Divalicious

I love Lynne Vea. I want to squish her up in a little ball and throw her up and down in the air. (Relax, Lynne, that's a good thing.) She has more energy in her left index fingernail than I have in my whole body on a really good day, pumped full of speed. She's so enthusiastic she creates her own trail of joyful, imaginary children in her wake, popping the bubbles wafting off her personality (or maybe that's just the speed talking).

Dueling Divas, Act #1 is now over and what a fun ride it was. I predict it is not the end. There is more where that came from. We just had too much damn fun.

Highlights abound - see flesh wounds from class #1 at Greenlake. Class #3 at Redmond included another embarrassing moment when I forgot to complete my dish with the tiny steamed rainbow chard pieces I had reserved. I ran and got the bowl and quickly dashed out into the audience to start garnishing plates when I stumbled and completely and totally garnished a student, showering upon her a technicolor fountain of vegetation. Luckily it was a student I knew. "Julie," I said, "I felt like you could use some garnishment."

We learned some things, namely that PCC assistants are supercalifragilisticexpialidociously incredible. We needed 3 of them to handle the work load. Food flying everywhere, every dish in the house used. We learned that wine needs to be served with this class. It felt like a restaurant where a class broke out and as such, it needed an adult beverage to match the dishes.

I loved the banter back and forth. I loved learning from another chef and getting inspired. I loved the pretend catfight I kept trying to start with Lynne (she was way too mature to really sink that low, but I have hope for her yet!)

We discussed doing this again and how we might change our approach. I said, "maybe we should simplify our recipes." And then we looked at each other, "naaaaah!" Where's the fun in that? "You're right, forget simple, next time, watch out sister, I'm bringing in a live pig and by the end of class I'll have every piece cured, head to little twisty tail."

It's on!


P.S. For those who didn't make it out to the classes, for the first course Lynne and I had 8 ingredients to pick 7 ingredients from: hazelnuts, black cod, rosemary, winter squash, beets, winter greens, mushrooms and pancetta (or bacon). With this as our challenge we made the following:

Becky: Seared Hazelnut and Truffle crusted Black Cod with Kabocha squash, Winter Greens and Pancetta-Mushroom Broth

Lynne: Chard-wrapped Marinated Black Cod Fillet with mushroom and pancetta stuffed Shiitake Mushroom Cap floated in a Red Curry Demi Glace

For the second course, here was our ingredient list: duck, dried cherries, lavender, goat cheese, spinach, pears, yams and spelt flour or berries

Becky: Spiced Duck Breast with Cherry-Red Wine reduction, Spelt Ravioli with Duck confit and Goat cheese, Caramelized Pear Garnish

Lynne: Sour Cherry, Lavender and Goat Cheese Spelt Tart with Warm Spinach, Glazed Pear and Duck Salad with Duck Fat Yam Frites

Over the next few days I will post our recipes here.