Jay Eatz was lucky to be invited to instruct this special edition of "Casserole Cooking Class" with the London Home Economics Association.  First of all a big thank you to Maja and her team for putting together such a fun evening.  It was great to network with LHEA and SHEA (Student Human Ecology Association) members.  I always enjoy getting together with future PHEc's.  We were also lucky to have Lisa Mardlin Vandewalle from Grain Farmers of Ontario come and present to us a little about what her organization is up to.  I never new Ontario had 28,000 grain farmers, that's something to be #AgProud of.

      As promised here is the recipes for the four casseroles that we (and when I say we I mean YOU) made. 

Macaroni Pie

     Hello students of casserole cooking class, spring 2016 edition. First of all thanks for being an awesome bunch of participants in this class. It is great to have a bunch of people excited about cooking and I love the group interaction each week. I thought I would provide links to each weeks classes all in one post to make it easier for future reference, just click on the photo for that week and a new window will open with that weeks recipes. In addition this post will include the recipe for the Cheesy Ground Beef and Rice casserole we added into this session.
Week 1:
Cheesy Chicken Pot Pie, Ham Casserole and Cheesy Beef Noodle Bake 

     Welcome to Jazz your veggies class.  I hope everyone finds the recipe summary from last weeks class as the website has changed.  As mentioned last Thursday, www.jayeatz.com is the new site going forward.  All previous class summaries will still be available and if you visit the old site it will redirect you to the new one as well.  I hope everyone enjoyed last weeks class, here are the dishes we covered.

Glazed Carrots:

     Welcome to week 4, the final week of casserole cooking class.  This week we returned to "easy casseroles".  Hopefully these time savers become some of your favourites.  Hopefully everyone enjoyed our 4 weeks together and I look forward to seeing some of you next week for "Jazz your Veggies" class.  Although I would like to take the class's advice and play Jazz music while we make veggies I am not sure if the others in the class will find that as funny as we did.
     We started this weeks class with a request from one of our absent class-mates for pie.  Not exactly casserole but the group consensus was: no objections.    

     With our quick and tasty sidetrack we returned to the topic at hand.  Our first casserole was Macaroni Pie.  This dish is one of my Caribbean favourites and is usually enjoyed cold although we enjoyed it warm.

     Welcome to week 3 of casserole cooking.  This week was the vegetarian casserole week as requested by class.  Although none of us are current vegetarians (1 former or recovering vegetarian lol) we now all have 4 recipes under our belts for the next time we celebrate meat-less Monday or are entertaining a vegetarian for dinner.  One of the 4 dishes is even perfect if one finds themselves with a vegan coming over for dinner.  Each dish could stand as a meal by itself but all would be a great side dish to a larger meal.
Green Bean and Mushroom Casserole:

     I hope that everyone enjoyed week 2 of Turkey Dinner 101.  During session 2 we made Glazed Carrots, Mascarpone Mashed Potatoes, Roasted Rosemary Potatoes, Stuffing and Gravy 2 ways.  We also reheated the frozen make ahead dishes from week 1.  We craved the turkey that came to class magically prepared and sat down to a full Turkey Dinner with a side of Cranberry Chutney.  For dessert we took the Pumpkin Pie challenge, frozen reheated pie vs. fresh pie cooked during class.  Please find the recipes from week 2 bellow:

Mascarpone Mashed Potatoes:

Ingredients:

• 3 lbs potatoes, peeled and cubed
• 1 250ml tub mascarpone cheese
• 5 cloves of garlic, minced
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 1/2 cups 10% cream
• 1/4 cup butter

Directions:
Peel and cut potatoes into small cubes.  Leave mascarpone cheese out to soften while potatoes are boiling.  Place potatoes into large pot, cover with water, salt and bring to a boil.  Once potatoes are soft, drain water.  Meanwhile sauté garlic and butter in a small frying pan (try to do this 5 minutes before the potatoes are soft).   Mash potatoes, fold in mascarpone cheese and butter/garlic mix.  Slowly add cream and stir.  Season with pepper (fresh black pepper as used in class), salt and serve.  Try to make mashed potatoes as the last dish you make before serving the turkey. 

     As promised here are the recipes from what we covered in week 1 of Turkey Dinner 101's class.  We made Cranberry Chutney from scratch, Sweet Potato Casserole with Marshmallows, Turnip Puff, Pumpkin Pie and prepped a Turkey for the oven.  Please find the recipes bellow:

Chef Jason's Cranberry Chutney (Specially developed for Turkey Dinner 101)

     To the regular followers of Jay Eatz you may be wondering why this post hasn't started with "So......."?  Jay Eatz has been instructing various cooking classes and has promised his students he would make the recipes and relevant course content available via the inter-web.  So rather than "So I taught BBQ spices and rubs class last night......." the post title follows the course description to make it easier for participants to find.  With that said here goes.

The first 2 rubs come courtesy of The BBQ Pit Boys, for other recipes from them visit http://bbqpitboys.com/.

Coffee Dry Rub Recipe

       BBQ vegetables, steaks, burgers and more.  Before.....

       After.......