Cooking Class

So here I am, overfed, stuffed, and maybe just a little woozy from too much wine. I've been to a cooking class at Central Market taught by Terry Thompson-Anderson, a chef from the Hill Country who really pushes Texas foods and wine. We had an appetizer of mushrooms and Spanish chorizo in triple sherry cream sauce on toasted baguette slices (absolutely wonderful), a salad of Bibb lettuce and arugula with fresh figs, blue goat cheese (who knew there was such a mixture--it's from Texas, of course) and pecan pieces, with a honey/lemon vinaigrette. The entree was applewood smoked bacon-wrapped quail with ancho chili and honey sauce on a bed of soft polenta with jalopenos. I'm always leery of peppers but these were so gentle they just tingled the taste buds. And dessert? Fredericksburg peach and white chocolate bread pudding with schnapps whiskey sauce and chantilly cream. I was only going to take a bite but I ate the whole serving. Granted, they were all small servings. In Terry's recipes, two quail serve one person--we each got half a quail, though a huge quantity of polenta--which I didn't eat except for a little bit. And the dessert was in small servings. They poured four wines, though I bowed out of the reds and had a great voignier (Brennan Vineyards 2008) and a little bit of muscat with dessert but it was too sweet for me.
I've met and corresponded with Terry--she came to our Autograph Extravaganza once to sign her beautiful book, Texas on a Plate, and then I included her in my small book, Great Texas Chefs. So it was particularly important to me to go to the class tonight, and I enjoyed it thoroughly (wished I'd worn my hearing aids, because I really had to concentrate).
Terry's recipes are really complicated, and I don't know that I'll duplicate them. One from Texas on a Plate that I've always wanted to try is quail with pepper and coffee gravy.
I am not even going to try to enter this evening's meal in Weight Watchers. As one of the servers said to me, "Honey, you've eaten all your points for the week tonight." And I probably did. But it was sure good.