Advanced Breads at Bettys Cookery School

I was back at Bettys Cookery School a week after attending their vegetation cooking class, this time for one of their advanced bread making courses.

You know you've been somewhere often enough when the employees start goofing around with you and photobombing. Here is Chef Chris, happy that my olive loaf looks as good as it does! 

Photo bomb!

We also croissants from scratch. They're really not that hard, but very time consuming. You have to layer a block of butter on top of the dough, fold the dough and chill for 20 minutes. Then you roll it out again, fold again, chill again. Do this three more times and you're ready (finally!) to fill (optional) and/or shape them. Phew! 

Handmade plain (in back) and chocolate (in back) croissants

We moved from croissants to herby parmesan knots. They started as one long rope and they taught us how to twist them into the braided shape. It's been a year since I've made them and I'll probably never remember how we did it. Drat! 

Herby parmesan knots 

I love it towards the end of the classes when the fruits of your labor slowly start coming out of the oven. Up until then it's been work, work, rise, work, chill, rise, work, chill… until you can finally bake and see the end result! 

Finished croissants

Happy bakers

My fellow baker (Patty) and I were quite thrilled!

Up close finished shot

Chef's finished display

I made all of these (below)! Olive loaf, croissants (half chocolate, half plain), herby parmesan knots, and rosemary and olive focaccia. It was not a class for the gluten averse, that's for sure!  

My finished display

Vegetarian Cooking Class at Bettys Cookery School

I go to a lot of Bettys Cookery School classes. I love them, but they're not cheap. Bill encourages me to go to as many as I want (he reaps the benefits, too), but I know how much they are and I have limited myself to only baking classes and only to learn skills I don't already know. However… 

The intrepid cooks!

A rather new friend of mine is a food scientist for Bettys. She has heard of my love of their cookery school and has passed along a few 'friend and family' discounts my way for classes that haven't sold out. That's how I came to find myself at a vegetarian cooking (not baking!) class at their school last year. 

Spinach and ricotta tortellini 

We made pasta, which up until this point I had never successfully done. The spinach pasta was filled with more spinach and ricotta. Once filled and formed, we could keep them in the fridge for several days before cooking them. They were DELISH! 

Bottom of oven dried tomato and basil balsamic torte

We also made a balsamic, oven dried tomato torte. This was really tasty - the tomatoes had been cut in half and pre-dried overnight in a very low oven. The sweet tomato and balsamic made for a great starter.

Top of tort

Finished torte

We also made arancini, which are basically deep fried rice balls. These were filled with a cheesy mushroom mixture. I took my fairly large arancini to our friend's house for a dinner party. I deep fried them there and we ate them hot out of the fryer. Another winner! 

Veggie arancini 

The chef displayed his finished vegetarian meal - looks like quite the feast! 

The chef's final masterpiece

Our pasta, tortes, and arancini were only half completed (we had to finish everything at home), so here we are posed with the chef's display. My finished product didn't look as good as the chefs, but it looked better than had I attempted it with no instruction, that's for sure! 

Happy ladies at the end of the day

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The Shop That Must Not Be Named

There is a medieval street in York called the Shambles. It was once the street that housed all of the butchers. If you look at the pictures below, you can see a skinny street, narrow and a bit lower than the walkways on either side. This road was created in the 14th century and the channel in the middle of the street was where the butchers would toss out the blood and guts of the animals. Butcher streets were almost always called Shambles back then and they were always a grizzly mess - stinky and thick with flies and whatnot. This is where we get the phrase, 'this place is a shambles!'

The Shambles, York

The Shambles across the UK are much cleaner these days and tend to be quirky affairs, full of boutique shops that are a far cry from the one-time blood bath of yore. The York Shambles are particularly quaint, with Tudor-era building leaning left, right, and bowing into the road. In fact, JK Rowling has said in interviews that Diagon Alley was inspired by the Shambles in York. 

The Shambles, York

So it should come as no surprise that enterprising young shop owners have opened a Harry Potter-themed shop in one of the retail spaces in the York Shambles. I heard about it while volunteering at the minster one day last Spring. It had only opened that week, so I knew I had to go take a look. 

The Shop that Must not be Named

The shop is tiny, but stuffed with licensed WB Harry Potter products. I couldn't help myself and picked up an Oyster card (London underground pass) and train ticket holder...

My new Oyster card holder

and a tiny espresso mug.

Expecto Espresso!

Once word got out in the town and visitors center, The Shop That Must Not Be Named became a HUGE successes. And by huge, I mean, there are long queues during the summer and school break just to get in the shop to look around. But don't let that deter you… if you're a Harry Potter fan and find yourself in York, head over to The Shop That Must Not Be Named!

Pi(e) Day

Pi(e) day 2017!  

