Kitchen In The Market

Located in the corner of the always bustling Midtown Global Market is the amazing, multifunctional Kitchen in the Market. I would best describe it as a cross between a cooking school and a commercial kitchen, where chefs and students intermingle creating a unique culinary experience for all involved. I've only been to the market a few times and wasn't very familiar with KITM but I knew Molly, one of the owners, from a few of the MN Food Blogger events. So when they sent a message a few weeks ago requesting some volunteers for their upcoming cooking courses, I jumped at the chance to get to know them better. And of course, I signed my wife up too. She's always jealous when I go to fun food events and I thought this would be something fun we could to together.

Blackberry and Raspberry Pie Bars

A few weeks ago I attended another Minnesota Food Bloggers event where we had a bake off featuring bar recipes from many of the bloggers that attended. I was busy that evening so mine was more of a drop off entry, and I didn't even get to taste the other bars that were there! They all looked amazing though, and although mine didn't win, I thought they were pretty darn good.

Potato Gratin with Bacon and Thyme

I'm not a big casserole fan in general but every once in awhile there's one that looks really good to me. I think my dislike stems from one too many concoctions at church events that include just a little too much cream of mushroom and a lack of just about anything resembling flavor. The sad thing is that it's not very hard to make a good gratin with simple ingredients that tastes amazing and makes a great simple meal.

Lime and Blackberry Italian Meringue Pie

One of the things I miss most about Seattle summers is being able to walk into our backyard or along any street and pick bucketfuls of the most beautiful blackberries you have ever seen. My memories of the scratches received while digging through the branches have faded somewhat but I can vividly remember the cobblers, pies and jams that we made each year. Now I have to hope Costco gets a good batch of decent berries and then pay an arm and a leg for a little container of them. For that reason I really don't use them much for anything.