The other week we celebrated my friend Shelby's birthday in a fun and unique way...with a baking class/dinner party at Preserving Place in Midtown Atlanta. Shelby is an amazing baker, so it was a perfect idea for her birthday. I had heard of Preserving Place, but I'd never been so of course I was excited for this new adventure.
Here's a message from their website:
The Cooking School at Preserving Place offers customers the unique opportunity to learn from some of the most experienced and passionate players of Atlanta's food scene – including, of course, the canning expert herself, Martha McMillin – in a state of the art kitchen conveniently located at our Westside Provisions District.
Our instructors hail from a variety of backgrounds and experiences, and we are always looking to expand upon our course offerings, while regularly returning to “classics.” We provide attendees with light refreshments and hors d’ouevres (or a more substantial meal with wine, depending on the course), and at the end of the class, we gather around our farm table to sample our creations.
Most importantly, though, students of the Cooking School at Preserving Place take home with them the knowledge and experience of exemplary food, drink, and entertaining.
Shelby set up the class with Preserving Place, but they also have a schedule online where you can sign up! We made lemon meringues and strawberry pavlovas...it was my first time making both. At the start of the class they serve light refreshments and you can BYOB. After the instructor reviews the recipe you get to work baking/cooking. We had so much fun dividing and conquering the work to make some sweet treats.
These were light, fluffy and addictive!
I got to help with the lemon meringue pie and turned out so gorgeous!!! And delicious.
Here's the table where we sat for dinner after the baking work was complete.
They served this delicious summer salad.
They also served a tomato heirloom salad, yum!
Here's a pic of my plate. I loved the purple potatoes, and other people said the steak was great too!
Of course this would be a fun date night, but this also made for an awesome and interactive birthday dinner. The only things I really know how to bake are Pillsbury chocolate chip cookies, but this class was still enjoyable and doable for me!
A big thanks to our helpful and funny instructor, Sarah!