Week 2: Feeling the pressure and loving it!

Ok, first things first, I cut myself again!!! This time in was the palm of my hand, I was taking out the core of a tomato with a paring knife, and I guessed I pushed too hard and out came the knife through the other side right into my hand, of course there was lots of blood, but I pulled through, washed it, put on a few Band-Aids and a latex glove and moved on.

Saturday started a bit stressful, my Mom had come to visit so I ended up going to bed late. I had a written test that day and had to name 20 herbs. The test went ok, the herbs I knew perfectly. However I started to realize that I was falling really behind on the reading and the workbook. Then it was chop, chop, chop, chop, ouch my hand! chop. Again no food, but to be honest I was getting used to it – or the pain on my hand had me distracted- take your pick. I was so concentrated on my chopping that time flew by. One hour before the class ended, the chef says:  “ok gather around it’s time to take you through the types of cheese and to try them”. I was so hungry that that I was very happy with that plan. Little did I know, imagine nothing in your stomach and going from simple Ricotta to Stilton (Strong like blue cheese). I kept thinking the whole time I should steal the squeeze bottle with red wine, drink it and call it a day, but after cheese #18 my stomach started to protest….and although they were delicious I was done with cheese for the next week. We also did tomato water (yellow water that tastes just like tomatoes, great for sauces and risottos) and put chilies and tomatoes in the oven to dry overnight so we could turn them into powder the next day.

Although it was a good day I had cut my hand, got reprimanded for putting electrical tape to mark my knives (thanks G!),  found out at the end of the class that a paper on spices was due the next day  and had to peel and medium dice 5 potatoes and peel 10 heads of garlic for homework. So I got home saw my Mom and started crying (like a baby!) I was so so tired, I had no idea how I was going to do the homework, my hand hurt like hell, I had to chop and peel aaaaaaahhhhhhh! But a good cry and wine fixes everything! So I breathed, my mom helped me and I was done – well sort of to be honest I didn’t peel all the garlics, just half.-

Sunday was great, we did stocks: vegetable, mushroom and parmesan (we had chopped a ton of vegetables on Saturday), we did mayonnaise, classic vinaigrette and mashed potatoes (I will be tested on that later), we did 3 different kinds of oils, and blanched broccolis and green beans. We also took the chilies and tomatoes out of the oven and made powder – delicious. We made an onion compote and tomato relish.  I loved every second of it! I didn’t cut myself, and enjoyed finally getting to cook something. I took tons of food home (everything we cook we can take if we want) and felt great, I wasn’t tired I was energized. I can’t wait for next Saturday.