Girl Trip Part 1

About once every few months I think I send an e-mail out to my friends saying we need to plan a girls trip. Usually nothing ever happens! We are all talk and no action! Lauren and I had been talking about going somewhere for a while now and we (not really we, Lauren) finally booked a trip and made it happen! It was very spur of the moment but I think those trips are the most fun! We made plans on a Friday and left for Mississippi on Monday. Someone told me about a spa and cooking school in Greenwood MS so we thought we would test it out! B's parents were nice enough to come help with the babies! I went to LR Sunday night to stay with Lauren so we could leave early Monday! The trip actually got off to a rocky start because of Laurens cat Lilly Wayne. I hate Lilly Wayne... Sorry LA! ha I am so allergic to cats! I don't even have to see them and my eyes swell shut and my throat gets scratchy etc! Lauren told me some BS about Lilly Wayne being hypoallergenic. Not the case! I'm actually just kidding. I don't hate the cat! I know Lauren is going to read this so I am just messing with her! After a late night trip to Walgreens for some benedryl, eye drops, etc. I was fine!

Our road trip started early Monday morning! It was actually not a long drive at all and we didn't get lost once! We took Scott's car on the trip and I'm so glad we did. It was so nice and it had massaging seats! I think LA and I might have worn them out! We also called all of our friends that weren't with us on the way. I'm sure they were all real happy about being stuck at work while we were heading to a spa!

We stayed at the Alluvian hotel. I never take pictures on trips and then I get home and can't remember where we stayed, where we ate, shopped etc. I tried really hard to document this trip so I could pass along all of the information to friends!
Lauren signed us up for "The Help" tour. The movie was filmed in Greenwood and a lot of the cast stayed at the Alluvian hotel. Our tour guide was very nice and showed us where everything was filmed. It was really neat to see! The church in the movie has a little cemetery next to it. When our guide was showing us the church he mentioned that Robert Johnson was buried in the cemetery. My dad is a big fan so I made the driver get out and show me his grave! Lauren was probably hating me because we had to walk through a soggy, muddy cemetery to get this picture! If you don't know who Robert Johnson is you should read about him on Wikapedia. His story is really pretty interesting! I wish I had taken pictures of more of the houses on the tour! I think this was before I decided to document my trip with pictures.
After our tour we had lunch at a really good restaurant, Delta Bistro. I wish we had eaten there both days! Someone said it was owned my Viking too.
After lunch we did a little shopping around the town, took naps and then got ready for our first cooking class! I had big plans to relax on this trip so I brought lots of magazines to read. That is something I never have time to do at home! Lauren and I were both laying in our big king sized bed in the room reading magazines and eating the chocolates they left on our pillow and and a group of women walked in our room! I guess the front desk gave them the wrong key! I'm sure they thought we were crazy since we were in bed at three in the afternoon!

Our class was "French Bistro". LA and I didn't really know what to expect. I thought maybe the instructor would cook and we would just watched but that was not the case. We had to be very hands on! Thank goodness Lauren and I partnered up with a couple so the guy could do the raw meat part of it! I'm not a big fan of raw chicken!

Our Menu for the night!
Lauren and I did a lot of wine drinking and picture taking!
I'm sure the rest of the class thought we were crazy but we really had fun posing with our food, taking pictures and sending it to our moms and husbands!
Lauren's mom wrote back, "Move over Emeril and Paula Deen, I'm so proud of you two" and my mom wrote, "Who would have ever thought the two L.A. girls would end up in a Mississippi cooking school!" I think this was funny to them because when Lauren and I lived in LA together we ate Hamburger Helper pretty much every night unless we had guests in town and then we went out to eat. Hamburger Helper was Lauren's specialty. One night she was making it and we smelled something burning. She just kept stirring while we sniffed around and then we realized her big fluffy pink robe was in flames! Instead of "Stop, Dropping, and Rolling" or throwing water on her we just screamed and jumped around. I think I might have hit her with a pizza box to put out the flames. We have come a long way..We've gone from Hamburger Helper to French food.

This was our before picture of Pierre... Our chicken (we had to name him). He was stuffed full of herbs, butter, garlic, and onions. The whole time we were cooking I kept thinking, "If I did this at home I would have so many dishes to wash!" We didn't take any short cuts! We used a million cooking utensils and all fresh ingredients! It was pretty fun playing with so many fancy tools!
Action shot of me chopping our chives! We also learned the proper way to hold your knife. Apparently I have been doing it all wrong! I'm lucky I still have finger tips!
Pierre after! Pierre took about 2 hours to cook! We had to baste him every thirty minutes. Lauren burned her arm trying to get him out of the oven! That was our only serious injury though:)
Hericots Verts! This is something I think I could actually make again!
Our pan sauce for the chicken.
Our yummy goat cheese salad!
Our finished meal! We were all looking forward to the potato thing! It looked so good! It was basically hash browns with herbed goat cheese and onions. I was in charge of the salting and peppering for our group. We didn't have salt shakers so I had to pinch it out of a little dish like they do on cooking shows! I guess my "pinches" got out of hand because we all took a bite of the potato thing and it was sooo salty! I felt terrible! Everyone ate it anyway but it really tasted bad! I think they must have choked it down!
This was our dessert! We made homemade crust and all! It was pretty yummy too!
Our first class was a success! We had so much fun and I really did learn a lot! One day if I have an extra four hours to spare I might try to recreate this meal! I'm definitely going to make the potatoes again so I can redeem myself!