all is quiet in kitchen 2

back in the kitchen after a relaxing, recharging weekend. i was on salad duty this morning so i was in at five to eight. another student and i took all the leaves and ran them through the giant salad spinner and then separated all the butterhead leaves from their bases, washed them carefully and then spun them out. the larder is where the salad duty takes place as well as stock duty and all prep for the afternoon demo, so there were a number of students and teachers working in the small, narrow room. i finished up at quarter to nine, grabbed my recipes and knives and headed back to kitchen 2 for week 2.

my partner this week is one of my cottagemates, lisa. i haven't really mentioned her. she's american, from the bay area but now lives in portland. she lives on the opposite end of the cottage and has an outside entrance to her room, so she can come and go as she pleases without ever seeing the rest of us. she doesn't typically join us when we do group dinners or if we're just sitting around in the evenings. but again, every student is here for his or her own reasons.

it was a quiet morning in the kitchen and everyone's workloads were quite light. i only had to make a curried parsnip soup with parsnip crisps and gingered mushrooms for lisa's hamburgers. i made my soup first, tasting it and checking the seasoning over and over. the gingered mushrooms were straightforward: flat mushrooms sliced thinly, cooked with onion, garlic, ginger, butter and cream.

lunch was served a bit early today as everyone had finished cooking by half eleven. i tried one of the lamb burgers with pesto, a piece of bleu cheese and my usual salad greens. it was a beautiful, sunny day today and most students hurried through lunch so they could enjoy being outside. i enjoyed the sun and a bit of a walk before heading back for afternoon demo.

darina, gillian and pam taught us all about making homemade pasta and the dishes that can be made from them. lasagna, fettuccine alfredo, ragu sauce, ravioli, etc. and of course there were desserts! tiramisu, panacotta, and a walnut cake with 'american' frosting.

grace, hazel and i skipped the tasting and took advantage of the sun and ran the loop. it was a good run considering grace only had 7 hours sleep all weekend, hazel hadn't run since monday and i wasn't overly excited about the run to begin with. when i got back to the pink cottage, elisa and rose were sitting at the dining room table having tea, so i made myself a cup and we talked about our weekends and the day behind us. connie came in a bit later looking for a tennis partner and i took her up on it. it was a pretty hilarious sight as we didn't have much light. we volleyed a few times before we decided it would be dangerous to keep going. however, we're both keen to get out and play again soon.

emily and charlotte have just gotten back from the gym, connie and ellen are outside the cottage visiting, elisa is also on her computer and minnie is up in her room. it's a quiet evening in the pink cottage, one that i quite enjoy.

my plan for the evening consists of my order of work for tomorrow and then bed. i'm beat!

happy today, just happy to be here

a perfect day:

a rainbow in the field.

a morning walk along the harbor with mom and fionnbarre.

breakfast with mom and dad. omelets, toast and coffee.

sailing with peter o'rourke, mom and dad.

homemade chocolate chip cookies.

dinner with elisa, charlotte, mom and dad. flank steak, pork tenderloin, sweet potatoes, mushrooms and onions and guinness cupcakes. talking, laughing, telling stories.

a bodhran session with mebs

my roommate, elisa, came over and spent saturday evening with us. it was a such a treat for her to get out of ballymaloe but also for my parents to get a chance to visit with her.

after an amazing dinner (ginger teriyaki salmon, seared yellowfin tuna, courgettes and roast sweet potato, feta and walnut salad), mom gave elisa bodhran lessons.

elisa is a very quick learner and she was able to follow the patterns my mom demonstrated with ease. it's hard to say who had more fun, mom teaching or elisa learning!

not sure what's next for elisa, learning to play the tin whistle or the concertina. :)

church bay parade

saturday morning mom, dad, fionnbarre, eddie and i walked into crosshaven's town centre and enjoyed the small artisan market and coffees at the riverside cafe. dad bought some gorgeous cheeses from 'the little shop': cheddar with bleu and a brie with bleu.

this is the parade that i followed back up to church bay.

me and my arrow

if you haven't seen 'the point', you need to. really.

you can find it here.

there are 8 parts, so make sure you keep clicking on the continuation links on the right.

let me know what you think after you watch it!

love hearts day

somehow it's 9pm on monday evening. week six. WEEK SIX!!!

i've managed to put off posting since last thursday and i feel like it's lost time.

thursday and friday came and went with no real highlights. we were warned on day one that weeks five and ten would be hard and that we might feel a bit down and even annoyed with our classmates. not sure if we were truly feeling that last week or if we were expecting to feel that way so we did.

friday morning i was meant to milk the cow. i headed down to the cow milking barn at 7.45am to meet aileen and when she wasn't there, i headed back up to the school lobby to wait for her. at ten after eight and no aileen, i went back down to the barn and found aileen, separating the milk. she explained that we had just missed each other and that i should try coming down next week or the week after. bummed out, i headed back up to the kitchen to take advantage of being in early.

