside’s tables, I stumbled across a bunch of regular leeks and it struck me that I’ve never actually cooked with them before.  Sure I’ve done my fair share of wild leek cooking – from ramp biscuits to pan roasted ramps (shameless plug for this post).  But when it comes to the traditional leek, I’m still a virgin.  A vague recollection of a recipe for pizza using caramelized leeks urged me to pick up one of the bunches on the table.

Looking around for something to accompany the leeks, my eyes fell on the pearls of red cherry tomatoes on the other table.  Recalling the complex dance of sweetness and tartness from the roasted cherry tart (another shameless plug), it struck me how well they would pair with the leeks.  As I was carefully placing two boxes of the cherry tomatoes into a bag, my hand brushed against the green onions lying in close proximity.  And almost like a thunderbolt (okay, maybe not that cheesy), the idea for a Spring pad thai came into my head.

When I lived in Charlotte, I became really good friends with an older couple who shared my love of cooking.  Once a month, we would gather at their house, cook a meal from scratch and then spend hours talking over fresh brewed tea.  I learned a lot of different cooking techniques and the importance of quality ingredients from these get-togethers.  However, the most valuable lesson I learned was the art of a simple pad thai.  The husband was stationed in Thailand early in his Army career and the young couple embraced living in a foreign country.  They immersed themselves in Thailand’s culture and language and of course, its food.  One of the first dishes they mastered was pad thai, partly because of its ease and partly because it was so versatile.  They taught me how to make a chicken version of the traditional street food and encouraged me to play with the ingredients to come up with unique combinations.  With the asparagus and green onions in my bag, I knew I could turn out a Spring version of the dish.

Want other ideas for cooking market fresh asparagus? Try some of these recipes!

• Market Asparagus Salad with Bacon and Wild Mushrooms from Adventures of a Florida Girl in DC
• Savory Asparagus Bread Pudding from 101 Cookbooks
• Asparagus and Gruyere Tart from Closet Cooking
• Roasted Asparagus with Red Pepper Puree and Microgreens from the Garden Apartment
• Spring Grilled Chicken and Asparagus Linguine from Foodie Tots

I have but a few simple pleasures in my life: a perfect pitcher of sweet iced tea, the divine smell of baking bread dancing down my nostrils, laughing with my friends so hard I cry.  But one of the best things in life for me is the start of the Spring farmers market season.  Spring is the reawakening, the bright spot after months of potatoes, potatoes and more potatoes.  Fresh flowers and herbs pop out as the markets open for the first time this year.  And of course, there is the Holy trinity of Spring produce: morels, asparagus and ramps.  When these three start to show up on farmers market tables, you know its just the beginning of the best Mother Nature has to offer.

This past Thursday at Penn Quarter Farmers Market, asparagus made its debut for the season.  The fabulous woman behind One Bite at a Time and I have been quite excited about the appearance of the ‘gus (her lovely moniker, not mine), so we were both anxious to hit up PQ.  Sadly, I got there too late to snag one of the 40 bunches for sale at Sunnyside.  And by too late, I mean I got there an hour after the market opened.  I was told the line to get asparagus formed rather quickly and they sold out at an alarming rate.  And with only one vendor selling asparagus at Penn Quarter, my foodie hopes were crushed.  Not to be deterred, I vowed to get to Dupont Circle Farmers Market early on Sunday to claim my Springtime prize.

Even though we had a long weekend out in Leesburg (more about that to come), The Boy rallied and got up early with me to satisfy my ‘gus lust.  So there we were, at 8:52 am staring at the Spring Valley farm table loaded with salad greens, baby brussel sprouts, asparagus…and RAMPS.  We huddled together for our farmers market strategy and it was decided he would stay at Spring Valley to pick up the sprouts, the ‘gus and the ramps.  I would venture forth in search of broccoli rabe, salad from Next Step Produce and milk from Clear Springs Creamery.  Along the way I picked up some green garlic (for pesto of course), green onions and red pepper hummus from Sunnyside.  I contemplated grabbing a bunch of stinging nettles but demured when I realized I had no idea how to cook them (and the word “stinging” didn’t help its case).  But with ideas from Not Derby Pie and my Twitter pal Nikki_d, I think I may give them a shot next week.

