Sophie

I pretty much landed in London, unpacked, and hopped on a train to Essex to pick up a very important package. The newest member of our family, Sophie!

She had fun riding on the train to her new home but was very anxious to check out the scene, and I started to get more than a little nervous about how Casper would react to the new situation. He spends a lot of his time sleeping and eating and not doing much else, so I thought it'd be a good idea to get another cat to keep him company. He just seemed so damn bored all the time, so I thought I would liven things up.

Yup, definitely livened things up! At first, Casper didn't even realise there was anything hiding out in his carrier, but he figured it out pretty quick.

Then he got PISSED OFF. I probably went about it the wrong way, but it became pretty clear that Casper was pretty happy being an only child.

I couldn't help second-guessing my decision to bring Sophie home for the first week or so. We had to keep them separated whenever we weren't there to closely supervise, but Sophie didn't like that one bit since she likes staying close to the humans.

Casper would constantly be on the attack, but nothing fazed Sophie and she just kept on doing her thing even though she was being stalked by a cat that is more than three times her size. The girl has got some moxie!

Things finally started to click between the two of them when Sophie allowed Casper to groom her just a little bit. I think Casper was really frustrated that she wouldn't let him groom her, and he'd try to put her in a kitty headlock to force clean her.

Now that she's clean, they're definitely friends and hang out together!

They've also joined forces to beg for food together. I'm sorry to admit that I fold like paper under their combined cuteness.

Once Casper got comfortable with Sophie, we finally got a chance to see her personality, and she is infinitely more awesome than we could've hoped. First, she's a major cuddlebug and likes to start each morning and end each night with a cuddle while she sucks her thumb. Yup, you read that right. And I wake up most mornings to find her perched on top of my stomach, snoozing away.

She likes playing in dirty laundry and trying on my clothes.

She also gets very anxious about getting to her food fast enough, which means she gets it everywhere!

She's still teeny but growing apace and is really long right now, kind of like a ferret.

She's scrappy, independent, and loves going outside.

Basically, we love her.

A Cat's Life

The face of a killer.

There are no screens on any of the windows here, which means that all sorts of winged insects fly into our flat whenever we so much as crack our windows during th summer. Ew. Fear no more, killer cat is here! Casper loves nothing more than chasing a fly around our flat, and he's getting disgustingly good at actually catching them. I've had to pry flies out of his mouth (gross,gross,gross!), and I found a fly the other day with its legs pried off and resting a few inches away. So it turns out Casper's a sadistic killer. Seems about right.

I'm actually pretty happy about the fly chasing since that's about all the exercise he gets.

Don't be fooled. He just sits there. And he obviously looks extremely bewildered by this whole exercise notion. Cause most of the time, he's doing this...

That's right, he's managed to gnaw a hole through his bag of food to make himself a little snack hole. The diet is not going well. Sigh.

Intermediate Term Is Over!

It's been a crazy week, but I've managed to make it through somehow. It's been busy what with exams, selling our condo, and getting tested for my laser eye surgery.

The practical part of my exam went pretty okay. I thanked my lucky stars that we got the opera, woohoo! It's supposed to be the fastest cake, but also the most technically difficult. I've done better operas at home, but I think the one I did for the exam was enough for me to pass. I didn't start studying for the theory exam until the day before, and it turned out that none of the things I studied were actually on the exam. Doh! But I filled more blanks than left empty, so I'm not kicking myself too hard over it.

After the exams were finished, we got a taste of what to expect from the superior term. One of the chefs demonstrated the making of a chocolate box with tempered chocolate, and the end result was beautiful.

I'm almost tempted to give it a go, but maybe after I've recovered from exams.

We had the last few classes to decorate the fruit cakes that we had made earlier in the term. The chefs have been feeding them rum on a regular basis, and I tasted a bit of it. It tasted better than I thought it would and reminded me a lot of Christmas spices with the dried fruit and rum. It is, however, hard as a rock and quite dense.

In any case, we got to work on decorating. We had two technicals demonstrating how to decorate using flowers, but I just could not get the hang of it. I squeezed and rolled the same piece of paste for two hours before producing a few pitiful looking petals and giving up. I think it's become a mental block dealing with those fiddly little things, and I'll get to practicing again when I no longer feel like putting my head through a wall.

