Cooking Classes – Not a Lot of Thyme

January 12, 2023 vkhanson

Not a Lot of Thyme

Hello friend! It has been a while since I reached out with a blog post. This one will be fairly short and here’s why: Art of Cookery is busier than it has ever been since opening in 2009. Cooking classes are occurring more often and are bigger than ever. People are coming from further away than ever too.

WOW that is humbling

It is also winter, and I miss my fresh herb garden. Thus, the title (Not a lot of thyme). See what I did there? 🙂

Upcoming Classes

Many upcoming classes are booked out, but here are some with space still available:

Convection Cooking – 1/24/23 @5:15 pm – $20
Jam Session – 1/26/23 @12noon – $30
Make a Gourmet Pasta Meal – 2/2/23 @ 11am – $55
Handmade Ravioli – 2/7/23 @5:00 pm – $35
Pierogi Paradise – 2/15/23 @5:00 pm – $30

Click on the class title to read more about it and book online.

We are shut down for our yearly re-set and R&R between mid-Feb through mid-March.

Retail Food Menu

We’ve been doing retail food orders for a bit over 1 year now. Below is the menu for 1/16 – 1/31. Feel free to order now for pick-up during that time frame. Ordering early helps me schedule things. As we start the new year, I’ve made a few diets conscious menu choices. Keto seems to be the big thing.

Feel free to contact me privately and ask for a food/diet meal that is not on the menu, but know it isn’t likely to occur for pick-up the same day, but you never know. I am some people’s apparent private chef who take advantage of this.

Did you Know?

We take private cooking classes and they don’t need to be on my class listings. For example, your group wants to learn about cooking with herbs; or, how to use a Tagine.
We do Murder Mystery dinners, called Delicious Demise, by private request. Minimum of 6 people.
We do about 4-5 small catering events each year. Inquire if you are curious about your event.
You can order off our menu for a hot and ready to eat meal, we just need a heads-up.
We do Bachelorette/Bridal Party events.

Class Suggestions?

We are always open to suggestions for class topics. Just reach out via email at ICan@artcookery.com.

Winter Wanderland

I know I said this would be short. Here’s the last item… Winter Wanderland 2023 is coming up. John and I are founding members and very involved in this weekend event. Click HERE for the events/times/locations occuring for the 2/3 through 2/5 weekend event.

A Quiz

December 11, 2021 vkhanson

Would you mind helping me get to know my readers?

I’ve created a little 4 question quiz that would help me understand what you seek in content. What do I do that you like, what change or added content do you suggest? What is your food personality?

THANK YOU.

Created on December 11, 2021

Getting to know YOU

I would love to get to know my readers and respond with content you would enjoy. Would you mind answering a little quiz? 🙂 Pretty Please?

1 / 4

What is your favorite food type?

Comfort Foods

Elegant Dining

Pizza or Burger

2 / 4

When cooking a meal, do you enjoy making everything from "scratch" (i.e. using fresh produce and measuring your own ingredients) or are you inclined to use prepared foods like Hamburger Helper or a roast seasoning kit?

Scratch cooking - I love to control my ingredients.

Prepared Foods - I have no time.

Prepared Foods - I am not good at cooking and/or not inclined to.

3 / 4

What content would you like to see more often? Or perhaps there's something I've never posted but you would like to see a post about?

4 / 4

When you read my posts, what is your favorite content? What do you look for? Skip over? Be honest, I want to know!

The average score is 3%

New Menu - 12/13 - 12/17/21

Upcoming Classes

Art of Cookery classes for December are pretty well filled up, but there are a couple with space left. Here they are:

How to create a Charcuterie Board – 12/13 @5:15 pm – $24
Pate a Choux Pastry – 12/21 @12 noon – $20

As always, I encourage you to make a request if there’s a class you seek but isn’t on the calendar, or is, but not at a time that works for you. Check out our classes on our website for ideas on what we offer.

Menu and Old Recipes

November 14, 2021 vkhanson

Sunday Morning's Menu is Published

With our Retail Food License upgrade comes great responsibility. 🙂

For three weeks we have published a menu for the next week. It is going quite nicely! Prepared food can be ordered hot (for immediate consumption) or cold for eating later (all reheat well in microwave or stovetop).

