A week ago Micah and I participated in a charity fundraiser event – that involved our favorite thing…FOOD! The annual event is Cooking with Class presented by Seattle Dining. With our paid entry, we were able to “cook” with three prominent Seattle-area chefs, participate in an auction, and of course, do tons and tons of eating!
It was held at Salty’s Restaurant – the Alki location. And this event was SO much fun! We already know we’ll do it again next year. The event was benefiting the Heritage House and Providence ElderPlace (both are organizations that help senior citizens live full and healthy lives).
Upon our arrival, there were appetizer and wine/beer stations set up all around the room…including these tasty morsels.
All you can eat raw oysters?! Micah was in heaven.
In terms of the cooking part – we chose ahead of time three different dishes we wanted to learn how to cook. I will say, it was not really hands-on cooking, but more – watch the chef cook the dish and learn different tips and tricks. Still fun nonetheless! We got to talk with these fairly distinguished chefs and eat the tasty food. All of the chefs were so easy-going and cool to talk to.
Our first dish: Black Cod with Brussels Sprouts and Wild Mushrooms
Yummy!!! I will admit, I ended up just having the fish only, as the vegetables were all cooked in bacon butter. Given my meat-free month – that meant a few modifications for a couple of the dishes.
Our second dish: Poutine – cooked two different ways
In case you don’t know what poutine is – it is a Canadian food. The basic idea behind poutine is: a plate of french fries, topped with brown gravy and cheese curds.
The way we cooked it was slightly different: one gravy used a pork fat base, and another gravy was corned beef base. Again, meat bases = no go for me. But I still enjoyed the amazing french fries topped with cheese (no gravy).
The version Micah ate looked much more appetizing than this. French fries, gravy, cheese…how can you say no?!
Our third dish: Razor clam fritters
Unfortunately, I didn’t take a picture. But this was the last dish of the night. We were SOOOOO full by this time, that we could hardly finish it. Granted, we spent about an hour watching amazing prizes get auctioned off between dishes two and three…which meant plenty of time to digest, and get full.
Still, the clam fritters were delicious and quite easy to make.
See that guy with the microphone? That’s John Curly! (A semi-Seattle celebrity). He was the emcee for the auction, and he was FANTASTIC! We had never participated in an auction before, so it was fun to see the crazy bidding going on and the fervor over these grand prizes. Seriously, some stuff had winning bids of $4,000. We had no chance…so we enjoyed sitting back and watching it all go down.
It was seriously such an AMAZING event. The people (chefs and fellow attendees) were so friendly and fun. We ate delicious food and at the same time, got to help support a great organization.
And everyone left with a bag FULL of parting gifts. It included cookbooks, a 1lb of coffee, cookies, tea, discount coupons, a wine bottle opener – the list goes on. The swag bag was an added bonus!
Much Ado About Lisa 