So usually when I post an entry to this blog I have a great beginning sentence and for sure a funny story to tell. Today, not so much. Plenty of things this week made me laugh. The singing girl from my pastry class injured herself in a collision with the back of a chair while nodding off in class. She snapped her head back so far that she hit the back of her chair and made a huge banging noise. I laughed out loud during lecture and got a dirty look from chef. How could you not laugh? The female part of the dream team brought May day baskets with little bottles of flavoring for baking. I was super excited at first because it looked like bottles of airplane liquor. I was semi-dissapointed when I realized it was rose water flavoring. It was an extremely nice gesture on her part. Class was fairly uneventful. I made a wicked savarin. Okay, I didn't know what that was either so I'll explain. Then you, too, can spout some fancy pastry words and look that much more intelligent. It is a yeasted dough that when baked, is soaked in rum and filled with pastry cream. I don't like rum--yes, there is a liquor I don't care for--so I soaked mine in lemon simple syrup and served it with lemon pastry cream. Chef said my presentation was lovely--shocker! I actually can't wait to make it again. We also made strudel. This is an impressive thing to bake. The crazy church ladies who make this on a regular basis have their work cut out for them. The dough is stretched and stretched and then rolled with the yummy filling. Ours was a strudel with carmelized onions and potato. It was mighty tasty. We got out on time as well. Everyone did dishes. I don't know if chef had a chat with everyone or perhaps the class was possessed but I sure appreciated not doing everyone's dirty work.
Sauce class was extremely interesting. It was finishing sauce day. We made basil oil, red pepper coulis, pepper cream sauce, and several other red pepper sauces that I can't even remember the names of. The tricky part of this class was putting together a plate that looked and tasted great. Chef thinks I'm stuck in a rut. I always turn to the same old stuff to prepare. She's right. I think I'm in such a mode of cooking every night that I is really hard to come up with something new and inventive. These young childless students are whipping up crazy crap that would never even occur to me. I always go to my safety place. So, I learned how to take apart an artichoke which I then pan-seared in butter and garlic. Yummy in my tummy. I used the red pepper cream sauce and the basil oil with grilled chicken, roasted potatoes, and the artichoke. I would really like to know who the first person was that decided that an artichoke was edible. How hungry must they have been? Those things are like eating cactus. You have to dig so far into the thing to get anything you can chew through. Goodness. It was really fun to see everyone's creations. It looked like the cover of Bon Appetit--or close to it.
This weekend Bob was out of town this weekend chasing the elusive turkey. I probably put 200 miles on my car on Saturday driving kidlets around. I got most of my planting done and am geared up for the big party I'm hosting in June. It's a benefit for the Ronald Mcdonald House and we could have 200+ here for dinner and cocktails. I find myself checking every room for flaws and then end up scubbing walls, recovering chairs and generally worring that someone will notice my shortcomings. I don't know why I'm so worried. The guests will get dog hair in their food no matter how much I clean. Some things just can't be prevented...more on that later...
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