Jennie's Blog – Yum.

The birthday girl and her cakes

A treasure chest of sandwiches (ridiculous, but in a good way)

Elderflower champagne

Absolutely insane people (I did not join them)

It’s the end of week 9, which means I only have 3 weeks left – only 2 of which involve lectures and cooking as far as I know – eek! I don’t feel very prepared for exams in a couple of weeks.

Week 8 was pretty uneventful, up until Thursday when Dunc and some of my friends came to stay. I spent the entire week being very impatient (not helped by 2 theory days in a row). We had a really good time when they finally got here and it was awesome to see them all (Dunc especially). It was my birthday on the Friday, so I took the afternoon off school and we had a really nice afternoon on the beach.

I got some very nice presents (including a new DS lite from Dunc with Zelda – woop!) and made some very good ice cream, so all in all it was a good day. We went to the pub in the evening and then came to the school for pizza on the Saturday. The rest of the weekend was pretty quiet – it was Helen’s birthday on Sunday so I cooked birthday tea of veggie chilli and mixed berry fool. I completely blagged the quantities for the fool but it turned out pretty well in the end.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t pursuade them all to abandon their jobs and come live here for the next 4 weeks, so they’ve all gone home now. I had a minor sulk about it, but it’s only 3 weeks now until I get back so I’m not too sad.

Week 9 went well, although it got very hectic. I’ve developed a bit of an addiction to thai rice noodles in soup after eating them on Monday. Noodle soup is definitely one of the best foods ever. I cooked an incredibly sickly toffee meringue, some granary bread and brown yeast bread, a thai red curry and some laksa. I also made ciabatta. I’ve started my ciabatta tonight by making a biga, which is a bit like a sourdough starter. You mix a tiny bit of yeast, water and flour and then leave it to rise over 12-24 hours. Mine turned out really well, although I should have given it another 5 minutes in the oven. Unfotunately I won’t be able to make it at home; the dough is so sticky that you can only knead it in a mixer (a Kenwood/Kitchen Aid type) and I don’t have the necessary funds to buy one at the moment!

We seem to be getting to all the exciting breads now – we’ve learned brioche, ciabatta and croissants in the past couple of weeks. They all take two days, but it’s definitely worth the effort – they’re so much better than the shop bought ones. We’ve also done some really nice Indian breads. I especially liked poori.

This weekend has gone by very quickly. Went to the pub on Friday in Ballycotton. They had a DJ in who seemed to be a fan of 90’s pop which was very bizarre. Needless to say I spent most of the time sitting outside because the place was packed with people dancing. VERY strange. On Saturday, 3 of the boys put on a really great meze style barbeque for Glenny’s birthday. We had lamb kebabs, home-made pittas, loads of dips and salads made by various people and of course some lemon and orange fairy cakes made by yours truly. It was a really fun night and the food was amazing – I’m definitely going to miss nights like that when I leave!

Next week looks like it should be interesting – we’re doing rack of lamb, mussels, lots of salads (Ballymaloe House buffet-style) and the sushi demo I came to see last year. I’m looking forward to seeing it again as a student.

3 weeks to go! I’ll try to post more regularly, but I think I’m going to have to start revising at some point soon so might be a bit busy. Apparently my wine exam is in a week and a half – pretty sure I’m going to fail but you never know. Eep!

p.s. Here’s a couple of pics of my house – a bit late but never mind!