I like to think of March as the beginning of the end of winter.  March is a cruel month with a few really nice sunny warm days followed by a late winter blizzard. To really get into the spring thing we order seeds and start plants that take a long time to germinate or are slow growers. We plant under  grow lights and that gives us a  head start on fresh/early vegetables.This spring we are planning several classes on using fresh herbs so we will be growing a much bigger herb garden. Like probably many of you we order new and unique vegetables and flowers just for the challenge and novelty...Combined with the usual tomatoes, lettuce and the like we end up with this outrageously  expensive order... how optimistic we are each spring! So what is on tap for this year??Purple Fingerling Potatoes, Ginger Mint (a must) and lots of herbs like chervil, thai basil, Mexican Oregano and sorrel... Some herbs we use some much of that is more convienent to buy them them. Regardless, herbs are huge flavor boosters and should be a big part of your cooking.     One of the unexpected consequences of our cooking classes is what I am learning about you and what you enjoy eating.  I am also getting the opportunity to cooks  lots of foods that ordinarily I wouldn't have the audience for. We experiment with a wide variety of foods in all of our classes and create dishes that most of our customers might be leary of ordering. In a recent "Steak many Ways" class we grilled eight different New York Strip Steak with a variety of sauces. We made an Anchovy-Caper Dressing which is warm and served over really any steak...delicious and the most popular of all the sauces...believe it or not!  However  the Ancho Chili and Mushroom sauce with Espresso Rubbed New York Sirloin steak was superb and would be a great addition to our menu. Close seconds were the Chimichurri Sauce, Bearnaise Sauce, and our own signature steak Sauce. The "Smoked Steak" was a very cool recipe that was popular as well. This was a fun class as we took a totally different approach to saucing steaks. Rather than heavy cream sauces or  beef /wine reductions we explored the use of vinaigrette's.  Steaks many ways will be held again  Wednesday evening 5/19 10 ..Don't miss it!   March Madness Cooking Classes Update Summer flowers Spring Time At Leslie's Normally the spring is a slow time for restaurants in Vermont. Many close for a period of time in April and May. Ordinarily we would as well, but with classes going well we want to keep the momentum going through the spring...that and we have two kids in college! So keep us in mind when you are contemplating where to go for dinner. You 'll see many new things on the menu as we continue to develop great "new dishes" in our cooking classes  This current menu has several new items we hope you'll like as much as we do.

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