Midterm Exams at Ballymaloe Cookery School

Tim and Darina Allen in the Fruit Garden at Ballymaloe Cookery School.

We're heading into week eight at school which means almost four weeks have past since the last update on the lightening-fast-paced cookery adventures. If silence is any indicator of lacking mental energy remaining for these at the end of my day then let this be clear — I am tired. So. Tired. A teensy, weensy part of me wants the course over to allow a time of processing all I've cooked/read/learned/seen/heard/experienced. But, the other mostly large part of me says: bring it on! more. more! More! MORE!!! What else can I learn? Cook? Do? See? 

Week Four at Ballymaloe Cookery School

Marzipan Stuffed Dates in Kitchen 3 at Ballymaloe Cookery School.

Things are getting real as week four has been completed at Ballymaloe Cookery School because I've scheduled myself a sit down with Darina Allen in hopes of contemplating my future in the food biz and a couple resumes are in potential employers' inboxes. One resume to Travail Kitchen & Amusements, a fine dining restaurant in Robbinsdale, MN doing a unique chef tasting menu, small plates and seriously whacky behavior during service including drinking beer from a boot. Another resume to Scripps Network in Chicago, the mother network to Food Network, for a peon sales position job. The prior submission has me refreshing my inbox with fleeting hope they've emailed me a return message. Alas, trying to stay present and not worry too much about the future, knowing it will all work out, but I'm only human and I need to worry a little bit or what else would I worry about? In two weeks we'll be tested on our knowledge thus far, so I guess I could worry about an exam about identifying twenty types of lettuces and herbs. A more productive worry.

Week Three at Ballymaloe Cookery School

Sunrise over Ballymaloe Cookery School in Shanagarry, Co. Cork, Ireland.

On my way into school Friday morning the sunrise over the Ballymaloe Cookery School fields takes the breath away. As the third week of chef school ends and I head into week four, sitting down to write out some thoughts, I find myself needing to unbutton my jeans so I can breathe. Bread and butter in abundance (the school makes their own and it's divine), so much dairy (Irish cows make the best cream!), dessert after every meal (yes, I'll have seconds! and thirds! and fourths!). Eating comes with the culinary territory, I know, I know, and we're heading into sweater season, so I'm going to continue to eat with abandon. Because I'm probably here only once in my lifetime and if I miss one Orange Creme Scone or Smoked Haddock Fish Cake I may have missed a great opportunity to learn more about Irish culture (ahem). 

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. 

Sweet Corn Fritters with Honey Butter

Sweet Corn Fritters with Honey Butter are for everyone. Evv-err-reee-ya-one. Everyone: your kids, duh, these are like puffy little pseudo-donuts. People at campfires. Husbands, or other manly men, like my brother — who just got engaged — yahoo! And just about anyone else on the entire globe who enjoys placing their lips around a pocket of juicy sweet corn (so, so sweet right now!), fried in luscious lard until slightly crisp, but decadently moist and tender on the inside. 

CSA Cooking {Community Supported Agriculture} Week 10

Hello! How are you today? Today Minnesota is having the most gorgeous weather day of the year. Guaranteed. Temperature is right around 72º, slight breeze, bright blue sky, a teensy, weensy chill in the air, alerting all to the certainty fall is right around the corner. In fact, I noticed the leaves of a maple tree turning orange yesterday as I bee-bopped around town. So many things to love about fall. Soup and crock pots, the smell of drying leaves, apple orchards, back to school, crisp days. This fall, my family may be experiencing the season a little differently in Ireland, but we are very excited. Fall is my absolute favorite season. What's yours? 

Roasted Eggplant Rice Bowl

Eggplant was intended for a great love affair with basil. Like Harry and Sally, red wine and chocolate, peanut butter and jelly, blue jeans and T-shirts, some things are meant to be paired together, forever and always. You can smell each individually and sense that somehow, together they are a match made in culinary heaven. This recipe was created impromptu and can (should) be interpreted a million different ways in your own kitchen. My only intention here is to inspire more eggplant eating as a self-proclaimed eggplant hater, I'm here to arouse eggplant conversion because eggplant should be loved, or at the very least, tolerated. 

10th Annual Minnesota Garlic Festival

Cochon King, Thomas Boemer's Festival Masterpiece.

If you are a lover of all things allium sativum the 10th Annual Minnesota Garlic Festival held at the McCleod County Fair Grounds in Hutchinson, MN was the place you wanted to see, taste, hear, and be yesterday. A festival dedicated to all things garlic, garlic-afcionadoas traveled from far and wide to stock pantries for the coming winter months, snatch up garlic seed for the garden, and most definitely, to eat and enjoy all things garlic. 

Festival-goers devoured Wild Rice Burgers, Salumi Baguettes, Pasties, Heirloom Tomato Salads, and other garlic-laden eats from the Great Scape Cafe prepared by an all-star line-up of Minneapolis restaurants while enjoying several traveling bands like Scottish bag-pipers, a lively brass band, and a mysterious group dressed as animals dancing and playing folk music. Local craft beers, cider by Sociable Cider Werks, and wine by Crow River Winery saved people from withering under the hot, humid August day. And if you never thought you'd eat garlic and ice cream in the same bite, you did yesterday at Cranky's Ice Cream Roasted Garlic Ice Cream stand.  

Moving to Ireland // Chef in Training @ Ballymaloe Cookery School

St. Paul's Irish Fair. Fairly certain Irish people will not dress like this. Or will they?

