My Experience at the 1/4 Point

Hard to believe that I'm 1/4 through the cooking program.  I heard others comment how this week dragged, but for me it flew by.  I think that's a good sign.

So, what's been cookin?  On Thursday I made a traditional roast chicken with herb stuffing and gravy, roast potatoes using lots of fat in a separate roasting tin, and bread sauce, which is an Irish, and perhaps British, thing that goes with this type of meal (at least to them).  Everything was very good, but there wasn't much new here.  B.t.w., for those of you that roast chickens, Darina and the instructors made a big thing out of taking out the wishbone before roasting.  They think it makes carving much easier.  For what its worth!

Friday I made a loaf of white soda bread and a chocolate cake with buttercream icing.  Well, the key to the cake is to soften the butter well before adding the other ingredients (both for the cake and the icing).  But our kitchens are so darn frigid when we arrive and never get warm; and because these are our first cakes with this approach, we're not allowed to use food processors.  Melting the butter isn't good, so I kept heating it a little and then beating and beating and beating with a wooden spoon.  Finally got the cake in the oven and started on a chilaquiles verde o rojos, a Mexican casserole dish.

While I was finely chopping some onions, I finely chopped a very, very small piece of skin off of my left thumb.  At first I thought I could ignore it, but it started to bleed too much.  Sue, my instructor this week (they are actually called teachers here, but that sounds too juvenile to my America ear) led me to the first aid station and helped me stop the bleeding.  While I had the chance, I told her that there was no way I was going to finish the cake and the chilaquiles in a reasonable time.  She agreed and admitted that these cakes should probably be done by themselves.  Anyway, after bandaging my thumb and covering it with a neat little rubber prophylactic, I was ready to return to the battle of the butter.

I finally got the butter for the icing pretty soft and added the powdered sugar, but it wouldn't blend.  I showed Sue and after quizzing me about amounts of ingredients, she told me to put it in a blender.  It finally came together in big chunks.  I added the little liquid that the recipe called for and it help.  So, I did what any good engineer would do, I added more water.  Lo and behold, the icing was just right for icing the cake.  After much struggle and some help from Sue, I got the cake iced, piped on rosettes, and topped it with melted chocolate twirls that I had made first thing.  Looked pretty good, if I do say so myself; and, when Sue tasted it she scored it a 6 out of 6!  Not a bad way to finish the week's cooking.  Sue gave me the ingredients for the chilaquiles that I had already started and I took them to the cottage, along with half of my chocolate cake and my bread.

My virus has returned, so I won't be going up to the school for pictures (its cold outside -- about 2 deg. C, which is about 36 F).  I'll try real hard to get more pictures next weekend.  Instead, let me give you my views on the program and my experiences so far.

Good

• Food demonstrations.  We've had four different individuals do the demos and all of them have been very good.  Clear in their descriptions, dynamic in their presentations, and open to all manner of questions (really important).
• Instructors/teachers.  I've had 3 and each of them is a very nice person who really tries to help.  None are perfect, but I'm very pleased with their attitude, skills, and teaching abilities.  I get annoyed with ones that I can't find, but that's probably because they have other overlapping duties.
• School and farm.  The farm is to die for and the school facilities, not including the equipment, are generally good.
• The curriculum.  Amazing how much we cover in 12 weeks.  I don't think I'll like the testing part, but that's for the future.
• Cottage mates.  I share with 5 very nice women and we all get along.  No hen fights!  Each has helped me at times and I in return with them.
• Living in Ireland.  Great to experience a different culture for more than a week or two.  In general, the Irish are very friendly.  I just need to get to the pubs for Guinness more often.

Not so good

• Equipment.  The equipment in the demos is out of date and the equipment that the students use is worse.  Blenders are attachments on the top of mixers that don't all match.  Ovens were decent professional quality when new, but my kitchen has at least two different brands/sizes, so roasting pans, baking tins, and racks have to be searched out to match the right oven.
• Cooking space.  My space this week was good, but some weeks you have a space that is no more than 4-feet wide.

Mixed

• Recipes.  They cover an incredible breadth, but they are what you would expect from a cookbook published in the 80's.  Cooking with lots of butter, eggs, and cream.  Good for the basics, but maybe not so good for the waistline.

