Today was pretty good! Nothing extraordinary happened, but I guess that's to be expected after a big weekend of fun. The morning's cooking was much better today than pretty much all of last week. I stressed myself out WAY too much last week, so I'm trying to change my approach a little bit. Also too, I guess today involved simpler dishes. I also got to make them gluten free!! :D My body has not been happy one bit lately, so I figure I'm going to try and eliminate as many triggers as possible. Here's what I made....
- Mushroom Soup (Gluten Free): what a deceiving soup. You'd think that mushroom, onion, stock, and cream wouldn't be too time-intensive, but NOPE! I had to mince about 10 or so mushrooms to super-fine specks. It took forever!!! The soup itself tasted pretty good, though I under-salted yet again. It's incredible how much cream, salt, butter, and sugar are involved in the foods here. Sugar, salt, and fat - doesn't get any better than that!
- Sweet White Scones (Gluten Free): YUM! They didn't rise as much as they should have because I added in too much liquid, but I still thought they tasted delicious. Even though they're gluten free, they wouldn't be particularly healthy to eat because they're mainly rice and tapioca flour, xanthin gum, sugar, and various forms of dairy. One wouldn't hurt though :)
- Marzipan-filled apples: these were delicious. I got to make marzipan, which is surprisingly simple! You have to boil down sugar and water until it reaches the thread stage (before caramelizing), then add almond flour, let it cool, add a little bit of egg white, and VOILA! Marzipan. It tasted SO good! :D For this dish, we stuffed eating apples (Bramley variety grown at Ballymaloe) with the marzipan, then rolled them in butter and cinnamon sugar and baked.
- Marzipan-filled dates: pretty straightforward, just dates stuffed with the yummy goodness. The medjool dates that we used were incredible sweet and tender. I really enjoyed them up until the sweetness became too intense!
The rest of the day was pretty nice as well. We learned about cooking with wild game, and witnessed Darina and a hunter skin a rabbit in front of us... I don't think they realized how much blood would be involved... Yikes. Apparently the longer you hang game, (feathers, innards, and all) the more "gamey" it will taste (which some people like, and others not). I never even thought about that! Also I think the meat becomes a bit more tender with hanging as well.
Darina made some crab started dishes as well, and I thought this next one was particularly beautiful: a base of tomato salsa, crab meat with some herbed mayo, and topped with a semi-guacamole. Lovely!
Darina made some crab started dishes as well, and I thought this next one was particularly beautiful: a base of tomato salsa, crab meat with some herbed mayo, and topped with a semi-guacamole. Lovely!
So now it's time to go to bed. I'm exhausted! Hopefully tomorrow will go well :) I'm going to make a roasted chicken salad, white yeast bread, and redcurrant sauce. Can't wait! Hopefully it won't be too stressful! Either way, I'm going to make the most of it. Why not?
Love,
Livvy
Love,
Livvy