Foodies

I had the great good fortune of growing up in a family that took meals and food seriously. Pretty much everyone in the family, men and women, have considerable ability in the kitchen and all our family gatherings seemed to take place around a table.

I guess you could say that I was born a "foodie."  But since coming to Portland that has only become more and more true.  Portland is a great food town (check out the NYTimes article on the Portland food scene) and I have really enjoyed exploring its many culinary and gastronomic offerings.  This is all by way of warning:  More than a few of my blog posts are likely to include some reference to a new restaurant or bar that I recently visited with members of the NPSC (more on that later).  

So, here we go.

On Easter Tuesday, after recuperating from the Easter Triduum, Josh and Stacey Noem and I made good on a Christmas gift we had promised each other: we took a cooking class at Sur La Table in Portland's Pearl District.  The class we picked was called "French Dinner Party" and our teacher was chef Tselani Richmond, who graduated from Le Cordon Bleu in Paris.  She was joined by her French fiancee, so we had two teachers for the price of one!

There were approximately a dozen people in the class and everything was taught "hands-on." I felt like a beginner, but it was funny how several of the older women in the class were surprised by my culinary skills . . . and by the fact I was a priest!

Our menu included a French onion tart (Pissaladiere) that was out of this world.  We also made Potage Germiny (a cream of sorrel soup), Entrecote Bearnaise (a pan-seared rib-eye steak with Bernaise sauce), Aligot Gratin (a mashed potato with tons of cheese) and apple Tarte Tatin. After all the prep work was done, we had the chance to go shopping in the store.  That's when Josh and I found some kitchen gadgets we just had to have . . . 

Once everything was done in the kitchen, and we had spent all our money on gadgets, we all got to enjoy the meal we had prepared.  Josh, Stacey and I all thought that the Pissaladiere was the highlight of the menu, but everything was very good . . . except the Tarte Tatin, which was bitter.  No problem, we just went back to the Noem home for crepes!  

From start to finish it was a great experience that we are definitely planning on repeating.