Holiday Open House and Winter Cooking Classes

Contact Barbara at [email protected]

Class size limited to 8, so don’t delay!

We are located 5 miles east of Asheville in Haw Creek

“Spumoni” Chocolate, cherry, pistachio cookie dough

Still 2 spaces left!  We’re making:

Shop local for the holidays in Haw Creek! I’ll have my 10 cookbooks for sale and hubby, Wayne Erbsen has a bazillion old-time and bluegrass music instruction, civil war, railroad, etc. books all at a 10 % discount. You can also pick up local honey and hand-blown glass ornaments made by our friends. Most everything is priced below $10!! There will be a live bluegrass music jam, half-hourly raffle door-prizes,and  hearth-side old-time food and beverages from my cookbooks. Bring the whole family! For directions, email me. [email protected]

Bake fabulous and easy whole grain artisan breads just like great-great-great grandma used to do. We’ll use cast iron pots to bake two types of breads in your home oven that will change your life (!) The first will be an unkneaded bread that makes a dandy pizza as well as an exciting exploding cheese volcano bread. The second type of bread will be a kneaded bread that serves as an example of how to bake any bread in an iron pot. Dinner will be roasted winter veggie topped pizza, salad and wine.
You’ll need a cast iron dutch oven size 3 1/2 or 5 quart or a ceramic cloche to make these breads. Enameled cast iron will do as well.
A copy of my new book, Aunt Barb’s Bread Book is included.

PS Here’s a cinnamon roll pan bread you can make out of the kneaded dough in case you don’t have a dutch oven.

Blackout! Hearth/Campfire Cooking for Fun or Snow-storm

Oh, you’ll wish the power would go out so you can have an excuse to prepare this meal in your fireplace or campfire! A variety of live-fire techniques will be used to prepare our fireside lunch. (You can make all these dishes in your conventional range as well.) We’ll roast carrots, beets, potatoes, and red onions separately in foil packets in embers to be tossed together on the plate along with a fresh arugula salad; english muffins will be cooked over coals in an iron gem pan; forgotten local pork roast glazed with cider and calvados will be slow-baked at fire’s edge until crispy, and dessert will be gingerbread/apple upside-down cake baked in a dutch oven.

 

 

Whole-grain graham gem recipes were in most every cookbook up until the 1930’s. Yet, I’ll bet you have never heard of them. They are a completely lost type of wholesome tasty American quick breads and I am bringing them back! They can be baked in 19th-century antique pans like these, if you can find them.

 

 

 

Or, you can bake them in your regular old muffin pans, and Lodge makes this pan which works great:

 

 

 

In this class, we’ll be making cornbread gems (local heirloom cornmeal), thirded graham gems (local rye, wheat and corn blended with dried fruit and local sorghum syrup), and everybody’s favorite, cheesy herbed popovers. To go with, we’ll have a flavorful chicken pumpkin soup which is at once, hearty and light. A perky salad, glass of wine, and pear sorbet complete the feast. You’ll take the leftover gems home to enjoy for breakfast! The class includes a copy of Aunt Barb’s Bread Book.