Paella Class With Debra Buzar

I have not stopped cooking in this long pause I took, but life just got a little bit crazier. I went back to work and a lot of other personal stuff happened. I miss this. It made me happy and so proud when someone liked one of the recipes I posted…
So guess what. I am going to try to continue this blog adventure…I think it’s been long enough of a pause now, plus, I had a very nice summer!
I fell in love! With California!

Our family took two trips to Southern California, one in July and one at the end of September. First one was with the whole family (sounds scary but it was really awesome) and we stayed at a rental house in Oceanside. The second one was just my hubby and me with our son. We stayed at a tiny resort in Laguna Beach and to say it was the bestest vacation is too little! Why is this relevant to my cooking blog? Because my bestest husband in the world decided I deserved to take a cooking class at Laguna Culinary Arts Institute that I found in a local magazine. I already felt really lucky we were able to take this vacation, and even happier we really did manage to relax and have awesome time. This was like a HUMONGOUS cherry on the top. So let me tell you a little about it.
It’s the best. I felt excited, pampered AND I got some amazing advices. The best thing? I think it was a turn around. The one where I admit myself that maybe I wasn’t born to have a cute cupcake store, and I kept screwing up while trying to decorate them and make them look (and taste) amazing was because my true love is cooking. I LOVE and enjoy baking, but I just don’t feel comfortable in it as in cooking. Cooking is where I belong and what I am good at, without even trying too hard. (Or better to say that trying hard really doesn’t feel hard because it makes me happy.) Now, if I could just mount an A/C on my head during the summer months in the kitchen it would be a done deal! 🙂

Anyway.
The class was in a professional kitchen with a wonderful chef Debra Buzar. She was very friendly and gave as a few great basic tips that help me every day, and just for that it would all have been worth it. But that was just the beginning and in the few hours I was there we made an appetizer – tomato and watermelon skewers with cherry vinaigrette, main dish – classic Spanish paella, and a dessert – lemon mousse with fresh berries.

The dessert was really nice, and paella was reeeeeeeally nice. Such a great entertaining dish, I recommend everyone to try to make it.

Paella pans are easily (and cheap) available online and I would recommend them to anyone who is ready to try this and wants to entertain with this dish. I ordered mine from Amazon.

The star of the night to me was the thing I was least sure of. The tomato and watermelon skewers. I don’t know why it was so hard for me to imagine this dish being yummy, since I love similar combinations, like melon with prosciutto…but it was. Until I tried one. A-mazing!! Tomato with watermelon, with that sourness and saltines of the vinaigrette and some freshly grated lemon peel….it is amazing what they do to each-other. A must try!

After we were done cooking we all sat down for a family style dinner and enjoyed all of the dishes, we even took some home for our hubby’s, wifes and such. It was such a great experience and ending to my vacation, I would highly recommend it to everyone if they are ever near Laguna Beach!

A big thanks to Debra for a wonderful night, I really hope I will have an opportunity to go to more of these classes there, it makes me happy just thinking of it and something to plan on and look forward to.

Some other highlights of the summer?
Fawesome brunch at Laguna Beach, smoked salmon eggs benedict:

Tour of a Russian submarine (very cool):

Trader Joe’s!

…and cappuccino just like home!