Bon Appetit!

It doesn’t get much better than this week! First of all, we had a visitor, Uncle Alan. Secondly, we saw Philadelphia at its best. Thirdly, I learned things that will change my life, and fourthly, we ate incredible food.

About six months ago I was having lunch with my friend when she asked me, “If you could take a cooking class for any type of cuisine what would you choose?” Without even having to think I responded, “I would have my brother teach me French Cuisine.” Then the lightbulb went off. Why hadn’t I ever done that?! I have the chef of all chefs in my family and, besides greatly enjoying his feasts, I had never taken advantage of the opportunity to learn from him. To quote my girls, “What in the wirld?” The wheels in my head began to turn and I started making this idea materialize. This week, with four friends we had our French Cooking and Eating Class with Chef de Cuisine Alan Staker. It was a huge success.

Alan arrived in town on Tuesday. He came walking off the plane carrying an 11 pound bar of chocolate. That was the first sign that this visit was going to be a little different. The second sign was that we headed straight for Costco where we purchased 15 dozen eggs, 12 pounds of butter, and four quarts of cream among many other delicious things.

The girls were thrilled to see Uncle Alan. Jane kept saying, “Alan, I love you!” with her head cocked sideways and her shoulders shrugged in her shy but sincere way and Kate kept writing out plans for Alan’s visit such as this, “or plan go to the art msyom next go to plys toch come back hoom et lonsh go to the stor by a dog go bak hoom broch tyth go to bed.” (translation: Our Plan = go to the art museum, next go to the Please Touch, come back home, eat lunch, go to the store, buy a dog, go back home, brush teeth, go to bed.” She obviously wanted to plan the very best days possible while Alan was in town.

Wednesday morning Alan and I loaded the girls in the chariot and walked down the Benjamin Franklin Parkway to Reading Terminal Market. It was fun to walk through the city and seeing Alan interact with the merchants at the market was one of the highlights of the week. He had called ahead and ordered a knuckle bone. You should have seen the looks when the butcher brought out a huge bone that looked just like a cartoon dog bone. A complete stranger even stopped to ask Alan what he was planning on doing with the bone. We went to a cheese shop, a fish counter, a spice vendor, several meat counters, and a vegetable shop. Each merchant was thrilled to have someone really interested in their product and consequently more than willing to share their expertise. I think Alan has a least a dozen new best friends.

Josh met us at Reading and we had lunch together, pastrami sandwiches which made quite an impression on Alan. I wish we had had time to go back for another one. Then Josh and Alan headed to Wharton to see the school and print out recipes. The boys arrived back home almost at the same moment that my four friends walked in carrying boxes and laundry baskets full of pans, cookie sheets, aprons, stock pots, pie tins, etc. for our first session of French Cooking.

Session 1: Butchering a Duck, Starting a Dark Stock, Flavoring Meat with Fresh Herbs

From the moment we arrived home from Reading Terminal Market, my stove and oven were in constant use for the next 4 days. The smells permeating from 2502 caught the attention of the whole neighborhood. Even strangers walking by would, after a double take, say something like, “Wow. That smells wonderful.”

Wednesday evening was low key and relaxing. Alan read stories to the girls before bed. The adults played games and ate treats while the bones in the oven roasted away and we all made it to bed at a somewhat reasonable hour.

Thursday morning Jane woke up early and Alan took her out on a run. Just about the time I was trying to decide whether I should head out to look for them, they showed up at the doorstep. Alan enjoyed the path along the Schuylkill river so much that he just kept going and going and going. They ran at least 8 miles that morning. After they returned we headed out for a few Philly adventures. We went to the Franklin Institute, the big science museum. They have a special exhibit right now about Leonardo Da Vinci. The girls were spooked by the minor key music in the introductory video and the rest of the exhibit was a wash for them, but Alan and I were captivated. What a mind! A team from Italy has reexamined Da Vinci’s diaries and tried to construct models of some of his inventions. We saw his flying machines, his city plans, a life size lion made out of wood that could walk on its own, and some of his works of art. The girls were both begging to leave after an hour, but I was able to distract them by helping them construct a model of Da Vinci’s self supporting bridge. That was honestly one of my favorite parts. Alan then humored the girls by going with them to see some of their favorite parts of the museum, especially the giant heart and the machine that shows you how much blood you have in your body as determined by your weight.

