Cooking with Charmaine
I do not do much of the cooking in our household. My
specialties are pizza and cream puffs.
However, when a Facebook ad for a holiday entertaining
class at The Creative Cook in downtown Bracebridge
popped up in my feed, I decided to take the plunge.
When I arrived, I was greeted warmly by Beth Kelly, the owner of The Creative Cook, and our chef for the evening, Charmaine Broughton. You may recognize Charmaine, she appears on Daytime York Region, CHCH Morning Live, and Breakfast Television, She also writes for Running Room Magazine. Charmaine is on the left in the photo and Beth is on the right.
Here are the members of my class: in the foreground, Debbie and Kim; back row, left to right, Gramps, Elsie, and Larry.
The first treat of the evening was prosciutto wrapped figs with blue cheese. This is a great hors d'oeuvre and is dead easy to make. No recipe needed here. Simply place a fig, a dab of blue cheese,and a sprig of arugula on a piece of prosciutto and roll it up. Presto! This is what you get.
Next Charmaine prepared Twenty
Minute Seafood Chowder. This
recipe starts with onions and a carrot and winds it’s way through
spices, clam juice, clams, water chestnuts, and salmon. If you like
oysters, as I do, add one to the
center of the bowl. Lots and lots of
flavors here and the crunchy
water chestnuts add a nice mouth
sensation.
Larry and I teamed up to make the next delight: Caramel Covered Brie with Dried Cherries and Nuts. Melt butter, brown sugar and corn syrup together, then stir in baking soda,dried cherries or cranberries, rosemary, and a pinch of cayenne pepper. Pour this mixture over a wheel of brie and serve with an assortment of crackers. This is definitely an eat more. It will soon disappear, believe me! You can also substitute popcorn for the brie if you wish.
The grande finale to the evening was Coconut White Chocolate Cheesecake. Use a food processor to combine nuts, coconut, and butter to make the bottom layer of the cake. This mixture goes in the oven for ten minutes. Next, use the food processor to combine cream cheese, sour cream, sugar, eggs, melted chocolate, and rum. Pour this concoction on top of the first layer and bake. Thirty minutes later the cake comes out and after the addition of some garnishes(lightly toasted coconut, finely chopped white chocolate and fresh berries) the eating commences. Lovely, lovely, lovely.
All of the recipes are available at http://charmainebroughton.com/creative-cook-holiday-entertaining-cooking-class/.
If I have whetted your interest, Beth is planning more cooking sessions for the winter months. Check out http://www.thecreativecook.ca/ for details. You will not be disappointed!
