David and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary on August 11, but our real celebration took place this weekend in Mercersburg, PA. We spent two nights at the Mercersburg Inn and participated in two days of cooking classes taught by Francois Dionot, founder of L'Academie de Cuisine.
The Inn was built by a wealthy family in 1909 and became an inn when it was sold in 1953. Our room was adjacent to the upper balcony located on the upper right hand side of this side view of the house. It is an absolutely gorgeous 20,000 sq ft Georgian mansion.
David does all of the cooking at our house and is very talented in the kitchen. The cooking classes were a great experience for both of us and we had a great time. We especially enjoyed getting to talk with Chef Dionot and his wife, Patrice. Our shining moment was cooking coconut chicken soup on Saturday. There were 14 people in the class so roughly teams of four people were assigned to each course. On Saturday David and I worked on the soup alone and it was delicious, if I do say so myself. Even Chef Dionot seemed very pleased with our dish. The same can't really be said for our attempt at sweetbreads with artichokes and mushrooms on Sunday, but we did just fine. The entire Sunday menu left much to be desired -- endives, duck, sweetbreads. It was an exercise in classical French cooking. Maybe that's why we never go out for French food.... It's all about the technique -- Chef Dionot must have said a dozen times that all cuisine is based on French technique.
One of the best parts of the weekend was David's awesome surprise rental of a silver Sebring convertible! I was home sick on Friday hoping to recover enough to not ruin the weekend, when David rolled up at 6:15 in a convertible! It was so cool. Unfortunately the weather wasn't very nice on Friday night or much of Saturday, but Sunday was beautiful. I got to drive the car home and even got a sunburn driving down scenic route 40 with the top down.
David promised me that we can go back there someday and I intend to hold him to it! We're looking forward to our next weekend getaway to St. Mary's County in Maryland for the annual Oysterfest and a stay at the Brome Howard Inn.
The Inn was built by a wealthy family in 1909 and became an inn when it was sold in 1953. Our room was adjacent to the upper balcony located on the upper right hand side of this side view of the house. It is an absolutely gorgeous 20,000 sq ft Georgian mansion.
David does all of the cooking at our house and is very talented in the kitchen. The cooking classes were a great experience for both of us and we had a great time. We especially enjoyed getting to talk with Chef Dionot and his wife, Patrice. Our shining moment was cooking coconut chicken soup on Saturday. There were 14 people in the class so roughly teams of four people were assigned to each course. On Saturday David and I worked on the soup alone and it was delicious, if I do say so myself. Even Chef Dionot seemed very pleased with our dish. The same can't really be said for our attempt at sweetbreads with artichokes and mushrooms on Sunday, but we did just fine. The entire Sunday menu left much to be desired -- endives, duck, sweetbreads. It was an exercise in classical French cooking. Maybe that's why we never go out for French food.... It's all about the technique -- Chef Dionot must have said a dozen times that all cuisine is based on French technique.
David promised me that we can go back there someday and I intend to hold him to it! We're looking forward to our next weekend getaway to St. Mary's County in Maryland for the annual Oysterfest and a stay at the Brome Howard Inn.