Our next stop was the Barnes Foundation. This is a private collection of art, mostly impressionist and post-impressionist, located a few minutes outside the city. They are moving this collection into the city next year, but it is worth seeing in its original location. We dropped Alan off there (it’s not a kid friendly place) and let him spend the afternoon while the girls and I did preschool. Directly from the Barnes we headed home to raise the blood sugar of the kiddos and prepare for our second cooking class.

Session 2: Second Stage of a Beef Stock, Butchering a Chicken, Chicken Stock, Starting a Yeast Dough, Soaking Beans, Roasting Beets, Prosciutto Shrimp, and Cooking a Fish Filet

As my cooking friends were walking out the door, another friend who graciously offered to watch my girls for the evening was walking in. I hurried to get the girls in their pajamas, change my clothes, eat a few prosciutto shrimp, brush my hair, call Josh to see if he was going to make it home and get us all out the door. We didn’t have time to deal with parking so we started walking toward Center City and caught a cab to the Kimmel Center as soon as we found one. My parents treated Alan, Josh and me to an evening at the symphony! I haven’t been to a symphony since we left our income in Utah. I hardly realized how much I have missed it until I heard the first few notes of Tchaikovsky’s Second Piano Concerto fill the hall and felt my heart soar. The Philadelphia Orchestra is stunning! They played with amazing precision and passion, you almost felt like you should hide your eyes at times. All I can say is, Alan jumped to his feet to give a standing ovation! If you know Alan, you know that is an amazing compliment. After the symphony we decided to walk home through the city and conveniently ended up walking by a gelato shop on our way home.

Our picture perfect evening concluded with an account of the less than ideal behavior of our girls for the babysitter and a dish washing party extending into the wee hours of the morning, which became our nightly ritual from then on. I guess a reality check is always a good thing.

Friday was our first all day cooking class.

Session 3: French Cuisine

Beef Stock, Stroganoff, Beef Bourguingnon, French Onion Soup, Chicken Stock, Potato Soup, Split Pea Soup, Baked Potatoes, Pot au Feu, Lima Beans, Sautéed Duck Breast, Duck Sauce, Mayonnaise, Hard Root Vegetables, Whole Wheat Rolls, Almond Milk & Dates, Duck Confit, Beet and Watercress Salad, Tenderloin in a Salt Crust

The Five Julias, as we like to refer to ourselves, arrived at 10 o’clock in the morning and we went strong all day. The idea behind our class, which was pure genius on the part of Alan, was that instead of focusing on producing a specific meal we would work on techniques. The dishes we learned built on each other. Whether it was butchering, seasoning, or cooking we would repeat techniques as we went along. By doing so our confidence built and the reasoning behind what we were doing became clear.

Remember the saying about giving a man to fish and feeding him for a day versus teaching a man to fish and feeding him for a lifetime? I felt like Alan not only taught us how to fish, but by teaching us why each part of fishing was important made it so not only can we eat fish but duck, chicken, shrimp, beef, or whatever vegetable or herb we happen across! I tell you, this was a life changing event.

Like all good adventures there were some tense moments, but nothing to compare with the breakdown of the disposal near mid-day on Friday. We had two dishes finished, potato soup and pea soup, and seven more in process and suddenly the sink started filling with brown water. I’m sure my eyes bugged out, my heart momentarily stopped, and the future of our cooking class flashed before my eyes. Alan calmly told everyone to take a lunch break and try the soups while he and I figured things out. Then he proceeded to take apart the entire disposal! He said he just thought of Grandpa Alden and how he used to say, “Just look at it and you can figure out how it works.” Guardian Angel Grandpa must have been there because somehow we got the disposal taken apart, found the tiny bone which was stopping it, and, most surprisingly, got it back together again!

Once the disposal was functioning again we were unstoppable. We sat down at about 10:30 p.m. to eat all the food we had made. Every bite of every dish was amazing. The ea soup and the lima bean were perhaps the most surprising; because no one expected much, we were stunned by the result. The stroganoff was out of this world. I can still feel the strips of meat practically dissolving between my teeth. The pot au feu was light and fresh. The duck with the duck sauce was inspiring to the taste buds. The onion soup, well, Lori put it best when she said, “I think this onion soup changed my life.” For dessert we had tenderloin, which came out of the oven at 11:30 p.m--the grand finale of the evening, which certainly did not disappoint.

Saturday morning at 10 o’clock we began again.