Unloading all of the produce onto my kitchen counter, my heart did a tiny leap in my chest as I feasted my eyes upon all the lovely greenery.  This is what Spring is all about, I said to myself as I began gently washing the ramps for a simple dinner.  The pungent, heady aroma of ramps gives way to a gloriously mellow leek when the ramps are pan roasted with butter.  I learned the trick of pan roasting ramps from Tom Colicchio’s book, Think Like a Chef.  And to emphasize the stature of the ramps, I decided to serve them on a bed of…wait for it…homemade black pepper fettuccine!  Because I now have, thanks to my wonderful, lovely, awesome, kick ass friends Carlea and Geoff, a Kitchen Aid pasta roller and cutter attachment set.  I clearly have amazing friends…

Sunday mornings are always a mix of happiness that the weekend has not yet ended and dread that the work week is looming ahead.  And depending on what happened the previous evening, a slight headache may also be lurking in the recesses of my brain.  So one would assume breakfast on such occasions would be a low key affair, right? Well, you would be wrong. For me, Sunday breakfast is a chance to try out the recipe that’s been needling me, calling out to me and practically double dog daring me to make it.  A few weekends ago, that recipe was Whole Wheat Parmesan Herb Popovers from the King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking cookbook.

I stumbled upon this cookbook at the suggestion of my blogger buddy Jenna.  I asked her advice on finding a good, solid whole wheat/whole grain baking book and she pointed me in the direction of King Arthur flour’s site.  Considering how much I love their flours, I had a good feeling about the quality of one of their cookbooks.  I didn’t, however, expect it to be such a large volume of recipes, ranging from muffins and breads to delicate puff pastries and savory turnovers.  The dang thing weighs almost as much as our cat Roo (and honestly, Roo has an ENORMOUS noggin).  It took me quite a long time to read my way through the book and get a feel for what it had to offer.  I still wasn’t sure what to make from it first…that is until The Boy presented me with this:

After years of making popovers in regular muffin tins, I had finally graduated to my very own popover pan!  Faster than you could say “Holy Whole Wheat Flour, Batman”, I was throwing open my tome of whole wheat baking in search of a popover recipe.  A little over 50 minutes later (including both prep and baking time), I had beautiful popovers on our table.  I was quite surprised at how light and airy the popovers turned out, considering they were made of whole wheat.  The trick? Whole wheat pastry flour.  If you don’t have this in your baking arsenal, I strongly suggest you drop everything (well, not literally…you may damage your computer) and head to your nearest well equipped grocery store to get some.  It turns whole wheat baking on its head…in a good way.

 This past weekend in DC was a beauty and everyone seemed to be doing their best to take advantage of it.  I guess after the rather harsh Winter, DCites were more than happy to welcome Spring with open arms.  This was most evident at the Dupont Circle Farmers Market on Sunday.  During the Winter months, the market had its fair share of shoppers but it was never overly crowded.  Imagine my surprise to find pretty much all of DC packed into the small space that the market occupies along the Circle.  Lines wrapped around tables at the more popular vendors, while others meandered from stall to stall, anxiously looking for some signs of Spring produce.  And I was no different.  Although I had a list of specific ingredients, I was still keeping an eye out for anything that marked the change in seasons.  And that’s when I stumbled upon these beauties:

 I was looking around for salad when my eyes came across a small collection of grape tomatoes occupying a little space on a table.  I felt like I’d hit the jackpot! The tomatoes were a rich golden yellow, resembling little balls of sunshine packed into a container.  I stood there for a few minutes, trying to convince myself that I wasn’t imagining the tomatoes.  That’s also when I remembered a rustic, roasted cherry tomato tart recipe in the April issue of Food & Wine.  I snagged two pints of the tomatoes and got in line, looking around as if someone planned to steal them from me.  This is what happens when a locavore has been subsisting on tubers for months on end.

