Notes from a bemused canuck
I've updated this entry and this entry with picture goodness. Hmmm, cake!
Also, I have finally pulled the finger out and downloaded a bunch of cat pictures. Here's a preview:
They can all be found here: http://www.flubu.com/various_pics/irina/
Things are finally settling down on the home front. We've opened the cat flap so that the large grumpy beast we call a cat can go out and do cat-like things (usually involving getting rained on and walking back into the house with muddy paws). The little toxic waste we call a kitten is settling in. She's still farting, but at least they're starting to not smell as bad. She's taken to sleeping on the bed with us at night. She's an attention whore, but a cute one so it's all good.
I went to see the Terracotta Army exhibition at the British Museum last Sunday evening. It was a very interesting outing. I knew that the first Emperor of China had created over 7000 clay soldiers, but I didn't know he'd also included city administrators, acrobats, strong men, horses and carriages. Apparently, there are hypotheses that say that the central burial mound, which remains unopened, contains a recreation of the landscape of China (with a pearl-encrusted sky and mercury rivers). Toxic, but sweet!
We're going to do a bit of home reorganization this weekend. We've sold the large blue Ikea sofabed and we're going to move the office into the guest bedroom. We're also going to go visit some flats for ![[info]](http://stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
sbourge. He's under the optimistic impression that he can rent a flat in less than a week so we're going to do some of the leg work for him while he's playing in Montreal.
I've started looking into things to do and places to see for when I visit Tokyo in February. It promises to be an interesting trip. I only wish that Katy could come with me :( On the other hand, it gives us a reason to go together at some later date :)
Next weekend sees us in Londondinium. Still need to book the hotel for that…
I tried this recipe over xmas to try out my new silicone baking mold.
Ingredients:
3 1/2 cups sifted cake flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup butter
2 cups sugar
4 eggs, well beaten
1 cup milk
1/4 cup cocoa
3 tbsp. rum (optional)
Directions:
Measure sifted flour, add baking powder, and salt, and sift again. Cream butter and gradually add 1 1/2 cups of the sugar, creaming well after each addition. Cream until light and fluffy.
Add beaten eggs, about a third at a time, beating well after each addition. Add flour mixture and milk alternately, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Beat after each addition just until smooth. (Do not overbeat.)
Blend together the remaining 1/2 cup sugar, the cocoa, and rum. Stir the cocoa mixture into half of the cake batter. Layer batters alternately in a 10-inch tube pan. Cut through with a spatula just to marble the batters. (Do not blend)
Bake in a moderate oven (350F/175C) about 60 minutes (until a toothpick comes out clean).
Remove from mold and let cool. Dust with icing sugar before serving slices with a nice cup of coffee or tea.
I made these over xmas. My mom had been given a madeleine pan but had never used it. They were NUMMAY!
Ingredients:
1/2 cup (113 grams) unsalted butter, melted
1 cup (140 grams) all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs, at room temperature
2/3 cup (133 grams) granulated white sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Directions:
First, melt the butter and allow it to cool while you make the batter.
In a small bowl place the flour, baking powder and salt and whisk until well blended.
In a large bowl, beat the eggs and sugar with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until the mixture has tripled in volume and forms a thick ribbon when the beaters are lifted (about 5 minutes). Add the vanilla extract and beat to combine.
Sift a small amount of flour over the egg mixture and, using a large rubber spatula, fold the flour mixture into the beaten eggs to lighten it. Sift the rest of the flour over the egg mixture and fold in being sure not to overmix or the batter will deflate.
Whisk a small amount of the egg mixture into the melted butter to lighten it. Then fold in the cooled melted butter in three additions. Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes, or several hours, until slightly firm.
Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Generously butter two 12-mold madeleine pans. Dust the molds with flour and tap out the excess. (Make sure the pans are well greased or the madeleines will stick and be hard to remove.)
Drop a generous tablespoonful of the batter into the center of each prepared mold, leaving the batter mounded in the center. (This will result in the classic “humped” appearance of the madeleines.)
Bake the madeleines for 11 to 13 minutes, until the edges are golden brown and the centers spring back when lightly touched. Do not overbake these cookies or they will be dry.
Remove the pans from the oven and rap each pan sharply against a countertop to release the madeleines. Transfer the madeleines, smooth sides down, to wire racks to cool. The madeleines are best served the same day but can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for 2 to 3 days or frozen, well wrapped, for up to 1 month.
When serving dust with confectioners sugar.
Variation: Lemon-Poppy Seed Madeleines – Substitute 3/4 cup (150 grams) granulated white sugar for 2/3 cup white sugar, substitute 1/2 teaspoon pure lemon extract plus 1 teaspoon finely minced lemon zest for 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, and add l tablespoon poppy seeds after adding butter. Proceed with recipe.
Bittersweet Chocolate Madeleines – Melt 4 ounces bittersweet or semi-sweet chocolate (in pieces) in top of double boiler (stainless steel bowl over a saucepan) until melted. Let cool slightly. Follow the above recipe but add the melted chocolate to the batter after adding the melted butter. Proceed with recipe.
