I realize that I have no wedding-centric LJ icon. Can somebody suggest/create one?
Day: April 18, 2006
weekend update
http://www.flubu.com/various_pics/bradgate-apr2006/
Katy and I went to Leicester for the weekend. We left on friday, after going to the gym in the morning and made good time to get there, considering how late we left. The weekend was ok. I survived sleeping in that tiny bed better than most weekends, which was a good thing, although my back did make its feelings felt by the end of our stay. We went walking to Old John in Bradgate park. It was a nice, if foggy, day but good walking weather nonetheless.
We also went to see Stu's new kitchen, where I had my first cup of tea in… years, really. Since his kitchen is still in shambles, really, it was a bit funny to see him get teabags from one room, milk from another and sugar from a third one still :) We also left with the most hideous smily-face mugs that I've ever seen, but for some bizarre reason, Katy is enamoured with them and so now they hang on a mug tree in our kitchen… *shudders*
Back at work today, and hopefully it will be an uneventful week. We need to sort out the paperwork for my Certificate of Approval † this week, as soon as we get the forms. Once we have that, we can finalize the rest of the mountain of paperwork that is apparently required to get married in this country. Gotta love the bureaucrats…
†I don't know if I've mentioned it or not but we found out last week that since I'm not a British or EU citizen, I need approval of the Home Office to get married in the UK… You'd think that I wouldn't need to, seeing that Canada is part of the Commonwealth after all, but noooooooooooo. Also, it can take between 3 weeks and 3 months to get the paperwork filled out, and costs the nice sum of £135 just to get a small sheet of paper. Joy.
Stuffed russian-y goodness
I made piroshki this weekend. I saw a post in ![[info]](http://stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
food_porn that made me drool and went recipe hunting. For a first time, they came out really nice!
MEAT FILLING:
1 large onion, finely chopped
bacon, cubed with the fat trimmed off
flank steak, minced
half a small white cabbage, finely sliced
olive oil
salt
pepper
paprika
chili powder
mustard seeds
cumin powder
SOUR CREAM DOUGH:
3 1/2 c. sifted flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 c. butter
2 eggs, beaten
1 c. sour cream
To make filling: heat olive oil and add mustard seed and onions. Add onions and brown slightly. Add bacon and steak and sautee until coloured. Flavour to taste with all the spices. Add cabbage and cook until tender.
To make dough: Sift together in large bowl, flour and baking powder. Cut in butter until particles like cornmeal. Stir in eggs and sour cream. Mix to form dough. Knead lightly until mixture is a smooth ball. Wrap in plastic and chill 2-4 hours.
Roll out dough to 1/8 inch thickness. Cut 5 inch rounds, rerolling and cutting to make 18 rounds. Place about 2 tablespoons of filling in center of each circle. Using pastry brush, coat edges with beaten egg. Fold dough over and shape into moons. Press edges firmly together. Place on ungreased cookie sheet and brush tops with beaten egg.
Chill 1 hour. Preheat oven to 400 degrees and bake 25-30 minutes until golden brown. Makes 18 piroshki.
I cheated with the dough, really, as I didn't have any sour cream (substituted with milk and a bit of vinegar) and I found out the hard way that I didn't have any eggs (so I added more milk and more butter, which made the dough more crumbly but still damn tasty!)
All in all though, they are NUMMAY!!!