there's no crying in baseball!

one of my all-time favorite quotes, from one of my all-time favorite actors. just as in baseball, there's no crying in cookery school. no tears and no stress. :)

i had a really great morning in the kitchen. it is good to know that while some days are going to get a bit hairy and challenge me, there are going to be other days where everything goes smoothly and i can work at an enjoyable pace.

my work order for this morning wasn't particularly exciting: white soda bread, basmati rice, tomato and corriander salsa, guacamole, quesadillas and creme caramel with caramel shards (or flan as it sometimes called). i was in the kitchen by 8.30 so i could have my oven heating and all my soda bread ingredients measured and ready to mix as soon as my instructor arrived. i decided that i wanted to jazz my bread up a bit and add some chopped rosemary, but since i couldn't find any in the larder i asked florrie if i might check one of the other kitchens. she suggested i just head out the dinning room and cut a few fresh twigs from the pot right past the door. how wonderful to be able to head outside and cut my own fresh rosemary! i am definitely going to need to start a herb garden where ever i end up after these 12 weeks. and grow my own apple trees. and rear hens. and pigs. and a cow or two. :)

back to the kitchen. when my instructor finally arrived, i mixed together my ingredients as she kept a close eye. not too much bread soda and not too much kneading either. i cut two slices into my bread to form a plus sign, put the dough on a baking sheet and into the oven it went.

while it baked for the first 10 minutes at 230C, i started preparing the caramel for the creme caramel and mixed up the custard. when the caramels went into the oven, i chopped the ingredients for my salsa and guacamole and mixed them up so they could rest in the fridge. i threw my rice in the boiling water, took my bread out of the oven and then put a few dishes in the oven to heat up before plating my food. my instructor was very impressed with my guacamole, in fact she deemed it 'perfect'. my salsa had a nice kick to it and paired well with my quesadillas. while my rice looked pretty, it was a bit al dente and i should have been a bit more patient with it. because the oven door was constantly being opened so other students could check the consistency of their creme caramels, mine didn't set up after the initial 35 minutes and in fact took well over an hour. when they finally came out, i put one on the window sill to cool. i waited until after i had washed up all my dishes and tidied my work station before i plated the pudding. i tried a small bite after my instructor tasted it and talked about the nice consistency of the custard and the color and taste of the caramel. not too sweet.

i had to serve the starter for lunch, so i happily put quesadillas on my classmates' plates asking them if they wanted one or two. overall, we were a pretty quiet group today. i think everyone is feeling a bit tired and maybe overloaded with information. and tomorrow is friday. :)

i was also part of the table setting crew after lunch, so i helped clear tables, polish cutlery and re-lay table one. it was almost quarter to 1 by the time we were finished, so i went straight to demo instead of changing out of my whites.

in today's demo, darina showed us how to fillet a fish. she had four whole fish on a cutting board for us to see and name. there was cod, pollock, hake and haddock. she filleted the haddock although i think we'll be making a cod dish tomorrow. after the fish was separated from the bones and skinned, darina went over how to make bread crumbs and duchesse potatoes (creamy, buttery potatoes). we learned three new salads, including one that used a poached egg. not the easiest technique, but if you crack the egg into a bowl and carefully slide the egg into the slightly boiling water, the poach will be perfect. at least it was for darina. she also put together bread and butter pudding and demonstrated how to cook 'melted' leeks.

by the time we got through tasting everything, it was half five. i had intended to run the 8K loop with grace, but since it was already dark i decided to just run down the road from school into the cul de sac and use the square yard as a track for sprints. an excellent way to exert some pent up energy and stretch my legs after sitting all afternoon.

elisa made chicken noodle soup with homemade noodles and buttermilk biscuits for dinner, so when i got back from my run, our cottage smelled delicious. the six of us sat down a little after 8 and ate the entire pot of soup. emily made mars bars rice krispie treats for dessert and they are being nibbled on while everyone does their order of work for tomorrow morning.

i'm winding down and heading to bed.