It’s the moment I hope you have all been waiting for… The news that COOK is finally open for business and the January class calendar is now online!!

Sign Up For Classes

Our classroom is exactly what I had imagined it would be and we can’t wait for everyone to see how beautifully it all came together!

Now OPEN in ASHBURN, VA!!

Can’t Wait to See it?
Check out these pictures of how the construction progressed and our final touches to the Cook kitchen! Flickr stream.

Who We Are:

COOK is a home-grown recreational cooking school geared specifically to provide practical instruction and guidance on food, nutrition and basic culinary techniques to everyday folks who:

• Have never cooked before but want to learn some practical kitchen basics that they can build on
• Are seasoned home cooks who have found themselves caught in a cycle of cooking the same things week-in and week-out
• Like to cook but lead busy lives and want to learn ways to prepare nutritious meals at home that don’t take a lot of time.
• Are recreational cooks who just enjoy entertaining at home, learning new recipes and meeting other people who enjoy the same

Our classes at COOK are taught by instructors who were raised in environments where home cooking was an everyday occurrence and have since spent years using their cooking skills and knowledge outside of the home in one capacity or another. In addition, unlike formal culinary schools or continuing education courses that require a long-term commitment of time and money, COOK provides the convenience of a wide variety of individual cooking classes that are structured to encompass the entire cooking topic in a single class session so students only have to commit to spending a few hours on any given day to expand their cooking know-how. Also, at COOK we will provide you everything that you will need for each class – the recipes, ingredients, the instructor and all your kitchen tools. All you have to bring is your interest in cooking, willingness to try something new and best of all, your appetite, because every class ends with a meal you get to enjoy. By the way, the fun you’ll have in class is on us, too!

Our Mission:

• Cooking and Entertaining instruction
• Create Kitchen Traditions
• Food and Nutrition Guidance

The true home cooked meal, prepared at home from scratch, has quickly become a lost art in a day and age where convenience and speed has overtaken our lives. Due to this growing trend, it has become difficult for households to find the time to cook at home on a regular basis so that home cooking in general has gone by the wayside. Kitchen traditions and skills that would previously have been passed down from parent to child is becoming a thing of the past. As a result, young adults who are ready to go out on their own, newly married couples, professional singles and even couples who have been together for years are finding themselves intimidated or at a loss when it comes to preparing a meal that doesn’t involve a box mix or the microwave!

We at COOK want to bring back those family traditions and provide those practical skills to anyone who wants to learn. Learning to cook and preparing a wonderful meal should be an enjoyable experience you will want to share with others instead of a chore you dread every day. Let us at COOK tap into your “inner foodie” and help you find your joy in cooking. It’s why we’re here and it’s what we love to do!

Have you ever made a recipe that says it only take 25 minutes to prepare but ends up taking more like 40 minutes, maybe even 50 if you’re making it for the first time? Did you wonder if it was a typo or perhaps a miscalculation on the part of the cookbook writer? Well, that’s a thought… but it’s not likely.

Keep in mind, the “prep time” is referring to how long the writer is estimating it should take you to prepare  the recipe from start to finish, excluding cooking time. Where the problem may lie is that the writer is assuming that you set up your “mise en place”  before you started cooking.

OK, now some of you might be thinking…”mise en place”…what kind of cooking tool is that and do they sell it at Bed Bath and Beyond? Well I’ve got good news for you. It is not some fancy French cooking gadget and better yet, it’s nothing you need to buy!

“Mise en place” (pronounced “miz-a-plas” ) is French for “putting in place” and for anyone who cooks, it is the act of gathering and organizing all of the things you need beforeyou actually start cooking. It can be something as simple as just laying out all your ingredients and kitchen tools on the counter so that you know you have everything you need ahead of time or go one step further and prep your ingredients – chop, dice, slice everything that needs to be chopped, diced and sliced and pre-measure all of your wet and dry ingredients so that they are all ready and waiting for when it’s time for that ingredient to be added to the recipe.

All you Food Network junkies (of which I admit I am one!) have probably seen the show ”30 Minute Meals” with Rachel Ray. If so, then you’re familiar with how she makes a big production about getting all of her ingredients together at the opening of the program, juggling a carton of eggs on top of the mixing bowls, tucking her zucchini under her chin while pulling different spices out of the pantry, etc. What she is doing is setting up her mise en place.  You can bet that the meal would take longer than 30 minutes to prepare if Rachel had to keep running back and forth in her kitchen to grab a whisk out of one drawer, set it on the counter, then go back to her fridge to grab the carton of eggs! The show would have to do considerable editing to keep within the 30 minute time-frame if not for her mis en place. 

Now, one thing I would suggest to not copy from Rachel is the juggling act.  Don’t try to gather all of your tools and ingredients all on the same trip like Rachel does. Dropping a bowl full of eggs because you overloaded yourself is definitely not going to save you any time!

