Leigha Ali - Sur La Table Cooking Class

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This past weekend I took a cooking class with the roommates at the Sur La Table shop here in Boston. I like to cook from time to time, and this class taught me tons of tips and tricks for working in the kitchen. We made a delicious Greek yogurt and avocado dip (by far my favorite dish) with homemade flatbread, pesto pasta with wilted greens and a fried egg, flank steak on a bed of tomatoes and arugula, and “secret ingredient” brownies. What I loved most about this class is that it taught us to take relatively normal dishes and substitute or add ingredients to make them healthier. Our teacher was great at suggesting alternative ingredients and encouraged us to take these recipes home to play with them and make them our own. I will definitely be making that avocado yogurt dip again!

The class we took is called Lighter Fall Favorites with Health magazine. I would definitely recommend it. I won’t give away too many of the secrets, but I will say that those brownies have a very unexpected ingredient. Although this particular class isn’t available in Boston again, there is a jam packed schedule of other awesome classes this fall! At some point I will absolutely be taking one of the French macaron classes – like this Amazing Autumn Macarons class (caramel apple and pumpkin spice macarons? YES, please!). I’ve always wanted to try making macarons at home, and a class seems like the right place to start. Date Night: Passport to Paris and Girls Night Out: Tasty Tapas for Fall are two other classes that are on my radar for the future.

As a “reformed” vegetarian, I still don’t eat much meat at all. From time to time, I’ll have some seafood or chicken, but I rarely ever eat red meat. Rubbing this flank steak was something I’ve never done before, and to be honest was a little hesitant to do so. Fortunately, with the roommates by my side encouraging me to go for it, I prepped and cooked the steak myself! I am slightly ashamed to say, however, that I didn’t actually try it afterward….considering my vegetarianism started at age 5 and lasted until just a couple years ago, I’m just not ready for a medium rare steak!

This dough dotter was the coolest kitchen tool I was introduced to throughout the day. Having lots of perforations in the dough keeps the flatbread from rising in the oven. The dough itself was so easy that I just may be whipping up a batch for our next girl’s night.

After the class we bopped around the store, and couldn’t help but pick up a few of the tools we used during the class (that dough scraper – pictured below – was a star player). Sur La Table is having a great fall sale right now, so be sure to check it out if you are in the market for any cookware, bakeware, or housewares. There are lots of products elligible for the sale, and some items are up to 75% off!