mom got back to IRE on friday morning and drove to ballymaloe friday afternoon to pick me up. she's AMAZING!!! she talked all the way back to crosshaven, telling me about her visit to MI and all the people she saw while she was home. we picked up dad from work and then stopped by the little shop and lynch's before arriving at the house.

the weekend was excellent - lots of good food and good conversation. i practiced my omelet making skills on saturday morning and then dad demonstrated how to make crepes on sunday afternoon. he did a sweet one with strawberries and then a savory one with soft cheese, spinach and tapenade. they were gorgeous!

mom drove me back to ballymaloe on sunday afternoon and i gave her a brief tour of the school grounds since it was still light out.

today, monday, started out a bit rough. the cottage phone rang at half eight to let me and emily know we were on stock duty for the day. whoops! i was just about ready, so we hurried over to the larder and found out that trina (one of the instructors) had done most of the duty in our absence. i told her how bad i felt as we made our way to the freezer for more chicken carcasses and she told me to forget it and that it wasn't the end of the world. but still.

the day got slightly better, although i have a new instructor in the kitchen and i'm intimidated by her. the quickness of what she's doing, the number of students she oversees, my noviceness, etc. we even had a run-in at the sink where i was trying to anticipate her movement and ended up guessing wrong and the bowls in my arms flew into the air and somehow i ended up on the floor, flustered and reminding myself to 'slow down!!' however, she did warm up to me and by the end of the morning she wanted to know more about where i was from in the states, if i had siblings, etc.

i made the ballymaloe irish stew (with lamb chops), kale (i got away with using olive oil instead of butter, but i still had to puree the kale after it was boiled), and pickled cucumber (which accompanied the salmon pates that some of the other students had made).

i was out of the kitchen by 12.30pm and spent some of my free time reading. i'm almost through 'one day', which i started reading after it was highly recommended by some of my classmates. my cottagemate, ellen, is also reading it and she and i have a friendly rivalry going about who's further along. as of right now, i've got fifty pages on her. :)

in demo this afternoon, rory made a loaf of granary bread, goat cheese salad with rocket leaves, roast pepper and tapenade oil, a fish curry with monk fish, ling with tomatoes and fresh spices, choux pastry, chocolate eclairs, choux pastry garlands with raspberries and cream, gougere, beignets with cinnamon and sugar, hot chocolate and cheese galette. the fish curry was surprisingly good and i'm looking forward to having it for lunch tomorrow.

this evening has been spent studying salad leaves and herbs and going over the list of 30 techniques for our exam on friday. and reading. and trying to remember everything that's happened since last thursday.

bed soon. after i complete my order of work. and maybe enjoy some pizza with my cottagemates. and 'circle of friends'...

'one day' by david nicholls

9am demonstration on biscuit of the day - chocolate chip cookies

9.30am wine tasting with colm: domaine suguinot-bordet chablis (burgandy, france 2008) and chateau montelena chardonnay (napa valley, california 2007)

11am tea and coffee break

11.15am more wine: pieropan soave (veneto, italy 2009), fontodi chianti classico (tuscany, italy 2007), palazzo della torre (allegrini, veneto, italy 2007), and bodegas resalte de penafiel (resalte crianza, spain 2004)

1.10pm lunch

2.15pm lecture on game (snipe, duck, grousse, pigeon and pheasant)

3.30pm tour of the ballymaloe house and afternoon tea

5.30pm back to ballymaloe

8pm pilates, class #2

10.30pm bread

luc lapeyre

tuesday
i seem to have a thing for french winemakers... :)

tuesday morning's cooking was all about breakfast. i made blackcurrant jam, 1/2 of the citrus salad (in order to get my 'segment a citrus fruit' technique checked off) and a full irish breakfast. the morning was structured so that at 11am, we were all cooking our rashers of bacon, sausage, black and white puddings, mushrooms, tomatoes and eggs and then heading directly into the dining room to eat them. not a bad way to mix up the morning. when we had finished eating, we went back into the kitchen to finish cleaning/washing up, have our dishes tasted and then we could retreat back into the dining room to enjoy an assortment of scones, muffins, bread, muesli, granola, homemade yoghurt, jams, poached fruit and freshly squeezed orange juice. everyone was also allowed one glass of buck's fizz (champagne and orange juice).

by noon, we were finished eating, the kitchens were clean and we didn't have to report to afternoon lecture until quarter past one. it would be an understatement to say that we enjoyed the down time. :)

we spent the first part of the afternoon demo listening to louis boutinot, a wine export manager living in south africa, talk about two false bay wines, a chenin blanc and a pinotage. after a quick taste and chat about the wines, louis was on his way and rory was on to demonstrate fileting a flat fish. seemed much more simple than fileting a round fish, but then again, rory makes most things look easy...

