London - I just can't get enough of it!

I love, love, love London.  Well, I love visiting London, I'm fairly sure I wouldn't want to live there, but I love visiting and I love taking visitors there when they are in town. I see something new every time I'm there and just can't get enough of the history.  I usually tell people that London is like Washington D.C. and New York in one.

A friend of ours, and coworker of Jon's, came to visit in September and so we visited London with him for the weekend.

The highlight of our visit was definitely the British Museum.  It was AMAZING!  I have long said that The Field Museum in Chicago was my favorite, but I think it may have been replaced with the British Museum.  The items that they have procurred is astronomical (and probably slightly immoral in their procurement) and the sheer size of the collections is staggering. 

 

Love the bronze diving figures on the roof.

Horse Guards.

Joe with the Mounted Trooper of the Household Cavalry.

Joci with the Mounted Trooper of the Household Cavalry.

Downing Street, Number 10, just down the road there.

Admiralty Arch.

Abraham Lincoln Memorial in Parliament Square.

Churchill Memorial in Parliament Square.

Westminster Abbey.

Just hanging around outside the Abbey.

On the Thames River Cruise.

On the Thames River Cruise.

Tower Bridge...Gorgeous.

The Shard, almost completed.

September, 2012

Thai Chicken Laksa

Tonight I made a recipe that I've been wanting to make for awhile.  I made Jamie Oliver's Thai Chicken Laksa.  To be honest, I've been slightly obsessed with Jamie Oliver and his 15 or 30 minute meals.  My friend, Nicola, let me borrow all of her JO books and I have poured over them again and again, quietly plotting purchasing each one eventually.

What draws me to his recipes is that they are typically well balanced and almost always a full meal.  I'm typically very SSSLLLOOOWWW in the kitchen, not making many quick meals and so I like that his recipes speed me up some.

Tonight I made one of his 15 minute meals, which took me about 30 minutes to make, so that's pretty darn good.  I'm posting this recipe tonight making a few of the modifications I plan to make the next time I make it, don't worry nothing major.  Give it a try, you'll love it and so will your body!

Thai Chicken Laksa

For the Chicken:
4 skinless, boneless chicken thighs, or two chicken breasts
1 heaped teaspoon of Chinese five-spice
1 Tablespoon of honey
1 Tablespoon of sesame seeds
1 fresh chilli sliced thinly

For the Laksa:
1000 ML of chicken stock
1 butternut squash (neck end only)
4 cloves of garlic
1 large thumb-sized piece of ginger
1 fresh red chilli
1 teaspoon of tumeric
4 spring onions
2 Tablespoons of creamy peanut butter
6 dried kaffir lime leaves
Large bunch of coriander
1 1/2 Tablespoon sesame oil
2 Tablespoon soy sauce
1 1/2 Tablespoon fish sauce
300 g medium rice noodles
600 g of asparagus or green beans
1 400g tine of coconut milk
2 limes

Instructions:
Bring the chicken broth to a boil.  In your food processor rough grate the squash (leave the skin on if it's nice and clean, remove the stem and bottom before grating).  Put squash in broth.  In food processor with regular blade put in the garlic, ginger, red chilli, tumeric, spring onions, peanut butter, kaffir lime leaves, stalks from the coriander (reserve the leaves for garnish), sesame oil, soy sauce, and fish sauce.

Turn on the heat and put your griddle pan on (I don't have a griddle pan...yet).  Put a sheet of grease proof paper down with salt, pepper, and Chinese five-spice, then your chicken, making sure to spice both sides.  Fold over paper and pound chicken to flatten a bit.  Add a bit of olive oil to the pan and put in the chicken.  Turn after browned on one side. 

Trim asparagus or beans and cut into 1 to 2 inch pieces and add to broth.  Then add the noodles to the broth and then the coconut milk.  As soon as it comes back to a bubble remove from heat, squeeze in the juice of one lime and then sprinkle with 3/4 of the coriander/cilantro leaves and 1/2 the sliced red chillis over and put on the table.

As soon as the chicken is about ready, squeeze the honey over and turn the chicken over and over in it coating with a lovely sticky sauce, then sprinkle with sesame seeds and remove to a plate for the table.  Sprinkle with remaining coriander/cilantro and sliced chillis.

I liked this is a bowls, kind of shredding my chicken over it.