Once I got home, I looked over the recipe again and was a bit surprised at its simplicity.  The tart dough was easily assembled using my food processor and is hands down my new go-to tart dough.  The recipe didn’t call for any additional preparation of the cherry tomatoes besides washing them.  At first I thought about dressing up the tart with caramelized onions but decided against it.  I’m glad I showed restraint, because had I added the onions, they would have masked the loveliness of the tomatoes.  Roasting them brought out their sweetness while still maintaining a bit of their tart bite.  A few ribbons of basil, some salt, some pepper and a tablespoon of olive oil were all these tomatoes needed.  This was the introduction to Spring my taste buds needed.

Roasted Cherry Tomato Tart (adapted from Food and Wine – April 2010)

Ingredients

• 2 pints cherry (or grape) tomatoes, washed and drained
• 1 tbs olive oil
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper
• 2 tbs basil, cut in strips
• For the dough:
• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 7 tbs unsalted butter, cold and cut in cubes
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• Pinch of salt

Instructions

1. Add the flour and salt to the bowl of a food processor. Place the butter cubes around the flour and pulse until a crumbly mixture is formed.
2. Slowly add the cream while still pulsing the flour mixture. Keep adding the cream until the dough comes together into a bit of a ball (you may have a little bit of cream still left over, which is fine).
3. Remove the dough from the food processor and move to a lightly floured surface. Gently knead the dough a few times until it is smooth.
4. Wrap up the dough and place it in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes (can stay in the refrigerator overnight).
5. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees and grease a 9 inch tart pan (can be a round one or a rectangular one) with a removable bottom.
6. Once again on a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out to about 14 inches. Press the dough into the tart pan and trim off any excess dough.
7. Toss the tomatoes with the olive oil, salt and pepper and pour them into the tart shell.
8. Bake for about an hour and 45 minutes or until the shell is evenly browned.
9. Take the basil leaves and roll them into a cylinder. Using a sharp knife, cut the basil into strips. When the tart is done, pull it out slightly from the oven and sprinkle the basil over the tomatoes.
10. Put the tart back in the oven, turn it off and let the tart sit for five more minutes. Then remove the tart and allow it to cool for at least 10 minutes before serving. The tart can be served warm or cold!

Recipe: Roasted Tomato Tart

DC Food Bloggers are at it again! Making bake sales cool again, a group of DC area food bloggers have gotten together to whip up some tasty treats for a great cause.  This time the bake sale will be on the patio at Zorba’s Cafe (big, big thank you for their support) on Sunday, March 28th from 9 am to 11 am!  All the proceeds from this bake sale will go towards Doctors Without Borders’ relief efforts in Haiti.  Please, please, please come out before hitting up the Dupont Circle Farmers Market and buy some goodies! We’d love to sell out this bake sale too!  And if you would like to volunteer to help (we need bakers, we need sellers, we need set up and clean up help!), drop me an email!  And feel free to gank the above flyer (made by Thrifty DC Cook’s awesome cousin Thomas) to pimp out the bake sale on your blog, website, office bathroom door, etc. Oh yeah, it’s shameless promotion time…but it’s all for a good cause!

Ahhh Spring…it’s right around the corner and DC has gotten a preview of it these last few days.  People have shed their many layers of coats, sweaters, long johns and snow boots in favor of more Spring like fare.  And I have looked down at my thighs and discovered all of my Winter indulgences have given way to, shall we say, squishiness?  With thoughts of shorts, skirts and capris dancing in my head, I realized I had to finally take some serious steps to get my weight back under control.  I joined a gym near my office, hired a personal trainer and have started trying to incorporate healthier whole grains into my diet.  Sure I want to eat healthier, but I don’t want to sacrifice taste! Life isn’t worth living if I’m forced to eat rice cakes (which I actually like, so maybe that’s not a great example).  So it was with delight that I received a recipe for Farro Risotto via my Twitter pal Nicole.