It was just as well that my cake didn't call for flowers, and I chose to do a stained glass inspired cake instead. I ended up taking the cake home to do a bit more work on it, and Casper decided to help by tasting my food colouring dust. I think I laughed for twenty minutes straight before I finally got back to decorating my cake.

I finished my cake just in the nick of time at the last practical, although there were some finishing touches that I would've liked to added. I was piping like a madman for the last thirty minutes or so, but I was actually pretty pleased with how it turned out! The chefs were also really complimentary, and it made my stone cold heart all fuzzy and warm inside.

It's hard to believe that intermediate term is officially over. Especially since the current plan is to take a break during summer and return for the autumn term. I'm maybe reconsidering that plan since the chefs told me autumn is going to be manic busy and super crowded. Ugh. I can't imagine the locker room fuller than it already is. That's one thing I'm definitely not going to miss. But I will miss my group and hanging out with the chefs. But it's not goodbye, just see you later, especially since I live so close to school, and I'm planning on volunteering regularly for the short courses. In fact, I'm volunteering for the boulangerie course that's scheduled to begin on Wednesday! 

Some of the other girls are leaving as well, but are actually leaving the country, and everyone got together for a dinner at the Savoy to say farewell. It's the sad part of being one of the few that actually lives in London. Pretty much everyone else is from far away, and it feels odd to feel like you're being left behind when school comes to an end.

Some of the girls got me flowers since I won't be returning for Summer term, and I'm going to miss going to classes with them. I really can't imagine being part of a funner group.

But I've promised to visit them lots over summer, with the cats and champagne in tow!

All for Show

It was good while it lasted, but the recent heat wave has given way to some schizophrenic weather which included thunderstorms and hail! 

I think both Casper and I are glad of the cooler weather since he has a fur coat he can't take off, and I'm usually in a hot and busy kitchen with no air conditioning! The air pollution also seems worse on the hot and humid days, and allergies I never had before I moved to London start to act up like mad.

We had to temper chocolate on one of those hot days, and it made it near impossible for our chocolate to set. I felt like I was working much slower than usual, but my chocolate centrepiece finally turned out just in the nick of time! Luckily, I got it graded before I broke the ears off, and a friend held up the lopped off body part while I took a snap.

Now that we're back to the regular gloom and rain, I'm pretty happy since it was much cooler in the kitchen while we scrambled to make our first plated dessert in a while. We made a chocolate fondant with orange and caramel sauce with a sugar cage. The last time we plated anything was back in Basic, and it was encouraging to see how far we've come in such a short time.

Then...

And now...

The technicals are still quite fun with lots of tasting going on...

The soufflé technical...

And chocolate tasting!

We tasted 17 different kinds of chocolate to try to figure out the bean, country of origin, chocolate solids content, and roasting method. The bad part was that the class began at 8am, and I don't feel like eating anything at that hour, let alone gobs of expensive chocolate. And white chocolate tends to make me gag. 

As if I wasn't busy enough, I agreed to a lawyer job for the next two weeks since there is a lull in scheduled classes for school. And I'm a teaching assistant at school on Saturday. Basically when I'm not at school, I'll be at work. And if I'm not at work, I'll be doing laundry at home so I have clothes to wear to school and work. Oh, and I have to remember how to walk in heels again so I don't fall on my face at the office. But I did say yes to all of the above, so it's time to buck up, shut up, and walk the walk (in heels that I finally took out of storage).

Casper on a Diet

Casper just had his first birthday! He wasn't so keen since it meant it was time to go to the vet for his booster shots! He was remarkably calm during the whole thing, even though he was surrounded by dogs!

It's been quite eventful lately, but we had time to squeeze in brunch with my cousins and get an update on their upcoming wedding in Colombia! I'm so excited! And we got to eat Js favourite, the Welsh rarebit, at the Wolesley.

And as always, I've been baking up a storm!

I've been sharing the goodies with Js office mates, and one of them was kind enough to buy us a bottle of Constantia wine. I was super excited as I'm a huge Jane Austen nerd, and she mentions this wine in Sense and Sensibility. Jane Austen knows what's up, the wine was delicious!

