"Nose"body knows...

How damn bad my left sinus cavity hurts!!!!!! Hurts!!! Like an ice pick is being shoved into my face...a large ice pick.

I have totally run out of adjectives to describe how damn bad it hurts. I just want to curl up in a small tiny ball and whimper.

Today in How You've Done Everything Wrong So Far (Principles of Cooking), we went over roux and stocks. We also had to cut potatoes into small footballs (tourne). Roux has always fascinated and scared me; I've never really understood the principles behind the roux...as in what exactly makes it work. So Chef began to unlock the roux chamber of secrets, which is something I definitely needed unlocking. Lately, I've been pretty lucky at getting bechamel sauce to turn out when I needed it for some lasagne rollups, but I noticed when I made it last, that it had sort of a floury taste still. I wasn't quite sure what to do about that, but I went ahead and used it anyway on the bottom of the pan.

Turns out that was the best thing to do with it, because it kept cooking while the rollups cooked. When you make large, industrial size quantities of roux, you can finish them off in the oven if necessary. I really did try not to gape like a fish too much as Chef continued cooking and cooking the flour and butter mixture...which is all a roux is. I'd been thinking that the addition of the liquid was what made it a roux. Duh. Now that we've gotten that cleared up, I'll just become the roux making queen...a veritable roux machine! Ah, I'm just a roux machine! I'm just a roux machine! And I won't stir for nobody but you,
I'm just a roux machine, A flour and butter fiend.

Okay, major apologies to The O'Jays for that one.

When will those damn decongestants kick in?!!!