What I was really worried about during the last few weeks of the season was how I would feed myself when I got back to England. I knew I would be all right for the first week back, as I would be at home my mum would do the cooking. It was after that, when I moved into my new house 250 miles away from my mother and her oven that I was nervous about.
What was worrying me was having to cook for myself for the first time in six months. I hadn't as much as boiled some pasta since I got on the plane out there. The only thing I had done was make myself some cuppa soup and even I don't class that as actual cooking. Not only had I not cooked anything, I had also not done any food shopping or taken the time to actually decide what I was going to have to eat. I have spent over five years living on my own so it isn't like I have never had to fend for myself before, however I was rather worried that even the little skill I had forged in this time would have been lost in six months away. I hadn't had this issue the year before as I had lived in a chalet with my own kitchen and I often cooked for myself.
I had hoped that spending so much time in the kitchen and around chefs would have meant I some how magically gain their skill, but, as my house mate delightfully told me you can't really just absorb knowledge that way.
It isn't just the actual cooking that was the issue, its also the taking the time to decide what I am going to cook. I tend to walk around the kitchen opening cupboards and staring blankly into them before moving on to the next cupboard and ending up realising I have been staring into the freezer for a good five minutes and that my ice cream is starting to melt. At this point I usually just decide to have pasta.
It wasn't like this in Meribel. After a few weeks you knew what food you would be eating at every meal on every day, the decision as to what to put into my own body had been totally taken away for a very long time. Breakfast and lunch were always the same, coco pops and any left over bacon and sausage for breakfast and a ham and cheese baguette for lunch. Always the same and I haven't been able to look at a baguette since.
And then there was dinner;
Monday: Mystery curry - made from a range of leftover vegetables and bits of meat. Turkey, pork and chicken all went in the pot and they all look very similar. It really is quite disconcerting not knowing what you are eating. It was also very difficult to tell the vegetables apart and disappointing when you thought you have a nice big bit of potato, only to bite into it and find out it was actually parsnip.
Tuesday: Now Tuesday was undoubtedly everyone's favourite day of the week because it was Chicken Pie day. It is difficult to explain just how excited everyone got about Chicken Pie Tuesday. It was without a doubt the highlight of everybody's week. It was made by AJ who pretended he greatly resented having to spend so much of his Tuesday making five massive chicken pies, but in fact loved all the attention he got from it. If a Tuesday had come around and there wasn't chicken pie there would have been actual mutiny. The children in the hotel had their dinner before the staff but throughout the children's dinner you could see staff edging closer and closer to the pie. There was a trick to getting the most out of the pie, the main one was not to fill your plate up with too much mashed potato, that was like an added extra. Usually two or three pies would be brought out and each one would be cut open and en mass the staff would decide which one looked the best, the one with the most juice and then they would all descend on the chosen pie. When that was consumed the next juiciest would be dished out and the least juicy would be reserved for seconds or for those unfortunate enough to be late.
Wednesday: Wednesday, as I have already said was the chef's day off and as a result was the day were had to eat frozen pizza that resembled cardboard.
Thursday: Turkey Stir fry. This was the worst day of the week. There is nothing more to say about the Turkey Stir Fry.
Friday: Fish day. Home made fish goujons and potato wedges. If we were very lucky we were allowed tomato ketchup.
Saturday: Cottage Pie
Sunday: Spaghetti Bolognese and garlic bread.
Unlike the food I reported on last year, this year we were fed well, the food was hearty and there was plenty of it. We were very lucky, there wasn't a potato ball in sight.
All my worries have now been calmed as I look upon all the food I have created from scratch, a minestrone soup, bolognese sauce, and (because it is Tuesday tomorrow) a lovely looking Chicken Pie.
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