The Perfect Course | Lessons at Haven's Kitchen

Last week was pretty busy to say the least, especially given that it began with the surprise of our engagement and our families being in town to celebrate with us! Despite the fact that my head was a bit in the clouds, I had long-planned to take two classes last week at Haven's Kitchen, which is a combination cooking school, event space, coffee shop, and specialty foods store. It's a space I always walk past on my way home from work, and I jumped at the chance to sign up for courses in their beautiful space, a renovated carriage house near Union Square.

Last Monday morning, I took Preparing a Week's Worth of Vegetarian Meals with chef Ella Nemcova. We made nine dishes during the three hour course, including mini tofu quiches, spring green curry, veggie calzones, black rice pudding, and raw beets with garlic scape pesto. The best take-away from this class is the idea that you can really be flexible with recipes and ingredients - the chef added in unexpected elements to the dishes, like red beets in the green curry, to show that you can just use what you have available in the fridge. 

There was no way I was going to pass up taking Cheese & Wine last Wednesday night with Brian Keyser, the owner of Casellula Cheese & Wine Café in Hell's Kitchen. When I first moved to New York, I lived right next to Casellula on 52nd and 9th, and it was a place that Mr. V and I would go to treat ourselves on a rare night that we decided to splurge outside our "first year in Manhattan" tight budgets. It's a cozy spot with the most delicious cheeses, wines, and beers - Keyser's unexpected favorite pairing with cheeses. 

The pairings he chose were so delicious! I really learned a lot, and the best lesson is that you don't have to follow any rules with pairings, just combine flavors that taste the most pleasing to you. These classes were so much fun, and I can't wait to take more!

Image one via Tablet; All other images taken by me with my iPhone.