Huge, huge thanks to our awesome presenters at last night's workshop! 

First, we totally stuffed ourselves on 50 million varieties of savory tarts from Emily Beebe. Seriously, there were so many, and they were so good, like this beet and goat cheese variety.  If I had to choose one though, it would be the caldo verde - a take on Portuguese kale soup - with plenty of sausage, potatoes, and kale. Amazing.  Over at The Wooden Spoonful, Emily offers all kinds of classes, and if we're lucky we'll also convince her to lead some more Brainery classes in the very near future. 

I've officially deemed Lauren Utvich the Brainery's in-house expert on Southern Food after her amazingly informative/delicious class last semester and her tour-de-force snackfest last night. It would never, ever have occurred to me to pulverize bacon, mix it into some caramel and then throw the whole thing on popcorn, but it was the best sweet/salty combo ever. Like kettle corn x 1000. You can find Lauren over at Dixie Spanish - make sure you find a way to try her famous boiled peanuts. 

Lastly, Adrian Katherine Theopulos showed us how to make a Croque en Bouche (aka a cream puff tower). And somehow she made a super frightening pastry baking experience seem easy (though her adorable recipe booklet didn't hurt any). When she's not making structures out of pastry, she's heading up the World Supper Adventure, where she travels around the world, cooks with awesome people, then writes about it. (Check her out on Kickstarter!)

More photos!