Good god, everything was so wonderful.  We partnered with a couple from Evanston — who use Thursday night as their “date night”. She has wanted to take a cooking class for quite a while, but he wasn’t too keen on it.  After a bit of time he really got into it.  They were fun to hang out with too — especially since they enjoyed several glasses of wine with us.

We started off by making the Dark Chocolate Pot de Creme – since it took the most time to bake then chill. I’m not a big dessert guy, but this was truly wonderful and BEYOND easy to make. I will definitely make this again — very soon.

The next thing we started on was the Coq au Vin — although we didn’t use the traditional Coq, we used a quartered chicken. Since this wasn’t an old tough Coq, we didn’t need to braise it for hours.  The bacon, onions, mushrooms and shallots smelled divine.

We then started working on the celery root, and finally the mussels.  Since the mussels take the least amount of time we started them last — even though those were the first things we ate.  I don’t usually dig mussels and I really don’t dig fennel (with the anise flavor) I must admit, I loved this appetizer.

I never used celery root before — and after tonight I will totally be making this again. This is a great substitute for a potato — possibly a healthier option…possibly not.

The Pot de Creme was a perfect way to end this meal. I love dark chocolate so much and this was a great  portion and so easy to make.  The best part, our instructor indicated the batter (is that the right term??) would last 2-3 days in the refrigerator and once you cook it, the Pot will last for 2-3 more days in the the refrigerator too. That means, you can make a big batch of this on Sunday and eat it every day throughout the week — score.

When was the last cooking class you took? Do you take these classes frequently?  Once you make a handful of recipes in class do you ever make them again? Once you partner up with people in class, do you ever see these people again?