The Perfect Course | Class with the Little Flower School

Last night's class with the Little Flower School was so much fun! Sarah and Nicolette are quite talented, and they perfectly balance being informative and suggestive while allowing all the students to make very individual arrangements. We had a beautiful bounty of blossoms and plants to choose from, and it was great being able to explore and work with several flowers that I never had previously...And it encouraged me to be more adventurous at the market!

I was most inspired by the young blueberries, chive blossoms, and lamb's ear, so I built my arrangement around those three elements. And, I had to add ranunculus blooms and peonies, two of my all-time favorites. (The purple color of my flowers in the image from class is much more true to the hue of the blossoms - the lighting in my apartment makes the arrangement appear much more pink than it is.) Flower class was fantastic, and I'm soaking up every bit of enjoyment out of this arrangement. I can't wait to try it again soon!

Image by me, taken with my iPhone.  

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.