Irish weather never ceases to amaze me ... yesterday rain playing its own tune ... today glorious sunshine ... Not that I'm complaining it was nice to see the sun that early in the morning ... a kitchen start for 8 a.m. and looking to shake the mood of yesterday off ... so that didn't happen 😂

I believe now that week five is cursed 😜 and demo kitchen isn't for me! So what happened today ... well first I chose the wrong flour for my brown soda bread ... second ... I put a fan oven on at the equivalent conventional oven temperature and just caught my granola flakes in time! Genius ... 👨‍🍳🔥

I remade my soda bread and my granola turned out ok but the feeling of "meh" just sticks with you ... I kind of feel like I haven't really been cooking over the last two days but thankfully tomorrow there is a break as per the normal Wednesday schedule ... so the rest will do me good (i sent a photo of myself to a few people today and the response was resounding if not the most flattering ... "you look wrecked" 😝

The afternoon session today was with Rory O'Connell ... and today ... Yes, we finally made Irish stew ... it had to happen ... right ? Well today it did ... and may I say ... it was a fantastic thing ... here at Ballymaloe they make the stew with gigot /rack chops (from the shoulder) cooked whole (or each chop in two) and it was a revelation ... I will be using that method going forward :)

Anyway ... todays dishes ... 

• Moroccan Lentil Soup
• French Peasant Soup
• Crusty Bread Sticks
• Sunflower Bread
• Fougasse
• Ballymaloe Irish Stew with Pearl Barley
• Buttered Spring Cabbage
• Foragers Salad with Rapeseed Oil and Balsamic Vinegar Dressing
• Blackcurrant Fool with Shortbread Biscuits
• Little Strawberry Shortbreads
• Shortbread Sweethearts
• Petit Four - Ballymaloe Fudge 
• Leylie Hayes Rainbow Lunch Salad with Lemon Tahini Dressing

Today I had signed up an extra curricular workshop on Charcuterie / Sausage making with Phillip (of Lamb butchery and Saturday Pizzas fame!) ... I got paired with the misfits 😘 (Honor and Cloe) ... and I thought that I had a sense of humour that would suit sausage making ... well they made me look like an innocent school boy ... thanks for the giggles girls ! 😘 In between the laughs we did manage to make a fresh fennel sausage and a traditional salami ... the fennel sausage I had for dinner (very tasty) and the salami will be ready in around 4 weeks ... we will see! 

Tomorrow we have another extra curricular option in the morning ... organic gardening ... so I will try get up for that ... he we have a morning quick demo (biscuits and cheese) then ... at 9:30 a.m. ... wine tasting with Colm McCan (that should be interesting) the afternoon lecture will be on preserving, freezing & spices ... then after we have another wine talk with two visiting wine makers .... then after that we have our Wednesday social wine tasting ... 😴

Life is hard 😂😇