So aside from cutting down on the running around in the kitchen and obvious time savings, why else is preparing your mise en place a good practice? Well, when you have your mise en place, you’re less likely to accidentally leave out an ingredient. Or at least you’ll know there’s no question if you’ve left something out when you get to the end of the recipe and you see that you still have that teaspoon of baking soda sitting there. Now whether it’s still OK to add it into your recipe will be the real question!

Preparing your mise en place is a vital step that should never be skipped and if you weren’t doing it before, I highly recommend that you do so in the future. You’ll be surprised at how it will make your cooking process easier and more enjoyable, which is how cooking should be!!

OK, raise your hand if you have a knife block set sitting on your kitchen counter. I know you can’t see me, but I’ve got my hand raised. Now, keep your hand raised if you can honestly say that you use each one of those knives on a regular basis – at least once a week. Hmmm…I don’t have my hand raised anymore, do you? I’d say a majority of us probably don’t. Nice marketing on the part of the manufacturer who convinced me to buy one anyway!

What’s That Knife For ?

My block set consists of a knife honing steel and 7 different knife types. If I exclude the steak knives and honing steel, I only count three knives that I use regularly and consider to be the necessary staples - a chef’s knife, a serrated bread knife and a paring knife. That leaves three other knives that never get used and worse yet (gasp!) are taking up valuable counter space. I know…what was I thinking?

The Knife Trinity

For everyday home cooking you can easily get by with the chef, bread and paring knives.  A boning knife might be the only other knife I’d add to my set (which of course my block did NOT come with!) The other knives that you’ll see in these sets are typically ”utility” knives that I now know, serve no real purpose other than filling up the holes in the block and give department stores the ability to charge more for the set! I haven’t come across an everyday cooking utility that I could not take care of with one of the knives in my little knife ”trinity”.

What is a Honing Steel ?

Granted, there was one redeeming item in my set which I will give the manufacturer credit for including and that’s the honing steel. No home cook’s kitchen is complete without one. I have friends who were married this weekend and selecting the gift to purchase off their registry was an easy decision - the honing steel! I use it every time I pick up my chef knife and many times inbetween depending on how much slicing, dicing or chopping I’m doing. It’s important to always keep your knife blade sharp if not only to avoid mutilating the food your preparing but also to prevent accidents. A dull blade can easily slip off the surface of even the firmest of tomatoes and you may find yourself slicing into more than just the tomato!

So if you’ve been thinking about owning a block set but haven’t made a decision on what to buy, before you make that purchase ask yourself: 1. Would you use all of the knives? and 2. Do you know what purpose each knife is meant for? If you answered no to either of those questions, then do yourself a favor and don’t waste your money or precious kitchen space on an entire set. I would suggest you go the open stock route so that YOU can decide what knives you need, not the manufacturer.

Well, I guess with that said, it’s time for me to have a yard sale. I’ve got a nice used knife block set that needs to go and take up space on someone else’s counter!

If you recognized this line, then you’ve seen one of my all time favorite foodie movies – “Fried Green Tomatoes”, and I think the phrase is so true. Even if you’ve prepared your fish, chicken, beef, or pork correctly, a poorly prepared sauce can ruin that perfectly cooked protein. Now if you remember what “the secret’s in the sauce” referred to (though maybe we shouldn’t dwell too much on that!), the same can be said about sauces in the reverse. A well-prepared sauce can help mask your fish, chicken, etc., that didn’t come out so perfectly or better yet, just give new life to some of your everyday grilled meats!

My family loves sauces on everything. In fact, sometimes they love the sauce of the dish so much that they don’t even pay attention to what it was meant to be used for! These days, their favorite sauce is what they refer to as “Mom’s white sauce” which in reality is just a basic Béchamel (pronounced “bay-sha-mel”) sauce that has had cheese added to it.

Did I mention that Béchamel is one of the five basic “mother sauces” in French cooking? The name is definitely much more difficult to say than it is to prepare so don’t stop reading this because you think that you could never learn to make a French sauce. That’s what I used to think. Back in my early cooking days, I translated “French” to mean “very complicated recipe, don’t even bother trying”. That’s not the case here. Believe me; you’re going to be pleasantly surprised with this sauce. Here’s the recipe. Try it out!

Ingredients:

• 3 tablespoons (or 1 ½ oz) butter
• 1 ½ oz flour
• 1 cup milk
• Salt and pepper
• ½ cup to ¾ cup Grated Parmesan and/or Gruyere cheese (add more or less to your taste)
• Dash of cayenne pepper (optional)

Procedure:

1. Melt butter over low heat in a small saucepan. Add flour and stir. Mixture will resemble a paste.
2. Add milk and stir with a whisk till paste is completely incorporated into the milk. There should be no lumps!
3. Continue to stir with whisk as you bring the mixture to a boil and season with salt and pepper to taste.
4. Stir in parmesan and/or gruyere till the cheese is completely incorporated into the mixture. Sauce will thicken when the cheese is added and should look fairly smooth.
5. Add a dash of cayenne if you want to spice it up!
6. Don’t forget! Keep tasting your sauce as you go.