I'm moving to Ireland. To become a chef. That's right folks, I'll be attending culinary school in Ireland at Ballymaloe Cookery School. EEEEEEEK doesn't begin to describe the emotion I'm feeling. The possibility. The everything. There is no more preparation that can be made, I've crossed every T and dotted every I. I've googled and read each and every blog known to man on the subject of the school, I've networked with people in Minneapolis who've attended the school, I've read every Facebook post to see what the school is like, I meandered through Irish Fair in St. Paul last weekend and got a couple snapshots of what life might be like while in Ireland. They say the first two weeks of school will be the hardest. And I'm almost guaranteed to cut a finger, burn an arm, or at the very least, set something on fire.

CSA Cooking {Community Supported Agriculture} Week 9 + Turmeric Refrigerator Pickles

If you're receiving a CSA basket, you may have reached the point of the season when staggering feelings of overwhelming anxiety hit you as you stand in front of the fridge and wonder where the fifty-third beet will fit in. But instead of becoming frozen in terror by a beet, get down to business. Pull all the produce out onto your counter, look it square in the eye, and show those vegetables who's boss. 

One Pan Pork & Korean-Spiced Napa Cabbage {Paleo & Gluten-Free}

The headline of my newest recipe is paleo and gluten-free, but if you're like me and eat one-fourth of the chocolate chip brioche that came home from Aldi yesterday, than you can no longer pretend to adhere to fads like paleo or gluten-free. But we all need something to aspire to, now don't we? 

CSA Cooking {Community Supported Agriculture} Week 8

Oh, my…where does the time go? Already on CSA Cooking Week 8?! I apologize if you've noticed an absence in the Recipe Writing Department this week, but because I've been busy boozing it up and working on the farm (both very important duties) I haven't had time to cook up all my delicious recipe ideas.

CSA Cooking {Community Supported Agriculture} Week 6 & 7

Photo: Mary Sue Stevens

Another week participating as a work-share member at Sweet Beet Farm and I've got some vegetable love to show you! Plus, look at the teamwork in this photo…don't you love? Those bushels of rainbow chard are heavy! Read on for a couple more shots of the farm and the work-share members in the field. Plus, recipes that will inspire from my archives and around the web.

Minnesota Monthly Magazine's 4th Annual Fine Spirits Classic

I was invited to attend the 4th Annual Fine Spirits Classic held by Minnesota Monthly Magazine on Thursday evening because I submitted a photo of my favorite Summer Cocktail to their Twitter account using the hashtag #MNMOSummerDrink. I jumped for joy gladly said yes, I can come drink free booze, slicked my lips with gloss, grabbed my man by the collar and bellied up to the bar immediately after being able to say "I'm on the guest list." Pah-shaw! Take a quick peek inside all the glam here!

Spanish Tortilla with Garlic Aioli

So, here is the first time I made this Spanish Tortilla, and I'm quite pleased with the way it turned out. The recipe is in no way a new or innovative recipe — it's a classic Spanish tapa found in every tapa bar I visited in Spain while there for my college degree (take me back!). I'm eating leftovers cold from the fridge right now, dreaming about the streets of Barcelona and the flowers at The Alahramba, and every bite is soooo snackable. The recipe might seem a little daunting, what with (ahem) five paragraphs, but pour yourself a (big) glass of wine, turn on some Florence & the Machine, and use up those Farmer's Market potatoes. You'll be glad you did. 

Refrigerator Jam

Today, between telling Liam NO, he could not have this 46th piece of banana laffy taffy, forgetting the hose running in the yard for hmmm, I think, 3 hours (shh, don't tell Travis), and a major clean-out-the-fridge-and-make-odds-and-ends-eatable day I think it was a great day! You know what I mean? A get sh*t done kind of day. Do you ever have those? So, one thing I did was make an odd cup of currants into jam! It's so easy. You SO need to make jam next time your over-ripe fruit is gathering fruit flies sitting around waiting to be something greater. 

Farm to Table Experience at Sweet Beet Farm {Community Education Class}

Nick and Amelia Neaton graciously opened up their CSA farm operation for a BHM Community Education class, offering a tour of the working organic farm which is projected to be USDA certified organic in 2016. Our group toured Sweet Beet's acreage on a gloriously sun-drenched Saturday morning with icy cold cucumber mint water in hand. After the tour, they sat down for a true "Farm to Table" meal, created around local produce from Sweet Beet and The Local Roots Food Co-op. I don't want you to miss a bite so I've included the tasting menu with all the recipes, photos and shots of the farm. 

Zucchini Parmesan Barley

I've made this recipe 2,000 times, but had never substituted the original recipe's main ingredient, orzo, until today when I needed to use up the ever-present summer staple — zucchini. Which, admittedly, had been hanging out in the fridge for way too long, but with no orzo I chose barley to stand-in and it works so very well. Barley has an excellent chewy texture, and super bonus — way more fiber and nutrition that orzo. Done deal. You've got to try this recipe, it's fast, tasty, uses up summer veggies and reheats well. 

Detox Drink + acoupla shots of the Buffalo, MN Farmer's Market

It's Saturday and the Buffalo, MN Farmer's Market sent me an 8:00 AM text alerting me that they are open for business! So, I'm about to drink up this Detox Drink and head on down to the market for some locally grown goodness. I'm taking along my camera because I want you to see my beautiful market. Check it out!