First cooking workshop

Hello readers,

Happy Friday! It's been a terribly busy week for me (end of the year). I've had my first university class on Tuesday (very excited! :D), on Thursday I had a late visit from sinterklaas (aka my boss <3) and today I had a goodbye lunch with my manager. Busy busy busy, but very fun!

Last Monday I did a tremendously fun thing: I had my first cooking workshop! The department of one of my manager is going to abolish. So to go out with a bang, I joined the organising group to help organise the farewell party :) Our group decided that a cooking workshop would be a nice fun last thing to do together. We sent the invitations, picked the location and the menu and off we went!

Kookplein, an excellent restaurant in The Hague! 

I have visited the location before during a lunch with my manager (other manager, confused yet? :)), and the first thing that noticed me was the 'comfyness' of the restaurant. It's very bright with open kitchens and nice furniture. I like those restaurants! After a funny quiz (I was the 'charming assistant'...), we started cooking. 

The menu:

- Flatbread with mozzarella, roasted pumpkin and courgette/zucchini

- Swordfish with a Cocos Blancs salad (white beans :))

- Roasted duck (<3) with a risotto made with truffles and wild mushrooms

- Tiramisu

- coffee with chocolate chip cookies

Sounds delish, doesn't it!?! Yes, thought so. I decided to join the group to prepare the flatbread. I NEVER bake bread cause I don't like the smell of yeast. I don't like the smell of beer either (yeast). So time to face my demons and bake some bread! 

The dough felt very bouncy, which is such a lovely feeling

The recipe was surprisingly easy to follow. And the best part: NO YEAST <3 my colleague/fellow chef proved to be a master chef, and cooked very naturally. It was a bliss to see. I'm naturally a baker, and not so much a chef, so I really enjoyed this lesson. I learned a lot and will definitely prepare this flatbread at home again around Christmas :)

Roast the pumpkin, roast the courgette, prepare the dough, rip the mozzarella and cut the herbs. Roasting the dough to create flatbread was very fun to do :) 

*drooooool*

Trust me, it tastes as good as it looks. One of th ebest party snacks I've ever had! Gladly the others thought so too :) Our job was done (box!), so it was time to sit back, relax and wait for the troups that were cooking the main dishes. 

Roasted duck always makes me smile. I love the tenderness of duck (I'm sorry duckies, I just do :( ) when it's prepared well. And in my case it was. Surpringly, I liked the risotto a lot. Normally I prefer rice (less wet), but this one had a nice and strong flavour. The fish was excellent, the tiramisu was nice and strong (I like comparing desserts :) ) and the chocolate chip cookies were warm and moist, JUMMY <3

*even more drooooooooling*

It was a lovely evening, I was amazed how well all my colleagues can cook, even the hard dishes like duck. Good job everybody! I laughed and learned a lot. Maybe I'll focus a bit more on cooking from now on, it's never a bad idea to explore :) 

More news this week! My blog had a feature on another fabulous blog <3 please visit Passion 2 Create, for lots of fun lifestyle, beauty, creativity and reviews! Thanks for the feature, Sandy, love your blog! :)

This weekend, I will create something very special, for a cause that is close to my heart. More info soon :) I will end this post with a picture of the present Sinterklaas got for me <3 bye readers!

Thank you Sinterklaas! <3

Love, Rebecca