Tuesday, June 8
Judy Harris Cooking School
Alexandria, VA
Cost: $65 per person, included dinner on premises
http://www.judyharris.com/
New TAOS rule: While on premises of an activity, please refrain from mentioning that there is a blog.
From the Judy Harris Cooking School website: "Everyone raves about our herb classes. Spring is the perfect time to explore growing, cooking and decorating with fresh herbs from your garden, pots, or market! Students visit our garden and pick a variety of fragrant herbs and colorful edible flowers. We will prepare and serve a light spring dinner. Explore how to start or enhance your herb garden, selecting the best varieties, discover top local herb markets, fun cooking techniques, pretty presentations and much more. Take home five popular herbs and a practical herb-growing guide."
Those of us who had never been to a cooking class might have expected a large kitchen and were a bit surprised when we pulled up to the modest home of Judy Harris. However, Judy greeted us with a warm welcome (as did Inge, the lovely assistant) and directed us to wash our hands and take a seat so that we could get started. A look around the kitchen let us know that Judy wasn’t one for fancy or flashy modern cooking appliances - except, of course, for the prized Vitamix 5000.
Judy Harris Cooking School
Alexandria, VA
Cost: $65 per person, included dinner on premises
http://www.judyharris.com/
New TAOS rule: While on premises of an activity, please refrain from mentioning that there is a blog.
From the Judy Harris Cooking School website: "Everyone raves about our herb classes. Spring is the perfect time to explore growing, cooking and decorating with fresh herbs from your garden, pots, or market! Students visit our garden and pick a variety of fragrant herbs and colorful edible flowers. We will prepare and serve a light spring dinner. Explore how to start or enhance your herb garden, selecting the best varieties, discover top local herb markets, fun cooking techniques, pretty presentations and much more. Take home five popular herbs and a practical herb-growing guide."
Those of us who had never been to a cooking class might have expected a large kitchen and were a bit surprised when we pulled up to the modest home of Judy Harris. However, Judy greeted us with a warm welcome (as did Inge, the lovely assistant) and directed us to wash our hands and take a seat so that we could get started. A look around the kitchen let us know that Judy wasn’t one for fancy or flashy modern cooking appliances - except, of course, for the prized Vitamix 5000.
The class began with some explanation about herbs and then a stroll through Judy’s herb garden, carefully cultivated over the past few decades. We spent a lot of time in this garden learning how to smell herbs, grow them and use them. Hmmm…did we see another kind of “herb” in the very back of her garden? We would not have been surprised given Judy’s “retro” (polite way of saying stuck in 1970)
lifestyle.
The first recipe to make and enjoy was the banana mint daiquiris. How deliciously different… and the class certainly got a bit louder from this point on. We divided into groups to make the rest of the recipes and made the wise decision of including our new friend Ruth so that we didn’t have to work quite as hard. Ruth was fun and knew everybody that was anybody in the DC metropolitan area.
Our group had the apple muffins and the sage butter. The other group had the lovage soup. You might think that is a typo – it’s not – it is lovage and if you have never tried it, you probably never will. We prepared our recipes in the food processor and did not get to use the prized Vitamix 5000 - that was for the lovage soup group.
Judy’s somewhat small kitchen got much smaller and louder during the cooking time. The groups were trying to quickly prepare their recipes with little instruction on empty stomachs after
a daiquiri. This part of the class reminded us of 7th grade Home Economics - Judy would not let anyone talk while she was talking, and told us we were measuring the flour wrong because we did not “fluff” it first. It quickly got much later and was pitch dark by the time the lemon-thyme chicken was thrown onto the grill. Some students appeared a bit cranky – maybe even one or two members of TAOS - but eventually we all sat down to a delicious meal in Judy’s 1970s decorated dining room. When we say delicious, we mean it! Dessert was rosemary sorbet made in an interesting antique ice cream machine…definitely a 1972 original model! 
It seemed as though we had all been through a lot to prepare this meal together and it showed. We spent dinner time getting to know each other even more and at some point we spilled the beans on the blog. Judy (& Ruth) quickly wanted all of the club & website information “this is going to be on the internet!!!??" Uh oh. We tried to remain politely tightlipped and said our goodbyes. This was a great activity – a wonderful adventure & certainly a night we will never forget.
lifestyle.
The first recipe to make and enjoy was the banana mint daiquiris. How deliciously different… and the class certainly got a bit louder from this point on. We divided into groups to make the rest of the recipes and made the wise decision of including our new friend Ruth so that we didn’t have to work quite as hard. Ruth was fun and knew everybody that was anybody in the DC metropolitan area.
Our group had the apple muffins and the sage butter. The other group had the lovage soup. You might think that is a typo – it’s not – it is lovage and if you have never tried it, you probably never will. We prepared our recipes in the food processor and did not get to use the prized Vitamix 5000 - that was for the lovage soup group.
Judy’s somewhat small kitchen got much smaller and louder during the cooking time. The groups were trying to quickly prepare their recipes with little instruction on empty stomachs after
a daiquiri. This part of the class reminded us of 7th grade Home Economics - Judy would not let anyone talk while she was talking, and told us we were measuring the flour wrong because we did not “fluff” it first. It quickly got much later and was pitch dark by the time the lemon-thyme chicken was thrown onto the grill. Some students appeared a bit cranky – maybe even one or two members of TAOS - but eventually we all sat down to a delicious meal in Judy’s 1970s decorated dining room. When we say delicious, we mean it! Dessert was rosemary sorbet made in an interesting antique ice cream machine…definitely a 1972 original model! 
It seemed as though we had all been through a lot to prepare this meal together and it showed. We spent dinner time getting to know each other even more and at some point we spilled the beans on the blog. Judy (& Ruth) quickly wanted all of the club & website information “this is going to be on the internet!!!??" Uh oh. We tried to remain politely tightlipped and said our goodbyes. This was a great activity – a wonderful adventure & certainly a night we will never forget.
