Like a Hot Knife Through Butta'

I am so excited for one of this weekend's upcoming activities. For years, I have been telling Mr. Soup that I have wanted to take a knife skills class. Unfortunately, the cooking class selection in KC was not very extensive. But we in the 'Lanta now baby! Love, love LOVE watching the chefs on Food Network expertly slice and dice their vegetables into perfectly symmetric, equally sized bites of vitamin-filled love. I am always jealous of them, simply because I can never seem to achieve the same result myself. We own a mandoline, but to be honest it just sits in the back of the cabinet. It's kind of a PITA to drag that thing out. I should probably just sell it on eBay. So, this weekend, we are officially students of the Viking Cooking School! Knife Skills will be our first class, but I can't wait to enroll in other offerings such as French Bistro, Salute to Rome, and Tapas & Paella. The ultimate would be the three-day Culinary Basics and/or three-day Italian Culinary Basics. I'll have to save up for one of those. The syllabus includes learning how to "dice, julienne, chop, mince, and chiffonade, how to quickly and easily butcher a whole chicken, and how to quickly and easily peel and devein shrimp. Students will also learn how to prepare a salsa and dipping sauce from scratch, how to prepare a rich chicken stock from leftover ingredients and how to prepare excellent fajitas." I'll check in with y'alls later with my new title, Master Samurai.