the flat fish was a black sole and used in a recipe for spiced goujons (or fingers) with coriander aioli and chilli salsa. rory continued on by showing, once again, how to joint a chicken. he used the separated pieces in shanagarry chicken casserole and then went on to make a pheasant with chorizo, bacon and tomato casserole, a rabit mustard and sage leaves casserole, ulster champ (mashed potatoes with peas), buttered cabbage, pilaff rice, a lemon tart with candied lemon zest, a medjool date tart and chocolate covered fruit and nuts. demo wrapped up at five and after tasting the variety of casseroles, i went back to the pink cottage with emily to drop my knives and recipes off in my room before our 6pm wine lecture.

we were extremely fortunate to have as our special wine lecturer guest, luc lapeyre, of minervois, france. he only visits ireland every other year - when france is playing ireland in rugby in ireland.

how adorable is he?!

luc's english isn't fluent, but between a few students and guests, his comments about wine, his vineyard and wine making were understood by all of us. we tasted three of his wines over the course of an hour:

minervois a/c
domaine luc lapeyre les san bres 2008
a grenache, syrah blend

domaine luc lapeyre l'amourier 2008*
a grenache, mourvedre, syrah blend
*luc feels this wine best represents his vineyard

minervois a/c
domaine luc lapeyre les clots de l'amourier 2007
a grenache, carignan, syrah blend

like pascal, i could have listened to luc all day. i'm definitely eager to visit his vineyard!

after the wine tasting, elisa, charlotte and i drove over to the garryvoe hotel where they have a gym. i went on a ballymaloe student guest pass (a cost of twelve euros) and elisa went as a guest of charlotte (also twelve euros). as we were signing in at reception, i saw that there was a circuit class on tuesday evenings at 7pm. i said to charlotte that it was too bad we missed it (it was ten after seven) and the receptionist told me i could head upstairs and just join in. when i hesitated, she came from behind the desk and drug me over to the elevator, punched 4 and up we went. when we reached the 4th floor, she had me follow her off the elevator and then she opened the door to a classroom, told the instructor i wanted to join and then she gone.

there were three other people in the room in addition to the trainer, two girls and a guy. they were working through their second circuit when i joined them. we did nine stations (lunges, step-ups or run-ups, star jumps, bicycle crunches, bench jumps, mountain climbers, push-ups, squat jumps and jumping jacks), 30 seconds at each station, without stopping. we repeated the circuit 4 times, resting for about a minute in between. i loved it and hated it at the same time. what a reality check for me! as i moved around the room, i tried to figure out how i could run the five mile loop around the school at a good pace and yet struggle so much with circuits. i have been kidding myself to think i'm in 'good' shape!

after the circuit training, i met up with elisa out in the main gym area. i had peter, the gym trainer, show me how the power plate worked. for anyone who isn't familiar with that (as i wasn't), it's a machine (the latest fad in the exercise world) that looks like a floor waxer. it has three time settings (30 seconds, 45 seconds and one minute) and four intensity or vibration settings (30hz, 40hz, 45hz and 50hz). to use it, you just pick an exercise that you'd typically do on the floor (say a squat or plank), pick your time and intensity and hit 'start'. the machine vibrates at your selected intensity for your selected time while you try and hold your move and fight the vibrations. i did a few planks to try it out and then asked peter his thoughts on actual benefits from the machine. he agreed that it was just a fad but that i'd probably get the most out of squats and planks.

exhausted from the circuits and feeling the vibrations from the power plate, i was ready to head back to school.

i had a light dinner, a quick shower and then headed to bed, thinking about how sore i'd be tomorrow.

sometimes you have to remember to put 'you' first

there were some new faces in kitchen 1 this morning and i was happy to see hazel and rose. i lucked out and have been paired with bryony this week and where i stand at our work station is directly across from aileen. i'm definitely in someone's good favor. :) even if none of my cooking goes as planned, it's going to be an excellent week.

i also had a sweet note from harriet waiting for me when i got into the kitchen. LOVE unexpected things like that, LOVE them!

today's order of work included carrot cake, romanesco (again) and a plate of irish shellfish with homemade mayonnaise. i made my carrot cake first so it would have plenty of time to cool before serving. then i whipped up the cream cheese frosting and set it aside. bryony and i worked together on the shellfish and we each plated up a starter made up of mussels, clams, shrimp, a sea urchin and an oyster. while we waited for the water to boil, i made the homemade mayonnaise. since it's one of the techniques i need to 'check off' before the end of our twelve week, i was anxious to get it out of the way.

at ballymaloe, mayonnaise is considered a 'mother sauce' and is the mother of all cold emulsion sauces. so, once you can make mayonnaise, you can make any of the 'daughter' sauces simply by adding some extra ingredients. we learn to make the mayonnaise with a hand whisk, but a food processor can be used in real life. the quality of mayonnaise depends totally on the quality of the egg yolks, oil and vinegar used. as darina says, it's perfectly possible to make a bland mayonnaise if the ingredients used are of poor quality.

