Expanding Your Horizons: Cooks of Crocus Hill

Last night, Jeff and I finally used a gift certificate his parents gave us for Christmas in 2006 and took a cooking class at Cooks of Crocus Hill in Edina. It was our first experience with any sort of cooking class so we really had no idea what to expect. I had visions of 7th grade Home Ec class with a bunch of people trying to bake giant chocolate chip cookies. But since we had signed up for a special Valentine's Aphrodisiac meal, it was fairly gourmet and complicated so that didn't seem likely. I soon learned that it would be one chef cooking and telling us her tricks while about 20 of us sat there, took notes and drank a lot of wine. Since I am not a chef by any means, this suited me just fine. She made it look so easy and I think I might actually be able to make the meal again if I follow the recipes, which we got to take home. She made - and we ate - the following: Baked Herbed Mussels on the Half Shell; Arugula, Avocado and Pistachio Salad with Champagne Dressing; Artichoke Risotto with Truffle Oil; Truffled Buckwheat Polenta Hearts with Oysters and Champagne Beurre Blanc and Crystallized Ginger Truffles. She told us why each item had aphrodisiac qualities which I don't remember due to all the wine, but it was a nice little Valentine's dinner. We stopped off at Barbette for a champagne cocktail on the way home and got our Valentine's weekend started right.