Back to Betty's

My love of Betty's Cookery School is becoming stuff of legend. A friend of mine recently contacted me to tell me that her friend, who works in some capacity at Betty's, was offered a 50% off friend and family opportunity for a class that had few registrants and was taking place in three days. She told her friend that she couldn't attend because she had to work that day, but that she knew someone (me!) who may want to sign up for the 1/2 price class. I looked at my calendar, saw that I could easily free up what was already scheduled, and signed up. SWEET! 

Another Betty's selfie

The class was a teatime treats class that showcased three tasty treats you could make if you were hosting your own tea party. I think the class didn't fill up like the others because you only made three things, iced butter biscuits (cookies), chocolate cake, and scones. However, there were so many components to each of these recipes, it really was choc-a-block full of information and the students were kept busy all day as usual. 

The classes are quite costly, but they certainly feed you well. For breakfast there are fresh baked croissants, butter, and jam alongside all-you-can-drink tea or coffee. For elevensies there is more coffee or tea and a slice of quick bread or a cookie. The lunches are always quite decadent; for this class we had chicken caesar salad, fresh rolls, wine, and a strawberry meringue tart filled with fresh cream.  Afternoon tea comes with more tea or coffee and more biscuits. By the time you roll out of the class, the last thing you want to do is eat all the food you've been preparing all day! 

Lunch!

Dessert!

Before lunch we had already made the chocolate cake, the fresh raspberry jelly (from scratch!) for the cake filling, and the butter biscuits. After lunch we made the flood icing & coated our biscuits and made the royal icing for further decorating once the first layer of icing had hardened. 

Butter biscuit teapots with flood icing

The head tutor, Chris, takes the students step by step through the complicated process of whatever it is you're learning that day. Here, he's showing us how to cut, fill, and ganache our raspberry chocolate cake. 

Chris, the main Betty's Cookery School tuitor

Chris, in his element

The final masterpiece!

Raspberry chocolate cake with chocolate ganache

Chocolate cake with fresh raspberry jam filling

We then got to working on making our fruit scones. While they were baking, we made rhubarb compote from scratch. 

Fuite scones with clotted cream and rhubarb compote

And while the rhubarb compote and scones were cooling, we decorated our butter biscuits with the pale green royal icing so that they could set before we had to pack everything up for the day. My piping skills aren't the greatest, but my favorite three finished cookies are below. 

Finished butter biscuits with royal icing

Another finished butter biscuit

And yet another.

Another busy and fun day at Betty's Cookery School! 

Solo Adventures in London, Part Two

The next day in London was largely spent at the Writer's Workshop where I met several of my fellow on-line students, and my wonderful teacher (and a great writer), Debi Alper. The event was enjoyable and helpful, and now that I've learned a lot more about the writing and publishing process, I feel like I gained more from each session than at the 3-day workshop last Autumn when everything was oh-so-new to me. 

The workshop ended with a general hang-out session with a glass of wine at 5:30. I had done some sleuthing on the internet earlier in the week and had learned that there was an honest to goodness Chipotle a few blocks from Regent University, where the workshop was held. I had been salivating ever since learning about the nearby Chipotle. As any California-raised, Mexican-food-loving, expat-in-England knows, there are very few Mexican restaurants in England, and those that are here, are typically meh at best.  I finished that glass of wine and conversation and high tailed it straight to Chipotle! 

A nice guy from Cornwall who I had met at the workshop was walking back to his hotel and caught up with me on my way to dinner. I told him where I was going and he said, "My wife and I saw that shop yesterday walking around. I think it's just around the way. Chip-o-what is it? It's a fish and chip shop, yes?" Oh, the LOLs! 

Mmmm…. veggie burrito goodness! 

The next morning I awoke from my food coma and got ready for the day. I planned everything so that I could check out of the hotel, leave my bag, and take the tube to Oxford Street to do a bit more shopping before my 1:00 train home. It being Sunday, I figured the shops wouldn't open until 10:30, as they do up in our little corner of England. I arrived on Oxford Street around 10:15... Sadly, every last shop on Oxford (save the tourist trinket shops) didn't open until noon. Noon! The time I had to take the tube back to pick up my luggage and walk to Kings Cross. Curses!!! 

I got to look in the windows of Selfridge's

Window shopping wouldn't have been so bad, save for the fact that it was only 2*C (35*F) and there was really no place to pop inside to get warm. There really aren't any cafes on Oxford Street either, save for the ones inside the still-shut department stores. Cold curses!!! 

