My Adventures at the CIA

I recently got up close & personal with the CIA. No, not the hush-hush agency, but something even cooler: the Culinary Institute of America. I've been wanting to go visit CIA, take a class, for sometime now...but both the New York and California campuses were too far away. However, now that they've a San Antonio, Texas campus...a mere three and half hours drive away...yes, I finaggled the Cowboy to take me to San Antonio for our 10th anniversary. He really is a keeper because he put up with two-day's worth of CIA on our weekend.Of course, he ate well and that did help.

One of the first places I checked out was the new CIA Bakery Cafe. Oh the desserts were works of art. Don't take my word for it, check out the pics.

They also had rustic loaves of bread, coffee and teas from around the world, and an uber cool light fixture made of wooden spoons...

But the desserts wowed me and the Cowboy & I splurged...

The chocolate dome thing was called "Chocolate XS" and it was...but my favorite ended up being the light and luscious Mango Mousse Cake. Yum. A sweet first day of vacation.

The CIA Bakery Cafe hours are: Tuesday through Saturday, 7 a.m.–5 p.m. and 8 a.m.–5 p.m. on Sunday. The Café will be closed on Monday.

The next day, I participated in the Spain and the World Table cooking class that CIA was kind enough to let me cover. You can read about that adventure and find some Spanish recipes at this link. Enjoy!