Today was another long and exhilarating day. I was on vegetable collection duty, so I had to wake up even earlier and go help harvest some of the day's ingredients in the quiet peace of the morning. Igor had me picking a wide variety of tomatoes in the greenhouse, which were so beautiful with all of their different, vibrant colors!
Working independently in the kitchen for the first time was SOOOO hectic!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh my goodness. We have to prepare an "Order of Work" every day that is a schedule of what we need to do in the kitchen and when. The problem is, everyone starts weighing and measuring ingredients all around the same time, so people were rushing to grab the scales and various bowls and ingredients in such a flurry!!!!!! Needless to say, it was stressful. I've never cooked with such a tight schedule before, so this day was new to me. I managed to stay pretty much on time despite all of the stress, and ALSO managed to end up with a Mushroom and Thyme Leaf Tart and Fork Biscuits (really little cookies) that received positive feedback! :) I think it was the double yolk in the one egg I had to use for my shortcrust pastry that was good luck!
Here's the Mushroom and Thyme Leaf Tart - similar to a quiche. I got to learn the skill of making a pastry crust, which is such a science! The temperature has to be perfect, and any minor error in the process can ruin the whole thing! Yikes! The only negative feedback I got on this was a lack of salt, so I guess that's not too bad!
These were my little fork biscuits, which turned out a little too cooked apparently. I decided to add cinnamon, which gave them a really delicious flavor!
The afternoon demonstration was mainly other types of pastries that we'll be cooking on Friday - Chocolate Hazelnut Tart, Biscuit Cake (which is the picture below - a nice way to repurpose older biscuit cookies!), Scones, Raspberry Jam, Candied Citrus Peel, Various Tomato Salads, Rustic Summer Fruit Tart, and so on.
The afternoon demonstration was mainly other types of pastries that we'll be cooking on Friday - Chocolate Hazelnut Tart, Biscuit Cake (which is the picture below - a nice way to repurpose older biscuit cookies!), Scones, Raspberry Jam, Candied Citrus Peel, Various Tomato Salads, Rustic Summer Fruit Tart, and so on.
The rest of the day (after we'd finished everything around 6!) was great because I got to do a hills workout and another strengthening workout with one of the girls here. That always puts me in such a great mood! :D Here's one of the beautiful countryside views I got a picture of!
For dinner, two of the students and I were adventurous and cooked up some of the veggies we'd gotten from the greenhouse yesterday! I wanted to blanch some purple cabbage leaves to make as a wrap for our creation, and it made the leaves look like seaweed or something! The colors were so beautiful that I wanted to put up a picture (even if it is a bit out of focus :\ ).
So that's pretty much been my day today! Pretty hectic in the morning, but still very exciting! I can't wait to see what the day tomorrow brings! I started missing home a bit today despite all of the excitement too, but I think I'll be okay! Sending lots of love home! :D
Until tomorrow,
Livvy
Until tomorrow,
Livvy