Baaaaaaaaaallantyne Magazine Debut!

The latest Spring issue of Ballantyne Magazine is out and if you're flipping through, you may stumble across some familiar faces. That's right, Jeremy and I squeezed our way into one of the photos of a feature 'Date Night' story running in the magazine.

 For full article visit: www.BallantyneMagazine.com |  Photography by Shane Baskin

For those of you who don't know, Jeremy works at the best YMCA in Charlotte, Morrison Family YMCA, which features a teaching kitchen that hosts cooking classes for families, couples, adults and youth. Ballantyne Magazine was running a feature article on a unique Date Night which consisted of a Couples Cooking Class. They had their feature couple but wanted to fill up the class so that the pictures would be more engaging and full of people. One of Jeremy's co-workers asked if he would like to join and who are we to turn down a free meal?! We were all in.

We arrived early and learned that the menu consisted of Crab-stuffed Wild Alaskan Salmon Fillets with Hollandaise Sauce, Sweet Potato Gnocchi in a Butter Sage Sauce and Creme Brulee for dessert. After drooling over the sound of the menu, we took our seats and met the feature couple that had the photographers attention throughout the evening. I was secretly hoping that the mystery feature couple included Emily Maynard but my hopes were a little too high as another blonde walked into the room. The couple was really nice and seemed to have a great time as we cooked!

We started the class off multi-tasking by breaking many eggs to make a Hollandaise Sauce and start our Creme Brulee. We had a total of four couples in the class and learned some cool cooking tips (like three different techniques of separating egg yolks). And let's just say, our teacher, Chef Adie Cervin (executive Suis Chef at Myer's Parks Nolan Kitchen), made it look soooooo much easier. We eventually got the hang of it and started whisking in the ingredients for our delicious dessert. Once done, we set our Creme Brulee's into the freezer as the dessert usually takes anywhere from 2 hours to 3 days to set. We only had about 1.5 hours, so the freezer was going to have to be good enough!

Next up, we whisked more egg yolks to create our delicious Hollandaise Sauce. We were instructed to whisk quickly so that the sauce wouldn't separate the eggs and butter. We took note and whisked for what seemed like forever. Once it was my turn to give it a try, I somehow ruined it (evidently I wasn't whisking fast enough), causing the sauce to separate. Sadly, there was no way to save it and we had to pitch it. Womp, Womp.

The main dish was next on the list as we mixed up the crab stuffing for our Salmon fillets. Jeremy learned some knife skills as he cut a pocket through the middle of the salmon for the crab. I had the easy job of stuffing the salmon as the cutting part was a little intimidating.

For full article visit: www.BallantyneMagazine.com |  Photography by Shane Baskin

We popped the salmon in the oven and it was on to the mixing, rolling and putting together of our homemade sweet potato gnocchi. We both had never had gnoochi before but we had actually just searched the grocery stores the previous weekend since it was in a recipe I planned on using later that week! Now we were able to get a preview and taste of this mystery (to us) Italian food.

For full article visit: www.BallantyneMagazine.com |  Photography by Shane Baskin

As we waited for the gnoochi to cook, our instructor brought out the blow torch for our last and final touch to the meal. We sprinkled our chilled Creme Brulee's with sugar and we scorched them to add that thin, crisp outer shell. I'm pretty sure this was my favorite part of the night. It's not everyday that you get to use a blow torch! { This is where we happily snuck in for a picture }

Our big break! For full article visit: www.BallantyneMagazine.com |  Photography by Shane Baskin

We were more than ready to throw down this delicious meal we had made with the help of the other three couples and Chef Adie. We cooked up some amazing smells in the room and couldn't wait to dig in. Everything was delicious and VERY tasty. We couldn't believe we cooked up something so good! We had a great time and recommend it for any couple out there wanting a unique date night!

The final result!

To check out the full article online, visit www.BallantyneMagazine.com. All photography (except for the last image) by Shane Baskin.

Also, if you're interested in taking a cooking class at the Y, visit www.ymcacharlotte.org/morrison for more info!