This sauce is wonderful with just about any kind of pasta. What I like to do to “fancy” it up a bit is to take cooked pasta like ziti or penne and put enough for one or two servings in a small sauté pan, add a couple of ladles of the sauce, then add sliced grilled chicken. Stir it gently together in the pan till the ingredients are heated all the way through and then serve immediately with freshly grated parmesan sprinkled on top. Prefer seafood? In a pinch I’ve used “peel & eat” shrimp you find in the frozen seafood section at the grocery store (be sure to defrost the shrimp completely before using), added it to my pasta and sauce and again, stirred till completely heated through. Voila!   Two entrées – one sauce and the possibilities are endless!

One other thing I forgot to mention. The recipe above was a Béchamel, up to the point before any cheese was added. Per the old French cooking rules, once you add cheese to a Béchamel, the sauce is then called a Mornay.  One recipe just turned into two.  How’s that for simple?

Yes, remember the Chia Pet commercial? Chi – Chi – Chi – Chia!  I actually had one. It was a cow. Trust me, not a blog about Chia Pets but about the Chia seed. 

A few months ago, I did a seminar at the Running Store (a fabulous local running/walking store in Gainesville, VA). One of the attendees told me that she was using the Chia seed at home so it sparked my interest. Here is what I found out . . .and yes, they are one of my new favorite things!

This edible seed comes from a desert plant that was highly regarded by the Aztecs and Mayans 3,000 years ago. What caught my attention, being a runner, is that it was considered the “running food” by the Aztec and Mayan messengers because they said it made them able to run forever. Don’t know if I am experiencing that effect but we do know that this seed, which resembles a poppy seed, is packed with nutrition!

The Chia seed is high in antioxidants (some research says more than fresh blueberries), high in ALA Omega-3 fatty acids for heart health, a hefty dose of fiber, calcium, and potassium.  Because of the high antioxidant content, the seeds will not go rancid and have a longer shelf life as compared to flax seeds that have also grown in popularity for their high omega-3 fatty acid content.  Be leery of some of the claims they are anti-aging and aid in weight loss.  There has not been research to support these claims but hey, I will eat a tablespoon a day if I could possibly not get another gray hair! There was a study in 2007 that concluded that diabetics who ate chia seeds had a lower risk of cardiovascular problems.  I think we will be hearing more about this seed in the future and the multiple benefits it can provide. 

So, where do you find them and how do you eat them? First, usually they are in the organic or health food section of your grocery store. I found mine at Wegmans and the brand is “Spectrum Essentials.”  There are different ways that they can be used. I sprinkle a tablespoon into my yogurt. You could also sprinkle them into smoothies or hot cereal. Add the seeds while making baked goods, like banana bread.  You can add water to the seeds and it will form a gel. I have not tried this yet, but I’ve read that you can use the gel in place of oil when baking. 

Why not give them a try? They don’t really have any taste and have a superb nutrient-filled punch! I would say they only have one negative. They get stuck in my teeth! Be sure to glance in the mirror before you head out!

Pronouned “keen-wa”, this is a wonderful grain to add to your diet.  It is high in fiber and protein.  It also is naturally high in iron.  Iron is vital in carrying oxygen to all of your body’s cells, thus making us have energy.  You typically will find quinoa in the organic section of your supermarket.

You can use this nutrient-rich grain in place of using rice. It adds a different texture and appearance.  It can easily be used in place of rice in a vegetable stir-fry.  One added bonus of using it in a stir-fry is that the Vitamin C in the vegetables would increase the absorption of iron from the quinoa.

It cooks similar to rice as well (½ cup quinoa and 1 cup water and boil 15 minutes).  You do need to rinse the quinoa before using it to wash off a soapy substance called “saponin”.  Rinsing the quinoa by using a fine mesh colander and running cold water through it does the trick.

For a quick and easy lunch/dinner using the abundance of tomatoes coming from your garden try this cold salad: Make quinoa (1 cup dry) and let it cool.  Add chopped tomato and fresh mozzarella cheese cut into small cubes.  For dressing, squeeze half a lemon and drizzle with Wegmans-brand basting oil.

Simple, Healthy, and Delicious!

Well actually, it’s two-part question.

First, does it really matter if you forget to add salt in a recipe that specifically calls for salt? The answer? Yes, it matters.

