Birthday Present Number 1 - Savour School

I was very lucky for my birthday - everyone was very generous in donating towards some cooking courses. I have been wanting to do a chocolate making or petit fours course for a while, and now I have enough to do both - well sort of.

Today I went to a variety day at Savour Chocolate and Patisserie School in Brunswick. The day started a bit after 9am, with getting in to groups and preparing the ingredients for a gateaux, a tart and some chocolates.

The first thing we started with was the bits and pieces to make up a white chocolate gateaux. Given the number of things needed, some items were made by each group, and others were made once for the entire group. It was a little disappointing not to be doing it all myself, but I guess to get through everything, some shortcuts need to be taken (even with only 10 in the group). After making all the bits for this (Coconut Dacquoise, White Chocolate cream - our groups was by far the best!, Passionfruit Cream and white chocolate glaze), we moved on to item number two - Raspberry Hazelnut Tart.

Again, some items were done as a group and others were done once for the whole group. We started this with Breton Shortbread, and Raspberry Jellied Coulis, which had to be fozen.

Following this busy morning, we started on the chocolate making, with the first layer of chocolate in the mould. Then it was finally time for lunch.

After lunch, we only had a couple of hours, so it was time for the final cooking - Vanilla Ganache and Caramel Filling for the chocolates, and then to put our cakes etc together.

Following making the fillings, it was on with putting together the white chocolate gateaux, with the coconut dacquoise in the bottom of the ring, followed by a layer of the white chocolate cream. This is then brushed up the sides of the ring, to create the 'sides' of the gateaux. Next goes the passionfruit cream (which has been frozen)and its all topped off with more white chocolate cream. Once this is done, its into the freezer for an hour or so (more if its needed).

Next up was the decorations for the top of the gateaux and tart. Paul, our instructor, did these, while explaining different techniques and ideas for decorations. After this, it was on with the custard and hazelnut cream for the raspberry hazelnut tart. As this was all taking a bit of time, so Pauls lovely assistant finished off the chocolates, which again was disappointing not to get to do this.

When this was all done, we could finish off the gateaux, with the white chocolate glaze and decorations. Finally, it was time to put the coulis on the shortbread, pipe on the hazelnut cream and decorate.

We ended up with some fabulous looking treats to take home.

Alisons Birthday - the rest of the weekend

Saturday was a busy day. Unfortunately Derrick had a cold, and John had the flu, so we left them to have a restful morning while the rest of us headed to Chadstone and Koko Black. Koko Black has some wonderful chocolate goodies!

After a relaxing morning, we headed home in time for Sandra's arrival, and 'high tea'. We had cucumber sandwiches, ham and lettuce sandwiches, freshly baked scones with jam and cream, danish and all sorts of yummy things! It was all very filling, and really kept us going till well past dinner (which was left overs with hot chips!).

Sunday morning saw a hive of activity, with the barbeque being cleaned and tables brought in and set, ready for the rest of the rels (and some friends) over for bbq brunch. It was another great day, with lots of chatter and catching up. We finished around lunchtime with another delicious cake, this time cooked by Marylyn - a rich chocolate mud cake with chocolate curls.

We followed up with a lazy Sunday afternoon, taking the dogs to the park, and an early night - which was just as well as I had to go to a work conference for two days following, leaving Andrew with the job of cleaning up after the weekend!

Alisons Birthday

It was the catalyst for the holiday, and yet it still seemed so far away - Alison's 30th Birthday finally arrived!

Unfortunately, its a Friday, which means work - but not for the full day. Thank goodness, I got to go home at lunchtime, even if I had to clean the house and get things ready for a house full of visitors for the weekend. And when I say a house full, I mean it!

Had only finished lunch and started on the cleaning when Mum and Derrick arrived. Mum and I went to pick up a package that the courier couldnt deliver the previous day (as no-one was home), while Derrick unpacked the car and Andrew kept on with the cleaning.

Not long after this, Marylyn, Tim and the girls arrived. Just got them settled in and Mum and I were off again - this time into the city to pick up Auntie Lorraine. It was so great that she could come over, especially having been over just a few weeks before.

By the time we got home again, dinner was almost ready and Andrews Mum and Dad had arrived, along with David and Carolyn! Dinner was great - Marylyn and Mum had organised salmon pasta with birthday cake for dessert - a baked cheesecake - both were very yummy!

It was a full on day, but there was more to come for the rest of the weekend....

Home Again

Well, after another long flight, this time from LA to Auckland, we were almost home. We had an hour in Auckland to wander around the airport - it was a good way to break up a long journey, but soon enough it was back on the plane and onwards home to Melbourne. We have had such a great time on holiday it is a bit strange being home!

We arrived home at 10:30am, and after unpacking our bags and doing some supermarket shopping had a couple of hours sleep (we did set the alarm so we would only sleep for an hour, but it helps if you turn it on!) and were woken about 8:30pm by the phone ringing (thanks Marylyn).

