Paper and Fire

Well holy bloody char grill mixing bowls Batman !! What a busy long bloody few weeks. I feel like I work, sleep, work a bit longer, sleep, work more, sleep a bit more and then suddenly I get a day off. I’m enjoying myself though so that’s the good thing !! And I got paid !!! Man, that was a nice feeling $$$$$

By the way, the photo is of a chocolate pudding with raspberry coulis - one of the last dishes I made a school a few weeks back.

I have finished school until mid May when I’ll join up with the 1st year apprentices. I have now signed my apprentice contract which brought back memories to the day I signed my life away for 9 years when I joined the air force as a 16 year old!! Apparently they now call apprentices over 45 ‘mature’ age apprentices as opposed to adult and junior apprentices. The guy asked me if I had done an apprenticeship before…..I said yes, in the Air Force a long time ago. He was somewhat surprised, tapped on his computer and said nope, not coming up. He said how long ago…I laughed and said oooh about 30 years. Hmm, that would be why. I thought I was going to get a gold star but no, it’s just statistical data and made it to a comment at the bottom of the contract.

The work is very physical and constant and I’ve already been to physio to get an old injury sorted and some stretching advice as I need to look after myself in my ‘mature’ years. I think I’ve lost about 2kg from all the physical effort. I think I’ve done about 256 different things – chopped every vegetable and herb, cracked loads of eggs, made pies and sossy rolls, made chilli jams, whipped up some funky flavours of mayo, tasted fresh figs for the first time, sliced heaps of meats, played on the char grill a few times, shucked oysters for the first time, plated up for functions (weddings) so my Saturday dinner is now either chicken salmon or beef. Probably the most interesting thing I’ve learnt is debearding a mussel. I don’t eat mussels but most people still don’t know a mussel comes with a little tuft of hair coming from inside. It is pulled off/out before serving. It literally looks like a little goatie. I’ll add a photo if I can find one.

Probably the dumbest thing I’ve done so far is put baking paper on a tray that I had some orange segments (pieces of orange), and then proceeded to torch the oranges to put a colour on them. But, fire and paper equals fire doesn’t it. So yes, my baking paper was quickly alight. Won’t make that mistake again – next time don’t use paper !! It seems to be a recurring problem as I managed to set fire to my recipe sheets at school a few weeks ago – I had them too close to the gas stove while I was cooking.

Deb is back to work next week and feeling very sad for herself. Time has raced by but she has enjoyed the free time. We leave notes for each other a lot now as my hours are a bit late so it will be fun and games when she starts work again. I think the dogs will get the biggest shock because they have had me home for 3 years and now they’ll be spending a lot more time on their own while we are at work.

My Dad has been busy with his leather work again and custom made me a knife roll for my knives. I have a bigger black bag for all my things but this is a smaller roll that I can take to work with my main few knives. It’s made of kangaroo leather and is perfect. He’s put a little metal tag on it with my name engraved on it. Pretty clever my Dad.

 

I also received a lovely birthday gift from my friends in Tennessee. It was a beautiful wooden box that holds recipe cards. I will fill it with many superhero secrets. Thanks to D&LW - you are so very kind as always.


On the props front, I finally submitted my paperwork for my pilot license number which arrived today. So, I’ll be booking a flying lesson in the next two weeks and start chipping away at the remaining flying hours. I’m a bit nervous having not flown since November and flying with a new school and instructor.





Well this blog is a bit overdue and I’ve probably forgotten a bunch of stuff. But one last photo for my US readers is a photo of the traditional Australian prawns on the barbie!! I went to a friends place for a bbq and yes, there were prawns, not shrimps as Paul Hogan would like you to think. They’re prawns !!  And of course, here's a pie and sausage roll with a famous Bundaberg ginger beer. I'm enjoying being home amongst these Aussie favourites.

 

Cricket on the ridgeline