Rosemary pecan and lemon custard pi(e)

I created two pi(e)s last year on March 14th as Bill was helping out with festivities at work. They were both a hit! 

This year I only made one pie, a Shaker lemon pie. While the 2017 pies were fairly standard, the 2018 pi(e) was a throw-back to years gone by. It consisted of a traditional pastry case and the filling consisted of shaved lemons (peel, pith, pulp, and juice - no seeds) that macerated in sugar overnight, then mixed with eggs. The filling was then poured into the pastry case and baked. Not sure that it was a hit, because I received lots of 'that was an interesting pi(e)' comments. Oh, well. Can't win 'em all! 

Pi(e) day 2018! 

Shaker lemon pi(e)

David Hockney Exhibit

My old publishing friend, Rachael, had two tickets to see the sold out David Hockney art exhibit in London. Did I want to go with her? YES! Yes, I do!

Trafalgar Square with Rachael!

What do two California girls living in London want most for lunch? Mexican food! After meeting at King's Cross, we found the Chipotle nearest the art museum. (You guys in America don't know, but… there's like ZERO good Mexican food in the UK.) Chipotle is some of the best we can get, and as far as I know, they don't have any outside of London.

Oh, my lord, YES!!!

Enough about the dearth of good Mexican food in the UK… on to the exhibit! I knew a little bit about David Hockney, a guy who grew up in Yorkshire and made it big in the art world. This was the single largest exhibit of his work to date, and it was really quite impressive. I recognized his most famous pieces, but was impressed with the amount of art (drawings, paintings, photographs, collages, even new digital work) that was on exhibit. 

Of course, I could not take any photographs. Google David Hockney if you're interested in learning more about his art. 

Exhibit poster

Exhibit poster

The art inside Tate Britain was also pretty cool. By the time we finished cruising the exhibits, though, we really didn't have much time left before we had to head back to our respective trains. 

Tate Britain chandalier thingy  

Inside wall at the Tate

We stopped for a spot of tea and more chat. Another photo, and then off we went.

At the exhibet

It was FANTASTIC to see my friend again, even if ever-so-fleetingly. And to eat some good-ish Mexican food together :-) 

Hay-on-Wye

Our drive home from Cardiff was going to be a four hours of drudgery. But, but! I had looked at our '36 Hours in…' book about Europe and they suggested, after visiting Cardiff, to swing by a wee village that has become famous for its number of new, second-hand, and antiquarian bookshops. It was bit out of our way, but mostly in the right direction heading home, so a stop in Hay-on-Wye was a go! 

After our adventures at the Doctor Who Experience the day before, I was excited to arrive at Hay-on-Wye to see this banner at our first bookstore.

Best. Banner. EVER!

It really is a tiny little village. Because we arrived the Monday after Easter, things were a bit sleepy in the town. Which meant we got a good on-street parking spot that cost nary a hay penny - virtually unheard of in the UK!  

Another bookstore

We cruised the High Street and perused many of the quirky bookshops.

Books, books, books! 

I keep my books in the fireplace, don't you?

Everyone bookshop needs a section on beekeeping!

Quirky bookstore

My favorite had to be Addyman's books. It was housed in a old, rambling, multi-story home in which various rooms (and even cupboards) were decorated for their specific genre. 

Fairy tale corner

Steam punk alley

Vampire zone

They even had a posh antiquarian section that looked like the Granthams' Library (Downton Abbey)… well, if the Granthams had been hoarders!  

Hoity toity corner

Addyman's bookshop had become so famous, they expanded to a few offshoot locations. One of those was dedicated to crime fiction (think Sue Grafton, John Grisham, etc.) and true crime (catching serial killer, infamous murderer bios, etc.) called Murder and Mayhem. I'm not really into that genre, but the shop was appropriately decorated.  

No, Bill! Don't go it...

Oh, dear!

A few hours later (and a cheeky purchase or two) we made our way back to the car. We were swayed by the smell of scones and decided a quick stop for lunch wouldn't hurt. A quick photo of the local castle ruins and off we went,  headed home. 

Hay-on-wye castle ruins

Even if you're not into books, Hay-on-Wye is a fantastic little village. 

Doctor Who Experience

On Easter Sunday Bill and I had tickets to the Doctor Who Experience. Doctor Who is filmed in the Cardiff BBC studio, a few blocks from Cardiff Bay. BBC leased out a big warehouse at the edge of the bay and turned it into the Experience, complete with loads of props and costumes from the shows many, many years. 