At the end of the course, I'll modify and add to this, but I wanted to give you an idea of my experience so far.

Getting Stronger Every Day

This will be a short blog and probably the last mid-week blog.  The comments have tapered off to zero, so I'm guessing that you don't need as much detail.

We get 15-20 recipes demonstrated for us in each afternoon session.  Of those, my partner and I are assigned five or six or maybe seven, if they are shorter ones.  So, I'm cooking less than 20% of all the demonstrated dishes.  But you don't have to cook all the recipes to learn all the techniques.  Each of us has a checklist with about 85 techniques on it.  The first column is "First Attempt," the second is "Improving," and the third is "Good at it."  After 2-1/2 weeks, I've got less that thirty "First Attempt," a few "Improving," and two "Good at it."  So, when I say the I'm behind on my breads, I mean that I don't have the types of breads we've covered checked off for even "First Attempt."  Yes, they consider breads so basic to cooking that each of the bread types is a "technique."

Monday's cooking went well.  I did a roast leg of lamb with coriander seeds and garlic, gravy, and mint sauce and all of this was delicious.  By the way, mint sauce here is nothing like the mint jelly I'm used to seeing in the U.S.  It is mostly finely chopped mint in a loose liquid; but boy does it taste great with the lamb.  I attempted glazed carrots also, but I burnt some of them -- not good.  Today (Tuesday), I did a great mangoes in lime syrup, cabbage soup, and boiled romanesco (a vegetable like cauliflower, but light green in color).  I also made garlic butter to go with my partner's shepherd's pie.  I still had a little extra time, so I baked a loaf of brown soda bread.  I don't know how the bread turned out, because it was still hot when we were finished, but everything else tasted great.  My instructor helped me with presentation (you never garnish something sweet with parsley -- dummy me!).  All in all, a tiring but good morning.

This afternoon the demos were done by Rachel Allen, the daughter-in-law of Darina.  She is something of celebrity on British TV, i.e., she does cooking shows.  She wasn't here for the first two weeks of the school because she was cooking on a beach at some exotic resort, but she will be one of the leaders for the remainder of the program.  I think I can guess who Darina's successor will be.  In any case, she was very good -- clear in her descriptions, dynamic in her presentation, and very open to answering questions.  B.t.w., her cookbooks are sold in Borders in Albuquerque.

Life is Good: Guiness & Golf

Quite a week!  Glad to see the weekend, but also feeling good about the way things are going.  And I finally got to a pub and had a couple Guinness and played a few holes of golf (not right after the Guinness)!

Wednesday morning we were shown how to make cheeses.  This is not something we'll do ourselves in the course, but it is more background and Darina is always pointing our opportunities for new small businesses.  It was all very interesting, even if I don't ever make any cheese.  Wednesday afternoon was devoted to wines -- not just the book-learning stuff, but tasting (shucks, do we have to?).  Much of the discussion was with Barbara Lawson, the owner of Lawson's Dry Hills in New Zealand (not Australia as I stated in my last blog). We tried her Sauvignon Blancs and an inexpensive French of that type, similarly for a Riesling, Pinot Gris (same grape as a Pinot Grigio), Gewurztraminer, and Pinot Noir.  We also tried inexpensive French Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot.  I'm personally biased to the red Pinot Noir and the one from Lawson's was very good, but the Gewurztraminer, a white wine, was exceptional -- one of the best wines I've tasted.  By the way, we have a test on wines at week nine, but I'll savor this part of the course regardless of any testing results.

Back to the kitchen!  Thursday morning I was supposed to make tortillas from scratch, tortilla chips with homemade salsa and guacamole, and creme caramel with caramel sauce.  I started with the creme caramel and, just as I suspected from the recipe, it was fun but a real time burner.  While the creme was in the oven, I started on the tortillas.  Trina said that my first one wasn't thin enough.  I then spent at least 1/2 hour rolling and rolling and rolling to get a measly 6 tortillas (put the remainder of the dough in the hens bucket).  The ones I fried as just tortillas on a hot pan were very dry --yuck!  The ones I cut up and deep fried as chips were O.K., but I've had much better chips in restaurants around Albuquerque; however, these were flour-based chips not corn chips, which are much better, in my humble opinion.  Anyway, I was running out of time, so I only made the guacamole and not the salsa.  The recipe called for lots of lemon juice, but one lemon gave me a little less than the recipe stated and I settled for that.  When Trina tasted it, she said it was too lemony and I agreed (note on recipe, in case I use it in the future).  The creme was really, really good and Trina thought so too.  All in all, mixed results but fun and lots of lessons.  One is that I won't be making tortillas from scratch when I get back to New Mexico!

