Hopefully you tuned into WTXL September 5 at 6:40am for the “What to Eat” Segment with Chef Jessica.  These recipes were featured and will be taught and tasted in the class at KitchenAble Saturday, September 6 at 10am:

Chinese Peanut Noodle Salad

¼ cup natural peanut butter

½ cup coconut milk

1/4 cup soy sauce

2 tsp honey

1 TBSP fresh grated ginger root

1 cup chopped green onion

1 cup grated fresh carrot

1 cup frozen green peas

½ cup chopped peanuts

1 pound cooked noodles of choice

2 TBSP Fresh mint, chopped

2 TBSP Fresh cilantro, chopped

Cook noodles according to package instruction, drain and reserve. Warm the coconut milk slightly and combine with peanut butter, water, soy sauce, honey, and ginger root; whisk until blended. Stir in all vegetables then add to prepared pasta and stir to coat. Top with fresh herbs, refrigerate and serve chilled.

For a peanut free/sesame version of the salad: Substitute tahini for the peanut butter and 2 TBSP slightly toasted sesame seeds for the peanuts. This is also excellent with sunflower seeds.

Black Bean and Sweet Potato Burrito

4 tortillas (can be flour or gluten free)

1 large sweet potato

1 TBSP coconut oil

½ tsp cumin

½ tsp smoked paprika

¼ tsp sea salt

Fresh ground black pepper

2 cups canned black beans, rinsed well

¼ cup chopped green onion

1 cup crumbled goat cheese

½ cup fresh cilantro

Peel and cut sweet potatoes into 1” cubes, toss in coconut oil and season with the cumin, paprika, salt and pepper. Roast at 375°F for 25-30 minutes or until the cubes start to brown. Rinse black beans very well, mash with a fork. Fill each tortilla with some of the potatoes, some of the beans, green onion, goat cheese and cilantro as desired. If you prefer spicy you can also add some of your favorite hot sauce.   If desired serve with plain Greek yogurt for dipping.   For a Vegan option you can omit the goat cheese and increase the amount of avocado and serve with salsa.   If you are in too much of a hurry to roast your own sweet potatoes you can use mashed sweet potato that you have microwaved or baked… or even from a can.

This Friday morning, September 5th,  please be sure to watch the “What’s To Eat” segment on the Sunrise show on local station ABC 27 WTXL.  At about 6:40 am Jessica will be joining their morning show anchors to share some ideas for healthy and delicious lunches that are easy to pack!

Over the last few weeks our dining room has evolved significantly and emerged as a beautiful butterfly.  Yes, we’re a little biased but even our guests have been “surprised” at the huge changes.  Of course, we’ve had a little help from a lot of wonderful people but there are some beautiful things that help make the new room feel really cozy and we hope you’ll enjoy them on your next visit.  We now feature original, works of art from local artists including Susan Frisbee and Suzanne Connor (available for purchase).  We cannot wait to tell you all of the fun things we have planned for this wonderful space!  Keep reading our newsletters and we’ll share more information as soon as we can.  If you have a special event that you need a space for please stop by to see what we have to offer.

We still have room in the Carne Asada Class tonight

While we have been busy, renovating the interior of the cooking cottage… our friend Brent has been working hard to make our website more spiffy too.  We’ve moved a few things and now have a wonderful, easy to use calendar that we think makes it even easier to choose a class and reserve your spot.  We hope you agree!

Please keep an eye on that calendar- we are adding new classes regularly- tonight we still have room in the Carne Asada class tonight and next Tuesday (by popular request) we are adding a another Crepe class.  If you joined us at the Bastille day celebration at Joie de Vivre you know why.

In honor of the event at Joie de Vivre and to thank you for taking the time to read our newsletter we’re offering $10 off your next cooking class reservation.  The coupon code Joie$10 will take $10 off one order placed for cooking classes at KitchenAble and is valid for use until August 31, 2014.

Summer will soon be over and at KitchenAble we are gearing up to release our fall schedule of classes.  We want to hear from YOU!  What topics and menus would you most like us to cover this fall in our cooking school?

Please take the time to let us know what you are interested it- go to our facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/kitchenable and post your class ideas.  From now until the end of July we’ll keep things open for voting and then on August 1st if your class idea received the most votes, not only will we schedule it… you will get to attend for free!

So, please like our Facebook page and keep an eye on the suggestions for classes- get your friends and family to do the same- feel free to encourage them to vote for your suggestions.  We’ll plan our upcoming class menus around your requests!

If you caught the Real Estate Weekend Showcase last week you know that Jessica joined Anna Johnson and Lew Wilson on Saturday, July 12 for their show.  You can watch the episode here. The delicious watermelon salad is very simple to make- the perfect recipe for any summer picnic or barbeque.

Watermelon & Arugula Salad    

The summer calendar has been filling up with private events at KitchenAble.  Birthday Parties, Bachelorette Parties, Showers, Reunions, Club Gatherings, Class Outings, and Team Building Activities are among the many occasions we are pleased to host and help celebrate. 

With the completion of our demonstration kitchen we now offer two distinct rooms for you to choose from for your event.  You can enjoy our demonstration kitchen with tall table seating for everyone present and enjoy hands on or demonstration style cooking classes.

We also now have our more formal “dining room” where you can sit at a regular height table and dine on whatever catered menu you choose to enjoy.  We also offer on-site catering options.  We are happy to bring delicious food and instruction wherever you need us.

We have a lot of wonderful classes on the schedule.  If you haven’t given it a look lately please take a moment and do so.  Tomorrow night (Tuesday, July 1) Jessica will be teaching her famous Shrimp and Grits as part of the “Southern Favorites” class at 6:00pm.  If you haven’t signed up yet… don’t delay.

Next Tuesday, July 8th; we will have a class on Pies and Tarts at 6pm.  If you have any questions about working with pastry… or if you enjoy eating it you will certainly want to join us for Chocolate Cream Pie, a Fruit Tart, and a Savory Pie.

Both the Bastille Day Class (with Crepes on July 11th) and the Fish Class (July 18th) are filling up quickly.  If you plan to attend either please register now as the registration will be closing soon.

We have been incredibly busy at the cottage but we are almost finished with the remodel!  The tile is down, the unnecessary walls are gone, and later today we’ll hopefully finish up with painting.  We would love to have you stop by and see what we’ve done.   If you come out for Food Truck Thursday (and we highly recommend it!), please stop by and say hello; you are even welcome to enjoy our air conditioning while we have croquet and board games for the kids (of all ages) and a gathering of really awesome people.

We have quite a few delicious classes on the schedule this month at KitchenAble.  This Tuesday we will be Featuring the FABULOUS Pecan Crusted Pork Tenderloin with Peach Horseradish Sauce and quite a few other yummy dishes- sign up online for $35 and enjoy this class (BYOB if you want to).  We are also going to have a class on Gluten Free Baking next Saturday and we promise- it won’t taste like cardboard.  These treats are so good it will surprise you to find out they are gluten free.

Next week we have another session of Kid’s Cooking Adventures- 9:30-3:30 each day.  Any kids are welcome (The theme this week will be Gluten Free cooking) and the dishes we are serving will be delicious.  Campers that only want to commit for a day of participation can do so- it is $40 per day.