starting with a pyrex bowl, combine two egg yolks, a quarter teaspoon of salt, a pinch of english mustard and two teaspoons of white wine vinegar. in a pyrex jug, mix six ounces of sunflower oil with two ounces of olive oil. set the bowl on a tea towel (so it doesn't spin away while you are whisking), hold the whisk like a pen in one hand and cup your other hand under the handle of the pyrex jug so your thumb and fingers are holding onto the jug itself. while the one hands whisks, the other hand drips in the oil from the jug, drop by drop. it's important not to add the oil too quickly because the mixture can suddenly curdle (eggs can only absorb the oil at a certain pace). our recipe says this process takes only 5 minutes, but it took me close to 15. i had a fear of getting to the last few ounces of oil and then, in the excitement of almost being done, dripping it all in in one go and having the mixture split. so, slow and steady i worked. i'd say it was a success in the end because rory commented on it as he walked by and told me it was 'just beautiful'. i covered my mayonnaise and set it in the fridge.

bryony and i blanched some seaweed to use as a garnish on our shellfish plates. it was quite cool to watch the black weeds turn bright green after only a few seconds in the boiling water. we removed it from the pot and placed it in a bowl of ice water while we cooked up the mussels and clams. the oyster was left to eat raw and it put up quite a fight to stay in its shell. i arranged my shellfish on the plate, garnished it with a lemon slice and some mayonnaise and called it done. my instructor, tina, tasted my romanesco straight out of the saucepan, so there was no need to plate it up. i took my time frosting my carrot cake and garnishing it with some carrot strips and walnuts. tina had a quick taste before i took the rest of the cake out to the dining room to be placed on a table with the other desserts. i'd say it's something i'd make again, however i'd make a few changes...starting by omitting the sultanas. :)

i was responsible for feeding the hens at lunch today, so i grabbed the two buckets from kitchen 1 and headed for the hen house. apparently the hens are allowed the assortment of shells from the shellfish because they help sharpen their beaks. more reason to stay away from them! the hens surrounded me in a hurry and talked to me all the way down the path to the fence where we dump in the contents of the buckets. (i'm sure i've said it before, but these hens eat well!) i washed out the empty buckets and headed back to the kitchen.

i ate a piece of kerry pie for lunch along with my standard salad leaves, a little romanesco and a small scoop of the kale colcannon. i tasted the ginger bread and some of mick's beetroot cake. so good!

the afternoon demonstration was all about breakfast. rory stressed the importance of serving freshly squeezed juices and then went on to make a few different smoothies, two dressed up soda breads (spotted dog and stripy cat), muesli, granola, oatmeal porridge, waffles, american buttermilk pancakes, strawberry jam, blackberry and apple jam, kumkwat marmalade, blueberry muffins and raw apple muffins, ending with a full irish breakfast. tomorrow every student will be making a full irish breakfast for lunch and there is a contest in each kitchen for the best display. a little friendly competition will be good for all of us.

hazel and i were anxious to take advantage of the dry and windless evening and run the loop, so we bypassed the tasting and headed back to our cottages to change. the run was good. quite good, actually, considering it was the first run for both of us since last tuesday. there were some good waves that taunted us as we ran along the beach. the smell of the ocean was righteous and we both commented, several times, about how lucky we are to have this escape.

we were back to ballymaloe before seven and felt quite virtuous. when i got back to the pink cottage, i made myself a quick dinner. we have a new roommate in the pink cottage, ellen from london. she's here as an intern for the next month and actually went to grade school with another student here on the course. i visited with her for a bit, asking questions about what she was doing before arriving here, how long she'll be here, etc. she's lovely.

i'm hoping to get my order of work done here in the next 15 minutes and then crawl into bed. early, i know, but i'm exhausted and a bit cold. :)

you've heard of st. croix?

this morning dad humored me by letting me practice my omelet making skills. i made us white cheddar cheese and chorizo omelets, accompanied by sourdough bread toast with raspberry jam (dad) and almond butter (me). the omelets were golden on the outside and soft and moist on the inside (the ballymaloe way). and they tasted good to quite good, if i don't say so myself! :)

now i'm attempting to make almond butter cookies. i found this simple recipe for peanut butter cookies and am just substituting the almond butter for the peanut butter. they are sitting in the fridge for the next 15 minutes and then i'll start baking them.

back to ballymaloe this afternoon. week five starts tomorrow. week five!! my! my! time flies!

headed down the border road called the el camino

friday
i stayed in bed as long as i could friday morning. my alarm had gone off at 6 and then every ten minutes after that but i kept hitting 'snooze'. elisa was on butter making duty, so when she left at five past eight, i finally rolled out of bed and put on my chef costume. i wandered into the kitchen and ate breakfast with charlotte and connie: toasted brown yeast bread with butter and raspberry jam, blueberries and a grapefruit (that i segmented so i could practice that technique). at quarter to nine, charlotte and i departed for our kitchen.

my order of work for the morning was rather light: lamb tagine with medjool dates and almond and orange florentines. my partner was making the scallops, the orange jelly and white yeast bread.

