Date Night Dinner
- Alison
- Nov 19, 2019
- 3 min read
Updated: Nov 20, 2019
The monotony of same date night ideas consisting of going to dinner and drinks becomes routine and boring. We wanted to do something different, yet still enjoy a night out with great food and wine. I let Google do the hard work of scouring the internet and found this cooking class in Old Town Santa Ana called Hipcooks. We are such foodies and love to try new restaurants, or recipes at home, so this was right up our alley. On a typical week, Weston and I cook at home about once a week, and go out to eat at least once a week.
The types of food offered by Hipcooks is endless. You can choose Greek, Italian, Spanish or evenholiday cocktails. We chose the Harvest dinner. The classes are small and intimate which allows you to be involved in the whole cooking process. The amount of people in a class is limited to 14, so that everyone gets involved in cooking.
Our instructor was Loreal and she was amazing! She was very warm and welcoming and makes the whole experience enjoyable. During class she taught knife skills, how to sharpen them, the difference salt can make to an entire dish, and any other question we had about cooking. She split our class in half which allowed us to prepare our soup based on how spicy, smooth or chunky we liked it to be. Hipcooks calls it "cooking from the hip" meaning there is no measuring or exact amounts. We just added a little of this or a little of that to the recipe. This approach to cooking reminded me of when you cook with your grandmother's family recipes and she just has a feel for how it will taste without measuring anything.
Every dinner consists of a starter dish, main course, and a dessert. Did I mention there is wine? Each meal has a wine that is perfectly paired with what is prepared for the night. For our class it was all things Fall which I absolutely loved!! During the Fall/Winter I love making soups, stews, and hearty meals that keep you full and warm.
For the Harvest Dinner we made a spicy pumpkin black bean soup, a rosemary fennel & garlic crusted pork tenderloin, bacon & balsamic brussels sprouts (which is Weston's favorite side dish everrrrrr) and finished with an apple/pear cobbler with candied ginger. Don't come starving because we didn't start eating our soup until 7 pm.
After inhaling our scrumptious soup, Loreal barely had to usher us to the prep area since we were already following the tantalizing smell of sizzling bacon. Bring on the brussels sprouts! once again she had us split into our two groups to each prep and make half of the brussels sprouts and combined them at the end so we all could enjoy. The best part about these classes is the fact that they don't use measuring devices.....no teaspoons, or measuring cups or scales. Hipcooks way of cooking is "cooking from the hip" which ultimately reminded me of cooking with my grandmother with her family recipes. You just cook the way you want to enjoy a dish or meal not based on what a recipe tells you.
Lastly, we made the easiest dessert! Nothing says fall like apples. When I lived in Boston, one of my favorite Fall activities was apple picking.The problem is you get so excited about picking that you bring home bags and bags of them. There is no way you can possibly eat them all. So this is the perfect solution for using up those apples in a one pot yummy dessert! It was an apple/pear cobbler with scratch made granola and candied ginger on top. It would be perfect with some vanilla ice cream on top.
We had the best time cooking at Hipcooks! Each class is about 3 hours long and you are always doing something during class; so you are never idle or bored.
Pro tip: they have 'helpers' in the class (we had a married couple in ours) who assist the instructor with clearing plates, doing dishes, etc. In return the helpers receive the recipes, the wine and the food during class. And for every 2 classes you assist in, you earn a free class to attend! How fun is that!!! Happy cooking!!!! Cheers!
Comments