Earlier this week DmentD took me to the gun range. This might seem odd and bizarre to anyone over there in the UK, you’re all wondering now whether I’m living with a gun-toting maniac *grins*

The answer’s no I’m not.

This was infact the first time I had seen any of the guns though I knew of their existance. It’s legal, in Texas, to shoot someone if they’re on your property.

Since I’m at home on my own for the best part of the day (or at all) DmentD wanted the piece of mind knowing that should anything happen while I was alone I would have the knowledge and the confidence to go and pick up one of the guns and protect myself (while also calling the police, I’m not stupid).

We started by getting the three guns out here, showing me how to hold them, load and unload, turn safety’s on and off.. basic gun safety and handling.

We stopped off on the way to the range and picked me up some ear protection and glasses to wear.. and some lunch too!

I don’t really know what I expected from the place, but it did the job, the sign in the shop saying “we don’t call 911″ with the gun hanging below it amused me, as did the one saying “keep all moves open” not the sort of place you want people to think you’re going to try and rob them!

We got our lane, the range is basically a row of little cubicles, with a wood ledge in front of you, and space for people to walk past behind you, a broom to sweep up the shells when there gets to be too many. It was very loud in there, even with the ear protection on.

We started off with the revolver, I didn’t do too badly.. I hit the target! It took some getting used to, especially trying not to anticipate the shot as it made me lose my aim, but trying to relax is kinda awkward in that situation. I was getting better near the end. I think the gun was slightly too big for my hand, it was just marginally uncomfortable to hold when taking multiple shots.

Next off came the rifle. It was actually the same as the one I shot in Africa, except semi-automatic so I wasn’t having to reload as often. I did fairly well just shooting it, I was keeping in a fairly close circle to where I was aiming. But then I tried it using the stand they provided, kinda like a barracade to hold the barrel up (as that was where I was wavering, my arm was tiring holding it up so it was wobbling) and I did really well, keeping it in tight circles where I was aiming.

Finally, out came the shotgun.. I didn’t actually shoot this. DmentD fired it a couple of times (though the photos are him with the rifle)  and even knowing it was coming the sound was making me flinch (yes, I’m a wuss). I think it will take me some time to get used to that one before I want to try firing it.

When the zombie apocalypse comes hand me the rifle!

A while back I decided to re-teach myself knitting and crochet (though so far I’ve only done the knitting). Finding a project I wanted to do and some nice wool I set to making a hat…

… it failed! I followed the pattern religiously, and there I think was my problem.. It claimed to be a pattern for an adult male… It was about tall enough, but width wise… well, I’m donating it to a two year old and I’m not even certain it’ll fit them!

So with a not quite so funky, but still nice coloured wool, I set to making another. I barely followed the pattern this time, making it wider and not quite so tall.

And tonight I finished it.. I’m very proud of my new hat

And some photos not promised.

First, DmentD and I at his work Christmas party at the museum, and then a couple of us playing about while we were baking!

Next, the gift tins!

And every item in them…

We didn’t make the cat treats, but we did make everything else. It was so much fun to do, and it meant we got to play with recipes that we’ve both been wanting to try. Homemade marshmallows are divine! Such a nicer texture than shop bought, velvety and smooth! The rocher turned out nice.. on the second try (the first try yielded the pralines!), and while the caramels are tasty I think next time I want to try and make them a little firmer.

It’s been a very wonderful Christmas. DmentD took from Christmas Eve off and isn’t back to work until Monday so it’s been fantastic having the time together with nothing urgent  to do.

We were up a little earlier than planned Christmas morning and after breakfast of homemade (by DmentD) pancakes.. the American style, not English, we opened our stockings. I got a very cute ornament for the tree called a Beastlie, we both follow the artist and see what she’s up to, and I got one for his birthday. The required sweet stuff – chocolate and some liquorice sweets, a travel mug and some presents I wasn’t allowed to open yet!

I got DmentD lots of little things for his stocking, a card game of Zombie Fluxx which is fun. And a little Japanese puzzle… that drove him insane.

After both of us had been picking it up, fiddling and then putting it down, I finished it yesterday, then determined to finish it since I had he managed it also!