J had to go to Chicago for a quick work trip, and I was supposed to tag along, but I was dreading the thought of a long flight so I ended up cancelling. Oops. Besides, I was busy in the kitchen the entire time he was away. I ended up making birthday cakes for Js colleague, which gave me a chance to practice two of our exam dishes. The third was a Black Forest cake that I just had to make since the birthday boy is German.

I was in school for the majority of the day on Saturday as one of the chefs asked me to assist during one of the short courses for breakfast breads. We basically had to make sure the students had the right equipment and ingredients for each of the dishes they had to make, and I was insanely jealous since we have to do that for ourselves during our practicals. They also didn't have to wear our super stylish uniforms.

It was the first time in a long time that I spent so much time on my feet, and my legs were dead by the end of the day. Despite all that, it was a lot of fun, and I was really flattered that the chef asked me to assist. In fact, I'm assisting for another chef this Saturday for a different short course. I feel like I'm getting a complimentary appetiser plate of Le Cordon Bleu classes! 

A Busy Week 5: Puff Pastry, Bread, Eclairs, Tube Strikes, and The Lockhart

An entire weekend passed between our demo and practical, which meant I walked into the kitchen early Monday morning bleary eyed and a bit hazy on what I was doing there. Luckily, I had my notes to refer to and really nice classmates to help me along the way. I was meant to be whisking furiously while making the creme patisserie, but I wasn't capable of doing anything fast that early in the AM.

I finally managed to wake up by the end of the practical and eked out an alright looking bande feuilletee aux fruits de saison. Pretty fancy name for a relatively simple pastry! I've been trying out different cuts for the fruit garnish, but it's impossible to know what the chefs will like. For example, the chef for this demo wasn't such a fan of the diced mango. Who knew?

The hardest part for me is applying the egg wash, believe it or not. It's beyond annoying that such a small element of this dish is what's tripping me up. Arghhh!

What with all the pastries that I've been eating, I've been trying to step up my fitness. It's been a bit difficult since I usually work out at home, and Casper thinks all of this exercise nonsense is a bad idea.

I'm actually pretty glad I started running again since the tube has gone on strike this week and the next. It's nice to have running as an option in case the replacement buses are full. I've been fairly lucky with hopping on a bus for part of my journey since I've had a very early start most mornings, but it seems that lots of other people had the same idea. Traffic was pretty bad even before the sun came up!

Getting up so early for several days running has been a bit painful but necessary as we've had loads of demos and practicals this week.

We had our first bread session, which was pretty fun. I was a bit over enthusiastic about kneading the dough for our dinner rolls and slapping it down against the work bench. Chef said I had enough rage to get the slapping motion down pat. No pun intended. And it was fun shaping our dinner rolls into animals and plaits and even funner to munch on them while shopping on Oxford Street after class.

We also learned how to make another exam dish: coffee eclairs. They're fiddly little things, and I'm a bit terrified of them. I absolutely hate piping chocolate. I end up with chocolate in the strangest places i.e. in my hair, on my back, in my pocket, etc. In any case, I've got to get over it and practice, practice, practice!

On the plus side, they turned out alright and tasted great! I love coffee, and I was a bit worried about overdoing it on the flavouring so I asked my classmates to stop me if I looked like I was dumping the entire bottle in my creme patisserie.

Despite the week being pretty hectic and busy, I decided to stop by the school demo fair where we got to see some of the chefs in action.

Chef Javier with his sugar artistry:

Chef Julie and cake decorating:

It was fun watching the chefs in their elements, and the cherry on top was that we got to sample most everything. Yum! I'm still undecided about continuing with patisserie after the basic course is over since classes aren't exactly cheap and the lure of returning to work and making some money is pretty strong. I guess we'll see.

It was an exhausting week, and I was glad to see the end of it. I kind of just wanted to go home and catch up on my sleep but we had dinner plans with some friends at The Lockhart, a southern American restaurant not too far from our flat.

I'm glad I dragged my tired ass there as the food was amazing! I had shrimp and grits for the first time in my life, and J was in heaven with their buttery cornbread. We wanted beignets for dessert but they were out so we got the lemon meringue pie instead. It was interesting to compare it to what I've been making at home, and poor J let me dig through it before he got a bite. That's love.

Another plus is when you're passed out on the floor from all the rich food, you have a beautiful tin ceiling to look up at.

It's American-owned (obviously), and it really shows in the stellar service. We'll definitely be making a return visit soon!