Well Done Cooking Class - Baking 101

If you're in Houston and haven't been to a cooking class lately, you're missing out. I love to bake and eat... notice I didn't say anything about cooking. LOL. And one of the best way to do that is to take classes and learn from the best.

I first found out about Well Done was from a Groupon. They were the first cooking school that offered Gluten Free Baking. As you can imagine, it's not easy to find GF classes. So, having that option was super nice.

Their beginning was very humble, it was out of Celeste, one of the owners' apartment. Literally,you can see that she had pushed away her couch and coffee table to do the class. She was at the time able to fit 10 students at a time. Now it's grown to 15 people per class. It is still at her home, but now she's moved out to the Heights instead of a little apartment.

With her partner, Kat, the dynamic duo are the best teachers to have for any classes. Whether you're a complete novice or an experience cook, the two were able to give you tips that you can learn from some top chefs in town. Not to mention they have great sense of humor and have the yummiest recipes to offer.


As I said, I have taken classes with them before. They do get very creative with the classes and recipes featured. After baking for a bit, I finally decided that I should go do a Baking 101 just to learn what I've missed and maybe avoid making the same mistakes going forward.

The class was jammed packed with receipes. We made blueberry muffins, lemon cake and Grand Marnier sauce, pear cake, 2 layered cake and icing, 3 types of cookies. I swear I was in a sugar coma halfway through. But it was so much fun to do that you just want to stick around. On top of that, we got food to take home... super yummy!

That said, they also does a great job with savory classes. They have healthy cooking, sushi, Carriebean style of cuisine featured. I know the girls are going to be in Europe latter part of March to learn more aboard. But, you should definitely check them out when you get a chance.

Well Done Cooking
http://www.welldonecc.com/index.aspx
832-782-3518

Little Sheep Hot Pot

Whenever the weather turns cold, hot pot always comes to mind. The pain about doing that at home, and believe me, we used to do that at home. Is to find the right ingrediants, right soup base and right sides to go along with everything. Not only do you have to whip up everything, it's just seems like a lot of work for something you are laying out for other people to cook.

I do remember when I was little, my parents would invite friends over to our place and there must've been 20 ppl in that apartment my parents had in Hong Kong. If you go there now, you will soon realize how small that really is. But when you're little, everything seems big. Anyway, it is always a party thing because everyone will dip their food in there, and you truely keep warm cooking. Not sure if it's the act of cooking that warms you up, or that there's so many people you're all huddled over that hot pot that did the trick, either way, it was a winter thing.

Nowadays, you can have hot pot all year around. They opened a Little Sheep Hot Pot in Houston. So what it's 100 outside in Houston, they just crank up the a/c. This company is based out of Mangolia, but the concept is the same nonetheless. Call it Chinese melting pot, if you will... you're cooking your own food either way.

What you do once you sat down, they give you a menu of items to check off. They offer anything from meat, veggies, side dishes, seafood. The main thing to start with is your soup base. The popular choices are the basic soup base or spicy soup base. Either way, they will throw in the Chinese herb to a, spice up your soup, and b, make it healthy. The goal is not really to make it healthy, but since it is the natural way to create taste to water, it's a by-product to make it healthy w/ the healthy traditional Chinese herbs.

You can do what we did, and split the pot in half and don't worry, they do not comingle unless you mingle it yourself. They give you the usual search and rescue spoons because you know there are times you need to go-fish... ba dum!

Anyway, when you order stuff, looks like a lot of food, but don't forget once you cook them, it's not as much as it seems. For the 3 of us, I think average about $20 per person, and that's about the same if you were to go to other restaurants. And you'll be sure to be full.

And one more thing, I know you're dying to know... yes, you can drink the soup if you want to. It is healthy ingredients after all.

Little Sheep Hot Pot
A-5901, Westheimer Road,
Houston, TX 77057
Tel:713-975-0687
Reservations are recommended on cold days.