Today, Not A Lot Happened

So here we are, nearly at the end of the course, only one more cooking day and two Demonstrations to go before we attempt to convince the examiners that we have learned sufficient to warrant a pass or at the very least a certificate of attendance.

In common with most other students my mind was in two places, preparing for the week and thinking about going home. Preparation for the week is clearly the most important but just occasionally you wonder what has changed in the last three months?

But back to today. No more snow overnight but an amazingly deep frost had settled giving the instant impression that it had, indeed, snowed. Still with no ironing to be done I was out of bed, out of the house and examining the landscape in close up.

 Yes, as I thought cold and frosty. Being remarkably devoid of any artistic talent whatever my attempts to photograph Life in the Deep Freeze hardly do justice to the actual effects but, since a picture tells a thousand words, here they are.

By now you will have worked out that the thousand words were mainly "Feck it's cold" repeated like a mantra to achieve self enlightenment or some form of spontaneous combustion.

Coffee and toast rectified the situation once I was back in the house and the reality of the tasks ahead sank in. Though the filing was done, it needed to be indexed and cross referenced, before being inspected as part of the end of course ritual. Now I know a wonderful cross referencer but I could not persuade her to leave the Valleys and pop over to do mine. As a result mine is "Cross Referencer Light" but hopefully adequate.

Tomorrow we return to the kitchen we were in on Friday for the last cooking session. On paper my partner and I have 1/2 a recipe for Scallops and Beurre Blanc Sauce, A Tagine of Lamb with Medjool Dates, Cous Cous with Apricots and Pistachio Nuts and a 1/2 recipe of Walnut Tart with Armagnac. But I have a problem, my partner will not be in the kitchen tomorrow having gone to their Graduation Ceremony instead. Though I will not be attempting all four recipes I will need to do sufficient to justify the morning. So grilling Scallops and making Cous Cous, though tempting, would be insufficient and would all take place in the last 30 minutes anyway.

Since I have not made a Beurre Blanc yet I would really like to so I hope to get a compromise agreed. I will do the Lamb - though obviously not taste it - and the Cous Cous accompaniment and will offer to make the Beurre Blanc.

Then it is into Demo for the last afternoon one, only Tuesday morning remaining.

Now at this stage I would like to correct some scurrilous rumours, reputedly with photographic evidence. To aid concentration I often shut my eyes whilst listening to the trickier techniques. This is done in a state of consciousness and any claims otherwise had better be proved or Me Learned Friends will be engaged again.

Well the recipes have been sheathed in plastic - just as well after the Vietnamese Napalm Dipping Sauce incident of Friday - ready for taking in tomorrow, the Order of Work is complete and believe me Patricia Cornwell could not have crafted a finer piece of fiction and the night is drawing in.

Sadly, today not a lot happened though that is slightly more than at my house mate's residence in Cashel as the sign on her wall indicates.