Let’s say for example you forgot to add the salt while you were preparing your favorite beef chili recipe. The chili will look okay. The missing salt won’t affect the appearance, but you will notice that your chili will taste just ever so flat. Even with the fact that all your other spices were not forgotten, your chili will still not pack it’s normal punch. 

So say you do realize after the cooking process is complete that you forgot the salt, so you quickly stir it in after the fact. That should do the trick. You taste your chili and low and behold, now it’s salty! What happened? Well, that is part-two of the question.

Does it matter when you add your salt? Again, the answer is unequivocally – yes!

When you add your salt is just as important as whether you leave it out or not. Salt is a natural flavor enhancer. When it is added to an ingredient during the cooking process, the salt helps to bring the flavors of your ingredients to the surface. For example, when you’re browning your beef for your chili, the salt (kosher is preferable to iodized salt for this process) will help release the juices from your beef, which assists in carmelization (the slight crust that appears on your beef when browning) that ultimately gives your chili that wonderful, hearty beef flavor. The same process would apply if you also used tomatoes or garlic in your recipe. The salt binds to the tomatoes and garlic and unlocks their natural moisture during cooking thus helping spread their flavors throughout your chili as well. A good rule of thumb is to add your salt each time you add a new layer of ingredients to your recipe. This allows the salt to properly become incorporated within your ingredients.

So why did your chili taste salty when you tried to add the salt after the fact? In a nutshell, the salt never got a chance to become “one with the ingredients”. It dissolved into your chili but instead of tasting salt-enhanced flavors, your taste buds got a hit of salt first before it got to the underlying chili.  This brings us to another good rule to follow. Always taste your food as you’re cooking. The best chance of fixing a problem of having too much or too little of something is during cooking, not after the dreaded “point of no return”!

By the way, iodized salt (i.e. table salt) grains are smaller than that of kosher salt so be careful! A teaspoon of iodized salt is not equivalent to a teaspoon of kosher which means you’re adding more salt with a teaspoon of iodized than you would with kosher.

I know. Who knew there could be so much to say about salt??

Fresh herb gardens are a hot trend. They are easy to grow, inside or out and provide a wide variety of tastes to your everyday cooking. Did you know, however, that it is not just taste that herbs and spices offer? Scientists are investigating the health benefits of these little gems.

The culinary herb is the leaf of a plant. Oregano or basil for example. Other parts of the plant such as the bark, root, or seed is called a spice. For example, cinnamon and black pepper. Scientists are now looking at herbs and spices, both fresh and dried, as antioxidants and anti-inflamatories.

Antioxidants are compounds found in plants that protect us from disease and aging. These compounds act as scavengers by finding and destroying free radials that could harm our body’s healthy cells. In a January 2010 study published in Nutrition Journal, scientists analyzed 3,100 different foods and concluded that culinary herbs and spices had the highest concentration of antioxidants. They found that ½ teaspoon of cloves had a higher antioxdant level compared to ½ cup of blueberries. Other herbs and spices with high antioxidant power are cinnamon, oregano, rosemary, sage, and garlic.

Many of the chronic diseases, such as heart disease, cancer, and diabetes are caused by an inflammation in the body. Promising research has indicated that spices have an anti-imflamatory effect such as turmeric (found in curry powder), ginger, and pepper.

So how should you begin to spice it up?
● Add herbs to eggs, casseroles, marinades, sauces and soups.
● Sprinkle cinnamon, cloves, or nutmeg into oatmeal, baked goods, or yogurt.
● Saute garlic in olive oil as a base for a stir-fry or pasta dish.
● Try growing some herbs in a pot on your patio or in a kitchen window.

Shopping organic can be expensive and not necessarily better for you.  Many consumers feel that if you buy macaroni and cheese or chips in the organic section, then you can eat as much of it as you want. Not the case. Yes, maybe the chips are made with organic flour but the calories and fat are nearly identical.  Portion control is still the key. 

However, if you can afford to spend the money on organic items you should do so in the produce section of your supermarket.  Non-organic fruits and vegetables are treated with pesticides when they are being farmed which many scientists believe will have a negative impact on human health.  Rinsing the produce does not wash off the pesticide.  Peeling does help, however, with fruit like apples and peaches, a majority of the fruit’s nutrients are found right under the skin. 

 Organic produce is pesticide free.  Below is a list of the 12 fruits/vegetables with the highest level of pesticides.  If possible, buy organic of the produce below.  This information is from the Environmental Working Group (You can print a wallet guide of the “Dirty Dozen” and “The Clean 15” at www.foodnews.org and carry it with you at the supermarket.)

1. Celery
2. Peaches
3. Strawberries
4. Apples
5. Blueberries
6. Nectarines
7. Bell Peppers
8. Spinach
9. Cherries
10. Kale/Collard Greens
11. Potatoes
12. Grapes – imported