No Gas, No Hot Water...

I had a really great morning in the kitchen, although it was a bit of an odd one to start. My recipes required pretty much every saucepan in our section, and a Kenwood – which was nearly impossible to get (only because so many of us were making ice cream). I had everything sorted for my pea and mint soup, and my praline ice cream, and my pickled beetroot. No space on the hob because of the damn beetroot that didn’t want to cook, the syrup, praline and stock that was heating up for my soup. The Ballymaloe ice cream uses a Kenwood, and requires no ice cream machine, and it is deliciously rich. Can’t wait to make it again! Once I snagged a bowl for the Kenwood everything came together, thankfully I can adapt and multitask! The damn beetroot that was hogging the hob… Sigh. It ended up going to the hens at about 1:30 this afternoon. They were HUGE, and after four hours of cooking, they were still tough and way too hard to pickle. It ended up being quite the joke between Shannon (who also needed some of the beetroot for her salad), and two of the teachers. I was finished early, and enjoyed a lazy lunch, the sun was shining into the blue dining room, it is so nice to see all of the flowers popping up in the fruit garden, which is outside the windows.

I was in the kitchen fairly early, no gas, and no hot water… But I did make scones, which I will make again on Friday to finish off the bread section of my technique list. We all were chatting about how it was an awful day to have no water, so much cream… And Jersey cream to make it worse! But really, no day is good to have no hot water, by the end of the morning’s cooking it was back on – oh and the gas was back on before 9:00, thankfully. Although this all sounds very negative, it was a really enjoyable morning in the kitchen, Tracie is a fantastic teacher, and so much fun to be around.

I had planned on having a quiet evening, after doing my washing, and some filing, Jared popped by to see if we wanted to head down to The Goal Post (local pub, about a ten minute walk). How could we resist? Off we went down the dark roads for a pint, our first time at The Goal Post – doesn’t compare to The Blackbird!

Tomorrow is lecture day, and I will get out to see the piglets, calf, and chicks…

Today’s notes are all filed away, so I don’t have a proper quote!

“One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.” - Virginia Woolf