i first mixed up my almond and orange batter and then set it in the fridge. i figured i could bake the florentines while my tagine simmered on the hob. then i went to work gathering the ingredients for my tagine. we had to section our lamb from a leg or shoulder piece, so i worked with another group of students to get my 3lbs of meat. i cut off all the excess skin and fat and then cut the lamb into 1.5 inch cubes. it marinated in a spice marinade of cinnamon, ginger and saffron while i chopped onions, garlic and corriander. at 10.30am, i added the lamb and tomato juice and a small amount of water to the cooked onions and garlic in my le creuset. i brought it to a boil and then let it simmer for 45 minutes before adding in the corriander and dates. while the tagine cooked for the final 30 minutes, i made up the florentines and baked them. my first batch was much too thick, but turned out soft and delicious. i was better the second time around at getting the very thin spread of batter on the baking sheet.

by 11.45am, my tagine was ready and i had my plate in the oven, warming for my instructor's tasting. i arranged my florentines on a pretty plate, the thicker ones on the bottom and set them aside. i borrowed some couscous from another student and used it as a base for my tagine. i decorated my plate with some corriander leaves and added a dollop of homemade yoghurt to the lamb and then it was ready for tasting. my instructor remarked that the seasoning was right on and then tasted one of my florentines. she agreed that the thicker ones were was she preferred but said it was good that i made the second batch 'the right' way. :)

i ate my own tagine for lunch and tried some of the zucchini stir-fry before helping polish cutlery and set table 1. at ten to two, rory came into the dining room and told us to stop what we were doing and to head to demo. the instructors could finish setting the tables.

rachel was the demo instructor friday and she first introduced us to john chamberlain, who runs a family owned business in west cork, producing and selling sea urchins. he explained how sea urchins grow, how and when they are harvested and how to eat them. he also had a few abalone with him, but explained that he wasn't an expert in abalone and therefore wouldn't be able to answer any questions.

we thanked him for coming and then rachel went on with the demonstration. she assembled a plate of irish seafood which included the sea urchins, dublin bay prawns, shrimps, mussels, cockles, roghans, palourdes and irish oysters. she went on to make dingle pie, kerry pie, kale colcannon (mashed potatoes with kale mixed in), carrigeen moss pudding, irish coffee sauce, poached plums, rhubarb compote, elizabeth mosses' gingerbread, banana bread, julie wight's carrot cake, and a beetroot and walnut cake.

i was on 'wash and dry dishes after demo' duty, so instead of tasting all the food, i manned the sink and washed all the dishes that came my way. i finished around half five and then headed back to my cottage to finish packing up my things so i could head to crosshaven and spend the weekend with dad and finnbarre. dad called a few minutes later, so i wished my cottagemates a good weekend and headed to the carpark where dad was waiting. i had saved him two of the florentines i had made that morning and he munched on them while we drove home.

week four favorites: learning about tea, the ladies of the pink cottage, pascal rossignol, and aileen.

dad and i stopped at the little shop next to cronin's to pick up some prawns and beef cheek stew and then lynch's to get some salad fixings, bread and a vegetable for dinner. finnbarre was very happy to see us when we got home. i threw his ball down the hallway a few times while dad got the grill started. he let me make up some mushrooms and bleu cheese in addition to the salmon and sweet potatoes he was preparing. i made up salads and threw together a quick dressing and then it was time to eat.

we visited after dinner before retiring to the couch. dad did some suduko puzzles and i played with finnbarre. i think it was nearly eleven when we turned off the lights and went to bed.

stormtrooper in the kitchen

thursday
i've been thinking quite a bit about what makes a day in the kitchen a 'good day' or 'successful day'. i don't necessarily think that it's one that goes without any hiccups or mistakes, but rather when you learn something (or multiple things) you weren't expecting or planning to learn.

there was an aberrant energy in the kitchen thursday morning and it was an overall consensus that everyone's cooking was unsatisfactory. i can't really pinpoint what it was for me, specifically, but i was relieved when we sat down in the dining room at quarter past one with the morning behind us.

i had the opportunity to filet a fish again and while i enjoyed it, i didn't get the same satisfaction as i did in week two. i also made cucumber neopolitana (cooked cucumbers, tomatoes and onions in a cream sauce), boiled potatoes and homemade pasta (which i'm definitely looking forward to making again). my partner made the lemon meringue pie which turned out beautifully. the lemon curd was perfectly thick and tart.

lunch was quiet for the most part, aside from chatter about the unfavorable morning. i suppose we're bound to have a few days where the energy in the kitchen is 'off'.

in the afternoon demo, rory showed us how to section and debone leg and shoulder of lamb. he then made lamb tagine with medjool dates, couscous with dried apricots and pistachios, several citrus salads, an orange jelly (or jell-o, as we know it by in the states), almond and orange florentines (a sweet biscuit), zucchini stir-fry, scallops in buerre blanc sauce and a warm scallop salad.

hazel and i decided to forgo our run because 1) we desperately wanted to try the lamb tagine 2) it was extremely windy and 3) we were completely depleted from the morning.