Session 4: French Pastries

Pecan & Chocolate Cookies, Short Crust, Short Crust with Sugar, Short Crust with Sugar and Almonds, Lemon Tarts, Puff Pastry, Baked Brie, Croissant, Almond Milk, Egg Nog, Creme Anglaise, Cinnamon Ice Cream, Cheese Cake, Ganache, Pastry Cream, Molten Cakes

The only thing that could possibly follow all that amazing food would be french pastries. We learned all about shortened doughs and thickening milk and cream. The climax was puff pastry and croissant. Again, we worked all day long. We stopped around dinner time and ate some of the cuisine from the night before that had been perking overnight, Beef Bourguignon and Beet and Watercress Salad with Duck Confit and a Tangerine Vinaigrette. Josh, who had been watching my girls for the last two days, and Lori’s husband, Todd, were able to stop by and eat dinner with us. Sitting down after all that work to a delightful meal with an appreciative audience was a great moment. We paused for a few minutes to enjoy the fruits of our labor, have some could conversation, and let our feet rest. The Cinnamon Ice Cream finished churning just as we finished eating so we had a lovely dessert as well.

Again, the techniques used in each of the pastry recipes built on one another. By the end of the day we were tempering eggs, layering dough, and dipping tarts with confidence. After dinner we had dessert after dessert after dessert including lemon tarts , chocolate pastry cream, creme anglaise, and egg nog. The last things we pulled out of the oven were the ham & cheese croissant and an amazing baked brie. It was around midnight before the Julias packed up their boxes and laundry baskets and headed out the door in a well fed, masterfully instructed, and completely exhausted haze.

We had a great group of Julias. Five ladies, all young mothers and wives of graduate students, who love cooking but were eager to learn to take their cooking up a notch. We were all ready and willing to go until we dropped each day, while trying to absorb all the information we could. We really had a lot of fun together. Tiffany had her camera going. Lori had her camcorder going. The rest of us were taking notes. This may end up being the most well documented cooking class in the history of the world.

Amazingly, we made it to church on time Sunday morning. Alan woke up two minutes before we had to leave and managed to be ready before we had the girls packed in the car. After church we went on a motorcycle tour, or rather a RAV4 tour, of Old City Philadelphia. We did a drive by siting of the liberty bell and Independence Hall. We took a brief walk down Elfreth’s Alley and then went inside Christ’s Church for a few minutes and enjoyed the amazing smell of lilies.

Alan and I went to the Cappucci exhibit at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. I left Alan there to look around and went home on the pretense of taking care of my children and really hoping to take a nap. When I woke up two hours later, I heard noises in the kitchen! I went downstairs to see Alan giving Kate and Jane their own cooking class, which was the highlight of the weekend for Kate. They were making apple turnovers.

Session 5: A Private Wrap Up Session

Apple Turnovers, Short Dough Taste Test, Apple Pie, Lemon Tart Filling, Pastry Cream, Chocolate Banana Creme Pie, Italian Strawberry Tart, Egg Nog

When you have the chef ready and willing to instruct, it is hard to stop. I couldn’t believe Alan was back in the kitchen Sunday, but we managed to again cook the night away. We had apple turnovers for dinner, apple pie for second dinner, and banana cream pie, Italian strawberry tart, and egg nog for an after midnight snack.

When I was in Ohio with Greg and Shannon, Alan drove down from Michigan one night with a duck in his car. He started cooking the duck when he arrived. Sometime in the middle of the night Greg and Shannon had to call it quits thanks to residency induced exhaustion. The duck finished cooking and Alan and I sat across the table and ate the entire duck with our chopsticks while we talked the night away. That is one of my favorite memories with Alan. I kept thinking of that night this week. Undoubtedly, this cooking class will be another equally pleasant memory.

Monday morning we headed to the Please Touch Museum. Kate had been dying to take Alan there from the moment he landed in Philly. We spent a few hours following the girls around to their favorite exhibits. Alan acted like shopping in a miniature grocery store, making pigs out of floam, and shooting foam rockets were the only things in the world he could possibly want to do at that moment. From the Please Touch we headed to Longwood Gardens. After all the work we had made Alan do, we felt like he deserved a trip to Longwood. It is still the Orchid Extravaganza and it was truly lovely. I had to literally drag Alan out of the conservatory in order to catch a late lunch at the “resternaut“ before we took him to the airport.

We had quite the week! Thanks to Alan for coming. Thanks to Mom and Dad for helping make it happen. Thanks to Lori for the inspiration. Thanks to Josh for watching the girls. And, thanks to the French for showing the world how to cook!