Near-Death Rose Petals

Saturday

I had the privilege of helping with an event today. During our 12-week course, occasionally Ballymaloe will host a sort of ‘show and tell’ day lecture open to the public which includes a lunch catered by the school. They usually have around some students help with events, and I was honored to be asked to join the club. Florrie, a past teacher of mine, tapped me and two of my friends, Zoe and Emma, to assist her and some other cookery school teachers in making lunch for a day course. It was a fast-paced morning—a lot of grunt work, but I had such a blast. I peeled and chopped around 40 onions while actively sobbing from the fumes. It was super cute. After that, I finely grated 6 large carrots and picked off like 200 coriander/cilantro leaves for garnish, all while stirring whatever pot I was told to stir and collecting ingredients for whatever dish needed to be collected. Florrie was a joy to watch in the kitchen, her delegation eloquent and concise. Working with the three other instructors was equally rewarding, and getting to know them outside of the context of a class setting was really quite lovely. We made a Monkfish curry similar to the one I made the week prior, a pumpkin risotto, an herby couscous salad, some soda bread pizzas and like four other things I am forgetting

The evening was a relaxed night at the Blackbird pub in Ballycotton where we watched our sweet Irish rugby lads lose a very close game, thus eliminating them from contention to become champion of all rugby everywhere and winning a trip to Disney World or something. But fret not! The Irish are resilient and began their dance party shortly after the loss with the classic Irish staple “Wagon Wheel.”

Sunday

An early rise from the Shanagarry cottage today to head to another car boot sale. This one was about an hour and a half away but the drive was glorious. Upon arrival I realized it was very cold I was pretty underdressed and quickly purchased a scarf for 2 euro. Luckily, it’s cute and will be worn again and again. We then spent the rest of the morning at a nearby cafe called “The Coffee House” in Fermoy. The chef came out from the kitchen and was thrilled to see the six of us. He asked us if we were “peckish or famished,” we said, “famished” and he said, “excellent.” Delighted to hear that we had no dietary restrictions, he made us a glorious family-style brunch with fresh bread, scrambled eggs, bacon, hummus, falafel, stuffed grape leaves, and thinly sliced beef. An interesting combination but it hit the spot. He then told us about his little town including some trivia- Fermoy happens to be the home to the smallest drivable bridge in Europe. We told him we’d go drive over it, but this, dear reader, was a lie. A small bridge in rural Ireland while driving in a sports utility vehicle wasn’t of interest to us. We went home.

Monday

Had the pleasure of having Mamie as my teacher today. Mamie usually fills in for teachers who are out for the day or have other business to attend to, like prepping for visitors or getting things ready for afternoon demonstration. She loves a chit chat and told me about her favorite pub, a nearby watering hole that is “a little shady” which she claims has never served her a bad plate of food. Today I made an apple and blackberry pie and a white yeast bread. I was proud of both. We’d planned to swim in the ocean and have a sit in the sauna after school, but bailed when we saw waves slamming into the rocks due to incoming ‘Storm Babet’. It would be so embarrassing to drown while at culinary school in Ireland. Instead, Alice and I took a delightful voyage to the grocery store instead while she told me a about a contestant who was on Big Brother UK. I don’t remember how we got to that topic, but it was riveting.

Tuesday

This one was a challenging day. I overbooked myself in the kitchen. Today my teacher was Debbie, famous for telling me my Victoria sponge was “class” a few weeks ago. I was very happy to have her as a teacher again, but really bummed out that I didn’t have a very successful day. I made a stew and a soup because they take ’soup season’ very seriously in Ireland. I also had a brioche loaf that I started yesterday that I was trying to bake today. Brioche needs two proves- one overnight and another the next day before baking. My second proving took a very long time. Not the worst thing, but it meant I couldn't serve it to Debbie due to the time. So we just kept the brioche as a personal project- ended up being delicious. My soup and stew duo both worked out, but they were rather salty. Annoying. I talked to Debbie about how a lot of my savory critiques have been about under-salting the food, and she said that this was a step in the right direction. I just need to be tasting more frequently along the way. I said, “not my best day but that’s how we learn.” She responded, “You actually had a great day, it’s just nailing those little things.” So Debbie nearly made me cry. Now I am home after an exhausting day with a glass of my Sarah Jessica Parker Sauvignon Blanc.*

Wednesday

It was a weird mental health day for me. Our midterm exam is coming up next week and today I started feeling anxiety around it upon realizing I have not taken a formal exam in over 5 years. Another piece of my stress came from not having a lot of alone time over the past couple of days and getting antsy about that. There is a small library in the main school building filled with cook books. During lunch I excused myself from the general chaos and had some alone time there. My friend Natalie and the librarian, Jacqui were there chatting about the impending exams, which I initially thought would be a red flag for me but the conversation really helped put things into perspective. No one here wants me to fail. I am a good student and as long as I put in the work, I will succeed. Furthermore, listening to myself when I need time on my own is crucial, and I shouldn’t feel shame about it. We’re doing okay. In fact, we are doing absolutely fab.

Thursday

I made a plum cake today! Once my cake was out of the oven and cooling, I had some time to spare. I cleaned up some dishes in the kitchen, checked if my partner of the week needed any help, and then made the decision to take to the fields and forage for flowers to garnish my creation. A cruel and ever-present reality in our meager existence is the change of seasons, and while the weather never gets woefully arctic here in Irish, an occasional nighttime frost ends the lives of many precious little flowers. . There are two gardens I knew to check. I checked the one near the kitchen first and asked a teacher if this little purple flower I had in my hands was edible. She didn’t know so we took some time to google it. Fortunately, it was indeed edible. Unfortunately, it was very peppery. So I ran across the farm to another garden and most of the flowers there had passed away (RIP). On my somber jog back to the kitchen, I saw a rose bush that had like three roses left that were ready to fall off the bush. A miracle from the Ballymaloe gods. The near-death rose petals really gave the cake the shimmer she needed.

Friday

Several of my cottagemates love to swim in the sea. Let’s talk about that. I am just a little guy and the sea is really big and frightening. With that being said, whenever they ask me to join them swimming, I find it very difficult to say no because I am only living on the coast of Ireland for 12 weeks of my life and the time is flying by. So yea- I will join you to throttle my one and only body into the waves of the frigid and salty Atlantic. And yes, I will shout every expletive under the sun, families with young children also trying to enjoy the water be damned. Will I enjoy it? In the moment- absolutely not. But on the drive back? Yes, I will think it is pretty rad. So we did that this evening and it was taxing.

So to conclude entry #7, I’ll tell ya the ocean was really rough on Monday, but baby, the sea was calm as can be today. See you next week!

*she has a wine brand in Ireland? Not sure why.