the evening in the pink cottage was very low-key and everyone shared the relief in the week coming to a close.

pascal rossignol

wednesday
rory started our wednesday morning lecture by making two tea cakes, both with orange flavour. then, colm mcann, the ballymaloe sommelier, took over and talked to us about wine until our tea and coffee break at 10.45am. we regrouped back in the demo room at 11am and were introduced to pascal rossignol, a wine conniosseur (born in gevrey-chambertin, burgundy, france) who lives in kilkenny and runs and owns 'le caveau', a specialty wine shop.

pascal had us taste six different wines and talked extensively about each one.

from burgandy, we sampled:

white: olivier leflaive, bourgogne 2009
chardonnay

red: laurent parize, givry 'champs nalot' 2007
pinot noir

red: didier desvignes, fleurie 2009
gamay (beaujolais)

from the south-west of france:

white: alain brumont gros manseng-sauvignon 2009
gros manseng and sauvignon blanc

red: chateau du cedre 'heritage' 2009, cahors
malbec and merlot

sweet: jurancon 'clos uroulat' 2008, charles hours
petit manseng

the pinot noir and the manseng-sauvignon were my favorites. i had high hopes for the malbec, but it wasn't nearly as smooth and enjoyable as the malbecs from argentina. (in my opinion, of course!)

i could have listened to pascal talk about wine all day, but shortly after 1pm, he concluded and we broke for lunch.

as i stood in line to collect my plate, i chatted with two ladies who had come over to ballymaloe from co. kerry to attend the afternoon lecture on 'afternoon tea'. they asked me loads of questions about the course. it was fun to share some stories with them and explain how the course ran. they were looking forward to the ham rory had prepared for lunch as well as all the delicious sides.

we sped through lunch and were back for afternoon lecture at 2pm. sean moran was our guest and he spent an hour talking to us about tea. did you know that behind water, tea is the most consumed beverage in the world? true story. sean passed around several samples of loose leaf tea and explained to us how much better loose leaf tea is for us (taste alone!) compared to the tea bag tea sold at super markets. i was not aware that green tea should be made with water heated to just under a boil. boiling water scalds the green tea leaves, destroying the vitamins and nutritional value of the tea. good to know!

in conclusion, and in sean's opinion, everyone should own a teapot (and know how many cups it holds) and drink loose leaf tea from a thin tea cup (it keeps the tea hotter longer).

the rest of the lecture was made up of cakes, cupcakes, buns and other sweet accompaniments for afternoon tea. delicious!

wednesday evening was our first pilates class with grainne sugrue who teaches at a pilates studio in cork city. as with most first classes, it was more of an informational session than an actual workout. grainne talked about the history of pilates as well as all the benefits and then we went over 'A' - alignment, 'B' - breathing and 'C' - core before she dismissed us. i anticipate that it will be a great way to release from the day and be something we can practice throughout the week in addition to the actual weekly class.

raeltin - 'little star'

today is st. brigid's day. more details about this feast day can be found here.

i had a new instructor in the kitchen this morning which put an interesting twist on my cooking. i made mushroom soup, marzipan apples, an omelet and i helped my partner, nicole, out with her apple and clove jelly. it took me much longer to chop my mushrooms than i anticipated, but i still managed to find a good pace for the morning. making the marzipan turned out to be tricky and i managed to wait too long for my sugar and water mixture to boil to a 'thread phase' and i ended up with a lumpy mess instead of a soft, dough like mixture. not wanting to bin it, i worked the lumps out as much as i could and confirmed with my instructor that it could still be used to stuff the apples. the lumps would dissolve while the apple baked, leaving the less than desirable consistency of the marzipan unnoticeable.

making the omelet was enjoyable and a bit of a relief considering all the pressure surrounding it (it is one of the techniques we'll be tested on at the end of week six). even though rory demonstrated the technique again this morning, i was not anxious to practice. i borrowed some mushroom a la creme to put in my omelet and called my instructor over when i was ready to have a go. i talked my way through each movement with the spatula, confirming that i was doing it correctly, and then flipped it out onto a warm plate. and then i got to eat it! it was delicious and i am looking forward to making another one sometime soon. we've been encouraged to practice often and it would be a shame not to take advantage of the endless supply of the beautiful, organic eggs we have access to!

i didn't eat much for lunch since i ate my omelet, but the tomato salad was delicious and i tried a marzipan stuffed walnut just because. my duty for the day was kitchen blitz, which meant sweeping off the rugs (more of a challenge than it sounds, really), rolling them up and then sweeping the kitchen floor. i finished with a few minutes to spare before demo started, so i headed outside for a bit of cool air.

