Slice, slice, baby

The title pays homage to the many delicious slices, not to mention a tonne of savouries, that my dear mother whipped up for the engagement party last Saturday. Although, many a guest, while sampling the delicacies, posed that tired old question, "So, has your mother taught you to cook this good?" With any luck, the thus far recessive allele might emerge sometime in the next thirty years...

The brief event was a blur, but a great one. And such lovely, generous gifts! But best of all was catching up with so many people from all the circles of our lives.

Transition to teaching

Ironically, we had a unit titled this in our final, block-moded semester of uni. The unit was aimed to help us prepare for work as a casual relief teacher and included assembling a teaching kit, a final practicum component, and for some still unknown reason, a largely irrelevant poster task.

But the real inspiration for this post came not from uni (unsurprisingly), but while I was cleaning down the sinks in the home economics room at school. I had just survived a largely successful cooking session with my year 8 class. I had prepared for chaos, and it was indeed chaotic. But above all that I was somewhat disbelieving of how well it had actually worked out. As all must surely know, I am in actual fact a rather lousy cook. It dawned on me as I was clearing up in the aftermath that the transition to becoming a teacher involves so much more than just moving from a lecture theatre to a classroom. It's about moving into teaching practice, of course, but it's also about learning to lead others in new experiences and skills - often requiring us to step up and develop these for ourselves!

As I'm transitioning into teaching, I can't help but feel I am transitioning into a more 'real' adulthood as well. Or maybe that's just the kids making me feel old!

"We're going on an adventure!"

A cooking adventure, that is. It goes a little something like this.

It all began with a trip to Keck Street to pick up an over-sized rice cooker and bags of rice, carrots and onions. Back at Neale Street, we proceeded to overcook the first batch - about 13 cups - of rice. The next lot was much better. Then began the tedious peeling of the vegetables, followed by the mammoth clean up.

Some things we have learnt from this adventure:
* A V-slicer is a useful kitchen tool.
* A well-ventilated room, a nearby burning candle, or chilled onions are not successful theories for preventing stinging eyes when dicing onions.
* Goggles work well when dicing onions.