Today started early. After running Keifel to work, I came home and made three batches of pizza dough for my Wednesday AM beginner class at Ye Olde Pot & Pannery. I have to say the recipe worked great, but it tastes much better if you let it sit in the fridge all day or over night. It’s not quite so “whitebread.”
The class went off without a hitch, mostly. Only three people signed up, one of which was a wee person and she and her mom will be back for the Kids in the Kitchen class next week. Yay! for repeat customers. We made four pizzas in just over two hours: the classic pizza margherita, a seriously good roasted pepper and goat cheese pizza, an Italian sausage and yellow pepper pizza with fresh mozzarella and a barbecue chicken pizza with Ye Olde Pot & Pannery’s Honey and Cider BBQ sauce. I was especially sceptical of the BBQ pizza, though I love all Q sauces. It’s mostly the BBQ and cheese thing, but it rocked. A good time was had by all and they both spent some time shopping which means my boss is happy with me.
After that, I did my shop for my class tomorrow night: Italian Night. We’re making a sausage and pepper frittata, a fresh tomato and pancetta sauce on bucatini rigati, swordfish with capers olives and pine nuts, grilled veg galore and tiramisu. Whew… just remembering all that we’re making in a very brief two hours is making me nervous. Plus, the class is sold out! 12 people watching me sweat out the time frame for this monster I’ve gotten myself into. I’m going to have to do considerably more prep as far as chopping and mise en place than I have been. But that’s good.
To that end, after running all over Nashville in pursuit of completing errands this evening and wolfing down some chicken in black bean sauce from our fast becoming close, personal friends at China Dragon, I made one tiramisu for tomorrow night. I’ll demo the procedure and then whip out the pre-made one in one of those “through the magic of television” moments. The recipe is a bit misleading as far as pan size and necessary lady fingers (which I went to the Fresh Market in Brentwood to get, ’cause I’m retentive that way). The eggy, creamy goodness part was wonderful, there just wasn’t quite enough to make three layers.
If all that weren’t enough, after the tiramisu I cranked out two assignments for my online class, did the discussion thing at our very cool discussion wiki (hi, fellow Hospitality students) and read my chapter and copied out the recipes for tomorrow’s Advanced Baking class. We’re making puff pastry. Yes, from scratch.
I did it last semester to only minorly disastrous results, so I feel that if I manage five or so hours of sleep I can face it like a woman tomorrow (almost today). Then home to think up some more classes for beginners complete with menus. Type up the top secret dessert recipe for our Mystery Kitchen class and do what prep I can here before I zoom off to teach. I am hopeful that a nap can happen somewhere in there or that I can at least sit down for 20 minutes with a very hot cup of coffee and watch the Nigella Bites episode I recorded with our somewhat trusty DVR.
On that restful note, I’m hitting the hay.