On Friday I got to cut up, skin, fillet and scale a "round" fish.  Round fish include cod, pollack, hake, etc. that are roundish in cross section, versus "flat" fish which are, well, flat.  But before I got to any of that, I made a loaf of white soda bread, first thing, because I'm behind on breads.  I told Trina that the buttermilk was very thick and chunky, but she said that's the way it is some days.  I had neglected to preheat my oven, so I got behind on the bread.  When I was ready to combine the wet and dry, Trina was no where to be found, so I went ahead without her.  Sure enough, the thick buttermilk didn't add enough wetness and I had to add extra plain milk, which overworked the dough -- not good.

Also before the fish, I made sauce for a Caesar salad, washed and dried the Romaine lettuce (called Cos over here), and put the lettuce in the fridge until just before serving.  The fish was to be cooked in the oven with a Mornay sauce, Duchesse (whipped) potatoes, buttered crumbs and cheese.  Sounds like a challenge and it was.  I started the potatoes a little late, so I was behind my plan from the start.  Darina insists that potatoes for whipping are cooked with their skins on to keep in the flavor.  Nice, but even though the skins come off easier than with raw potatoes, those potatoes are HOT.  I had to finish the potatoes before I could start on the Mornay sauce, because my partner and I were out of burners and suitable pots.  Yes, I could have gone around asking others to borrow a pot and burner, but that would have burned up more time than just finishing the potatoes.  I got all the ingredients finished, layered the sauce, fish, and buttered crumbs, and then started piping the potatoes around the edge of the dish.  Trina corrected my technique, but by now the dish didn't look very attractive. 

I also made croutons for the salad, but that didn't go well either.  The recipe said to brown them in a pan for a few seconds, so I took them off after about 1/2 minute and they were soggy.  I ended heating them in an oven for at least 20 minutes before they really toasted.  When my food was judged, I was told that I put the salad together too early, the dressing was fine (to my taste it was very good indeed), the presentation of the baked fish was poor (I will really have to work on presentation), and the fish dish itself didn't have enough seasoning, which here means salt!  Over the years, Charlene and I have weened ourselves off of salt in our cooking and I'll just have to un-ween myself (sorry Charlene).

After two weeks, all the students understand Darina Allen's philosophy of cooking: start with the best natural ingredients and cook things simply to accentuate, not overwhelm, the natural flavors of the ingredients.  Ballymaloe is not only a school but also a 100-acre organic farm, which is in an area of numerous other producers of outstanding cooking ingredients, like organic vegetables, chickens, lamb, fish, etc., etc.  I expect to face many cooking challenges when I return to New Mexico, but the biggest one will be finding the type of ingredients that I'm using here in my cooking.  Darina knows that will be true for many, if not most, of us, but she is evangelical about us developing excellent local producers wherever we go.

Friday evening a few of us went to the pub right here in Shanagarry -- a 5-10 minute walk.  No worry about a designated driver.  Unfortunately, no pub food, but they have Guinness on tap (there really isn't any other kind here)!  Saturday, two of my cottage mates and I went into the city of Cork, walked around, shopped in their great indoor food market, and had lunch at a wonderful little restaurant that overlooks the indoor market.  I was surprised at how much I enjoyed Cork.  Many of the tourist books have little on it (Rick Steves recommends Cobh and Kinsale and doesn't even mention Cork), but I think it has a wonderful center and the quay adds a nice atmosphere.

Some of you have asked for more pictures and even suggested particular subjects.  Well, this weekend I stayed away from the school, so I don't have the requested animal pictures, but I did go over to Ballymaloe House (about 2 miles from the school), which was started by Darina Allen's mother in law, Myrtle Allen.  Here is what you see when you use the south entrance.

