It's not even the end of the beginning

Friday morning and the kind of dawn that East Cork delivers at this time of year. Bright and sunny which matched the disposition of many students piling in to the Kitchens for the last cook of the week.

Not quite the mad rush of Wednesday, especially when those who started early were told that if they started before the teachers arrived at 9 - they could not correct any errors before cooking and would have to do the dish again.

The kitchen was more familiar ground today, which is probably why they move you through all four kitchens over the length of the course. I was determined that today Nadia would not have her dish drowned with soup again - mainly because we were not cooking it.

My three dishes were Chocolate Hazlenut Tart with a tricky pastry, Raspberry Jam, and a Greek salad which had to be made at the last minute. This gave me time to prep for the tomato puree, which Nadia would cook, whilst she was on duty elsewhere.

Eventually I manged to complete the three just before cut off time and managed to get two of them into the dining room, the Jam will be either eaten in our house or be sold at the local Farmers Market.

Hazlenut Tart

Greek Salad



And to prove that I cooked them

 Then in to lunch and some swapping of kitchen nightmares before the final Demo lecture of the week.

Darina started by reminding us that we had survived the first week and as we settled in it would seem easier, even if it actually got harder. She also said that the first week seemed like a month, not one voice was raised in dissent!!

Then encouragement to visit the farmers market, take part in a sponsored walk and to litter pick one mile of the road past the school before some actual recipes.

Crab seems to feature heavily next week with it appearing in tarts and two kinds of dressed crab, both hot and cold. Entertainment was provided by one crab attempting to capture Darina's finger before attacking and locking on to his partner! No nonsense Darina defused crabby combat by dumping both into warm salty water where as it heated they would "slip away quietly imagining they were in a rock pool on Ballycotton beach on a summers afternoon. 25 minutes later they were back and this time dressing for dinner - though not in a good way.

Somewhere along the way we had ice creams demonstrated and I include photos just to stoke the jealousy factor.

Next week's assignments and recipes were handed out and we scrambled to meet our new kitchen partner, discover which workstation we would be using and divide the cooking between us. Oh yes and check for additional duties especially those scheduled for Monday.

Now, Darina's Aunt Florence who called by the cottage last evening for tea and biscuits had hinted that on a Friday we would finish early so that people could get away home. True to Florence's word Darina announced that we could leave after we had tasted the dishes from the demo.

Brilliant I left at 4:57!!!

So a weekend off? Nope, Farmers Market then into Cork for a sourcing session in the English Market but first maybe a pint or two to celebrate survival and the end of our first week of living the dream