So…this was a few weeks ago, but whatever. :) 6/10 weekend: Etsy craft meetup party on Friday night. There were a lot of crafty people there. I was not one of them…but I did take advantage of the free screen-printing. They had set it up in a trailer (courtesy of the wonder craft) and had a lot of cool vintage-y prints, like an old camera (my pick), a gun, a mexican skull…

I screenprinted a handkerchief because I was too cheap to buy a tote bag. Helen screenprinted her apron and it turned out perfectly. The yellow/lime paint looks almost metallic on the red. Upstairs, there was a button maker machine that I got happy with, making this cute little bird button that now lives on my tote bag. We also made produce bags, which took FOREVER. That’s okay though, because there were delicious cupcakes.

On Saturday, Helen, Sandy, and I went to open house at Le Cordon Bleu (the culinary school of Austin) and it was delicious. There were four workshops, an hour each…and we went to all of them. The time just passed so quickly. It was like watching a live cooking show.

The first workshop was on pulled pork. The teacher did an excellent job about explaining the technique, emphasizing cooking using low heat over a long period of time. It was pretty funny when he started pulling apart the pork - everyone let out a collective moan (in the style of homer simpson) because it pretty much melted apart in his hands. At the end, they gave out samples. Funnily enough, my favorite part was the sweet bun. Mmm.

In the second workshop, they talked about brisket. They emphasized how you don’t need expensive cooking gear to make food that tastes good, citing an example from a BBQ contest. The winner only had a grill, but he beat everyone else with their crazy smokers by feeding the fire with wood chips all night and cooking with slow, low heat.

Both of the above workshops talked about having balance in your flavors. Sometimes people go overboard with spicy sauces, so “spicy” ends up being the only flavor you taste. Having equal parts sweet, salty, sour, and bitter will keep your taste buds engaged and makes a better dish. It’s important to remember that “it takes zero skill to make a dish spicy,” and at exam time, they actually have to remove all pepper ingredients from the kitchen to prevent everyone from dumping pepper all over their dishes to add flavor.

They also talked about making sides and served us beans cooked in beer with some cilantro, which tasted surprisingly good despite the fact that I don’t like beans. Then, they made sausage… which was pretty funny. I’m sure you can imagine why ;) I think Helen and I were the first ones to snicker though, which is a little embarrassing for us…:)

The last real BBQ workshop was on Asian BBQ. It was a full-fledged demo, where the chef actually prepared the food in front of us. He poured samples of Asian sauces and passed them around the audience to emphasize tasting your ingredients in order to understand how flavors combine. I love Asian sauces…they’re nice and sweet. I was surprised that some BBQ sauces actually use fruits like apples or pears as a base…you’d never be able to tell. The chicken and Asian slaw turned out awesome, of course. :)

Dessert was a lemon tart and mocha ice cream sandwiches. Yay!

Pei: Is that a cheesecake?
Helen: It’s a japanese cheesecake. If a cheesecake and a sponge cake got it on and had a baby, this would be it.
Pei: That baby looks delicious. If all babies looked like that, I would eat them.