Days Eighteen and Nineteen. Wahaca.

Days EIGHTEEN AND NINETEEN. Wahaca. Not to eventfull, so doing both at once. Monday was spent trying to study all morning. I don't know what it is about me, memorization, and ADD that happen every time I try to settle a recipe into my head. I went for a jog in the morning to go to a kitchen supply store. As I wrote in a letter to dad yesterday, "I forgot to mention in my blog that I used the microwave/convection oven combo for dinner on Sunday. I don't know what I was thinking but I put the splash guard on top of my food. And after a few minutes I smelt something burning. Um yah plastic melts in an oven. Ugh. Luckilly the pizza was salvageable, but the splash guard was not. I went to the nearest kitchen supply store [monday morning] to buy a replacement, but they were out of stock." double ugh. Found one at another store on my way to school. School. Made rolls. That's it. No other class. Classic white rolls I find boring and a waste of calories at restaurants and here unless I have a lot of butter with them. These rolls are pretty plain tasting. The funniest part about making them was the kneading process....you slam/beat the dough on the table hard, knead/slide, repeat. Chef said to beat it like you are angry at someone. Some were more forceful than others. It was good fun to watch people's facial reactions. And therapeutic to make little shapes with the dough. We had to show four patterns (knots, S's, cinnamon roll type, roses, village, etc) three each to show consistency. Pretty good. We also made soda bread. For some reason I always thought it had sweet characteristics but this is pretty plain, the raisins jazzed it up. I need some clotted cream or butter to eat with it. Tuesday. Was only a demonstration class, making Madeleine's and lemon cake. The chef also made an almond/pistachio cake, but we are only required to made the first two. I don't think that I have ever eaten a Madeline outside of a Pettridge Farm container. They are amazing light, fluffy little shell shaped cakes that are meant to look like an open scallop shell, with Chantilly cream filling. We had ours plain, but they are so good. Did you know Madeleine's originated out of baking the cakes in actual scallop shells? It got a bit too fishy, hence the bakeware that isn't at all fishy to the taste. There's your random fact of the day. Lemon cake is good too. It's in a loaf pan, brushed with glaze. Pretty light on the lemon side for my preference, but still an airy bite in my mouth. I made have had a few more than one sample today of the three desserts. :) After class a few of us went out to lunch. Same as the pub people plus Maltese and Maine joined us. Maine has lived in Austria for 6 years as an opera singer. Maltese has lived in London for 8 years, she was our tour guide as we went to lunch. "There's this Mexican place called Oaxaca, do you all want to go there?" Um you are speaking to four Americans [and Poland] of course we like Mexican food. I was sceptical that it would be good. When we walked up and the sign said "Wahaca" I thought the phonetically challenged restaraunt would be a farce of an interpretation. To my delight it was amazing food. More on the trendy classy side of Mexican (barrio cafe in Phoenix). I had plantain tacos & sweet potato taquitos. Both were amazing! I know where to go now when I am needing my Mexican food kick. The conversation was lovely, never dull. They had matchbooks by the door on the way out, but they were not matches inside, but little seed pods to "plant your own Serrano peppers" I thought of Ward as it was a cool packaging and design idea. Afterwards we went to a kitchen supply store. Apparently that and school are the places I visit most frequently. I bought a peeler as the one in my knife kit is hard for me to use and a pastry brush. Ooooohhhhh. So exciting. We split up and went our own ways after that. And now I am procrastinating my studies by writing this. Ha! Well, have a great day. Any tips for memorizing recipes? Never done it before and every time I try I easily get distracted. It's hard to do. Leave your ideas in the comments please! I love your comments! It makes me happy that people are reading this thing.