Monday, October 26, 2009

Friday Night Cooking Lesson

Happy Monday, my dear readers! Did you have a great weekend?

My Friday night was wonderful. I went over to my aunt & uncle's house for a little cooking lesson and let me tell you - it was a magical night. We had quite the group! I think there were about 16 of us in total. Such a fun group!

My aunt selected a Julia Child recipe - we both have read "Julie & Julia" and "My Life in France" and adore Julia Child so figured it was fitting for us to make one of her recipes. Barb selected a Paella recipe - I had never made paella before so was so excited to give this recipe a try.

Without further adieu, here is my night in pictures!

As I have said before, you need to wear a cute apron when cooking. I used this cooking lesson as an excuse to buy aprons for us from Anthropology. They seriously have THE cutest aprons!


We started out the night with some Sangria,



Cheese,


and Olives!


After enjoying the delicious aps, it was time to get down to business. My aunt and I each cooked a batch in tandem - we were feeding 12 adults and didn't want to risk running out of food so we made 2 batches of the Paella. Here is a picture of my aunt and I getting the recipe started!


My dad doesn't do much cooking, but he wanted to sneak in and pretend he was cooking. He was a bit sheepish about it - hence the odd face he is making!


He decided to hand the wooden spoon back to my aunt and hopped into a photo with my mom and nephew Matthew. I guess this was 'make odd faces' night for my dad. :)


Now, here are some photos of the recipe progressing through the night:








And here we are with the finished product!


It was so, so, so good! Definitely the best paella I have ever eaten!! And the recipe is actually quite do-able and something I could easily repeat again - and definitely will. I am so glad my aunt took the time to do this little cooking lesson with me. I am already feeling much more confident in the kitchen!

Oh, and my aunt sent me home with a bunch of leftovers - which were amazing the second time around! I pretty much ate paella for every meal this weekend - I love leftovers!

So what did you do this weekend?

16 comments:

Mandy said...

I've never made paella. It looks delicious though. And it looks like a very fun time with your family! This weekend I went shopping it Pittsburgh with a friend, attended my cousins 9th birthday party, and took some much needed down time. I also baked a couple batched of pumpkin chocolate chip bars.

Becky said...

That looks SO good! I've never even had paella and now I definitely want to make some!

This weekend was full of exercise! I did yoga for the first time Saturday and then went on a four mile hike yesterday. (Needless to say I will not be working out today because my muscles are sore!)

Little Fish said...

I looooove paella, but can't mostly eat it because it has peas in it and I'm allergic to beans (yup, peas are beans). I don't see any peas in your pics though so next time you can invite me over ;)

Cherry Blossoms said...

How fun! Love the aprons and maybe that is why I love baking so much! I get to wear my Anthro aprons. My Halloween one will be worn this week when I bake cupcakes for my school staff party!

Lisa-Marie said...

Lisa, this all looks fantabulous! I've never made paella, but I might now! I am a bit ashamed of my eating over the weekend now, which was essentailly junk! It looks like you had alot of fun, and it's so, so nice to see someone whoe njoys being with thier family!

p.s. MUST HAVE one of the aprons!

Anonymous said...

You look so gorgeous in all of your photos! I've never had paella but it looks amazing and I hear great things about it. Your dad is so cute; it's definitely something my dad would do as well, try to sneak in the pictures & in on the action.

Glad you had a lovely weekend!!!

Anais said...

OMG this looks so delicious! I LOVE paella. The best I ever had was when I was staying with a family in Spain and their recipe was just amazing!

I think together we probably have all of the Anthropology aprons :P

JenBa said...

Well look at you! This is awesome. I am so proud of your Julia moment.

And now I'm also very hungry!!

Chelsea said...

First of all, you are beautiful!

Secondly, I agree. You should always have a few cute aprons on hand!

Abby said...

1st of all -- that Paella looks incredible. It appears to have all my favorite foods in it. Seafood? Chicken? Veggies? Holy yum! (I had never heard of Paella before....is that weird?)

2nd -- the pictures of Dad made me laugh so hard! They were the classic Dad photos!

Looks and sounds like it was a great night! Well done, Lisa and Barb! :)

PS -- love the apron :D

Amber said...

That looks like such a fun night! It makes me miss my family a lot!!! Haha.

That paella seriously looks SO SO SO good!!! I'm jealous you got to eat it for the whole rest of the weekend.

Kelly said...

That looks like SO much fun! I have never braved a Julia Child recipe but if I had help I'd be willing. Come to think of it I've never cooked for NEARLY that many people either!

Nicole said...

I love how every time I see paella, it's completely different. I like to call it the throw-whatever-you-have-in-a-pan dish. Yours looks good though! And sangria? Yum!

Also, I too love the aprons at Anthropologie. I showed them to my mom who then made a cute apron for me. I feel like going to the fabric store now!

Lauren @ Sassy Molassy said...

Lisa, your apron = awesome! I love it!

Anonymous said...

I LOVE paella-- it's one of my favorites; along with risotto.

Mmm. Now I'm hungry!

Ladytats said...

hi Lisa,
I popped over here from Miss Anthrope's blog, wow, I know your folks!
hi from S.E. ND