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!
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