BBC Good Food Festival

This weekend was the BBC Good Food Festival at Hampton Court and I decided to treat myself to a VIP ticket. (I am a member of Her Majesty's Royal Palaces so got into the festival free and a discount on the VIP ticket.)

When I checked in, I was offered a free ticket for a flower arranging class. So why not? (I did get there a little late as finding the white Marque was a bit harder than expected as they were all white!)

My flowers

Demo

I was definitely the odd one out in the class (only one on her own and below 50) but it was something different and the other people were all very lovely. My arrangement turned out ok but it was more of a "randomly stick them in the vase" exercise. I don't think my next career will be flower arranging.
But I did get the flowers to take home. :)

My "arrangement".

 After the class I rushed to the other side of festival for my cooking demo.

Showing a giant steak

Lisa Faulkner

I will admit I randomly picked a chef as without TV, I have lost track of who's who. She cooked a Spanish style steak and potatoes which smelt amazing! And I got a copy of the recipes t=so I will have to try it out at some point.

The best part of having a VIP ticket was somewhere shady to sit down and unlimited Champagne (the real stuff, not Prosecco), plus tea, coffee and soft drinks. And it was near to the pavilion with some great 50s live music.

View from my seat. 

Great way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

Once cooled and "hydrated", I went to do some shopping. There were loads of options though disappointing on the gluten food side.

However very well stocked on the gin side. :) It was hard to choose. (I did manage to get some little tasting sizes for an at-home gin tasting I am planning.)

So many options.

Followed of course by more Champagne before heading home. It was free and very nice! What is a girl to do? :)

Plus my feet were killing me! I really needed to sit down before the trip home.

Happier feet.

I did spend more money than I should have given I am saving for a holiday but I did managed to get about 30% of my Christmas gifts sorted. As well a few little treats for myself. There was a lovely non-alcoholic gin which tasted amazing, a real artisan gin, and some Garlic Vodka. It sounded odd and a bit disgusting so I had to try it and turns out pretty nice. It's made from sweet roast garlic and would go great in a liqueur coffee. Plus weird enough to be wonderful.

I also found out my only vase is now somewhat less than waterproof so had to make a couple of vases MacGyver style. 

Cocktail class

On Tuesday evening I went to a cocktail making class with Betty in central London. Lots on fun.

Passion fruit Margarita

We made 2 different cocktails, a passion fruit margarita which was extremely tasty, and a mojito. I think we were supposed to have one of each; we had at least 3 of each in the end. 

I got there early,

For the most part they had made everything up for you and you put it together. But you could go up to the bar and make your own from scratch. Betty and I were there! The measures were more pour and see than measurements. So a few (most?) of ours made a fair bit more alcohol than your regular version. Especially when Betty was pouring.

Learning the shake.

Playing!

Both cocktails were very nice though I preferred the margarita. Thankfully the weather held out as we were outside.

Betty even got some guy out of his shirt by the end. (We didn't have a lot of food compared to the number and strength of drinks.) She did give it back though.

Very Jimmy Buffet.

Chocolate making class

This weekend I treated myself to a pre-birthday gift and something I have been wanting to do for ages! A chocolate making class! The class was held at my favorite restaurant, the Palisades in Eggleston. The food is amazing and they have their own pastry chief and chocolatier, Devon, who ran the class. We started off with caramels. We didn't make these as they take a while (~6 hours!) but we did benefit from Devon's hard work and got to take these home! (The plan was to dip them in chocolate but we didn't get time in the end.)

Caramels (2 different recipes give the different colors - both super tasty!)

Caramel goodies!

Then we moved onto the best bit: the chocolate. She had a huge tub of it, melted and ready to go. It smelt amazing!

Deliciousness!

There were 8 of us in total in the class, on 2 different tables/workstations. We all got on well and had great fun.

Hard at work

It was all really nerve-wracking! We all wanted to make amazing chocolates. We put glitter at the bottoms and them painted the molds with chocolate. We were all being so careful and exact. (This was actually the easy step.)

Painted molds

After that we had to put in a shell which is where it really started to get messy! The chocolate has to be tempered (between 31.5C and 32C) so was thick. 

First you pour it over, hit the mold to get out the air bubbles, and scrap off the excess.

Pouring onto the molds.

 And then turn it upside and hit it to get the excess out.

Removing the excess form the shells.

This is where is got really messy!!!

