Girls Just Want to Have Fun

What a fun Friday night I had this past week!  A few lady friends and myself hung out at Whole Foods for a Girls Night Out cooking class.  The class was called "Girls Night Out Cocktail Party" and we made some scrumptious appetizers that I am so excited to share with you.  Here was the menu:  Brie en Croute; Caesar Dip with Croutons and Romaine; Pork Saltimbocca Bites; Ricotta Blinis with Marinated Feta and Tomato; Falafel Lettuce Wraps with Tahini Sauce.  Everything was delicious and I left there with a full stomach.  So full that I walked out of there only spending an additional $14.  This is unheard of when I take a trip to Whole Foods on any other day. 

We started the class off with some organic champagne and the Brie en Croute.  The Brie was already made for us so we could snack while the Chef did her demonstration, but she did include the recipe.  There are many things you can add to Brie en Croute but this one had a raspberry jam and walnuts.  Brie is a softer cheese and becomes super gooey when melted.  It is baked in a puff pastry with the jam and walnuts and can be served with fruit and bread or eaten by itself.  This was so good, I went back for thirds.  Seriously.  

The first hands on snack we made was a simple Caesar dressing that we could dip romaine leaves and toasted bread in.  The dressing was put together in minutes and had a nice tang to it.  We basically took a Caesar salad and deconstructed it.  Very easy and tasty too. 

We got our hands a little more dirty on the next dish, Ricotta Blinis topped with tomato, feta, and pesto.  The Chef that was teaching the class took good care of us and didn't make us measure anything, but kindly had the ingredients already measured and set out for us.  For this dish, we did have to make the blini batter and actually cook the pancakes.  Then we topped the little pancakes with the tomato, feta and pesto mixture.  This dish was probably my favorite.  The blinis were a lot lighter than I thought they were going to be, especially since we used buckwheat flour.  The tomato, feta mixture you can't go wrong with.  I could have eaten that by itself. 

Next up were the falafel lettuce wraps.  This dish was quite healthy since we did not have to bread and deep fry the falafel.  The mixture was made pretty much the same, the chickpeas and some other ingredients were pureed in the food processor with some breadcrumbs, but they were baked instead of fried.  They were served with lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, a dill yogurt sauce and a tahini sauce.  Tahini is sesame butter in a sense and is used when making hummus.  The sauce tasted very similar to hummus so of course it was a perfect topping for the falafel.  I definitely want to make this at home since I always have cans of chickpeas in my pantry.  They were filling and would be a great lunch to bring to the office. 

Last but not least were the Pork Saltimbocca Bites.  I was the most excited to try this dish because 1.  saltimbocca meant there would be proscuitto used and 2.  I love anything pork.  The bites were easy to assemble and only took 6 minutes to cook!  While we were muching on our falafel, we had these puppies in the oven cooking.  We used fontina cheese and sage inside the pork and then wrapped them in the proscuitto.  I tried the fontina cheese on its own and it was really good.  It had a nice bite to it but was a softer cheese so it melted quite well.  One of my lady friends suggested basil instead of the sage and I agree that it would be a good substitute. 

The best part of this whole class was that I was able to bring leftovers home!  Mr. G and I made more blinis the next day for lunch and topped it with the tomato, feta mixture.  The Pork Saltimbocca Bites reheated nicely the next day as well.  I highly recommend the classes at Whole Foods.  I have been to another class but it was not hands on like this one, but I liked both equally.  Either way, you get to eat whatever is made!  Check out their class schedule and sign up soon.  Please check out my recipe section to see the recipes from this class, I will get them up asap.  What did everyone else do this weekend?  Feel free to share!