Katy's dad and I won the trivial-pursuit-game-that-wouldn't-die last night as part of our overall strategy to make up for last year's debacle. Playing with a version edited in the UK in the 80s makes for even more of a challenge for me, but I did still manage to hold my own.
Category: uncategorized
[Recipe] Meat curry from Auntie Mina
Recipe for lamb, chicken or prawn curries
Ingredients:
Oil
2 sticks of cinnamon
4 cloves
2 teaspoons of cumin seeds
4 big chopped onions
2 teaspoons of red chilli powder
4-5 teaspoons of cumin and coriander powder
3/4 – teaspoon of turmeric powder
Salt to taste
1 small tin of chopped tomatoes
2 teaspoons of tomato puree
Green chillies and ginger chopped to taste
1 teaspoon of garam masala
Lemon juice if desired
• Heat enough oil to cover bottom of pan
• Add cinnamon, cloves and cumin seeds and cover pan
• When these are popped in oil
• Add chopped onions and cook thoroughly, stirring frequently till oil bubbles out.
• Make paste with chopped tomatoes, tomato puree, green chillies, ginger, red chilli powder, turmeric, cumin and coriander powder, garam masala and salt to taste, add a little water if necessary.
• Add above paste to onion mixture and again cook thoroughly, stirring frequently till oil bubbles out.
• Add meat, chicken, or fish to the above mixture and stir and cook till meat, chicken or fish is tender
• Add some lemon juice if desired and lots of freshly chopped coriander leaves
The physics of King Kong
Katy managed to find a team of wild horses to drag me to see King Kong. I really wasn't loking forward to see it, I dunno, it really didn't appeal to me. After seeing it, I'm still bleh. It's not the worst movie ever made, but I really annoyed the hell out of me. It could easily have been a half-hour shorter and has plot holes big enough to drive a Mac truck through. The female lead character annoyed the hell out of me and all in all, this movie is way too in love with CGI. So, all in all, I've seen it and Katy enjoyed it, so that's ok.
We went to see her uncle Michael and her auntie Mina. That woman can cook and her kitchen smells like indian heaven :) I got a new curry recipe which I will be posting as soon as I type it up.
We're baaaaaaaaaaaaaack
Ottawa customs were a bit of a pain, with me having to unpack my laptop from a massively overcrowded backpack. At least I don't make the metal detectors go poing anymore these days. Bobbles and Parsley were great hits with the customs people who made us open our bags for verification of odd shapes (I had a bottle of wine, Katy had hjars of pickled beets). The kiddies were the source of lots of ooohing and aaahing, which made us giggle. The flight was uneventful, save for the fact that there were 4 people sitting behind us instead of 3. One kept crying all throughout the flght, the other kept kicking the seats. I am now a firm proponent that small children should be sedated and fly with the pets in the cargo hold. Heathrow was a breeze and now we're in Leicester.
We're both completely zonked out. We had a bit of a nap in the afternoon… except that now the sun is down so we're getting up so we have a small chance of actually sleeping through the night.
Journal updates
I'm doing a bit of cleaning up in my friend list, removing people/communities that I tend to not read/skip over. If you find yourself in that group, it's nothing against you, I just want to streamline the stuff I read.
Iron Chef is love!
I'm watching Iron Chef for the first time in 8 months. This makes me happy. I don't miss a lot from living in the UK, but Iron Chef is one of those things :)
What I got for xmas
I must've been really, really nice this year. It seems that I've been celebrating xmas for two weeks: in Leicester, in Montreal and at my parents'.
It's weird though. It's xmas day itself and I think I'm a bit xmas'ed out. I just want to spend the next few days doing SFA. I have some books to read and some music to listen to and I'm going to be a very happy camper.
If you're curious what I got, in no particular order:
– stainless steel electronic scales
– a digital camera
– a fedora
– a granit mortar & pestle
– a book by Bill Bryson
– a set of really nice headphones for my laptop
– a new webcam for my laptop
– two cotton trader rugby shirts
– really, really ugly fridge magnets (and some nice ones too!)
And because my memory is shit poor, I forgot the following:
– tickets to the Santana concert in London
– an “earth seen from above” desk calendar
– a rosetta stone ceramic tile
– M*A*S*H season 9 DVD box set
I also got a ton of waterstones vouchers and some money as well (my parents went overboard, really!). I'd mentioned that I would like a KitchenAid mixer, so my mom gave me the money for it (as if she bought it, it wouldn't work overseas).
I'd also asked as a joke for a foot of snow. My mom decided to improvise by dumping two bags of glitter confetti on my head (which required a shower to get rid of – that thing itches like mad!).
In other news, I've decided to give Boris to my sister. I wouldn't be able to bring him over for at least another 10 months. We can't move until april (and it's still not guaranteed that we'll find a pet-friendly apartment) and then there'd be a 6 month delay for bloodwork to be processed. It would be unfair for both Boris and my sister, cause they're really bonding together and he's really, really settling into her apartment. He eats her plants, he showers with her, he sleeps in her bed. It just wouldn't be right. So… yeah. She'll take care of him and I'll still be able to visit once in a while.
Speaking of the pussycat, he's currently sleeping somewhere downstaits. He's getting a bit braver. Apparently, he was up nosing about upstairs during the night last night and even jumped in my parents' bed. That did not go well with the little doggy. That's her bed :) Still, there's been no real pet-induced chaos, so that's good.
I am adequate.
Katy was musing out load at what my extreme make-over would include. Apparently, I need a brow lift, cosmetic dentistry, liposuction and a tailored exercise regime. When I started goofing about the breast enlargement and the brazilian butt lift, she started choking with laughter. When I mentioned the penis enlargemnt kit I got in a spam, she said the words all men yearn to hear: it's adequate. *chuckle* I think we scared my sister with that conversation :D
Quote of the day
Mom: when are we opening our presents?
Me: midnight?
Katy: you don't open your presents on xmas?
Me: we're ones to talk, we opened our presents on the 19th…
And now for something completely different
Things I have learned today:
– Two people can fit in the tshirt I'm wearing today. My sister and I have demonstrated this fact.
– We drove down with more things than can be (or rather should have been) fitted in a small car.
– We're starting to feel a bit rundown. I've been having weird headaches and Katy's voice/throat is giving her a bit of grief. I think it's a good thing that she's going to be seeing her ENT when we get back, if only to swear at him.
Besides that, my parents are going warp-speed at the thought of all of us being here for the holidays. If my mom gets any more giddy, she'll run the risk of spontaneously combusting. She's been up since 4am.
There is a definite possibility that we will explode from the massive quantities of food that my mom is offering us. All the time. Constantly. I have secret fears that she's trying to fatten us up for nefarious purposes.
Boris is currently hiding somewhere in our basement. His first meeting with the little dog might be a bit traumatic. We'll see.