Here's a closer view of the house.  Starting on the lawn in front and going to the left is a cute little golf course that I played. 

In the U.S. we would call it an executive course, but we really don't have courses just like this one.  The greens are the same grass as the fairway just mowed a little shorter and very, very bumpy and uneven.  Two putting from 3 feet is a matter of luck.  There are 8 holes, but only 6 greens. The biggest challenge today (Sunday) was finding my ball in the fairways.  Because of all the rain a week ago, the ground is so soft that every time my ball landed from a high trajectory it would bury so that you couldn't see it unless you looked down at it.  But you know what, I loved playing there.  I pretty much had the course to myself and it made me think of what golf must have been like when people were playing in Ireland a hundred years ago.   Besides, the price was great -- nothing, because I'm a student as the cookery school.  One final picture from one end of the course, looking back towards the lawn in front of the house in the distance.

Lovely!
On to week three!

Beginning to Really Enjoy

I'm writing this on a Tuesday evening because on Wednesdays (except for the 1st week) we have lectures and don't cook and, consequently, I don't have to prepare an order of work (although I could do it tonight for Thursday, but that wouldn't be good procrastination).  I've heard from some of you that the blog so far has been too serious, that I need to lighten up!  Thanks for the good advice.  I am really trying to focus on having fun and learning as much as I can, but sometimes natural inclinations and ego get in the way.  Just know that I'm trying and, as you will learn it you read to the end of today's blog, I think I'm improving on this.

To all of you who have made comments on the blog site, I am very sorry but I cannot figure out how to send you a reply.  When I get your comment forwarded to my e-mail, it comes from a no-reply site.  When I go to the blog dashboard, there is no place for me to reply to comments.  So, if you want to send a comment for which you don't expect a reply, you can continue to make it a comment on the blog site.  If, on the other hand, you might like a reply, send your comment to my e-mail address and I will reply when I'm able.  I don't want to put my e-mail address in this blog, because I don't really want to start dialogues with people I don't know.  If I know you and you don't have my e-mail address, you can get if from T.J. or Jack (not positive that Claudia has it) at my former place of work or by calling Charlene.  This may catch them by surprise, but what the heck!

Yesterday and today I really and truly had fun.  I started the week by making lemonade, chicken in a winter herb sauce, and Irish (boiled) potatoes.  I got scored 5 out of 6 on the later two (the first one wasn't scored), which was very good, but that wasn't the best part.  Instead of just trying to get them done, I started to look for the subtleties in preparation and presentation (part of the score).  And more of my questions are about making the items better, not just "doing them.". 

Today was different but still good.  I made red currant jelly, which was easy, but also kind of fun.  Then I made a cucumber and yogurt raita, which is an accompaniment to any number of Indian dishes (others were cooking chicken in an Indian style).  I used lots of coriander, which in NM we know and buy as cilantro.  Actually, there's more of a difference, but I'll let you look it up.  I finished the morning with a chocolate fudge pudding.  Things went fine until the pudding.  First, I neglected to melt the butter with the chocolate (first step in the recipe).  My instructor, Trina, helped me through that and I added melted butter later than planned.  That seemed O.K, but then she noted that the mixture was too thin.  She asked if I had put in only 1/4 cup of water and I had to admit that it might have been 1/2 cup.  That put us both into "recovery mode."  Following her directions, I added extra egg yokes, extra flour, extra whipped egg whites, and put the mixture in a bigger baking dish.  While it was baking, I noticed that I had some castor sugar that was supposed to go in, but I held my tongue and put it back in the bin.  Low and behold, it turned out surprisingly good (wasn't too sweet) and Trina actually gave me a  4-1/2 on the pudding.  So, I learned that no matter how much you screw something up, it may turn out just fine.  Don't despair and don't give up!  I also learned that these Irish have a sweet tooth.

