meg-made it to Le Cordon Bleu, Part Deux

I am going to try and keep this Le Cordon Bleu post a little shorter and less wordy than my first one, but in doing that, I realised that I therefore am going to need a Part Trois to this series!! 

So for my 30th Birthday last month my Husband gifted me a one day gourmet Fish & Shellfish cooking class at Le Cordon Bleu London. I had such a wonderful day and felt like I had finally found the learning environment that I was suited to, and have reevaluated my life long goals accordingly! 

I wanted to share some photos of what a professional kitchen looked like (I'd never seen one before) and some snapshots of my day. The Chefs can't be shown for privacy reason (apparently they have sold their souls to LCB) and so all the videos I took of Chef Eiric at work can't be shared unfortunately! 

But here's my round up of my course, and then Part 3 will be a recipe or two that has come from the course (stay tuned, it may take me a little while to get to that one!). 

We each had our own station and in our own fridge was our tray of fresh seafood. I say fresh, and I mean FRESH! The crab and the lobster were still moving, which was kind of hilarious because we all discovered this fact at the very same time, so there were A LOT of shrieks around the kitchen!

I love how organised and segmented everything is in a professional kitchen. And because we were there to learn skills and techniques for preparing seafood, we didn't have to chop any vegetables, they were all prepared for us already so we could focus our time on the Champagne Zabalone!! 

We made our own lunch, mussels, lots and lots of mussels!

And I had to take a photo of the size of saffron that Chef was using! It was hard to get a proper perspective shot showing just how big it was, but about the size of an A5 piece of paper (which, if you think about my usual half matchbox size costing about £5, that's a serious amount invested in saffron!!). 

I had to stop and photograph this one moment because it was when I really felt like cooking is really something I enjoy. I loved having four different things on the go at once, its kind of like those pesky interview questions "when have you demonstrated multi-tasking"..... right here!

And here is my poor little guy, post pot of boiling water, but I will say, he was delicious!

While we were doing one or two things, Chef Eiric produced about 8 different dishes and displayed them for us to drool over / emulate!

And so that night I tried my hand at the Lobster, and it was really darn good. Served with a Mango compote, it made me remember that summer might actually come again to England one day! 

After being a little bit of a geek and collecting my certificate...

....I couldn't help but purchase the Cuisine Foundations cookbook on my way through too! Apparently this book is part of the course curriculum for students, so I thought it would be an investment! I haven't had much time to go through it properly yet, but it is such a wonderful teaching tool that I can't wait explore and practice with. 

So that is just a little bit of a snapshot of my day at LCB. If you are passionate about cooking, I can't recommend Le Cordon Bleu enough for a special gourmet course or gift for someone you love. I am so grateful that in marrying my best friend, I am constantly able to live my dreams and when I haven't even uttered the words out loud, he knows how to make every dream of mine come true. Thank you so so much Pete. I love building dreams together.

Psst!! If you are looking for a little more meg-made, I'd LOVE for you to follow along!

July Foodie Penpal

I am really enjoying being part of the Foodie Penpal, it is so much fun. I love receiving a goodie parcel each month and wondering what is going to be inside this month. I love getting to know the pen pal that I am buying for too, and finding out what challenges face me this month!! 

I had Maya this month, and apart from being a vegan who is allergic to wheat, she also wanted a healthy parcel!! I truly don't know any vegan/non wheat food that isn't pretty much healthy, but it was still fun to have these constraints. My favourite item that I found was popping corn that was still on the cob, that you pop straight in the microwave, with bags provided of course. I wish I had of bought one for me too, they looked fun. I got a mix of other healthy snacks and treats and hope Maya enjoys it all, without guilt!!

Angie from wanderingangie.com had the task of buying for me this month. I knew from the get-go that it would be a fun and well thought-out parcel because she was so engaging and "up for the challenge" of having me as her pen pal. I am tricky to buy for, I really do know that, but month after month, I get such awesome treats, and this month was definitely no exception! How good does all of this look?!

The selection of teas look amazing and I have packed them away to take with me to the USA. I have a soft spot for Chai, it is my all time favourite tea, so am most excited to try another brand of chai. The lavender earl grey is the next tea I am most interested in, as I like lavender and I like earl grey, I wonder how they will go together. I suspect well, and I suspect I will make lavender earl grey cupcakes soon. Watch this space!

