LJ-razz, 6.16.06: I must be PMSing (for reals)

I've got to get more sleep the night before classes. I was pretty stressed and restless (strestless?) on Wednesday. We made three soups--French onion, spinach vichyssoise, and shrimp bisque. We delegated tasks for the vichyssoise, got way ahead of the other two teams, then Sally said she'd start the French onion, and after that, it's like everyone was doing their own thing. Sally doesn't like either onion or seafood, and Brian ended up making the shrimp bisque by himself, and he doesn't like to taste as he cooks, so each of them were doing these soups on their own without any other team input. I was loping after Victoria helping her with the vichyssoise and then ended up doing dishes--the whole class' dishes--before I got back to Brian and Sally. I asked them how the soups were tasting because they were supposed to be almost done, and neither soup had been seasoned. Salt and pepper are our friends. Anyway, the soups turned out all right. We learned to use the salamander. We topped the French onion with Gruyere, which was stinky but tasty. The baseball brigade's vichyssoise was really thick, and when Chef pointed it out, he and I said together that it looked like spinach artichoke dip. One of them walked away, and over his shoulder said he liked his soup the way he liked his women. "Green and chunky?" I asked. "Cold and dead," he replied. Erm ... note to self: don't date that guy. It was a good class, and we all had fun. It was our first class where we were at the stove. Still, I felt like I was being bossy at some points, braindead at others, and that's why I stepped back and did cleanup most of the night once all the soups were started. I talked to Marla (one of the degree candidates) about being frustrated when I'd ask one person what stage they were at in the recipe and their replying, "I don't know." She said it was just part of working in a group. Unfortunately, Chef walked up during that point in the conversation, and she told him what we were talking about. I told him that my group was a good group, and that I just had to get used to working with it. I need to relax, but I need to pay attention and make sure I read and reread the night's recipes so I can keep track of what's going on. The syllabus reads that working in teams will promote teamwork and healthy team codependence, so I also need to trust that everyone's on track. Deeep breeeeathing.

Linda from Paz de Cristo sent out a panicked e-mail asking for help this Sunday. She had one adult and three kids confirmed on the volunteer list, so even though I haven't volunteered there in well over a year, almost two, I told her I'd be there. It sucks to run a soup kitchen with only five volunteers. Luckily, enough people to amount to a full staff stepped up, so now we'll have more than 20 volunteers. Numbers: Three hours to prep, cook, serve, and clean after 200 people. It's definitely much easier to do it with 25 than with 5.

Cooking at home has been fun and relaxing. I just wish I had more time to do it. I'm looking forward to doing Violet's cake! I think I found the recipe I want to use, too.