My main presents I was completely spoilt! I got a shiney new camera, a Canon Powershot, and the most gorgeous and informative book on making chocolates and confectionery. And the mystery gifts in the stocking were a spare battery and a memory card.

I got Dmentd the Discworld animated films and then two shirts. One saying “prefectionist” on it *grins* and one he really wanted with a cthulhu biohazard sign!

We went round to a friends house for dinner, we took along the christmas cake and yule log and ice cream, and were fed a delicious coq au vin. We exchanged presents and finally we could share what we had been keeping a secret.. We had made everyone presents – caramels, rocher, pralines, cookies, hot chocolate kits, gingerbread spoons and homemade marshmallows, and then even dog biscuits for all the pups! (pictures to follow) It was so much fun and I think everyone liked them.

We spent the evening there and much fun and merriment was to be had!

Boxing day I played about with the camera lots, taking photos of the tree and ornaments and the house lit up and playing about with all the many hundreds of settings, altering the colours and contrast. Mid afternoon, ready to be out the house we went to the cinema and saw the Curious Case of Benjamin Button. It was interesting, and I enjoyed it. While it’s a little predictable, you can tell where the story is going to end up, it was very well done and nice to watch.. if you cry easily take a tissue! Dmentd enjoyed it too, and liked that they accurately portrayed New Orleans where most of it was set.

I hope your holidays were just as joyous

To everyone, whatever you may be celebrating, or if you’re just happy for the day off!

Have fun, be merry, eat and drink lots

My love and best wishes to you all

For two weeks anyway… Not that I’ve had much time to appreciate it yet, I’ve been keeping myself busy!
The last week of school was fun, we started with an Angel Food Cake (an American creation that didn’t taste so good, chewy and no flavour at all), made a Frambois, Pralinettes which were very much fun, covering them in chocolate and topping with chocolate fans. The Julianna was good, took an entire lesson layering up the various cakes and mousses and creams, then tempering white and dark chocolate at the same time in order to do the woodgrain banding, I also made the striped cigarettes for practice.. because I could! A quick cake was the dobos, the garnish of the caramel covered cake was the best bit!

We finished up with an exam on a cake of our creation! Chef gave us a menu of items to choose from so I decided on chocolate and caramel, a flavour combination I enjoy very much. So I ended up with the sponge from the sacher torte, chocolatey and dense, soaked with a rum syrup and sandwiched with ganache. Covered in a caramel buttercream (made for the first time during the exam) with chocolate shavings on the side and caramel curls on the top. They were good fun to make, once you got used to the fact you were wearing two pairs of gloves and it was going to be very very hot.

I got the ultimate accolade for my cake.. Chef said she would buy it!

The weekend’s been busy… Annoyingly (for me!) I can’t talk about it yet as it was mostly part of Operation Christmas.. so presents for people that may or may not be reading this!

I got my Christmas cake decorated, it’s looking pretty awesome. I covered it in (homemade) marzipan and fondant. Then I made a wreath of holly and ivy and berries similar to this cake but made of modelling chocolate instead of fondant, and looking much neater and better! The leaves extend all the way down the side of the cake and the piping on top is much better (amazing what two years of cake making will do!).

Tomorrow I’ll be making the yule log, I made the meringue mushrooms today for it, and I have some holly and ivy left from the cake to garnish it.

We went to the cinema yesterday to watch JCVD. It was interesting, I didn’t realise it was mostly going to be in French with subtitles, but it fitted since most of it was set in Belgium. I liked that it wasn’t an action film, he did very little fighting and it worked.. I don’t want to say too much incase any one wants to go and see it.. but I enjoyed it!

We went to Ethiopian for lunch and I was pleasantly surprised.. the place we went to last Christmas was ok.. I could find something I liked, but it wasn’t a place I would actively suggest and ask we go to. This place was different, I preferred it. The food was flavourful and the server/cook was wonderful, suggesting that we order less as much as she wanted us to spend lots, she didn’t want her food to go to waste.. I think that was awesome.

