tapas and basketball

not on the same day, but in the same week.

tuesday my friend jennifer and i took a tapas cooking class at chez cherie in la canada flintridge.  i've had a gift certificate to this place since my 40th birthday but it took me this long to finally getting around to signing up for something.

the tapas class has been sold out every time i checked their schedule.  but this time i was able to get a spot and jennifer did too.  it was great having company and someone with me who enjoys cooking as much as i do.

we broke up into groups and visited 3 stations making different types of tapas dishes.  for those of you that haven't had it, tapas come from spain and are small bites of food, like appetizers.  we made an amazing arugula and orange salad with serrano ham, and a bell pepper and eggplant montadito.

our second station was empanaditas with spanish chorizo, manchego and green olives.  i could have eaten the entire plate.  we learned different styles of folding them, that was fun.

and our last station was meatballs in saffron sauce.  i was in charge of cooking the breadcrumbs and almonds, to the point of being scared they would burn, that's exactly what the instructor said.  and i was scared.

these little meatballs were tasty and very easy to make.  i love that about european food.  simple ingredients but lots of flavor.

at the end we dished up our food and ate together.  it was such a fun thing to do.  i love that chez cherie uses a lot of ingredients that can be found at trader joe's.  i'm heading out today to pick up some of the things we used in class.  they even offer a trader joe's cooking class that we want to take.

thanks jennifer for being my partner.  let's do it again soon.

last night jordan went with some of his school friends to the staples center for the clipper's game.  kenyan martin's kids go to our school and he donated tickets as a fundraiser.

they got to sit courtside and watch them warm up.  kenyan autographed their t-shirts and gave them hats.  then they sat in their seats and were taken in by the energy of a professional basketball game.  they even showed our group on the big screens.  jordan's holding the camera in the middle.

the clippers beat phoenix 103-86.  a perfect way to end the night.  jordan came home and said it was one of the funnest things he's ever done.  i'm sure it was.  glad he got to go.

this was an exciting week for us.  looking forward to some calm as we head into spring break.