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!