Sweetbreads...need I say more...

Well family and friends I am sorry to say that last week we entered the world of sweetbreads. For those of you who are wondering why I would be sad about that, sweetbread is not bread that is sweet...sweetbreads are liver, kidney, brains, and other organs that in my opinion should not be consumed. To be quite honest it takes a ridiculous amount of preparation and they don't really taste all that good. The famous liver and onions was the dish I had to cook, I did try it...but "ewh gross!". I think that will be my first and last time to try sweetbreads. Thankfully we have moved onto shellfish. Pastry has been fun, we are baking lots of cakes and we have gotten to do some chocolate work, like ribbons and curls.
Shellfish was an interesting venture...as Julia Child would say, "you must confront the animal...no fear" and boy was she right. I entered the demonstration kitchen and the bowl on the counter was making noise and moving. Yes, you guess it...just like jello...ITS ALIVE! To all those who are thinking about attempting to make something with crab, well word to the wise, let your butcher do the work. Many cuts from the shell and little meat to show for the effort, I decided that should I ever open a restaurant crab will not be on the menu.
Last weekend Melissa and I went to Paris and we had a blast. I will say though, whoever thinks Paris is warmer than London is very much mistaken. Paris was FREEZING!!!! We arrived on Saturday morning and left Sunday night. We did everything; Notre Dame, Sacred Heart Church, La Duree (famous for their macaroon cookies), Louvre, Eiffel Tower, and last but not least segway tour! A segway is like a big scooter that you can just ride around on the sidewalks. We had so much fun! We went early Sunday morning, so there were not a ton of people out and about yet. When we got to the Louvre we were able to just ride around all the gardens and glass pyramids, so fun. Around 5 on Sunday we decided to head to the train station; little did we know that we were in for one last adventure. We get to Paris Nord station and there is a super long line to get through security. Well we wait in line for about 30 min and the line did not move and inch. One of the station managers moves the line outside of the train station (yes into the freezing cold) and told us to wait. Of course its France, so no one tells you what is going on. Thankfully there was a very nice couple in front of us, who told us that their had been a security threat and that all the trains were delayed. Three hours of waiting in line later we finally got through security. Needless to say we missed our train (and the 3 after ours). Finally around midnight we got back to London. Word to the wise, don't leave a bag on the train...it will cause major delays and there will be many unhappy people. Melissa and I did have a wonderful time, and we got a great story out of it!
Naomi came into town on Thursday night and I was so excited to see her! Well very early Friday morning I get food poisoning. Ironically, I had just learned about how to prevent food poisoning the day before in class. So sadly Naomi had to go out on her own most of the weekend, while I was sick. I obviously did not go to class on Friday. Come to find out later that day there were about 7 people missing from my class and we all had the same thing. We are not completely sure what it was that we all ate, but we are together like 10-12 hours a day, so it could have been anything. I have two practical exams tomorrow and I am hoping I can just stand up long enough to get through them. I only have about 2 weeks left of school and that is so crazy to me.