I signed up for  a class at the new cooking school at Dulles Town Center – Cookology – which I attended last Thursday.  It was called something like ‘Mind of a Chef.’  I’ll admit I was somewhat skeptical about going to a cooking school in a mall.  Seriously….a mall??  After the all the great classes I’ve taken at L’Academie up in Bethesda?  I wasn’t blown away with it, and I didn’t really learn anything new, BUT what I did take away from it was a bit more confidence to cook without a recipe.  I feel like I’ve got enough technique under my belt at this point.  So I stopped by Wegman’s on the way home from the office today and just looked for something good in the produce section.  The oyster mushrooms looked fantastic, but there weren’t many left.  Clearly, there were some other shoppers who felt the same way, so I had to supplement with some Hen of the Woods mushrooms, which I’ve never used before.  Seemed like fun.  I did find it weird that there would be that many people buying oyster mushrooms in Leesburg, VA.  I picked up some baby spinach, a couple of shallots, fresh sage, and a lemon.  I originally intended to use some bacon with this, but then decided against that.  I changed my mind after I made the dish.  I sauteed the mushrooms in some butter, and popped a couple of sage bunches in the pan with them.  Once those were cooked, I pulled out the mushrooms and then dumped about 5 oz of spinach in the pan to wilt for about 3 or 4 minutes.  I then put the spinach on plates, topped with some mushrooms and minced shallots (that I sauteed separately), and grated Parm Reg cheese, squeeze of lemon.  Syd called it a hot spinach salad.  OK, that works for me.  Lesson learned:  I should have salted the mushrooms before adding them to the pan, and you need a LOT more spinach than you think when wilting it in a pan.  See what happens when one is rushed to get food on the table?

So, on top of continued cooking education, re-learning French, researching locations in France, AND my day job (which has somehow also become a night job over the past few months), I am also studying for some technical exams to become certified.  This is to help out SQ’s business – would be nice not to have to bring in another partner.  And Syd has started up with golf again…when am I going to find time to shuttle her back and forth for lessons and tournaments??  Yeah, it’s a lot.  I’m tired.  Especially right now as I’ve recently polished off a bottle of Cahors with SQ, which went really, really well with the mushrooms.  And I discovered I don’t really care for the Hen of the Woods, but those oyster mushrooms…wow!  Really earthy and kind of zingy on the finish.  I think not bad for my first real attempt at cooking without a recipe.