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!

Casper v. Bike

J and I have a big eating weekend planned, and we've been making a concerted effort exercise beforehand so we could gorge without guilt.

We haven't used our little exercise corner since Casper arrived, and let's just say that Casper does not approve of this exercising business!



I think he thinks (and I tend to agree) that we should be doing a lot more of this instead...

Working Towards a Resolution

Now that I'm back at home, I've been so busy playing good housewife that I've told J to refer to me as Dobby, the house elf, after the character in the Harry Potter novels. I'm definitely short enough, even though my ears aren't nearly as large nor my eyes sufficiently protuberant, and I can see the appeal in wearing something as comfortable as a toga fashioned out of a pillowcase. So long as it's high thread count Egyptian cotton, of course. And a tea cosy for a hat to top it off sounds fabulous.

In any case, the dishes are washed, the house is tidied, and J comes home to a healthy home-cooked meal every night. But, what do you do when all your chores are done and all your friends are at work?

Oh yeah, work on those pesky little New Years' resolutions. Which means getting back to fighting weight. Emphasis on the fighting. I have no desire to get ultra-skinny and fit into tiny clothes. I'd much rather be fast and strong, kind of like a monkey. Which means lots of running and lifting weights. Damn.

As one of my Christmas presents, J gave me a copy of the book "Born to Run" by Christopher McDougall, which is largely about the Tarahamuru Indians in Mexico who are amazing natural runners and quite regularly cover over a hundred miles a day. The book is an easy read, even if it is a bit too bombastic for my taste, and I felt inspired reading about these runners who just kind of pick up and run for the love of it. One of the premises of the book is that humans should run because that's what we were made to do. Another premise is that the athletic shoe industry is a sham, and we'll all be better off running barefoot.

I've been running regularly for about four years now, and I'm not sure how much I buy into the whole running barefoot thing. I heard about this phenomenon a while ago, and J bought me a pair of Vibram Five Fingers for Christmas '09, which are these rubbery slipper-type shoes. I use them when I do mat work or weightlifting indoors, but I haven't yet tried them out for running outdoors. For one, I'm sure they'd attract a fair bit of attention. And two, I once saw a guy wearing them at the airport, and I hadn't realized until that moment how strange they look on your feet.

In any case, after I read the book, I felt like it'd be an easy job to just head outside and run about fifty miles or so. Seriously, he made it seem so easy that the book really should come with a warning: Do not try this at home. Ever.

J and I had taken a protracted break from running since I started working, and we went out for our first run in a while a few days ago, and it was haaard. I actually had to take a walking break after 1.5 miles for a breather, and we wrapped up the run after about 3 miles. I'm heading out again tomorrow, and I'm hoping to log at least 4 miles since I'll be alone, and J can't accuse me of trying to kill him with jogging. Fingers crossed that it doesn't rain tomorrow or I'll be knee deep in mud.

A Wet and Wild Run

After months of relaxing at home and eating Cadbury chocolates and generally just getting fat, I've finally gotten my lardass in gear and went for a run in Regent Park yesterday. Let's just say, it's been a while, and I think J might still be a wee bit mad at me for picking one of the windiest, rainiest day we've had in a while to start my outdoor running regime.

My friend Caleb and I would run outdoors when I was in Ann Arbor and I loved it, but we switched over to the gym after a few months due to cold weather and shin splints. Although swimming laps in the pool was alright, I didn't really enjoy the constant smell of chlorine in my hair and splitting lanes with random middle-aged thrashers. As soon as the weather warmed up, we were back outside running again, and I joined a very posh gym once I moved back to California (word on the street was that Kobe worked out there).

I've been making excuses to not run outside up until now - it's rainy, it's windy, it's cold - you get the picture. Joining a gym seemed stupid since the nearest gym is farther away than the park, and I'd feel silly paying exorbitant monthly fees to run on a treadmill when I can run outside. So running outside seemed like the logical solution but it's been a while since I've run outdoors and never in weather this cold.

Instead of continuing to make weather excuses, I decided to man up and went to the Nike store on Oxford Street to pick up some cold weather gear.  I ended up picking up a water resistant jacket, some gloves, and a headband that covers my ears. I looked like some sort of reflective Nike billboard, but at least I was warmish.

As for the run, it was pretty miserable weather-wise with rain blowing into our faces and having to watch out for slippery leaves and mud patches, but other than that, it felt great. I forgot how good it feels to just flat out run. I won't lie, sometimes it was hard to catch my breath, but I kind of expected it after a three month hiatus from running. Anyway, we ended up running a little further than we expected, a little over 3 miles, and both of us were a bit sore this morning. Regardless, I'm headed out again today with reflective clothes and all. The worst part is actually leaving the flat and facing the cold weather kitted out in lightweight running gear, but once I'm warmed up, I feel like flying.