I heart the butcher!

My puff pastry turned out wonderfully, I know many of you were concerned! Haha! I guess the third time really is the charm when it comes to making pastry dough. I walked through Hyde Park last week on my way to class and I got to see some of the Royal Horsemen (I do not know their official title) training their horses in the park. It was really cool.

Well in cuisine we have ventured into the wonderful and frightening world of meat from large animals. Last week I walked into the demo room and there was a rather large mass wrapped up in paper sitting on the counter...it was a lamb (dont worry not with the head or fur). We learned how to make rack of lamb and how to essentially butcher a lamb. I have mixed feelings about the process. During our practical we had to "French bone" the ribs...this is when I learned to appreciate my butcher SO much more! It is actually really hard and takes quite a while to do. The practical test on rack of lamb was not my best, because I burned my hand pretty bad on a pot. I wont go into detail, but lets just say that my hand blistered up quite quickly and I was almost in tears. For those of you who know me, know that for me to almost cry means I thought I was going to die it hurt so bad! After that I still had 6 hours of school left and a test on a pear pastry..which is delish. My classmates were so wonderful and helped me though the practical since I only had my left hand to use the entire time.
Saturday was great, I met some friends from school at an amazing Asian restaurant. After lunch we did a little shopping and just hung out. Sunday I went to my friend Jasmines flat, we have gotten to be good friends, and we cooked away for about 6 hours. It was so nice to be in someones home and to get to practice a bunch of things that will be on our midterm.
I did not have to start until later in the afternoon today, so I was able to do a little sightseeing and exploring for a few hours. We learned how to cook different cuts of beef in class and we made a roast for our practical test...it was my dinner and a tasty one. Sadly I forgot to bring home a knife and fork...so as barbaric as it was, I just ate it with my hands!