In each one of the blogs, I'll try to describe something that will give you an idea of the small things that make life interesting for me here in Ireland.  I've already talked about the accents and the rain, but I've gotten used to asking people to repeat themselves and it hasn't rained for 3 days!  Of course, people may avoid me because I keep asking them to repeat and it may pour tomorrow, but life is grand!  I may be fooling myself, but driving on the left side of the road has become only a minor challenge.  Even the narrow roads don't seem too bad.  To get my exercise, I do my power walking in the morning, before going to school (usually somewhere between 5:30 and 6:30).  I strap on some reflective strips, put on sweats and a pair of low-cut hiking shoes, carry a torch (flashlight) that recharges by winding it (great Christmas gift from Adam), and venture out into the dark.  Much of the village of Shanagarry has street lights, but some sections can be pitch dark.  It's not scary, rather exhilarating, and I think it has helped me keep at bay the virus that is chasing me.

Well, in addition to a full day of lectures tomorrow, we have a wine lecture at 6:00  p.m.from a woman who runs a big Australian winery.  On Thursday I will be making tortillas, fresh salsa, avocado dip and more.  But that's for the next blog.

Survived Week One

Ballymaloe is a serious cooking school -- a little more serious than I expected, but perhaps I just didn't face up to it.  Thursday was a day for lectures.  We learned about a lot of different cheeses, including a lecture with tasting from a man who imports giant blocks of Parmigiana-Reggiano from Italy.  Absolutely delicious.  We also started lessons on wines (yea!), including a ridiculously hideous VHS (yes, out of date as well) on wine etiquette.  Safety and hygiene were covered in the afternoon.  As part of a session from a local fire responder, I got to use a fire extinguisher to put out flames on a gas stove.  Fun!  We finished with some info on hazards planning as applied to restaurants and other culinary establishments.  Too specific to Irish requirements for me, but I am in Ireland after all.

Thursday night I spent hours with my "Order of Work," because on Friday I had to redo the bread from Wednesday, as well as a complicated chocolate-hazelnut tart and a Penne with mushrooms and marjoram.  Let me first explain that most of the students are used to using weights for dry ingredients like flour and sugar, and volumes for liquids in liquid ounces, while in America we use volumes in cups/volume ounces for both (an imperial pint is 18 not 16 ounces,  but that's a whole other complication).  Well, the bread recipe called for 14 oz (weight) or 3-1/2 cups of wholemeal flour and, when I weighed the 3-1/2 cups like I used on Wednesday, it weighed between 18 and 19 ounces.  Aha!  I had been the victim of an error in conversions!  Well, Mamie was somewhat understanding, but I had to redo the bread anyway, which I proceeded to screw up royally by forgetting white flour (I'm guessing by how it came out).  The tart was just as complicated as it read in the recipe and occupied most of my attention.  I worked on the Penne while I was waiting on the tart at different stages.  I let it cook too long while I was finishing the tart.  And then, while my attention was on trying to save the Penne, the tart was left in the oven 2-3 minutes too long.  Arrrggghhh!  Oh, and while in the middle of all my trials, I reached into soapy water and cut my finger (only small cut, thank goodness) on a chopping knife that another student had left in the soapy water (an absolute no-no) and had to take time out to have it bandaged.

I sulked over lunch.  I ate my own Penne, which my instructor had said had too much lemon but I think was too salty.  I noted how my tart was darker than all the others, so I didn't even eat any myself (I'd already tasted it).  During the demonstrations that afternoon, I listened while Darina critiqued someones (no names used) Penne as being too soggy and not al dante and I thought "that's the least of my problems."  Later, her assistant brought out a very dark tart and set it on the counter.  It sure looked a lot like mine and I anticipated the embarrassment that was about to come as she pointed out the over baking.  After it sat there for several minutes with me growing increasingly fidgety, she picked up the tart and proceeded to comment on the lovely golden brown color and how delicious it looked!  Whew!  She also said that the filling might be a little dry and it may not have been my tart, but I felt a giant weight come off of my shoulders.  After that I thought to myself:  "You're here to learn how to cook and to have fun.  Chill out!"

So, believe it or not, I had a wonderfully relaxing Saturday.  Drove to Midleton (the nearest town with shopping centers) in a gusty rainstorm.  Walked around Midleton in a gusty rainstorm.  But I got the SIM card I needed for the unlocked cell phone that I had brought with me, and it works!  Talked to Charlene for half an hour and it was great.  I did my wash later in the afternoon and evening ( the cycles on the washer are interminable) and had pizza in the cottage with some of the girls -- I mean women (the oldest is only 2 years older than my daughter Emily).  I mentioned rain and, yes, it has rained every day this week; but its supposed to be "partially cloudy" tomorrow (Sunday).  To be honest, the rain hasn't really bothered me.  I've done my power walking 5 times and didn't get rained on during any of them; although I have stepped in quite a few puddles.

