I’m at the stage in my cooking studies that I can read a recipe and know what most of the ingredients and techniques they’re talking about are. I know the trick to chopping an onion superfast (I’ll show you a video of it soon).

But there’s still a lot I don’t know, which is why I’ve been searching for local cooking classes.

Lo and behold, I came across Central Market’s food demonstrations  from its Culinary Resource Center, which bills itself as “Inspiring the Cook in You.”

I’m a Bremertonian, and shopping regularly at Central Market isn’t something I do regularly. So, I ended up with visions of a Julia Child-esque figure in the middle of the produce section chopping and mashing away dropping all the secret cooking knowledge I could handle.

Saturday’s demonstration was on an Autumn Squash Lasagna, and I just happened to have bags full of Hubbard and pumpkin squash from my in-laws.

When I got to the market, I was a little disappointed at first when I realized that it wasn’t an in-store cooking class. What happens is a group of cooks come in early in the morning and whip up the recipe of the day. Shoppers get tastes of the food and a recipe card so they can get all the ingredients before they go home.

As I took a warm, savory bite, it hit me: I don’t have to make a whole pan of lasagna just to figure out what this recipe tastes like.  I’ve had some not-so-happy recipe accidents in the past, so being able to taste something beforehand can save days’ worth of suffering taste buds.

It also turns out that the ladies at the resource center are happy to answer questions and give tips, such as adding a little chicken broth to moisten up the squash for the lasagna.

I bought everything and made it Sunday night. See my results:

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