A number of years ago, J worked for a summer as a delivery driver for a wonderful local bakery called La Vie En Rose. It meant that he had to leave for work at 1 am, which wasn’t so great; on the other hand, we ate a lot of really great bread that summer. The owner of the bakery occasionally gives cooking classes at Gretchens, and we finally got around to volunteering for one of these, which featured both sweet and savory bites and appetizers.

The philosophy of the class seemed to be, “life is short, eat dessert first.” So the first course included a puff pastry “daisy” filled with lemon cream, plus a fried wonton full of chocolate and banana. I particularly liked the daisy, because I am a sucker for lemon curd in most circumstances.

The first savory was really just a bite: a tiny round of fried polenta topped with fresh basil pesto and a piece of parmesan. This would be fantastic at a reception, where people have wineglasses in one hand and don’t want to drop crumbs down their clothing.

The last two savories were turnovers: one was made of puff pastry and stuffed with mashed potatoes, onion and feta, and the other was made of filo pastry folded around spiced beef. These were tremendously filling, which was a good thing after all the delicate little nibbles we’d been making. Sometimes we get home from these classes and aren’t quite sure what we had for dinner, except that it was tasty.