Days 74, 75, 76, and 77. Thanksgivings.

Days 74, 75, 76, and 77. Thanksgivings. This morning on my walk to the tube station, I saw a lady hunched over a toddler, with his pants down. Apparently he couldnt hold it and she had him pee in the gutter. Nice. Happy Thanksgiving to me. And with that.... Monday. We were greeted a bit too early in the morning on Monday with a technical class, flower making. You would think that it would be hands on, but no, we sat and watched Chef New make flowers for two hours straight before he gave us a break (after I kindly asked if we could have one). It was rather boring, and not much audience participation as we were all really tired did not make a good combo. When class was to end at 11, and Chef was still going, and the whisperers behind me were complaining, I spoke up after Chef said, "Alright and next I'll show you how to dust a flower and after that how to touch up a flower." "Chef, you do know that class ends at eleven right?" "Yes." "I just wanted to let you know its after eleven and there might be another class needing the room." "Oh well arent you one for keeping with the clock today." He looks over his shoulder and looks at the clock, "I see you all don't want to be here, well class dismissed." Gasp. Gulp. I'm an idiot. "Chef, that was not my intention, if you need to show us something please do, I just wanted to make you aware of the time." "No, no, class is over. You all can go now." Everyone just sat there trying to decide if we should get up or not, luckilly the clackers behind me got up, and so did everyone else. I apologized to him after class, but I dont think he took my sincerities. He said that he was glad I said something because he didnt realize the 'time had passed so quickly' but judging from his behavior, it was a lesson of I need to be quiet. We had two more classes in the afternoon/evening with a three hour break so the lunch bunch headed off to a dutch pancake house. Maine said he was craving pancakes so we went. They were more like 16" open faced crepes with canned food on top. Luckilly it was £5 Monday Deal there (normally 9.85) so we werent out too much money. Funniest line from lunch, after Poland gave her lunch order to the waiter, he told her that one was not able to be made gluten free (which she needed), her response "You just crushed my world." -- Wow a world being crushed over a lunch order is pretty funny. In the afternoon we learned to make a cake with a really long french name, that came down to white chocolate mousse, covering a layer of pistachio sponge, and fruit jelly, with a surround of tempered chocolate squares in dusting powder. The jelly has a thickness/texture of a thick slice of ham, and white chocolate should be called why-bother-it. I did love how my chocolate squares turned out, we had a variety of colors to choose from, so I swirled coppers, golds, and ruby dust around and made a pretty nifty pattern to swirl tempered chocolate all over. My landlady and flatmate were impressed with it. I was glad to hand this one over to them. It was gone in two days. I think they liked bothering with it. Tuesday. We had Chef New for our next demonstration. He saw me come in, as I was rolling my eyes in dread for the awkwardness that was about to ensue for three hours. "Michelle, no hard feelings yah? It was good of you to tell me the time. I had no idea it was that late." "Chef I promise today I wont say a word, and I will just sit here and listen." California snorted from beside me. "Whats so funny? Me and no talking don't go together?" I asked her. "Yes." Was her one word reply. I kept my word, and did not say a thing the entire class. Maine leaned over to me a couple of times and asked me a question, and I would whisper back "Ask Chef." :) It was Chef New's first time doing this demonstration of chocolate candies, and he didn't have time to give us a break. For three hours we watched him make chocolates. I never reminded him of the time, said a single thing or asked a question the entire class. At our practical that night, Chef Yes was in the kitchen with us. I really like him, he is thorough, honest, and gives good advice. He had sat in on the candy making class demonstration. "I know Chef New told you to do it this way, but don't, I will show you how to do it better." Ha! It was an interesting evening. I asked Chef yes as I was stirring my chocolate ganache filling, "Chef, what do you recommend instead of alcohol in these chocolates? [As 3/4 chocolates had a booze of some sort] I thought it was weird that Chef New said lime juice or 'any fruit juice.'" "Yes, don't use fruit juices. If anything, use the zest and just eliminate the alcohol all together. Juice will curdle the chocolates." -- Umm thanks Chef Yes for good information, and Chef New might have to go back to the books. Ha!! My chocolate piping (the X you see on instagram/facebook) on my candies turned out amazingly well. I was really quite pleased. Even more pleased with my restraint from eating them...moderation. Wednesday I took a jog/walk my regular route. Malta invited me over to study at her place. She made decorations for a wedding cake a we studied and chatted. Then we headed over to school for our only class of the day, a demonstration on Chocolate work....our first time. This was lead by none other than Chef New for the third time this week. We watched him as he tempered chocolate, used colored cocoa butters to fill in the character, and set up the show piece. There was a lot of chatting going on in the room, I couldn't help myself (I cant be silent two demonstrations in a row) and kept asking him questions to keep him engaged with his audience instead of his silent concentration. We were told that we could do any character we wanted. In our manual, there was Fred Flintstone, Simba, Rescuers, and other characters to choose from. I asked California (sitting next to me) what character she was going to draw/use. (she is an artist/worked for Disney/makes costumes). She said she didnt know. I dont know why a picture of my nephew William popped into my head. It was from last years NYE party, and we were up past "midnight" eating cookies. I dont know what compelled me to ask California if she could make a sketch of "the picture" I wanted to use. Her face lit up and said she would do it. Sweet. Got home before 10pm, wrote some emails, and headed to bed. Thursday. Saw the toddler peeing on the street curb. But before that instead of exercising I decided to make myself a mini thanksgiving. One potato in the pot, portabello mushroom gravy, honey glazed carrots, and Quorn 'chicken' made for one fabulous meal. Headed to Malta's after that for more studies. I had a mentoring session with a chef where I can talk one on one and work on my concerns and improvements. It was good to voice somethings, and know how to get others resolved. I keep falling asleep. This is boring. After that came time to do our chocolate work. California did an amazing job with the sketch, and my chocolate work ended up being better than expected (1/3 of the class threw there's in the bin afterwards as the colored cocoa powder did not stick to the tempered chocolate) again I am falling asleep. It was so fun to peel back & see how the face and cookie came to be. I got "ooohhs and ohs" from my fellow students. It was a better day.