Gwinnett Daily Post

Photo by Nate McCullough

DULUTH -- The first recipe Angelina Clark planned to try cooking at home was the upside down banana pecan French toast.

"That would be so easy," the Lawrenceville resident said. "That's going to be the first thing I try out because that would be easy for me to do it in the night and let it marinate and cook it the next morning."

That recipe was the first featured during Thursday night's Taste of Home Cooking School at the Gwinnett Center, where guests were given a crash course over two-and-a-half hours in cooking 10 different recipes.

Culinary specialist Michelle Roberts took attendees through each step in making the breakfast recipe, from first spraying a baking dish to plopping thin slices of banana down onto a mixture of brown sugar, butter and corn syrup.

"Plop, that is an official culinary term," Roberts told the audience watching her scatter pecans over the bananas via a large screen above her head. A camera above the traveling kitchen focused on Roberts' hands and the ingredients as she worked.

Clark, who has attended every Taste of Home Cooking School in Gwinnett since the event began seven years ago, brought a group of more than 40 people with her -- family, friends, co-workers and fellow church-goers.

"It's a lot of fun," she said. "It's just fun to get a big ladies night out group and learn how to cook and different recipes. And we love Michelle."

Auburn resident Cecilia Turner brought her 20-year-old autistic son, Eric Sweet, to Thursday's event.

"He wants to be a chef," Turner said. "I thought it would be interesting for him to come."

Eric, whose favorite food is pizza, hoped to try preparing a corn bread stuffed turkey breast that's made with dried cranberries.

Any other recipes Clark planned to try cooking at home?

"Every one of them," she laughed.