I thought I may as well make a start on this while between classes and waiting for a frozen pasty to cook in the oven.
I had thought that making a tuna pasta bake for last night’s meal would be a simple affair but I was wrong. I think it took more effort even than making pizzas. I could have cheated and used some packet cheese sauce but I adhered to the recipe. For the first time in my life I made a roux and added milk without the sauce becoming lumpy, impatience being my habitual enemy there. The substitution of green peppers due to the absence of celery wasn’t a bad decision and in fact because they were hot peppers (you can never tell here if they are going to be hot or sweet, they all look the same) gave it a bit of a bite. Unbelievably it required 30y worth of butter alone. I think on cost it would have rivalled the originally planned beef and dumpling stew.
For once I ate a decent portion, all the students (Kevin invited Lin, a 16 year old he is helping privately, Ollivier punished Evanie - his students end up there all afternoon helping him to cook - and my missing wife from the Sichuan meal, Nancy, was my guest) finished their plates with two of them taking seconds. Kevin took what little remained home to heat for today’s lunch and Ollivier the Porker had THIRDS! I have to say his apple sponge cake was his best effort yet. I have no idea what he did but it was his fluffiest yet - and I’m not a big cake eater. His “biscuits” were imbued with almonds and which I jokingly told the students were used as foundations when they were building the school. You need teeth like a crushing machine to actually eat them but the students always seem happy to take them to their friends afterwards. Kevin had suggested I don’t make a soup this time and in fairness I had used half a kilo of pasta so there was plenty on the table but we did need to break out our limited communal cheeseboard which had Ollivier’s smelly feet cheese and Kevin’s edam. Hopefully all the students enjoyed their evening and at the end the last two standing were Ollivier and me. I only stayed to polish off what I think was our fifth bottle and then left to take Pepsi out. Ollivier did offer to open another bottle but with an early rise this morning I felt it would be unwise. As it is I had a problem getting up!
Before the meal I took half a dozen slices of my latest ham for everyone to try. It was all that was left because on Tuesday night I boiled it. I then started watching a film on my laptop and promptly forgot all about it. Eventually the cats making a din jerked me back to reality and on opening the kitchen door I found it filled with dense smoke. The pan wasn’t quite ruined and in fact is now in use for the pets, albeit severely blackened. The pork/ham was incinerated and by the time I had cut off the cinders all that was left was the little I took for tasting. Damned annoying because it was seriously good ham, the best so far. And of course I can’t make any more now until I buy a new pan.
The Big Inspection is now almost over, apparently the hit squad are leaving at lunchtime. According to Kevin they are discussing their decision in order to render it prior to their departure, said fact prompting me to comment that depending on what the decision is will decide how lavish the free lunch the school will bestow upon them. It will be interesting to see if everything goes back to normal once they have gone. Will the guards keep their shiny new uniforms or will they be put in storage? Will the south gate once again be permanently locked, seeing as it usually is unless bigwigs or a coach party are arriving? Answers on a postcard please.
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