Dessert With The Orange Bee

Kitchen at Central Market – Ft. Worth

I promised a recap of my most recent cooking class at Central Market.  “Dessert With The Orange Bee”.  Once again I thrilled at the sight of my name up on the board at the entrance to the store.  But what was even more exciting is that Michael Chiarello was signing his cookbook “Bottega” in the wine department as a pre-cursor to my class.  To the folks at CM this is just standard procedure to have fabulous and fun events taking place all hours of the day and night.  Did I get a signed copy?  You bet I did, signed and personalized, plus we had our photo taken together.  One last highlight was tasting Chiarello Family Vineyard wines.  Now let’s move on to the sweet stuff.

As I mentioned in my post featuring Peach Upside-Down Cake the kitchen staff at CM does a phenomenal job of prepping each recipe.  Not only do they measure out all ingredients, crack every egg, have the recipe handy but they also have every utensil right at hand.  The remarkable thing about this is that they all do it with a smile.  Once again thanks to Nettie, Henry and all the kitchen staff, you guys are amazing.

On the menu was: Chocolate Chip Banana Bread,  Honey & Rosemary Shortbread, Honey Chess Pie, Honey & Lemon Custard and Peach Upside-Down Cake.  Of course all of these recipes use honey as a main ingredient.  If you are wondering why you’ve yet to see that pie recipe, it’s coming soon.  I’ll be making one today for a dinner party tomorrow night in my home.  I know some of you have been waiting for that recipe to appear.  Let me remind you,  patience is a virtue.

I met some delightful and interesting folks at this class.  A couple of the class members, intrigued with the idea of bee keeping had many questions about how to get started and the time involved.   Kathy, another chef/blogger came to class with her cute white camera in tow.  You can visit her blog, How To Cook Gourmet here for some great instructions on gourmet cooking.  Young and not so, couples and singles, all the participants had appreciable questions, dug right into the recipes and added their own touches where possible.  One of the joys of leading a cooking class is visiting with and getting to know all of the students.  For a taste of the evening scope out the following photos.

Miss Nettie – checks and double checks the ingredients.

Henry works the kitchen and the crowd.

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread prepped and ready to go.

Trays full of ingredients for Peach Upside-Down Cake.

Banana Bread – Baked and ready to be taken home by every class member.

The class making Honey-Rosemary Shortbread.

I was taken with watching each person mold and shape shortbreads.

Look at these lovely hands shaping that dough.

Football shortbread – scored and decorated by a man.

Proud of his creation and ready to indulge in a slice.

For another event – Moulding chocolate – we all wanted to stick our fingers in this stuff!  

My head is buzzing with ideas for the next CM class.  But for now I’m off to prepare for a small dinner party at my home tonight.  On the dessert menu, Honey Chess Pie.  Recipe coming soon.

Enjoy!