Learning the hard way

Every evening Sunday through Friday one or two of us is assigned to cooking dinner for everybody. On Saturdays we are on our own or can go out somewhere in the area. This Saturday Dylan (the local) is throwing a house party for the whole class.

So far I have cooked two meals. The first was a browned butter and cheese spaghetti dish. I had never actually made it before but I guessed on the best method and apparently looked like I knew what I was doing. It turned out wonderfully.

The second meal I did was a Thai stir-fry in peanut sauce for last night. Being a vegetarian I made it with tofu and let the guys do their own thing with some chicken that they wanted to add. Dylan brought his electrical wok from home, and once again I guessed on the best way to use it.

Let me start off by saying, I have always had a fear of adding ingredients to pans with oil in them. The splashing and sputtering terrified me as a child, and I still avoid being the one to dump the stuff in whenever possible. So after putting a fair amount of oil in the wok and turning the heat on, I tried to add the tofu extremely carefully. Little did I know that its high water content meant that it was more likely to splash the less of it was added. So when I hesitantly held the container of tofu cubes over the wok and a few tumbled down, the wok went berserk. First the oil just popped loudly, but as I backed up it quickly turned into an 18" fountain of hot oil, forcing poor Melanie to flee the couch on the other side of the island. Luckily no one was injured, and the entertainment of the scene and marvelousness of the peanut sauce made up for my mishap.

We have been eating really well. Everyone has done a great job with cooking the dinners, and we've all been making ourselves nice breakfasts and lunches. Debbie (our staff resident who visits during dinner) told us at the beginning of the program that we would all gain an average of six pounds during the on shore component. I believe it. She also said we would lose it again at sea, both because of the physical activity and because we'll all be seasick and vomiting for at least the first week. I believe that too.