Today I was enjoying my not having to go to school! I was annoyingly practical for most of the day though, getting laundry and ironing out the way, some more of Operation Christmas done and dusted, and then I finally sat down and watched The Other Boleyn Girl. I enjoyed it, they’ve taken a lot out of the book (which I liked very much) but it still flows, and they haven’t altered things too much.

It’ll be dinner time soon, I’m finally feeling festive with the cold spell in the weather.. obviously my mind just couldn’t accept that Christmas was on it’s way when it was still 70F outside!

I dare you to watch this and not be smiling by the end of it

Two weeks of cakes down, one left. I’m really enjoying it so far, picking up some new techniques and getting better.

We’ve had a busy week making carrot cake and banana cake, a triangle cake, amour de polenta, pineapple upside down cake, sacher torte and an alhambra cake for the exam. It was fun making a cake for the exam that we hadn’t made before, we had to research what it was supposed to look like, what soak the sponge needed etc. and chef gave us some fairly obvious tips. It’s been a good week, there’s some cakes I’m really happy with, some I’d like to change bits of, but mostly it’s all turned out good.

I discovered that I should take tests when ill more often, last week’s test, I aced! I don’t think I did so well with this one, at the very least therre was one bonus question I couldn’t answer.

It was a good, albeit quick, weekend. Saturday we went up to the school to have a look at the gingerbread competition. I didn’t enter it in the end, but it was nice to look at all the entrants.. especially the ‘professional’ catagory with the houses entered by the chefs.

In the evening it was the Christmas ‘do’ for the hospital. So DmentD and I dressed up and went along. It was at the Texas History Museum. Therre was some good food, met a few random people! And the museum was open so we could have a wander round. It was alright, nothing special really, there was a wall of what looked like anti-Bush propaganda, and the orignial statue from the top of the Capitol building looked like a drunk man in a toga (with fake breasts) to me *grins*

Sunday was our usual grocery day, we went bowling in the evening… I didn’t do great, but I didn’t do too badly.. it had been a while since I last went bowling!

We finished up by going to the Armadillo Christmas Fair.. lots of local artists, nice to stroll around and have a look. We bought some mugs, I got ‘Goddess of the Universe’, and DmentD got ‘Lord and Master’ I was trying to persuade him to get the one saying ‘King of Absolutely Nothing’ but he wasn’t having any of it!

One week of school left! Then it’s the Christmas holidays.. and then when I go back it’s onto the Advanced units which makes me a little nervous.. I’m sure it’ll be fine

That’s mostly how I’ve spent this week!

I gained a cold this week, which steadily travelled from my sinuses to my throat and now has taken up residence in my chest. Still, I made it to class every day, even if I was coughing through the demo and just trying to stay warm!

Having 6 days of class completely threw off my internal calendar too and I had issues keeping track of what day it was!

It was a fun week of class, I’m happy we’re onto cakes. We’ve made a blackforest gateau (even if I’ve never seen one before with white frosting!), a generic birthday cake with a genoise sponge and swiss buttercream, a yule log which was so much fun I’m going to be making it for Christmas, and a couple of pound cakes, one called les weekend and one called pain de genes.

We did another of the birthday cakes for the exam, which I mostly rushed through so I could go sit down and feel sorry for myself for not only being ill and barely being able to concentrate, but to be in school doing an exam on a Saturday! It went alright.. I wasn’t happy with it, but I knew that there was slim chance of me doing any better feeling like I was, Chef was mostly happy with it, it tasted good and she felt the flaws weren’t all that bad and I’d done a good job (especially with making and baking the cake, making the icing, and decorating.. and doing my theory test, all in 2 hours).

DmentD and I put up the Christmas tree this week, and decorated it, DmentD also put some lights up outside, along the edge of the roof and around the tress in the front yard. The house feels nice and festive now.

Sunday we went out for Dim Sum, my first experience of it. It’s chinese food, but they wheel everything round of trolleys so you can ask for bits of whatever you like. It was mostly seafood, we were sat next to the tanks of lobsters and crabs, but there was enough meat (mostly pork) to keep me happy. I’m getting better with chopsticks, and it was probably the most I’d eaten all week!