Hope everyone has enjoyed reading our blog entries. Now we are planning for the next trip - even Andrew is looking forward to the next one!

Longest day ever!

Today is Friday the 13th, and as I sit and write this the day has gone for over 27 hours so far, and its only 7pm! This morning we were up early to make the most of our last few hours in London. After packing the bags, we checked out and headed to Harrods for breakfast – we missed the afternoon tea, so breakfast was substituted instead. To be honest, we originally intended to go to the bakery and get some goodies and a drink then wander down to do some shopping, but although the bakery was open, nothing to drink, so we found the Patisserie and had a wonderful breakfast of rolls and pastries.

After some shopping and photos, we wandered back across Kensington Park, which was still busy with joggers and cyclists, and on recommendation, bought some sandwiches to eat on the plane. The first leg was with American Airlines, and we had been told by a few people that the food was very ordinary and that they recommended to BYO food! We arrived at the airport in plenty of time – the tube is great, even with cancelled services!

After wandering around and finishing our shopping (still had a few pounds left, we just had to get rid of!), it was time to board the plane. We went to the gate, and were randomly selected to have our bags searched. Fortunately, it didn’t take long and soon enough we were on the plane and on our way home. This leg was 10 hours – the short leg – and we spent our time reading, listening to our ipods and watching the movies. Unfortunately, we have now finished our books, and with an 18 hour flight, the deck of cards might come out! We were hoping to purchase a new book or two at the airport, and were expecting, like all other airports we have been to, that after security control, we would be able to wander around the shops. We were wrong! There are only 4 shops, all of which are tiny and none sell books! Oh well, we will have to fill our time with the in-flight magazine – and some sleep! Also, we don’t have any US dollars, so even buying a bottle of water is out of the question, unless we want to pay by VISA…

West end show

Today was our last full day in the UK, and we wanted to make the most of it. We started with a quick breakfast near the hotel and then made our way via the tube and DLR (Docklands Light Rail) to Greenwich. We started by finding the meridian line with our GPS, which indicated it was a little to the east of the site where the line is at the Royal Observatory. We had a quick look through the museum there and at the exhibits there. They were really very interesting and well presented.

From Greenwich we made our way to Harrods for lunch. We hoped to have something similar to High Tea at the Peninsula Hotel in Hong Kong, but they were not starting that service until later than we could wait. Instead we made our way to the Chocolate Bar (formerly Max Brenner) and had a very healthy Chocolate Fondue! It was delicious.

After lunch we headed to Leicester Square and the Half-Tix office to see if we could catch a show tonight. It took a while to decide from the many available shows but we eventually decided to see Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap. It was full price (+2.50 GBP service charge) so we walked to the box office, which was not far away, and purchased the tickets there.

Earlier in the day we had arranged to see Georgia and her partner Miles, friends from Bright. We made our way via Covent Garden, and the street performers, back to Leicester Square where we met at the Half-Tix office. We headed to the National Portrait Museum where we had tea and discussed their recent move to the UK, which was all very exciting. They are certainly set for lots of adventures if they get to go to half the places they plan.

Evening approached quickly, so we took the time to wander through St James Park, and then back to Leicester Square for a quick pizza before the show. The theatre and the show were great – its easy to see why it has been running for so long (since 1951, and in St Martins Theatre since 1974) – such a good story. The ending was … well if you haven’t seen it you’ll have to go and see for yourself.

(Andrew)

Visiting Family

We had a lovely sleep in this morning, with the time difference from Denmark; it felt like it was an hour later! Today we were heading to see my aunty Val, my father’s sister. She lives in Twickenham neat the rugby stadium. Before we headed off we grabbed a quick breakfast in a café up the road from our accommodation, using their wireless Internet to check emails etc.

After breakfast we arranged our tube tickets and then set off from Notting Hill Gate to Waterloo where we caught a train to Twickenham. The trip was quite quick, but we were later than expected. This turned out to be ok as Val had trouble finding a park and arrived a few minutes after us. It was quite strange meeting someone you don’t know for the first time. What do they look like, will they recognise you, etc.

Once Val arrived we headed back to her car then drove past the stadium to her flat in Twickenham. We chatted and looked over some of the photos that we had brought with us before heading to a garden centre that served good food nearby.

From lunch we headed on a tour of the houses that Val and/or my father had lived in at various stages of their childhood. We started at Inveresk Gardens, then on to Craven Close, and lastly to Cavendish Avenue. It was really great to see these places, and to have Val explain what she recalled of them. This took most of the rest of the afternoon, so we said goodbye to Val and headed back to London.

On our way back to the hotel we stopped at Waterloo and had a “flight” on the London Eye. It was quite fascinating to see the city from that height. It was quite a quick flight, but I think just the right amount of time as the pods are quite small, and there is only so much you can really see from them. We then had a quick walk through Kensington gardens to finish off the day.

(Andrew)