After we had all taken turns, we had to wait for them to set so had lunch which was provided by the restaurant, so therefore amazing! The only weird bit was the view from the window. There are  loads of vultures on the trees outside. Apparently they figured out where the dumpsters for the restaurant where a few years ago. Now they have made it their home!

Vultures. 

After lunch, we got to pipe in the ganache. We had pomegranate, passion fruit and a small amount of maple and brown sugar. 

Ganache bags

Piping demo

I really enjoying this bit. It felt so fancy! And we all had to take a taste of the different sorts at the end. Sooooooo good! 

The last step is putting the bottom on. Again, messy!

Adding the shell bottom.

They were flashed in the freezer for a few minutes before being removed from the molds. I was so happy mine came out first time (as they should). And I was amazed how awesome they looked! I love the blue glitter.

My chocolates - pomegranate ganache. 

We spilt up all the chocolates between us so we all got some of each to take home. (Another reason for being so nervous - I didn't want to screw up if someone else was getting them!) I know have a lot of chocolate to eat. :-) Now I want to buy all the stuff to make more!

My chocolates 

After the class I got changed (it was very messy) and headed into Salem and Roanoke with Steve. I found a wine and beer shop called Barrel Chest in Salem which do tasting samples of different wines. I wanted to try different price wines next to each other. Is it really worth spending more money on a really good bottle?

My wines

I had wines between $20 and $60 a bottle. And honestly, the $60 was the best but I wouldn't spend the money (on that one anyway). It was really nice (a Californian) but the others were also good (very drinkable) and much nicer on my bank account! I guess if you have the money, but at least in the case of these, you aren't missing much. (Buy the $20 on half price!)

Champagne tasting

They also did a side-by-side sparkling tasting, a rose champagne and a USA rose. I preferred the Champagne as the USA one was too bubbly. But really shouldn't have anything with bubbles (alcoholic or not). I get bad hiccups.
After the tasting, we found an awesome Brazilian restaurant, one of the top 5 in Roanoke. We spilt a carafe (the bottles were crazy expensive) of white wine. I had lobster and Steve got scrim/prawns. I have never had really good lobster and didn't know what all the fuss was about. But this was really good! I still prefer crab, but I get all the fuss now.

Dinner.

Then we headed into Roanoke town centre to a bar Steve had read about. He wanted to dance. But nothing gets going at that time (~9pm) So we went to a Hookah bar first. Steve had never been to one so as a bit nervous but he got into it. I think.

With my Hookah

Steve started talking to the group next to us. Which was fine. Until we moved and talked to the girl at the end. Leaving me with the guy sitting closest to me. Who started talking about how his dad was in the Hell's Angels and he was in the legacy. (There was no way this guy was even close to Hell's Angels - complete hipster - they would have kicked his ass!) And then how he sold drugs for them, but wasn't into the whole "voom-voom thing". (Again kicked his ass!) He most likely sold drugs. And took more than his share. At that point I paid the bill and indicated (probably not very subtly) to Steve that we were leaving. Now!

We headed to the bar he had read about and got some drinks and he started dancing. Unfortunately this is when the Champagne bubbles really hit! I got serious hiccups! So I people watched. It was a fascinating crowd! 

I got home at about 1.30am. I am so too old for this! I spent today working (and taking naps) and doing a little baking, as I have been reminded that the baking production has been very low recently. So I made cupcakes with homemade chocolate frosting. And felt silly so decorated them. (There were 18 but one didn't make it to this stage. I had to taste test!)

Cupcakes 

Happy weekend!!!

Wine and design

Last night I dragged Steve to my favorite restaurant and wine shop, Zeppolis, for a painting class through Wine and Design. The idea is you got a glass/bottle of wine and someone teaches you to paint. (Though as the class goes on, you have to be more careful about which glass you are drinking from and which you wash your brush in.)

Steve contemplating his blank canvas

 Thankfully they sketched on the basic outline first (or it would have been a little daunting). I used to do a lot of art when I was younger but just haven't had the time in the past few (well 5+) years. Though I was never great at painting even then. Always got more on me than the canvas.  :-)

The class at work

Steve putting the final touches to his masterpiece

 The instructor explained each step and the different techniques to use to get the effects. It was great fun and I had a really good time. The wine of course helps with the artist process! :-)

My masterpiece (left) and Steve's (right)

And as with any masterpiece, it had to be signed (fair bit of wine at this point).

My signed piece

I think everyone had a good time. All the pictures were a bit different and most people (though not all) were quite happy and impressed with their new found skill. :-)

The class and their creations.