Country cuisine featured at Salem cooking school

By D.A. WILKINSON

wilkinson@vindy.com

SALEM

On a pretty, springlike morning, Ellen Conrad is serving good coffee and her homemade scones.

Conrad, 68, runs the Country Cuisine Cooking School that covers the culinary waterfront.

She has an upcoming class, “Preparing Easter Dinner,” with a menu of pineapple Waldorf salad, apricot- glazed ham, scalloped potatoes, asparagus with lemon butter and chocolate cheesecake.

Looking to freshen up a dinner? Conrad offers fresh garden vegetables and dip, carved watermelon filled with fresh fruit, a meat-and-cheese platter, baked chicken and — honest — rigatoni brownies.

Next month, she’ll be offering how to make healthful breads and a separate class on how to stretch a food budget with recipes for chicken pot pie, lemon- basil chicken and oven-fried chicken.

Some television viewers have seen a stormy chef ranting and raving about underachieving cooks.

But for Conrad, “Fellowship is the best part.”

She developed her skills while living near the junction of the Hudson Valley and the Berkshires. When her marriage ended, she started a bakery and had her three sons helping her.

But her work also included trips to New York City and its Greenmarket that supplied fresh products. She also took a course on wines.

“This is fun,” she said. “It keeps me sharp.”

Many people live on takeout food or microwave meals. Conrad said of the bread class, “To me, this has value.”

People can make their own bread with quality ingredients. One chicken can provide three meals with the meat, stock and the remainders.

Instead of canned soup overloaded with salt, Conrad substitutes fresh herbs that friends mail to her from warmer climates.

“The classes vary,” Conrad said. “I try to be creative.”

Along the way, she said, “I decided never to marry again.”

But she ran into David Conrad, who has three daughters from a previous marriage.

“And the rest is history,” she said.

For more information, call (330) 222-3014 or visit www.EllensCountryCruisine.com.