Happy Thanksgiving! I woke up this morning thankful for the smell of breakfast casserole wafting upstairs and even more so to have my husband in Chattanooga finally! Poor Robert had 3 or 4 flight delays to deal with yesterday before he finally made it to Tennessee. We held dinner for him so we were equally as hungry as we were happy to see him when he finally arrived around 9:00 pm. Renly most of all One of the best parts of having a dog has got to be how excited they are to see you after an absence. In Renly’s case an absence can be anywhere from 5 minutes to 5 weeks. Sometimes I get the full “You’re home!I love you!Pet me!Pick me up!please please please” jumping barrage after a trip to the mailbox. Sweet (simple) boy.

Despite Renly’s doggy daddy withdrawals, we have had a great few days at home. Renly has had a ball playing with my parents dogs, and running laps around their huge yard. I have enjoyed catching up with friends over lunch, eating cheap tacos at my favorite local Mexican restaurant, doing a little shopping and spending time with my sweet grandparents.  I also got to spend most of Tuesday with my mama who treated me to a great mother-daughter date night. Last year my sister bought my mom and dad a gift certificate to Mia Cucina, a gourmet kitchen retail store who also hosts weekly cooking classes. As so often happens with gift certificates, my parents didn’t use it right away and therefore promptly forgot about it. When it was recently discovered (and about to expire!) my mom signed us up for Tuesday’s class. Classes are offered nightly, each with a different theme. Our class was titled “Recipes From Restaurants We Love” and consisted of four courses, each from a different local restaurant.

Classes are BYOB and are either “hands on” or “demonstration”. In a hands on class, you actually make your own meal under instruction from a chef. A demonstration class, which is what ours was, consists more of watching and learning. I think a hands on class would be a blast but the demonstration was a lot of fun. We sat around the kitchen and sipped wine and beer while watching our chef, Hannah, prepare the meal. Hannah talked through each step and answered questions and offered helpful cooking tips along the way. Two assistants served each course to the crowd as it was ready.  The food was delicious and plentiful, one round was enough to have me feeling stuffed but seconds of each course were offered to those with larger appetites. You are also provided with a copy of each recipe and pens before the class begins so you can take notes and later prepare the dishes at home. I noticed that everyone dutifully took notes at the beginning of the class but after a few courses (and glasses of wine) the eating took center stage and the note taking became less diligent Continue reading →