in demo today, rory went over how to make chicken liver pate with melba toast, white yeast bread, filleting round fish (again), pan-grilling fish with flavored butters, the art of homemade noodles, cucumber neapolitana, steamed potatoes, leeks with yellow peppers and marjoram and lemon meringue tarts. since hazel and i decided to go running after, we skipped the tasting and went straight to our cottages to change. we ran the loop and took the same route as saturday, choosing to run along the beach for a short section instead of along the road. it was a good, hard run considering we both had zero energy when we started. i forget how, but toward the end of our run we got to talking about irish names. hazel was sharing some of the names in her family and she mentioned 'raeltin' (pronounced 'rail-teen') which immediately became my new favorite! that and niobh (pronounced 'neve'). good run and good chat.

the evening was relaxed since tomorrow is lecture day and no one has to turn in an order of work. a few of us watched 'fletch' and then a few went on to the pub. rumor has it that we are doing wine tasting in the morning, which could be interesting! there is also a pilates class starting tomorrow evening. it will run for the next six weeks and there is a good number of students interested in participating. another great way of staying active while we're here eating all this amazing and delicious food!

on that note, i'm off to bread!

bully yourself

somehow it's already tuesday evening.

we're halfway through week four, one-third of the way through this twelve week course.

wowza!!

i'm pretty sure i need one full day to properly post about the past few days, so i'm going to do my best to share the highlights from friday through today.

friday
friday was my last day in kitchen three. we were using the rest of the chicken from thursday's roasts, so there were chicken salads galore. i made the vietnamese chicken salad with prawn crackers which required me to spend an hour and 15 minutes shredding my two chicken breasts into matchstick-sized pieces. a form of meditation for sure!

lunch was a rush because (for some reason i can't pinpoint) everyone took forever to finish up in the kitchen and then i was responsible for cleaning the weigh up area with florrie. at quarter past 1, we were told we were having a group photo at 1.30pm, so there was a flurry of activity as everyone with a duty did their best to be done by then.

the group photo was a bit hilarious as not everyone was there and it was a bit chilly outside. tim patiently waited with the camera poised as darina shouted out orders. 'emily! emily! remove your hat, we can't see you!' and 'who's that in the back there? no, not you. to your right. yes, YOU! come down here to the front so we can see you properly.' lots of groaning and whispering until tim shouted, 'ready?' and snapped away.

we were herded back inside to the demo room for our afternoon lecture. darina covered cooking and extracting meat from prawns and shrimps, making homemade mayonnaise, prawn bisque, ballymaloe brown yeast bread, ballymaloe sour dough bread, ballymaloe bacon chop, plantain chips, piperonata, roast parsnip, apple and hazelnut salad, cullohill apple pie and mereworth biscuits. after a sample of everything and a meeting with my new partner to discuss monday's cooking, i was ready to enjoy some down time! since i was attending a gluten-free cooking course on saturday, i stayed at ballymaloe for the weekend.

week three favorites: the curried chicken salad with mango and roast cashew nuts, enjoying my first guinness at ballymaloe with new friends, a successful roast of lamb with garlic and rosemary, toby's greek moussaka and visiting with darina's aunt florence.

i built a fire in the our fireplace shortly after dropping my apron and knives on my bed and changing into sweatpants. our cottage was very cold and even though i was curled up in a ball on the couch with slippers and two rugs on top of me, i couldn't get warm. charlotte brought her computer over and she sat on the floor in front of me and we watched the end of 'gone with the wind'.

friday was also graham's birthday, so his cottagemates had organized a bbq in the common area between all the cottages. charlotte and rose made brownies for graham and then our cottage wandered over to join in the celebration. it got pretty rowdy as many of the students were celebrating the end of a long week in addition to graham's birthday. after eating a burger with some delicious farmhouse cheese and visiting with a few students, i made my way back to the pink cottage and went to bed.

saturday
hazel and i started our day off with a run. we both enjoyed a bit of a lie in (as they call it) and then ran the loop at 10.30am. we completely enjoyed the scenery and commented about all the little things we weren't able to enjoy during our night runs. the sheep were out in the pasture enjoying the sun. when we got to the garyvoe hotel, we opted to run along the ocean instead of continuing on down the road. the view was unbelievable! the tide was out pretty far, so we had a nice, hard running surface. we found the path back up to the road easily and returned to school in under an hour. great run and great conversation!

i had thought about going to lunch with a few students at the ballymaloe house cafe, but my conscious got the best of me and i changed into my wellies, grabbed charlotte's camera and made my way down to the greenhouses so i could photograph the leafs and herbs we had to learn. i spent a good 45 minutes taking pics (which i'll post shortly) and walking around the grounds.

the gluten-free cooking course started at 2pm, so when i got back from the greenhouses, i made myself a late breakfast and enjoyed a cup of coffee before heading over to the school. there was a good turnout for the course: about half paying customers and half students. rosemary kearney, our instructror, had attended ballymaloe and as a coelic herself, has published several gluten-free cookbooks. unfortunately, talking in front of a group isn't one of her strengths and she was coming down with a sore throat, so it was a struggle for her to talk. a handful of students left during the break because they were not impressed, but i stayed 1) out of respect for poor rosemary and 2) i was eager to taste the numerous dishes she had prepared.