I keep the foods reasonably priced (which is a challenge in todays skyrocketing food prices 🙁 )

The Meal Kits are designed for you to have a hot meal that is unique. Kind of like the boxed meal kits (like Hello Fresh, etc.) but with most of the work already done. Not a box with whole potatoes, carrots, onions, you discover veggies chopped and in some cases, par-cooked. The sauces are already made. You will have some heat and/or assembly but not much.

Charcuterie boxes require at least 24 hours notice as they are made fresh for each order. 48 hours is best.

See this week’s menu below.

Cooking Classes Are in Full Gear

Our cooking classes are at pre-pandemic levels.

An expanded kitchen results in classes that occupy more space. Lots of new tools/topics have been added, like Tagine cooking.

Be sure to check out our website for all of the cooking classes. Click here to go the the home page.

Click the button below to see the schedule. Feel free to make a request for a specific topic in a time frame that works for you.

Old Handwritten Recipe Cards

Yesterday, I found an old recipe card box that has traveled with me in life’s journey for forty years. Apparently is was always to valuable to part with as I moved and/or transitioned through life.

As a teenaged bride, I wrote down my mother’s popcorn ball recipe and went on to use it many times over (as supported by the stains) to treat my own children. Then, there were my mother in law’s gumball bread (at every Christmas celebration) and Mac and cheese (at every 4th of July) in her own hand. She is gone now. But these are fond memories and go beyond simple recipes. My Aunt Rose brought a meatball dish to a family reunion in the late 1980’s…I HAD to have the recipe. I didn’t make it much but I remember the feeling of family and fun when I look at the recipe card. 🙂

I hope you have memories like these tucked away somewhere. They are a time capsule treasure.

Good News, Finished Kitchen Make-over and a Chicken Stroganoff Recipe!

October 20, 2021 vkhanson

Exciting News!!

This morning, the Retail Food License inspector arrived for the final inspection of our kitchen remodel project.

He issued a license for the new and improved space to do retail food sales!

This will now become a larger part of our business plan than before. Our cooking classes will be held 2-3 times per week and we will be selling more meal kits and packaged foods.

We are also looking into the future at pop-up hot comfort food sales both at our location and at other locations, such as breweries. Stay tuned for more information on that part of our plan.

Fall into Wanderland

John and I (Valerie) are two of the founding members of White Lake Wanderland. Together with other board members, (Casandra Atchison of Jimmy’s Pub, Kara and Mike Smith, and Elly Kennedy) we created and ran the 2020 Winter Wanderland in February 2020. That inaugural event was wonderfully successful and brought a lot of people to the area to wander the two cities of Montague and Whitehall.

Well….then there came a pandemic. Sigh. So the Fall 2020 event and Winter 2021 events couldn’t be held.

We were so excited to bring you the 2021 Fall into Wanderland last weekend.

The weekend of October 15, 16, & 17 was so FUN! From kids costume parade to adult costume events to a thrift date and budget buffet, there was something for everyone. Art of Cookery even hosted the Thrift Date and Budget Buffet.

Put February 4, 5, & 6 2022 on your calendars for the next event, Winter Wanderland.

One more thing, we are looking for about 3 more board members. Let us know if you are interested. You can comment on this blog, email ICan@artcookery.com, or message the FB page. Don’t want to be a board member but willing to help as a volunteer? Let us know that also.

There are classes on our fall calendar.

We’ve loaded our calendar with classes. Check out what is coming up.

This Friday, 10/22/21, is the next class. It is one of our How to Series and is both informative and affordable. The topic is The Art of Pasta and participants will be making pasta (Fettuccini in this case) by hand and by machine. There are two tickets still available. Click here for more information.

To check out all upcoming classes, check out Art of Cookery’s website and calendar.

To request a specific class you do not see listed, email us at ICan@artcookery.com. We can usually accommodate such requests.

