Week Two at Ballymaloe Cookery School

Another week down in the Ballymaloe Cookery School Book has me falling into the groove of this place. Some of the highlights of the past week were breaking down a whole chicken, filleting a fish, and learning how to butcher half a lamb. It's so empowering to know I can now go to my local butcher, buy half a lamb and I'll know how to process and make it into cuts of meat.  

Week One at Ballymaloe Cookery School

Farmer's Market in Midleton, Co. Cork, Ireland

First Day at Ballymaloe

Reception lobby of Ballymaloe. 

Exxxxxxxxhale. First day of school, check and done. Where to start describing this surreal experience (I still don't believe this is my real life, pretty sure I'm actually in a really, really long dream)? Ok, so,  at this point I'm adoring living in a European country. Spaces, cars, bathrooms, roads, everything is smaller. People don't waste like Americans do, paper cups, paper towels, paper everything is not a thing here. When you leave a room, the lights are turned off. Water is treated as gold. Europeans talk about issues. And they are quiet. So fucking quiet. Dam, I can easily feel like an elephant in a china shop because, first, I suffer from tinnutis making me deaf as a bat, so, I can't hear what the fuck you said anyways and second, people fucking mumble here. They are, like, mysterious and stuff. Well, hot dam, I can be mysterious, too! Back to the adoring part. So. 

The calm before the storm // Exploring surroundings of Ballymaloe

Penn Castle in Shanagarry, Co. Cork, Ireland. Birthplace of William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania State.

It's Sunday so naturally (ha!) we went to church. Liam is getting used to walking everywhere, it was weird for him walking to church, but he did and sat through Catholic mass. Big exhale. After a little lunch and rest, tonight I (nervously/excitedly/scaredly) make the five minute walk to meet all my classmates and have enough social lubrication to quell the butterflies a brick oven pizza. It's so unbelievable to have had this Mental Checklist of things I'd be doing before actually cooking in their kitchen, but here I am, completing the list and rockin' it! Like a MAD WOMAN! Let's keep the confidence. Yes? Yes. YES. YES!!! 

Making my way to Ballymaloe // A morning in Dublin

Good morning from Ireland! It's surreal to be drinking coffee in a Dublin hotel restaurant, about to write a blog about my travels, amidst din of other travelers, foreign language utterances floating around me, soaking it all in before it's work, work, work. What was a night of trying to sleep into the correct time zone, read: my eyes were brightly open after a measly two hours of sleep, staying that way for about four more hours, but thankfully fell back asleep and woke up at 8:00 am local time and *hopefully* will be on the regular sleep schedule tonight. 

Chocolate Beet Cake + Preflight Musings

Tomorrow I leave! Goodbye house, goodbye stuff, goodbye roads appropriate for two cars, goodbye family and friends, goodbye moon, goodbye chair, goodbye noises everywhere.

Bacon Jalapeño Poppers {no cream cheese}

Let's start September off with a plate of hot peppers stuffed with sweet corn, cheddar and basil. Huzzah! Huzzah? Mmm, hmmm. Over the weekend I was at the Renaissance Festival and they say things like "Huzzah" and "Good Moro" and the people watching can't even come close to the State Fair. And, I would contend, that the eating is just as good, if not better! Popovers, Scotch Eggs with gravy (!), the ever-present cheese curd, Shepard's Pie wrapped in Puff Pastry (gasp, choke, salivate!), Popovers drenched in butter and honey (yep, stung by a bee twice - not so allergic this time!), fermented honey wine called mead you drink out of clay goblets. It's so fun. If you've never attended, it's worth the drive. Make sure to pull out your archer costume and dress up! Something about an eclectic festival and a plate of hot peppers has me happily savoring the last bits of summer.