If I had lots of money...

I'd be going to cooking classes all the time. I went to my first one last night at Central Market in Plano. It was Spanish cooking basics. We made paella with chicken, chorizo, shrimp, and mussels. I cleaned and debearded my first mussels ever, which was awesome. It's one of those things I would never try without help, because seafood is not something you want to mess up. They were delicious!! The paella was easier than I expected. Having eaten a ton of it in Spain, I have been scared to make it because I knew it wouldn't be the same. What we made last night wasn't as spicy as what I had in Spain, but I know what to change, so I'm going for it Friday and finally making my own paella!

We also made a garlicky shrimp with smoked Spanish paprika - man, it was awesome. We made gazpacho, which I didn't care for. They added too much bread - the other group's gazpacho was spilled because the blender fell apart, so I think they compensated by adding too much bread to ours to make it go further. My favorite dish of the night was the bacalao with roasted potatoes and peppers. Bacalao is salt cod, cod that has been preserved in salt. You have to soak it for several hours to rehydrate it, changing the water three times. Wow, I was so impressed with how tasty it was! We roasted it with potatoes, peppers, onions, and some other stuff, then they roughly mashed it together, I mean like one or two mashes, not like mashed potatoes or anything. It. was. so. good. I bought some salt cod last night, so I'll be making this tomorrow.

Heading into the office this afternoon. Wish me productivity!