Big THANK YOU to Jamie Oliver and his book 15 minute meals, picture provided from that book as well.

March 2, 2013

Moto Moto is Living the Life!

While visiting with my parents in December we also visited our African Sulcata tortoise Moto Moto, name so nice you gotta say it twice, who just happens to live in my parent's vegetable garden.  He is the perfect pet, as long as you keep him away from the plants that you don't want him to devour.  Otherwise he keeps weeds away and pests under control. 

Truly he is Joe's pet.  Joseph has long had an obsession about turtles and tortoises, and so we ended up getting him one.  He is, sadly, the last pet that we have left after losing Logan and Clay passing away.  So it is VERY exciting for us that he is thriving with my parents.  The kids had a great time 'playing' with him during our visit.

December 2012

Merry Christmas!

Ok, so I am a bit late on this posting.  Alright, I'm A LOT late on this posting, but it needs to be done.

We had such a lovely Christmas this year.  It was a Christmas miracle that we were able to spend Christmas at home in Arizona with my parents.  Having the kids wake up in my parent's house and spending the day with all of us was a much needed slice of home pie.  The kids got what they wanted, and more.  The adults got a few things and got to watch the kid's excited faces as they opened each gift.  My favorite gift was from my parents.  It was a set of bound books they had printed of my blog by each year.  I love them, and hope that someday the kids will love them as much as I do.

My parents were so kind to let us decorate their Christmas tree with all of our ornaments.  It really made us feel at home.

We brought traditional Christmas poppers from England to share with my parents at Christmas dinner.  They are so much fun and everyone wore their popper hats.

Christmas Day 2012

Shrove Tuesday or Pancake Day!

Photo courtesy of Nigella Lawson's website.

 Shrove Tuesday is the day before Ash Wednesday.  I guess in the States we call it Fat Tuesday.  Here, in England it's also called Pancake Day as there is a tradition, you may guess, of eating pancakes on this day.  There are pancake races, particularly in Olney, representing the young mother racing to feed her family and getting to church on time.  For more info go here.

Pancake day for me is fun.  This year I decided to go all out and literally have pancakes all day long.  I made the kids American pancakes in the morning with butter and syrup.  I made a couple extra for them to take to school, instead of a sandwich, with some raspberry jam to dip it in.  Then, for dinner I made crepes stuffed with ham, broccoli, and cheese sauce.  Dessert was more crepes, these stuffed with Nutella and bananas.  My kids absolutely PIGGED OUT on pancakes, especially at dinner.  Especially Jocelyn, who managed to out-eat us all, she loved them so.  As I write this both kids are upstairs bathing and soaking off the Nutella and other pancake mess of the day.

My favorite part of the day, though, was thinking back to our recent holiday in Arizona.  I asked my Dad to teach me how to make crepes, and I'm so glad I did.  I made tons of them tonight, and each time I swirled the batter around the pan I thought of my Dad.  I can't wait to teach my children how to make crepes just like their Grandpa.

My favorite crepes recipe:

Makes about 20-24, 8-9 inch crepes.

2 Cups AP flour
4 eggs
1 Cup milk
1 Cup water
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 Tablespoons of melted butter

Mix all together, it helps to use a mixer and not a whisk as you add more lightness to the batter and get all the lumps out.  The batter should be fairly watery.  If after making the first crepe and you think the crepe is too thick, thin out the batter with a bit of water.

Turn your burner onto a medium-high.  Depending on the pan(s) you have it may only take a small amount of butter to season your pan on your first crepe.  Dip about a 1/2 cup amount of butter into your pan and swirl around until the batter stops moving but is all the way up to the curved part of the pan.  Just as the bottom is browned slightly turn your crepe and it will only need a few moments more before you can slide it out of the pan onto the cooling rack.  Like my Dad, I prefer to have two different pans going at once, or you could be standing for a long time making crepes.  Experiment until you have just the right amount of batter, etc, and you get a great crepe, as typically the first one is usually horrid.

Stuff with all kinds of combinations:

Ham and Cheese

Mushroom and Cheese

Nutella and Strawberries or other mixed berries

Nutella with Bananas

The Fischer family favorite is - Crispy bacon, sour cream, and a bit of maple syrup.

Chilli and Cheese

Lemon and sugar

February 12, 2013