France - Welcome Dinner

My second wine trip to France was in the South of France, same location as my first annual wine trip to France. In fact, we even stayed at the same hotel! However, the first year was mostly spent touring wineries in the southwest (primarily Languedoc) whereas the second year was spent on the southeast (notably, Provence and Chateauneuf du pape).

View from my hotel room

After a long, hot day involving a plane, bus rides, and a shade-free lunch in the hot sun, when we arrived at the hotel everyone jumped straight into the pool. We all quickly cleaned up before heading to our welcome dinner. 

Welcome dinner

We had about 25 people in the group this year and we've all had the chance to gel as a group. The dinners and socializing are quite fun, albeit they can be long, drawn-out affairs. It's a good thing we all like each other! 

View from the dinner table that first night

There were a handful of new folks along for their first tour this year, and I felt like an old pro! This summer I'll be attending my third annual wine tour and will really be a seasoned pro by the end!

Some friends along on the wine trip

And just look at this view. It doesn't get much better than this, especially when there is terrific food, loads of good people, and copious amounts of wine! 

Full moon over the mediterranean sea

France Wine Trip - Winery L'escarelle

And so begins my second annual educational (cough cough) wine trip!

My friends (close to 25 of us. all together) and I boarded a plane and ended up in Nice, France. After an hour long bus ride we pulled up to the first of many wineries, Winery L'escarelle. 

Inside L'escarelle cellars

We began our visit, as we do all of our winery visits, with a tour of the winemaking facility. We received a short story about their company, their ethos, and what makes their wines special, and/or distinct. All I know is in about 30 minutes we're going to be tasting wine in France! I pinch myself often on these trips. 

You'll see loads of barrel photos in the upcoming posts!

See, more barrels!

Once the tour is over, they lead us out onto a lovely patio and the tasting begins! 

View from the wine tasting room

Before

We tasted about 6 or 7 wines at this first winery. I wasn't as vigilant at note taking or photographing as I was on the first trip, but I did snap a few shots of wine bottle in various degrees of emptiness.

       

During

Last summer I got to spend a lot of time with my friends Julie and Cindy, both of whom have either moved (or are in process of moving) back to the states. Almost everyone else on the tour were our British friends from the wine tasting class. 

After, we all boarded the bus again and made our way to the hotel for a bit of fun in the pool before dinner. What a great start to the trip! 

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.