And Liberty's

Liberty's of London

I ended my several hours long window shopping experience on Carnaby Street, just as a few shops were starting to open for browsing (strictly no sales until noon), but I had to start heading back to the tube station. 

A backlit Carnaby Street

Strict London laws about retail shops and Sunday hours: my wallet thanks you.

Live models inside the closed MAC store

Solo Adventures in London, Part One

As some of you know, I've been writing a novel and trying to make it something that more than just a handful of people would enjoy reading. In that vein I've taken a few online courses and attended a weekend long conference back in September. The same group that put together the weekend-long conference held a one-day event down in London last month, and I gathered my courage and headed down to attend. 

On the train again...

It was the first time I went down to London to do something by myself and I was a bit nervous. I shouldn't have been, though, I've visited London enough times now that taking the tube and navigating the London streets solo wasn't really as scary as I had envisioned. I arrived early on Friday afternoon and, after checking in to my hotel,  made my way out to Covent Garden, a fancy-pants shopping area. First on the agenda was finding the new Charlotte Tilburry flagship store (a famous make-up artist who has created her own line of make-up and skin care). It was dead easy to find - I exited the tube at Covent Garden, walked up the stairs, and bam! it was right across the street! 

Inside Charlotte Tilburry's boutique

After spending more money than I had anticipated at CT's I walked around and window shopped. A lot of the stores in Covent Garden are luxury shops anyway (think Marc Jacobs, Burbury, etc.), and I wouldn't buy at those exorbitant prices even if I could! At one point I stopped and watched a string quartet busking outside one of the shops… and the pay-to-pee loo. 

Buskers outside the loo

After window shopping, I walked about a half mile to the British Museum. I had been there once before, but only to  pop in and see the Rosetta Stone before going to do other sightseeing in London. This time I wanted to see the Asian and Viking pieces, so I bee-lined it to those two sections.

I got to see statues of Tara from Sri Lanka:

8th century statue of Tara, the greatest of the Buddhist goddesses.

Statues of Ganesha:

2nd century Ganesha stature

A later statue of Ganesha

A shiva/vishnu statue:

Shiva, the Hindu god

And a bust of Buddha.

Buddha

There were also quite a number of weapons on display from ancient Asia. I saw a rather intricately carved ivory sword hilt from (if I remember correctly) 800AD or so.

Ivory sword hilt from China.

Going back even farther, there was a set of bronze Chinese knives that date back to 1100 BC. And they looked nasty! Especially the one on the left - look at the hook on the end and the serrations… gives me shivers just thinking about what that knife was used for….

Seriously scary and old knivery

There were life sized gaurdian statues that were *only* 800 years old or so. 

A guardian statue

On my way out of the Asian wing I stopped by a trinity of buddha statues and a similarly-motifed tapestry behind it. I forgot to read what these statues depicted or when/where they were created, but I liked the photo. I wish the young guy on the right hadn't popped into frame right as I took the picture, though. 

Three buddha statues and a trinity buddha tapestry

En route to the loo I found the statue below and thought it was compelling. You can't tell, but the head was at least as tall as I am. Not that I'm tall, but it was pretty impressive. It was originally created for Amenhotep III, but 100 years later it was re-chisled to resemble Ramesses II. Big cheater, that 2nd Ramesses! 

Amenhotep III / Ramesses II, circa 1300 BC

I finally made my way up to the Viking section of the museum. It seems like this is the only part of the museum that featured materials found in England.. The first item I fell in love with was a female necklace / bejeweled chest thingy that looked like a golden, bejeweled cross-your-heart bra. Only two of the stones were still in the centerpiece. Not bad for something over a 1,000 years old! (I don't remember the exact date of the Viking pieces, but they ruled England from 800 - 1066AD.)

Gilded Viking chest jewelry

The museum also had quite a few finds from a Viking ship that had been unearth inland near London. The ship's hull had been upturned and buried upside down, where it remained for nearly a thousand years. In the 1800s, the young female landowner suggested to an archeologist that he should dig up the last untouched hillock on her land, and low and behold - an entire Viking ship with tons of cool stuff inside, including the chest jewelry above and the intact full helmet below. 

Viking helmet

The last items I searched out in the British Museum were the Isle of Lewis chess pieces. Each chess piece is individually carved from walrus ivory and is of Scandinavian descent. Several not-quite-complete sets were found in a cave on the Isle of Lewis, an island off the northwest corner of Scotland. Not much more is known about them, but I found them incredibly interesting! 