I've learned that two of my weaknesses will almost certainly make things difficult for me throughout the course - I get nervous and rush when under pressure and I am forgetful, which amplifies the nervousness and vice versa.  Since I am in this for the experience, I have the option of just completing the course without getting a certificate, but until I make a firm decision, I'm trying to keep up with the others.  I've been fighting off a virus all week and today it is starting to get the upper hand. If we are sick, we can't go in the kitchens, which means you start to get behind.  Can I overcome?  Stay tuned.

Now it is Sunday with the anticipated blue skies.  I promised some photos and here are a few.  This is our cottage from the rear.  My bedroom is upstairs on the right.

The next is what we see of the Ballymaloe gardens from our back yard.

Next is a picture of some of the gardens.  Absolutely beautiful, especially considering that we are in the middle of winter.

Some of the gardens are more formal, with herbs growing in the patches surrounded by hedges.  Imagine how wonderful this is when the wisteria are in blume on the structure over the seating area.

The school itself is a structure that fits in quite nicely with the other buildings in the area.  This is where I spend most of the day in the kitchens and demo room.

The cottages on the cookery grounds are marvelously quaint.  I'm glad I'm not staying in them because they are dominated by young people and they haven't been updated for some time, although they are well maintained.

The last picture is taken from the north (more inland) of the school.  The school is among the trees on the left of the road that runs through the shot.  You can see the ocean on the left, with an island.  Then there are the cows in the foreground.  What an incredible pastoral setting!

On to week two!

FirstWeek at Ballymaloe

Travel from Albuquerque wasn't without its hiccups.  The American Airlines people in Chicago encouraged us to check our carry-on bags, which I did (without making sure that I could do without everything in my bag).  Of course, that's the bag that didn't show up when I landed in Cork, Ireland!  Fortunately, I only had to buy a few things to tide me over until the bag arrived 1-1/2 days late.  Before I left Cork airport for Shanagarry, I waited over an hour at National Car and didn't get the car rental the way it was reserved (you don't want all the details). But I arrived at Ballymaloe Cookery School mid-afternoon on Sunday!  I managed to drive on the "wrong" side of the road from the airport without an accident, even though there were some surprisingly icy sections of roadway.  But boy are the roads narrow!  And the village of Shanagarry is tiny, tiny. 

The school is just as quaint and pretty as I expected.  I'll try to get some pictures posted this weekend.  I'm in a relatively new cottage that isn't actually on school grounds, but it is adjacent to some of the school gardens and only a 5-10 minute walk to classes.  All of us in the cottage have a room to ourselves with our own bathroom.  We share the living areas, including a living room with a TV and Wi-fi for the computer, a well-equipped kitchen (it is, after all, a cooking school), a small eating area off of the kitchen, and a laundry room that is accessed from the back yard.  The people in the other rooms are women who are either committed to changing their careers or strongly thinking about it.  Two come from other parts of Ireland (one originally from England), one.from Scotland, and one drove here from Sweden (originally British).  We get along very well, although we haven't done anything social together.  In particular, I have yet to have a Guinness since I arrived.  Guess I'll just have to plan on a pub run and see who will join me.

I survived the first three days of classes but hardly with flying colors.  First day was all tours and introductions.  Of course, I was suffering from jet lag, which made some of the lectures challenging.  And of course it rained much of the day.  Second day was our first day in kitchens, but we prepared the food together and, as will be the pattern for the rest of the course, ate the meal we prepared at lunch.  Afternoons are usually demonstrations for the foods we will prepare the next morning.  Darina Allen who is the matriarch of the school, usually does the demonstrations and we taste the food at the end of the afternoon.  Two people are paired together and assigned several dishes.  We decide between us who will cook what.  Well, day three was our first chance to cook on our own.  I did O.K. on a potato soup with parsley pesto, but my ground wheat soda bread was too heavy as a dough and, consequently, too dry when it was done.  I get to try again on Friday.  The food we've been eating, including that prepared by the students (even my bread was "O.K."), has been wonderful.  In later blogs I'll get into the cooking philosophy. 

