you're going to need a bigger bowl

wednesdays are theory days.

the first half of the day goes from 9am until about 1pm, we break for a quick lunch and then resume at 2pm for the second half.

today darina made caramelized pecan and almond squares, two easy bickies to enjoy with coffee and tea. then she introduced us to her brother, rory o'connell, who has been in india for the past two weeks. rory helped darina open the ballymaloe cookery school and will be someone we see regularly over the next nine weeks.

rory first went over cuts of beef and showed us how to prepare traditional roast rib of beef with horseradish sauce, gravy and yorkshire pudding. he then went on to cover braised short ribs, cassoulet (an incredible french dish that contains duck, lamb and sausage), braised lamb shanks with garlic and rosemary, curried oven parsnips, a basic frittata, crudites with garlic mayonnaise, tapenade, anchoide, dukkah, crab apple jelly and finally, a simnel cake. he worked seamlessly until quarter after one and then a few students helped carry all the dishes into the dinning room so they could be served for lunch. a handful of students were on duty to serve the soup starter with some homemade brown bread and they barely had it passed out before the queue formed for the main dishes.

a small serving of all the dishes rory prepared and a reminder from darina to 'try everything' created a mountain of food on everyone's plate. shocking, really. of course everything i tasted was amazing. the beef was a beautiful pink and the horseradish sauce was light in texture and fiercely pungent in flavor. i ended up sitting at a table with darina and she watched me like a hawk as i moved around my plate, tasting everything. she asked how i was enjoying my time at ballymaloe and then went on to talk about her upcoming trip to india. and then she was off to get things ready for the second lecture of the day - preserving and menu planning. i had no room for dessert, but i did opt for a coffee as i knew the caffeine would help me through the remainder of the day. i fixed a cup of tea for darina's aunt and visited with her until we were herded back into the demo room.

for preserving, we learned how to flavor oils and vinegars, preserve lemons and dry tomatoes. the menu planning was interesting yet straightforward and somewhat obvious. points to take into consideration when planning a menu include:

a. the occasion
b. the probable tastes of your guests
c. the season and weather
d. availability of fresh ingredients
e. budget or price of the menu
f. food value and nutrition
g. the number of dishes
h. balance

darina also discussed how menus look - their format, font, etc. - and how that impacts a restaurant. she has several binders full of menus from some of her favorite restaurants, which lead her to talk about jobs and what we should be looking for now and at the end of our twelve weeks. her biggest recommendation was getting experience. she covered a list of possible opportunities for our audience and i found 'food journalist', 'food stylist', cooking on boats, cooking on oil rigs, teaching cooking classes and working as a personal chef to all be of interest to me. now i just need to do some research, update my CV and start contacting businesses/chefs, etc.

darina could tell that we were fading fast, so she called it a day at half five. grace and i were set on getting a run in, so we changed and were en route by ten to six. we ran for time today, opting to head straight to the beach. the moon wasn't up just yet and the multi-colored sky and gentle lapping waves could have easily been the sounds and sights of dawn instead of dusk. we took in the amazing backdrop, stretched our legs and then headed back in the direction of school. the evening air was cold but invigorating; something grace and i both happily welcomed after sitting all day long. it makes such a difference to get out and move around for a bit every day, even if it's only for half an hour.

when i got back to the pink cottage, i found all my cottagemates in the kitchen trying to get a bird, who got himself trapped in our cottage, back outside. at one point, two guys from the barn cottage were on ladders with brooms, trying to direct the frightened little guy to the open door. after a good twenty minutes, we turned off all the lights and left the door open so the bird could calm down and fly out on his own. a trapped bird isn't an ordeal except one of my cottagemates has a huge bird phobia, so we were trying to be considerate for her sake. ironically, after trying idea after failed idea, it was charlotte who managed to coax the bird outside in the end. isn't that the way it always goes?

i've got an order of work to complete and then i'm heading to bed. is it really already thursday tomorrow?!