Some of the chess pieces

Two kings with bishops and knights behind them

Two bishop pieces

A set of chess pieces, complete with peg pawns

Knights, bishops, and I'm guessing rook pieces

Detail of the backs of several pieces

I ate a quick dinner at the British Museum before walking back to my hotel. Once at the hotel, I went to the bar to buy a pint of beer to enjoy in my room. I saw they had Doom Bar, a cornish beer favored by Cormoran Strike, the detective and main character in Robert Gailbredth's (JK Rowling's) mystery books. I ordered one, and the hotel bar was hosting a 2-for-1 happy hour, so I got a second massive bottle for free! Sadly, the beer was not very good and I didn't even finish the first bottle. (I saved the second bottle for the next night, but didn't even crack it open the next night. I ended up leaving it with the tip in the hotel room.)

Corcoran Strike's favorite beer!

I went to sleep early, as the next morning I had to be up and at my writing workshop bright and early. More on that in my next post… stay tuned!

Milliner for a Day

I love hats! I wish hats were more of a thing back in the states. I love getting all dressed up (or even just a little dressed up) and popping on a hat or fascinator and heading out for Ladies Day at the races or some similar function.

Last year I won a one-day hat hire from a local milliner (see photo below to see the 'free' hat) and learned that the same gal hosts millinery classes from time to time. This peeked my curiosity enough to keep an eye on her website and when classes became available, tried to find some friends also interested to take the course with me. Nobody was really interested or available, so I decided to - what the heck! - sign up anyway. 

At Ladies' Day in York, 2015

The gal hosts many different courses, but I decided to take the introductory 'millinery taster' half-day course. We learned about a lot of different hat styles and techniques, tried on lots of different hats, and then got on with the hands-on stuff. 

Wonky, self-made hat

I got to pick out my base, then whatever color of sinamay (netting material made out of the bark of a tree related to the banana tree) I wanted. After that, it's as easy as ironing a hem around your netting, then ironing it into whatever shape and/or placement you want it before sewing it in permanently. The teacher made it look easy, creating flowers, accordion-folds, spirals, etc. lickity-split. My accordion fold came out a bit wonky, but I liked the way the swirly bits turned out on the lower half. I doubt I'll ever wear my hat out in public, but it sure was a fun afternoon! 

SNOW!!

I can't help it. I get giddy when it snows. I still can't believe I live somewhere where it does, actually, snow. Granted, the most snow we've seen in England happened the first month we lived here, but the last three years we've seen our fair share of minor snowy days. 

This last winter we had more snow than the last two years, but each time the snow fell it only lasted half a day or so before melting away. The first night in January it snowed I was so giddy! Had I not already been in my PJs, I would have run out and played in it! 

Nighttime snow

Thankfully, it was still there in the morning and lasted until around lunch time. By dinner it was just a slushy mess. 

Another dusting

A few weeks later I got to see what the meteorologists were describing as freezing fog while on the train to volunteer at the York Minster. 

Freezing fog in Knaresburough

And then in early March we were treated to yet another day of snow. I didn't realize it had snowed until I had already dressed for the day and opened the window. I was heading off to London that morning, and talked Bill into driving me just the few blocks to the train station so I could take an earlier train to York… just in case the weather was adversely affecting the train schedules. Thankfully, the trains weren't delayed. Unfortunately, that meant I arrived in York an hour early for my train… and had to wait in the cold, damp train station that much longer. Oh well, I was still going to London, so I was happy! :-) 

Yard dusted in snow

A Winter Spa Getaway

A few of my friends had purchased day spa packages at a Christmas market back in December and found out I could tag along for the same low price they paid. Continuing my tradition of saying yes to as much stuff as possible, I joined them. 

(They didn't have to twist my arm too hard!) 

Swinton Park

The spa was located inside the swanky Swinton Park, just outside of Masham, North Yorkshire. Swinton Park has been both a manor home and a boarding school for children during WWII until it became the fancy-pants hotel - restaurant - spa that it is today. 

Chandelier in the sitting room 

We got to spend an hour in their wet spa, which consisted of a hot tub, sauna, and lounge chairs, before heading off for our facials. After all that, a lovely afternoon tea in their sitting room. 

Afternoon tea for five

The only downside was at the end. There were five of us trying to be quiet and posh in a sitting room that had two other couples trying to have a refined afternoon tea. I'm sorry, but no matter how quiet you are, a party of five is still a party of five.  We didn't get shushed or anything from the staff or other visitors, we just felt very conspicuous and aware that it was so quiet (save us) in the room. Perhaps they should pipe in a little classical music or something to help cut the silence/tension? 

Blurry hallway

All in all, though, it was a lovely time!