Officially started volunteering at the Montessori School today and it just makes me smile every time I think about it. It is perhaps the only occasion I am ever excited to get up at 7:30 in the morning. I made pudding for the first time, a batch of vanilla and a batch of chocolate. I was assisted by a girl named Chloe, who after introducing herself said “I’m weird” and I laughed and said “Okay, cool!”
While whisking the abundant quantities of heavy cream and sugar to a simmer, we were joined by another girl, who proceeded to involve both Chloe and I in a spelling contest. Chloe impressed both of us by correctly spelling a word she’d never heard of: clairvoyant. I called her Claire by mistake after that.
The pudding was enjoyed by everyone, especially by two boys (one of whom was named Leif!) who snuck around me to get seconds. Also on the menu was an apple celeriac soup, baked turnip fries, a potato mushroom gratin, and little onion pastries. Those happened on a whim, that whim being that Patrick was inspired by his visit to Woodberry Kitchen the day before, and an enormity of butter. (A 20 pound block of it, actually.) I made the filling for them, with some onions sauteed in butter and thyme and salt and brown sugar and pepper.
While cleaning up I got scolded by Leif. I am pretty diligent about scraping as much as possible out of bowls, pans, whatever, but apparently one cannot scrape the pots from pudding enough. In went his whole hand like a bear into a hive.
Who loves getting school credit for cooking with kids and eating? I do.