The recipe intrigued me because I had just recently fallen in love with farro.  While there may be some disagreement about what exactly constitutes farro, everyone can agree that it is the whole grain of certain types of wheat.  Because of its hearty texture, Italians use it frequently in soups and as a substitute for arborio rice in risottos.  I had already tried using farro in a salad and knew it paired well with vegetables, so Nicole’s recipe sounded perfect.  Only problem?  I’ve never made risotto before and have actively been avoiding doing so for years.  Stories of being chained to a stove for 40 minutes, stirring constantly, have put risotto on my “no-fly” list.  But after reading the recipe, I decided to give it a try one night after work (while I was yelling at Glenn Beck on the television…I blame my friend Mazzie for that).  Turns out risotto is nothing to fear and using farro made it that much healthier.  We’ll ignore the 1/2 cup of Parmesan cheese I added to the risotto…it’s for the best really.

I’ve had this chef’s knife for a while now, but honestly never really used it much.  Sure it’s a great knife, but I always found it easier to work with my Santoku knife.  Deep down, however, I knew I wasn’t properly using either one of my knives and vowed to find a good knife skills class.  I sent out a foodie bat signal to the Twitterverse asking for knife skills class recommendations.  That’s when my friend Olga offered to teach a knife skills class at my apartment.  Before I knew it, Brian, @floridagirlindc, @frijolita and Thrifty DC Cook were also signed up for the class and a date was set.  From the beginning, Olga was very organized, sending out an email to everyone with a list of supplies for the class and an outline of what she was going to teach.  On Saturday, we all congregated at my apartment, eager to learn how to wield our knives for good.

We all got a HUGE kick out of Olga’s apron and chatted briefly before she called the class to order.  She went through tips for buying cutting boards and then showed us the proper way to hold a knife (she told us to imagine choking someone…I imagined one of my ex-boyfriends).  She checked to make sure everyone was holding their knives correctly before moving on.  First up, she taught us how to segment an orange:

I was amazed at her technique and proceeded to massacre my orange in an attempt to mimic her.  But Olga was extremely patient with all of us, coming over to each work station to check on our progress.  When she got to me, she showed me what I was doing wrong and I triumphantly segmented the last of my orange correctly.  Once she was satisfied all her students had the technique down, we moved on to onions.  She showed us two separate techniques for dicing an onion:

Once she demonstrated the two techniques, we all went back to our work stations and tried chopping our own onions.  What amazed all of us was the fact that 6 people were chopping onions but none of us were crying.  Olga’s method was so quick, the onions were diced before a tear could fall.  In no time at all, Olga had shown us various techniques to cut up potatoes, carrots, garlic and parsley – demonstrating first before letting us loose on our own:

The final lesson of the class was dicing up a pepper and it had us all oohhing and aahhing.  She showed us two techniques that resulted in cutting out the core with little effort:

Before concluding the class, Olga asked if we had any questions or wanted to discuss cutting up anything not covered.  Once all of our questions were answered, we all started munching on some of the peppers we had cut up (and I may or may not have collected our practice work for use later).  And Thrifty DC Cook was kind enough to bring dip and a homemade chutney for us to snack on throughout the class!

I have taken quite a few foodie “how to” classes, but this one was hands down the most useful.  Olga’s teaching style was both professional and encouraging, creating a great learning environment.  It helped that we are all friends and genuinely enjoy hanging out with each other.  Even better? We had the class right in my apartment!

If you live in the DC metro area and have been considering taking a knife skills class, I highly recommend taking one with Olga.  Contact her through her blog and set up a class for you and your friends!