So far my biggest problem has been hearing.  As many friends and relatives know, I have a high-frequency hearing loss that is sometimes characterized as a "shooter's ear."  But I've never done a lot with guns, so I don't know the cause.  I have hearing aids that help a lot in some situations and almost not at all (or worse) in others.  They are particularly unhelpful when there is a lot of background noise in a room.  Well, almost every situation at the school has background noise.  Worse yet, almost everyone is speaking with an accent quite different from what I usually hear in New Mexico.  I find that social occasions in big rooms are really bad -- think every lunch.  Cooking with 20 other people in the room can be a problem, but I just have to ask my instructors to repeat things for me.  My instructor for the first week, Mamie, has been really patient with me and really helpful.  I think I'm lucky to have her for my first week.

Tomorrow is a day of lectures, but Friday is back to the regular routine of cooking and demos.  I really need the weekend to catch up on things!

Retirement, then what?

If you are of the  baby-boomer generation, you almost certainly remember the line from the Beatles song: "...when I'm 64."    After 30 years at one of the U.S. national labs, I retired with my last regular workday on my 64th birthday!  What next?  I have no "grandchildren on my knee," so I don't have enormous family constraints.  What about cooking school?  Say what?  It's not like I've been crazy about cooking all my life; but over the last few years, I've found that I really enjoy planning a good meal, trying a new recipe, and doing the actual preparation (not to mention the eating, when things turn out as anticipated).  And Charlene, my wife of almost 42 years, now prefers to do other things, which gives me full reign of the kitchen.  So, if I'm going to do the cooking, I want to learn to do it well.

How did I come up with the Ballymaloe Cookery School in Shanagarry, County Cork, Ireland?  The honest truth is that I stumbled on it during web surfing and I wasn't even looking for a cooking school.  Their website germinated an idea that grew.  The school seems to fit me so well that I quickly gave up looking at other programs.  Their 12-week certificate course is a serious program, but it's not so long and drawn out as to be suitable only to young people beginning a culinary career.  I'll get a good foundation and, hopefully, enough expertise and confidence to spark real culinary creativity.  And, if I'm any good, it may actually lead to some interesting work in retirement.  To top that all off, the school is in Ireland, near the coast!  Some would question Ireland in winter, but after two vacations to the island, I know I will mostly like it.  Others would question Ireland's culinary tradition.  True, 30 years ago things were bleak.  But like Ireland's economic changes, the food has gone through a revolution that Ballymaloe helped lead.  On our trips there, we've really enjoyed Irish pubs and restaurants.

Since I leave in about a week, I'm in the middle of prep.  Got my new knives.  Engraved my initials on them myself, rather than pay the $15 each that a local jeweler wanted.  Got my chef's outfits.  I've started to prepare the list of things I'll take.  In addition to the airline limitations and choosing to take golf clubs, my single room in a cottage at the school is likely to be very small.  But, I don't need to overwork this.  After all, they do have stores in Ireland.  It's a little harder getting everything set up for Charlene, for the time I'm gone.  But, phones and e-mail do work between the U.S. and Ireland.  The school has wi-fi in at least one location, but I still worry about compatability.  Setting up a reasonably priced phone before I leave isn't practical (some change in Irish rules, I understand), but I'm hoping to get one shortly after I arrive.  Unfortunately, one of their largest phone companies, Vodafone, didn't respond to my e-mail inquiry.  More anxiety! 

Turns out that setting up a reasonably priced, 3-month car rental is a pain.  It has to do with the Collision Damage Waiver (CDW).  Because of Irish laws and/or practices, most credit card coverages do not apply.  I found one that does, but I had to get a letter from the bank stating such.  It was that or pay $15/day for CDW for a rental that otherwise averages less than $10/day.  Ridiculous!  I'm still anxious about what will happen at the rental counter, but I think I'm as prepared as I can be.

Assuming I can get my computer working quickly, I expect my next blog will be posted after I arrive in Shanagarry.  Here's hoping the travel goes as planned.  Since I'm flying through Chicago in winter (what ever possessed me), I have another source of anxiety.  What, me worry?