Week 2: Settling in.

I spent all weekend thinking that I needed to sit down and write this post, but I was trying so hard to relax, get my homework done and squeeze in some quality time with my husband, that it just didn't happen. In fact, I spent most of yesterday not thinking about school or food at all. Okay, that's a lie, but I tried!

Anyway, week two was really the first week of the routine that we're going to follow for the rest of this term (last day of term is Halloween). We started with "Demo Day," on the first day of the week. My class size is 16, and we are split up into groups of four. For each group there is a batch of recipes for each day. So how it works is each group will complete the entire series of recipe batches throughout the week, rotating by day.

So on Demo Day, my group set up the grains recipes, for the chef to demo. The chef also demoed the other three recipe batches- pasta and pasta sauces, and two different groups of potato recipes. The grains looked simple enough as he cooked them, but I've had a bit of a history with rice, so I couldn't help but feel a little nervous about the impending grain cookery. Plus, it was the first day of actual cooking in the kitchen. I didn't know where anything was, how to work the ovens, how to go about doing anything really. Needless to say, I showed up on Day 1, a little more than nervous.

But I have to say, once I finished slicing into my finger while cutting butter (lesson learned: use a bench scraper to cut butter!) and stopped scrambling around the kitchen throwing all of my ingredients together, and started up the ovens and began simmering my various grains (rice, barley, polenta), this kind of calm set in and I felt like I was "in the zone." My rice wasn't perfect, but it was good. My barley was decent and my polenta turned out, dare I say, quite yummy. No one actually tasted my grains, since there were four of each, during the class tasting time at the end, but I left the kitchen feeling sweaty, yet satisfied. And ready to start stressing out about making pasta the next day.

Day 2, the pasta day, went pretty well also. I enjoyed kneading and cutting the pasta dough, despite my cot-ed finger, and LOVED making a big pot of juicy tomato sauce. I added a little lemon juice and zest and it turned out absolutely delicious in my opinion, though by the time we plated and tasted, it was cold and my fettucini had sucked up most of the moisture in the juice. I lugged home the extra sauce though and Taylor and I have been enjoying slathering it all over our not-so-homemade pasta.

Day 3 was potatoes for our group. I got put in charge of the Gratin Dupinoise, which was actually super fun (using the Mandoline to slice my potatoes). I added some garlic and parmesan to the recipe and slid my pan in the oven. I actually spent most of the cooking time doing dishes, since a 16 people crew produces A LOT while cooking, and though I generally hate doing dishes at home, there was something kind of satisfying about knowing that I was helping my classmates and contributing the larger success of our group. I had a moment where I stopped and looked around at the buzz going on around me and just got a huge smile on my face. "I can't believe I get to do this," was mostly the thought in my head. I probably looked like a crazy person, but it was a great moment. One I held on to as I plowed through page after page of homework this weekend.

We'll finish up our second potato recipe batch today and then move onto Soups this week.

Another part of our in-kitchen time has been tasting ingredients. Last week we tasted spices, sugars, sours, salts and fats. Though it was utterly disgusting putting things like butter, fish sauce and green peppercorns in my mouth, it's been so fun learning the purposes and flavors of all of the things that go into our food. We spent a whole lecture time talking about potatoes and I found myself thoroughly intrigued. There's just so many parts of the cooking process that are interesting on so many levels. The science, the art, the taste, the process and even the relationship piece. It's been a fascinating journey this week and I'm so looking forward to getting back in the kitchen, and even back in the classroom.

On a bit of a side note, I was reminded this weekend how easily my priorities/focus can get messed up. This whole amazing process of us deciding I was going to go to school, that we were going to make some financial and time together sacrifices, and feeling like this was really God's plan for us was suddenly washed out of my mind and replaced with stress about being "good enough," worry about learning everything and being able to be good at it and anxiety about planning out my culinary future. I spent most of Saturday feeling irritable and frustrated. But as I sat in church Sunday, and we talked about an upcoming series we're going to be doing, I was reminded just where my mind needed to be at and where my priorities need to be. I love to cook. And, I think I want to open a catering company. And I like to succeed, and learn, and be good at things. But I gave this choice, this opportunity to God to do with me as He wishes, and I just really felt reminded that this process is a step in His plan, not mine. I'm going to a place everyday where I am surrounded by 15 new people who I get to love and care for, to do something that I really enjoy and learn skills that I may need to use for His glory at some point down the road. And as I realized this, all that stress, worry and anxiety faded away. His plan is better than mine, and I am so lucky that I get to be a part of it.