Print Recipe

Chicken Mushroom Stroganoff

A creamy, delicious, and hearty comfort food

Prep Time15 mins

Cook Time20 mins

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: American

Keyword: chicken, mushrooms, noodles

Servings: 8

Author: vkhanson

Equipment

Large Skillet
Turner
Saucepan
Colander

Ingredients

4 qt hot water
2 tbsp coarse kosher salt or 4 t table salt
2 bay leaves
16 oz dry egg noodles or other preferred noodle
1 tbsp oil or fat
1/8 t red pepper flakes
8 oz white mushrooms Rinsed and sliced
1 lb chicken breast, partially frozen Sliced into 1/4" thin by 1" pieces. This is easier if partially frozen.
1 cup diced onion
1/4 t salt
1 t minced fresh rosemary
1/2 c dry white wine
3 cloves garlic minced
3 tbsp flour if you want a thinner sauce, use 2.
1 1/4 c chicken broth or bouillon, or stock, or water, or milk
3/4 t salt
1/8 t paprika
1/2 t black pepper or to taste
1 1/2 c sour cream
3 tbsp butter to add to hot noodles, can be omitted if stirring the stroganoff and noodles together immediately.

Instructions

Place hot water, 2 T salt, and bay leaves in saucepan and place on burn to come to a boil.
Place skillet over high heat, add oil or fat, and when hot, add red pepper flakes and mushrooms. Sauté mushrooms for 5-8 minutes.
Once a lot of moisture has been released and steamed away, add onion, 1/4 t salt, and chicken. Sauté for 2 minutes until chicken is no longer pink.
Add rosemary and wine. Stir and cook to reduce moisture by half.
Add garlic and flour. Sauté 1 minute more.
Meanwhile, drain the noodles when they are at a desired doneness and place back in pan or in serving dish. Stir 3 tbsp butter in to keep them from clumping.
To the sauce, add broth, salt, pepper, and paprika. Bring to a boil.
Add sour cream and stir and simmer for about 2 minutes until thickened.
Stir in the noodles and heat back up, or serve over hot noodles. Garnish with a sprinkle of paprika.

Notes

You can substitute mashed or fried potatoes or rice for the noodles.

A green herb, like chives or rosemary is a nice garnish.

Use two cans/jars of mushrooms instead of fresh for a short cut. This will shave 5-8 minutes off your time.

Another time saver is using the breasts of a cooked rotisserie chicken. Chop into bite size pieces and add with the broth. If doing this, add the onions with the mushrooms.

Opening Fully!!

May 19, 2021 vkhanson

Art of Cookery is Reopening Fully for In-Person Classes

Like so many other small businesses, Art of Cookery shut down in March 2020. Many attempts were made to provide live online classes via Zoom. However, those classes just were not engaging public interest.

Recently, we’ve done a few small group live classes for people who are in the same “bubble” while we wore masks.

Now, we are fully vaccinated and the CDC recommendations are that it would be safe enough to increase class sizes and allow unrelated class participants who are vaccinated to attend and no masks are required!! That’s pretty exciting. Unvaccinated persons cannot attend unmasked in a mixed group of unrelated persons.

There are many classes on the schedule including some youth classes.

Upcoming Classes

There are too many classes on our schedule to list them all here, and some are booked out with no more tickets available, but here is a highlight of some you may be interested in.

Pickled Asparagus on June 7th at 5:30 pm. Learn how to make this delectable and unique local delicacy. Learn some home canning techniques too!

Quiche on June 12 at 2 pm. Learn tips and techniques for this quintessential brunch/breakfast dish.

Kids Young Chef Series June 14, 21, 28, July 12 & 19 at 11 am. It is for young people ages 10-16 who are interested in truly learning how to cook.

Condiment Series: Ketchup o!n June 17 at 5:30. Learn how to make ketchup from scratch and to control what goes into this condiment favorite.

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner on June 23 at 12 noon. Together make this delicious and vibrant full meal…and then sit down and enjoy it at Art of Cookery

Sugar Cookies with Royal Icing on July 2 at 1 pm. These are great to celebrate any holiday

Cookery Creations Meal Kits are A Hit

The meal kits were rolled out for orders in early May and are well received. These aren’t boxes with whole, raw produce and proteins. The veggies have been prepped to the recipe and much of the dinner is so close to finished that you have only a few steps.

They tend to take between 20 to 30 minutes for a hearty, complete meal.

The second menu set was just posted today. Check it out! There’s something for everyone…even a vegan option.

Make Your Own Chili Powder

Did you know chili powder is not simply powdered dry chilies? It is a blend of various spices. Chef Valerie makes most spice blends she uses instead of purchasing them.

Here is a great chili powder recipe. Ideally you blend it in a small food processor or, better yet, a coffee grinder, but you don’t need to.

Print Recipe