If you know me, you know I love being in the kitchen. I especially like baking, but I also enjoy cooking as well. So when the opportunity to get my team at work to a cooking class came up, I didn't pass it up.

As a team, we're always talking about doing some sort of outing. There is talk of indoor sky diving, trapezing (is that a word? trapeze, anyway...), or some other crazy adventurous activity. Let's be real people; we're all uber busy and finding time to plan and go on an outing is tough let along doing something crazy. I figured we were more likely to actually make it happen, if we did something reasonable - like a cooking class! (eh hem, I should also tell you that I really wanted to do a cooking class). It didn't take too much to convince the team, but as the instigator I got stuck with the planning. Oh well, I guess my job is project management.

With 18 people on the team, the planning wasn't the easiest, but somehow I managed to get everyone in line and find a day that worked. We landed at Hipcooks (uh cuz, that's where I wanted to go, and as the planner, I get to make the ultimate decision - score!). The class we ended up taking was Una Noche en España. At first, we were all poo-poo'ing doing tapas, but afterwards we were all singing it's praises. We made all sorts of tasty tapas like...

Spicy candied nuts
Pure de garbanzo w/ pita toasts
Manchego con Membrillo (Spanish cheese with quince paste)
Tortilla Española & spicy salad
Camarones Bravas - garlicky saffron shrimp
Empanadillas Argentinas
Flan with caramel designs

My favorite...hmmm, that's tough, but I think maybe the hummus. No, wait, the flan. Ahh! It all turned out great. And we didn't use any recipes - just what our instructor, Jenna, told us, and by tasting as we went.

I was usually the volunteer when nobody wanted to do something - like use your hands to mix the raw eggs with the potatoes for the tortilla ("gross"), or pour the flan mixture into the ramekins ("scary"). And why? Because I have a cooker/baker reputation to uphold at the office. But we all had a hand it the cooking.