The First Home Fries Cookin' Class with Seth & Craig of Wine Authorities and Shanna Bierman, Volunteer Market Assistant, Extraordinaire

By 9:30 in downtown Durham, the sun was beating down overhead, temperatures creeping up to the high eighties, and there was hardly a parking place near the Farmer's Market. But this didn't stop the Home Fries, a team of ten kids nine through thirteen years of age with a love for cooking. Us ten kids trickled over, where we were handed a sheet of paper with three recipes by Seth and Craig of Wine Authorities. I was blinking sleep out of my eyes as we talked about when we had cooked, our favorites things to cook, our experiences in the kitchen, etc. Seth and Craig were then joined by another smiling face - Shanna. Shanna would be handling the cheese spread and bread station, Craig the salad station, and Seth the veggie quesadillas. We separated into 3 groups. My group--Sarah, myself, Cordelia, and Tatiana--headed to Seth and the quesadillas. Seth handed us each a veggie to wash. Zucchini in my hand, I rinsed the little bit of dirt there might have been on the green vegetable. There wouldn't be any pesticides or chemicals, so there was only a risk of dirt on the veggie. The veggies were chopped slowly and carefully as Seth explained the importance of knife safety--keep your fingers there, hold the knife like this, etc. Our veggies were soon ready to be sauted, and were tossed into the cast iron skillet with olive oil and a pinch of salt. The tortilla was added to the griddle with shredded cheese, then the veggies were added, then another layer of cheese was added(to act like glue) and then another tortilla on top. Golden color achieved, the quesadilla was cut and enjoyed. The heat was bearing down on us, but we were determined to continue our mission to cook. Water was being pumped from the water tank where we had washed the veggies. My group of 4 moved with determination to the cheese spread station. We would make this recipe better than ever, mixing local herbs, cream cheese, Celebrity Dairy goat cheese, and lemon juice to make a creamy spread to put on freshly-baked & toasted Polenta bread from Ron at Loaf. Herbs were chopped perfectly, cheeses mixed together, lemon juiced. I cut a loaf of bread which we "painted" olive oil on with a paintbrush(no worries, it was used soley for cooking). The bread was laid out carefully by the chefs, and stuck in the toaster oven with a reminder to "always use a oven mitt or towel to put or take something out of an oven." We waited hungrily as the bread toasted, sighing happily when it came out of the oven and spread the cheese on it. Biting down, it was the perfect flavor combination for the bread. We watched the people at the salad station, the final station we would visit. They mixed a vinaigrette: 2/3 a cup of olive oil, 1/3 a cup of vinegar, chopped fresh cucumbers, and cut local lettuces into bite-sized pieces. I watched eagerly but was crestfallen as I watched the time tick by. I knew I had to leave the cooking class--it seemed we had taken longer than expected. I bid farewell to our teachers, thanking them for the class. However simple cooking may seem, there is an complex, beautiful art to it.
Contributed by Maya Sugg