Millennium sculpture, Cardiff wharf 

Cardiff Bay also is the seat of Welsh parliament and home to the iconic millennium sculpture (as seen on the Doctor Who spinoff, Torchwood). The wharf was only a 25-minute walk from our hotel, but I'm glad at the last minute we decided to grab a taxi. Although only 25-minutes away, the walk would have taken us over a highway and through a rather sketchy industrial park that I'm really glad I didn't have to deal with! 

Millennium sculpture

The Millennium sculpture is a manmade, sleek waterfall. It was pretty, but when the wind blew, the water sprayed. We learned quickly not to stand too close! 

Welsh parliament

Because we took a taxi instead of walking, we arrived in advance of the exhibit's opening. We walked around the wharf, got a lay of the land, and spotted the TARDIS. Yippee! 

Look! The Doctor is in!

A few minutes before 10:00 we queued up in front of the warehouse, giddy with anticipation. 

Let's do this!! 

The first part of the exhibit was rather campy—I mean, c'mon, it *is* Doctor Who, after all. After the interactive portion of the exhibit (where you have to help find some crystals and escape the Daleks—no photos, please), we were able to spend as much time and take as many photographs as we wanted. 

EXTERMINATE! 

We're big ol' goof balls! 

As you can see, we got into the cheesy atmosphere. I have only watched Doctor Who since the re-boot starting with Christopher Eccleston, so it was interesting looking at all of the props dating back to the '60s. 

Old school TARDIS control center (used by 5th, 6th, and 7th Doctors)

Old times Doctor Who car

Olden times TARDIS and K-9 unit

And then I started to recognize some of the props! This one is from Matt Smith's TARDIS. 

A more recent version of the TARDIS control center (used by 11th Doctor)

This was a character on both Doctor Who and the spinoff show, Torchwood. He was a good guy (if I remember correctly), but basically just a big, amphibious, ancient (yet still living) head in a jar.

The face of Boe (Doctor Who and Torchwood)

The character I remember most from the picture below is the middle guy. I don't remember his name, but he was from a compassionate race called the Ood and they had weird tentacles hanging around what we would call lips.

Various character outfits / masks from Doctor Who

The Silurian were sometimes enemies, sometimes not. They first appeared in Doctor Who in the '70s, but since I haven't watched those episodes, I don't know their full story. In more recent stories, one of the human/reptile hybrids lived in Victorian (I'm pretty sure she was cloaked somehow, because no one cared that she had a reptile face) who helped Doctor Who save humanity… again.  

A Silurian

And then we got to the display of evil creatures! Cybermen, Daleks, Weeping Angles, oh my!

One of the Cybermen

Various Daleks 

Dalek's insides

Davros - evil mastermind of the Dalek

Creature from the Silence episode

Another creature from the Silence episode

DON'T LOOK - it's a Weeping Angel

I had a bit of fun playing the Doctor well before the female actress was given the role! 

I still find it hilarious that fans can believe a space alien travels through time and space, who can basically live forever and re-incarnate whenever it needs to, but find it far-fetched that this time he re-incarnated as a woman. Whatever. She's going to ROCK as Doctor Who!  

Doctor Who with her faithful companion

Some characters have died on the show and fans have taken it really hard. When Clara Oswald died (she had to go on to play Victoria, you know), the TARDIS was retired and became a shrine to her character.

TARDIS tribute to Clara Oswald

Before we left the exhibit, all of the iconic Doctor Who outfits were on display. I only photographed the ones I'm familiar with, but we saw all twelve Doctors costumes.

The 12th Doctor's outfit (Peter Capaldi)

The 10th Doctor's outfit (David Tennent - my favorite Doctor!)

The 11th Doctor's outfit (Matt Smith)

The 4th Doctors outfit (Tom Baker)

They also had one of the outfits for Captain Jack Harkness from both Doctor Who and Torchwood. Torchwood used to film at Cardiff bay and the characters often talked whilst sitting around the Millennium sculpture (photo at top of this post). 

Captain Jack Harkness' outfit

Sadly, the Doctor Who Experience is now gone. The BBC leased the warehouse for 5 years, and the city of Cardiff would not renew the lease as they thought they could make more money using the space for something else. Honestly, I think the city of Cardiff really screwed up. This could have been an attraction for years to come… Oh well, I'm glad we saw it when we did! 

And one more photo of Daleks before we left the Doctor Who Experience.  

More Daleks

We walked around the wharf for a while afterwards. I had no idea Roald Dahl (author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, among many others) was from Cardiff!

Cardiff's not just for castles and Doctor Who fans!

Much like Clara Oswald's tribute TARDIS, a character named Iantos died saving the world on Torchwood. He was a much beloved character, and there is a fan-created shrine in Cardiff bay for him as well. 

Torchwood memorial

After our taxi back to Cardiff city centre, we had quite the time trying to find a lunch restaurant open on Easter Sunday. Don't worry, we didn't starve!