a few of the students who attended were heading into midleton for pizza after the course and they invited me to come along, so when rosemary wrapped up, i was off to my cottage to shower and change.

the evening was quite fun. the group of students who went for pizza was one that i hadn't gotten to spend much time with as individuals, so i was looking forward to getting to know them. i sat next to tom, the american from new mexico, stacia, from the netherlands, and across from bryony, from sweden. the conversation revolved around family and i got to learn loads about tom, stacia and bryony and their spouses and children. lots of laughter, good pizza and great wine.

i sat up and visited with elisa, emily and charlotte when i got home and we talked until sometime after midnight before all toddling off to bed.

sunday
i greeted sunday with cheesy enthusiasm. a few students were heading into cork to spend the day and i went along so i could meet up with my parents. i met them just inside the entrance of tesco and we did a quick grocery shop before heading into the city centre. we tried to eat at a burger place off merchant's quay, but it wasn't open on sundays, so we walked over to oliver plunkett street and ate the market lane cafe next to milano. it was fabulous! dad and i had the sweet potato starter which was AMAZING!! it was plated beautifully: the mashed sweet potato formed the base and was topped with crozier bleu cheese and spinach. three of my favorite ingredients, as dad pointed out. :) mom had the ravioli for her meal, dad had the ox cheek stew and i had the soy and ginger chicken salad. i filled them in on the week at ballymaloe and they gave me details of their week and talked about how much finnbarre had grown since i last saw him.

we shopped a bit after eating, heading into TKMaxx to look for jumpers and other warm clothes. mom found this and had to buy it for me:

what a find, right?! :)

mom and dad had to return their rental car around 4pm, so they dropped me off on patrick street so i could meet back up with the friends i had come into the city with. we all regrouped in the cafe in brown thomas and i had a coffee while the other three girls ate a late lunch. we stopped in the makeup section downstairs before heading back to the car so elisa could look for some hand lotion. funnily enough, the saleswoman we chatted with had attended ballymaloe a few years ago. small world!!

we were back at ballymaloe by 6.30pm and as we unpacked our groceries, several students came over to invite us to youghal for bowling and laser tag. i declined as i really don't enjoy either activity and i was looking forward to making this:

aside from the fact that we didn't have a blender to puree the soup, it turned out good to quite good. after a second helping, i wandered off to bed.

monday
new week, new partner, new kitchen.

i allowed myself plenty of extra time monday morning so i could get in the kitchen and get acclimated to the newness of kitchen 1. a few of my fellow students from kitchen 3 were also in my kitchen this week, so we leaned on each other when we could find something.

i made the brown yeast bread, the piperonata and couhill apple pie. the bread took ages for the yeast to rise before i could put it in the oven, but the end product was delicious. i wanted to add some chili flakes to my piperonata to give it a bit of a kick, but my instructor explained that we'd be making spicier piperonata dishes over the next few weeks. the apple pie looked beautiful (and i'll have a picture of that later as well) going in and coming out of the oven, but i was a bit rushed in plating it up and was more of a pile of apples, cinnamon and sugar and crust than a slice of pie.

the dining room used by kitchens 1 and 2 is quite different from the dining room for kitchen 3, so i watched a few of the other students and took cues from them as to where i sat and how i went about getting salad, a starter and the main dishes. i sat at a table with two young girls from dublin who are at the school all week on a work experience program. they were very cute and wanted to know all about where in the states i was from, how i was enjoying ballymaloe and how we made the dishes we were eating for lunch.

darina is in india for two weeks, so rory is running the show. he breezed through the demo and we were out at half four. he covered mushroom soup, tomato salad, provencal terrine with tomato sauce, frittata with oven roasted tomatoes, goat's cheese and chorizo, how to make marzipan, marzipan stuffed apples, marzipan stuffed dates, caramelized walnuts and then he showed us how to make an omelet in 51 seconds. that was probably the highlight of the demo for me because i have never been able to make a successful omelet in all my 30 years. i kid you not. rory made it seem like a piece of cake and demonstrated it over and over, making about 6 omelets in the process. lucky for us, we got to eat all of them!

after sampling all of rory's creations, i was back at the cottage and convincing elisa and emily to help me take out the recyclables and trash. one of the guys from the barn stopped in and announced a game of ultimate frisbee would be starting shortly and i agreed to join them after we dumped our bins and i changed clothes.

we played four on four until it was too dark to see the frisbee. the team i was on got annihilated by the other team but we still had fun. after the game i was still on an adrenaline high so i decided to go for a run. i just ran over to the cul de sac and did some sprints. i was stretching out in the grass and during a downward dog pose, my feet slipped back and i landed flat on my face. hilarious! i was disappointed there wasn't anyone around to laugh with me. :) i got up and ran back to the cottage.

elisa, charlotte and minnie were watching 'beauty and the beast'. i ate a bowl of soup and then went to my room to write out my order of work and do some recipe filing. i think it was around 9.30pm when i fell asleep.