The New Orleans Cooking Experience, neworleanscookingexperience.com, is today's adventure. I booked a half-day luncheon cooking class as one of Rick's birthday presents. Classes are held in a charming inn called The House on Bayou Road and today is being led by Chiqui Collier, a local caterer. She is a barrel of charm and energy!
There are 11 people in the class coming from all over the country and the world. The menu is Oysters Brochette, Chicken and Sausage Gumbo, Red Snapper Imperial and Banana Foster Napoleans. The cooking is done in the inn's wonderful kitchen and eaten in the dining room. Wine and beer flow from the moment we arrive!
Rick prepares the Oysters Brochette and does a marvelous job. The dish is greeted by our fellow students with applause and rousing rendition of Happy Birthday!
It's a very congenial group ...we find one couple from Australia, another from Syracuse, two couples from Chicago and Minneapolis who have been to class here several times before and a local who apparently comes quite often.
We leave four hours later just as a food coma is about to set in! It was fabulous and we swear we will never eat again!
We certainly don't want dinner, but about 8 p.m. we decide we have to get out and at least walk around. Well, we stumbled onto a great, fun surprise! Crowds are gathering on the curbs all over the Quarter...we ask a policeman what's up and find a Halloween Parade is approaching.
It's a mini Mardi Gras kind of thing...I must've gotten 5 lbs of beads by the time it's over!
This was exactly the evening we needed and an extra added benefit was we ended up walking at least 2 miles and felt all the better for it.
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