Then, as DmentD and I were out shopping, I started feeling dodgy… really, not good… eventually I requested that we cut short the trip so I could go and crash on the sofa.. I’ll spare you the list of symptoms, suffice to say between them and the fever I developed we think I picked up some mild food poisoning at the Dim Sum place. DmentD went out for a short while and I stayed huddled under a blanket semi watching films semi dozing.

I’m feeling better this morning, the fever broke leaving me just with the cough and sniffles I already had.

Back to school this afternoon (a one day weekend is not enough!), onto a pineapple upside down cake and at some point this week a sacher torte which I’m excited about.

Oh! And if you want a giggle go read DmentD’s blog and see how I managed to squick him out! *grins*

That’s apparently how long I can stay awake to keep DmentD company when we’re driving long distances overnight!

I had class Wednesday night, with my exam for custards making the charlotte au cassis, it went well, my glacage was a bit thick but aside from that it went well.. my piping is improving, I still need more practice but it’s getting better.

Straight after class we started our trip to New Orleans. Armed with coffee, cold drinks and snacks we set out, taking a couple of stops we made it there by half 8. I started dozing off just as the sun was rising, but was awake again for the stretch of road over the Atchafalaya Basin, my first glipse of swamplands.. not actually all that exciting, from the road at least, but interesting to see!

We unpacked the car and slept for a few hours before joining DmentD’s family for Thanksgiving. Eating plenty of turkey and macaroni and cheese and green beans.. and I tried the seafood gumbo, and then finishing the meal with baklava and germans chocolate cake. I made some milk rolls (the pain au lait) and some rice pudding that seemed to go down well. We played a couple of games and had a nice relaxing day.

Friday we went to the Audobon Aquarium of the Americas. It was a nice place to wander round, some interesting exhibits. The penguins were actually swimming.. Usually when I go to a place with penguins where they have the glass so you can see the penguins swim, they all stay on land! There were some sea otters, displays on the Amazon and the Mississippi finishing with a display on the Gulf of Mexico.

We left there to go to Cafe du Monde and have the cafe au lait and beignets.. Ok, I had hot chocolate rather than cafe au lait, but it was still good. I didn’t quite believe how covered in icing sugar the beignets would be until I saw them.. DmentD wouldn’t let me ‘accidentally’ cough and spray him with the excess sugar!

We met some friends then and went out to dinner before heading downtown to the ‘Miracle on Fulton Street’ letting the two young children (who both call DmentD ‘Uncle Stuff’.. that made me giggle so much) play in the fake snow since it’s rare to get actual snow round here.. it was tiny little bubbles, it was fun! And the Hilton hotel next to it had a huge gingerbread house in the window that I was admiring!

We spent the rest of the evening hanging out with friends, lazing and chatting and having fun.

Saturday we went to the French Quarter and wandered about the French Market, picking up some nice artwork for the house, and then took a walk about the quarter.. The architecture is nice, and it’s nice to see some history round here! We walked down Bourbon Street so I could say I have.. even if it was the middle of the day, I’m not sure I’d fancy it at night!

Killing some time (and therefore some money) in a bookshop we then met people for dinner at a little place called Lola’s where I stuffed myself out on meat paella and DmentD was very happy to get some seafood paella. Another evening of chilling with friends, we watched The ‘Burbs.

Sunday we met some more friends for lunch at The Olde Ice House (all it needed was a ‘Ye’), which involved a trip across Lake Ponchartrain. The meal was delicious, and huge, and I was very nearly beaten!

We packed up and left about half 6. Once again at the 7 hour mark I needed a nap again! The drive wasn’t too bad, we got caught up in a lot of traffic around Baton Rouge where there had been an accident, but we made it home about half 3.

Monday DmentD had taken the day off work. We got up when we had to return the rental car. I followed in the truck, my first time driving it alone which went well, and then we went and got pizza for lunch which seemed to make us both zombified and it upset my stomach a little.

I had school in the evening, finishing off custards we made souffle and baked alaska.

Tonight we start the Basic Cake Decorating techniques which I’m looking forward to.. though I’m not looking forward to having to go to school on Saturday to make up for the time lost last week! There’s a gingerbread house competition coming up that I’m toying about with entering.. I’d kinda like to.. we’ll see