Ingredients
* 4 skinless, boneless chicken breast cut in half
* 1 large onion
* 1 red pepper
* 6-8 large mushrooms
* 2 sticks of celery
* 2 tins chopped tomatoes
* 1/2 cup white wine
* 2 tsp mixed italian herbs (oregano, thyme, bay, basil, parsley)
* As many chopped olives as you want (about a dozen is good)
* salt and pepper to taste
Directions
– Cut onion in half and slice into half rings.
– De-seed pepper and chop pepper into large chunks.
– Prepare mushrooms and cut in half.
– Slice celery into large chunks.
– Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add chicken and saute about 4 to 6 minutes each side, until golden. Remove chicken from skillet and set aside.
– Saute onion in pan drippings for 3 minutes. Add all other vegetables except the olives and toss. Add tomatoes and bring to a boil. Lower heat, add 1/2 cup white wine and herbs. Simmer for 15 minutes.
– Return chicken to skillet and cover. Cook over low heat until the chicken is cooked through and no longer pink inside. Add olives to the skillet and cook for 1 minute.
– Season with salt and pepper to taste and serve.
– Serve with basmati and wild rice.
YUMMAY!
Blame elfs for this one. Create a faux “first album.” The rules are simple.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The first article title on the page is the name of your band.
http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
The last four words of the very last quote is the title of your album.
http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days/
The third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.
This is my entry:
I'm going to Tokyo for 10 days in early February. 6 days for work, 3 days for fun (and I lose a day for travel). I'm mentally preparing myself for one hell of a culture shock and I'm hoping I won't have too many of those lost-in-translation moments.
One thing that was worrying me a bit was that the language barrier would be difficult to breach – which could have nasty consequences for my many food allergies. However, the lovely people who are organizing the workshop have come to my aid and produced this:
????????????
?????????????????????????????
– ????, ?? (???OK), ??, ????
– ??????? (???)
– ????
– ?????????????
???????????
It means, roughly translated,
I have food allergies.
Can you please ensure that my meal does not contain any of the following items:
– lentil, beans (soy is OK), sesame seeds, nuts
– above-derived products (such as oil)
– garlic
– fresh apple strawberry tomato
Thank you.
It seems that every popular american TV show is getting a Brit counterpart: UK's next top model, Biggest Loser UK, Pimp my ride UK, Queer eye for the straight guy UK, The Apprentice UK, and the list goes on. Hell, there are even rumours of a Law & Order UK spin-off.
My favouritest US->UK program ever has to be My Super Sweet 16 UK though. Only there can you hear a public school boy say in his best home counties accent Fo' Shizzle, it must be said.
Gotta love it.
Today marks my first day back at the office, after close to 3 weeks off. I can't really say that it's been all fun and games. There were some good time, there were some truly bad ones. The only thing I can really say is that I'm going to enjoy a bit of routine for the next little while and it will only do me good.
Katy, her parents and I spent 12 days in Canada: 3 in Montreal, the rest at my parents' place. I won't go into all of the gory details, because it involves a fair bit of drama and I can't be bothered to write it all down now. The highlights include:
– Salon des Metiers d'Arts in Montreal
– Brunch at Eggspectation
– Weinstein & Gavinos with Sara
– Sushi at Bishoku Montreal with Michel and Isabelle
– Lots of very good mom-cooked food
– Food poisoning, closely followed by putting my back out while puking at the Museum of Civilization
– Spending quality time with the 'rents
– The little yellow dog and the big dumb one who violated Katy
– Sushi at Kinki followed by beavertails during a much-needed day out in Ottawa
– SNOW!
My unfortunate bout of food poisoning unfortunately derailed our plans to pamper ourselves at the Casino Hilton, but I've promised to make it up to Katy when next we go to Londondinium.
Katy's parents had a blast, which was good and I think mine did as well, which is also good. Katy's cold/chest infection made her feel miserable for a good part of it, but she did her best to not let it show – even though she was really feeling rough at times :( I did my best to keep her in good food and good spirits (and throwing in a few movies here and there).
The flights on either way were uneventful. Groundhog Day was playing on the return flight. I love the suicide scenes :) Made me giggle, anyway. We were dead tired the day we came back to the UK and it was a loooooooooooooooong day. By the time we managed to stretch the day out to 9pm, we'd been up for about 37 hours with only about an hour of interrupted sleep. Harsh. We had to prod and poke each other to keep awake until it was late enough to go to bed on UK time – otherwise jet lag would have been an even bigger bitch.
Jan 1st was a pretty slow day. Stu came over to the in-law's house for the big dinner and we had a generally fun day catching him up about the trip.
Jan 2nd was the day we drove up to Worksop to pick up Irina, our new toxic waste kitten. I'll write more on her later on.
I have just been cold-called for a mortgage offer.
In October 2005, before deciding to move to Hinxton, Katy and I called a few places to see what our chances of getting a mortgage were. This was in the era where people were giving money away hand over fist. We were told at the time that our prospects were not suitable (mostly because of my work visa shit). At the time, I had over 2 years left on my visa, but that was still not enough to satisfy the bankers.
Today, there are less than 6 months on my visa (now granted, it's going to be renewed without contest as soon as I get my passport renewed, but they don't know that) but apparently, my “circumstances” have changed enough that the mortgage company that called me at the office is really interested in offering me a free, no-risk mortgage consultation. They were reaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaalllllly interested. As in, almost begging.
The fact that the housing market is close to a meltdown has nothing to do with this.
Of course not.
You cynical people.