Christmas cooking at Williams-Sonoma

Before I really got into my craft I was really into my cooking. I loved going to cooking demonstrations and classes and loved learning new techniques, ingredients and coming away with new recipes to try out at home………..back when it was just the two of us.

And so the invitation to a cooking class at Williams-Sonoma had my name all over it. It is just a lovely space to sit….with a little glass of white wine on a wednesday and swap the usual toast or salad for a delicious hot turkey lunch and some pumpkin pie….ok now we’re talking thanksgiving. We got some goodies to take home too including personalised aprons…..you can guess what I’ll be wearing on Christmas day to greet everyone.

We don’t celebrate Thanksgiving at our house but I have some great memories of celebrating with retro daddy’s colleagues when he worked at Price Waterhouse and they had lots of americans in the team. They just know how to do thanksgiving….I was just glad for my pregnancy stretchy pants. Mmmmmm stuffing…..I just love the concept of a whole dish of stuffing. And see the butter to the right of the dish, that was all put on the top of the stuffing before it went into the oven. Mmmmmm.

Today’s menu was turkey stuffed with a pancetta and sage stuffing served with creamy mashed potatoes (wow the amount of cream and butter that went into them), an apple orange cranberry sauce, some maple glazed pumpkin and the baked stuffing (so making this at Christmas for the family). All followed up with pumpkin pie. And not pumpkin from a can but deliciously sweet baked pumpkin. Apparently the secret is using pumpkin like jap and roasting for at least 1 hour before pureeing. I’m onto it. Expect the recipe done in the thermomix some time soon.

we learnt lots of tips and techniques

and would you check out the size of that le creuset….looks like it would feed our family pretty nicely!

You will have to use your imagination with the pumpkin pie as I had to duck out to a taxi for school pick up, was very kindly given some take home containers but demolished the pumpkin pie before a photo…then realised I didn’t have a pic on my phone. But I’m going to make it at home as it was so delicious.

Oh and this is what it looks like when bloggers get together for a cooking class….

a big thank you to Tracy, Candace and Arabella at Baker Brand as well as the team at Williams-Sonoma for having us today! It’s great when you come away from an event inspired and motivated to get into the kitchen and try some fancier things out on the family. It was a delicious way to spend my Wednesday and I just made it back in time at school pick up too. Just…like with 2 minutes to spare.

Oh and I learnt a few things for my Sydney friends….apparently the best bread comes from Iggy’s in Bronte and the best meat comes from Feather & Bone and butter is good. Well I already knew that….love butter. Thanks to the chefs  for the hot tips.

p.s you can find all of the cooking classes on offer at Williams-Sonoma here and just go to the left of the screen for  the monthly classes on offer! Some great ones in December.