I like the selection of snacks. I am obsessed with Nakd bars. They are wicked. They don't look like much when you unwrap them, but they are healthy, gluten free, tasty, filling, sweet, and fill a void in the afternoon when I have my milk cravings!! 

Cooking supplies - love them all! I am out of potato flour Angie, how did you know!!! I am also out of cinnamon sticks, because I use them all the time! I have ground cinnamon as a back up, but nothing compares to the real thing. And the vanilla looks so fancy, I'm excited to give it a go and see if it is any different to the extract I use. 

Now, these biscuits, they look ordinary, sound ordinary, but can create something EXTRAordinary!!!!! (not extra-ordinary, to be clear). 

I used these biscuits as the base of a Mango Curd Marscapone Cheesecake, recipe HERE, and my gosh, they were divine. 

I made them for friends at a picnic around the corner from our house, and just loved them. I made six for the six of us, big mistake! Should have made 20! We all nailed them within a few minutes, and nobody could believe that they were gluten free. So, huge thank you for these little gems, will be looking for them everywhere I go!!!

Thank you so much Angie, I really really enjoyed my parcel and appreciate the time and effort you went to for each item. I hope you had such thoughtful goodies too!!!  

If you're interested in joining the Foodie Penpals, the European set-up is organised through Rock Salt, follow the link to find out more and to sign up. The set-up in the USA is through The Lean Green Bean. It really is so much fun so if you enjoy trying new foods and meeting more people in the blogging community, get involved!!

June Foodie Penpal

This month's Penpals came around so quickly it felt like!

I had so much fun shopping for my Penpal Deirdre and found a few fun ingredients that I had never heard of before. Have you ever used mace before?? Apparently it comes from the same evergreen tree that nutmeg comes from, and has a similar warm and nutty flavour, but hopefully Deirdre will let me know how they differ. I found some BBQ sea salt, which I thought would be awesome simply seasoned on a good steak. I find that porcini mushrooms are a little difficult to come by in London, so when I found some, I got some for us and some for Deirdre too. There were a few other goodies too, including some decadent sounding chocolate and tea too. 

This month I was lucky enough to have Lisa as my penpal. Lisa lives in Northern Ireland with her hubby and is definitely a foodie. I had so much fun going through my immense pile of goodies this month!! 

1. Tiger gourmet sea salt & vinegar Potato Chips. These are gluten free, dairy free and free from artificial colours and preservatives. They look truly gourmet, I can't wait to dunk them into a decadent salsa soon!

2. Twinings Peppermint & Nettle tea. I love herbal teas and as I can't have caffeine, this is a perfect tea for me to enjoy. The peppermint helps with tummy troubles too, so it is a calming and settling tea for me to have after eating. 

3. I'm so interested in the little pouch of "recipe inspirations kit".. There is paprika, garlic granules, sage, rosemary, thyme and oregano. What a great idea! As soon as I saw this I thought that I now have travel herbs!! We usually book a self contained holiday abode so that we can do our own cooking when we are on vacation as we enjoy cooking so much. This would be perfect to take with us so that we can season meals without buying and wasting a whole jar of spices. 

4. Sugar Sheets. Edible zebra print stickers! How cool is that!!! I got some animal print cupcake liners last month, I'm thinking my penpals are conspiring for me to hose a safari party soon!! I think these are just so cute and can't wait to give them a go. 

5. There were a few little gluten free chocolate bits, which unfortunately I won't be able to eat, but Mr M is pretty excited that he's got some treats in my parcel this month!! I just tossed the 9Bar in his workout bag for a post-gym-energy snack as he's walking to work in the morning. He's a happy man. 

6. My favourite two items are actually non-food items this month. The heart muffin molds and novelty baking tins are just so adorable, and i'm always loving new baking items. How adorable will it be to make little quiches and pasta bakes for Baby M and freeze them in love hearts. And the baking tin is just the perfect one person pie dish. 

Thank you so much to Lisa for such a fun and varied box of goodies this month. It felt like I was delving into Mary Poppins' carpet bag, it seemed like a never-ending box of treats. 

If you're interested in joining the Foodie Penpals, the European set-up is organised through Rock Salt, follow the link to find out more and to sign up. The set-up in the USA is through The Lean Green Bean. It really is so much fun so if you enjoy trying new foods and meeting more people in the blogging community, get involved!!