Riverford Organic Vegetables

Today we received our first organic vegetable box from Riverford Organic Vegetables.  Don't let the name deceive you, they do lots of other organic stuff like fruits, breads, eggs, meat, dairy, and even wine.  We heard about this on a TV show about local farming, and then I read about it again in a magazine.  Basically its a website where you can order organic stuff and have it delivered to your door.  The cool thing about the company is it's trying to get people to eat healthy fruits and veggies at affordable prices.  Lot's of people argue that they can't afford to eat organic and its just kind of a silly rich person trend.  So I put them to the test... have a look at what we got.

We ordered the "Seasons Vegbox"  The contents of which change weekly, but this week it contained : 2 leeks, 1 head of broccoli, 1 cauliflower, 6 onions, 3 ears of corn, 3 different varieties of lettuce, and one sugar pumpkin.

Our fruit box contained 6 bananas, 1 mango, 8 apples, 6 pears, and 14 clementines.

You'd think that'd be enough produce for us... but I just couldn't help myself from ordering the "Squash Box" - and I'm SO glad I did.  They sent us a crown prince squash (the pretty blue one), butternut squash, and I think the other two are carnival squash and kabacha squash.  That little piece of paper helped me to identify them and it also has recipes for how to use them.  I'm pretty sure I've died and gone to pumpkin heaven.

Am I the only person who thinks pumpkins are cute?

I also got two packs of veggie burgers as I'm on a hunt for a decent veggie burger in England.  I tried these already and they're OK but still don't compare to my all time favorite Five Star Foodies Artichoke Burger, or even Morning Star Farms.... the search continues.

Now most importantly is this stuff affordable?  Well, we paid 33.25 pounds for ALL of this.  So I did an online shop at our grocery store, Sainsbury's, for the exact same things.  Sainsbury's total was 34.41 pounds!  So we spent less money, and got organic and fair trade produce.  So take that and eat it all you "organic is too expensive" nay sayers!

French Bread and Cheese - It's a Classic

As promised I made my own French bread to go with the cheeses we bought at the festival on Sunday.  I found this recipe on La Fuji Mama's blog and it was pretty darn easy and super tasty.  It definitely wasn't exactly the same as real French French bread.  The texture was a bit denser - this seems to be the problem with all my breads - I want fluffy bread!  Does anyone know how to fix this?  But still you can't beat fresh from the oven bread, even if its not entirely fluffy.

I cut the ingredients down from the original recipe so I only made one loaf - which disappeared quickly between three people.  Here's the recipe for one delightful loaf of bread...

Ingredients

• 1 packet (7 grams or 3/4 tbsp) dry active yeast
• 1/4 cup warm water
• 1/4 teaspoon granulated sugar
• 1 cup hot water
• 1.5 tbsp granulated sugar
• 1/2 tbsp salt
• 1/4 cup oil
• 3 cups all purpose flour

In a small bowl dissolve yeast with 1/4 cup warm water and 1/4 teaspoon granulated sugar.  In a large bowl, mix 1 cup of hot water with 1.5 tbsp sugar, 1/2 tbsp salt, and 1/4 cup oil.  Add 1.5 cups of flour to this and mix well. Then add your yeast mixture to this.  Add another 1.5 cups of flour and mix again.  Let the dough sit like this for one hour.

It'll seem like a gooey sticky mess - but thats OK.  After an hour take the dough out and on a heavily floured surface roll it into a rectangular shape.

Then roll your dough into a log, folding it under at the ends to form the iconic French bread shape.  Spray some PAM on a baking sheet and put your dough on it and let it rise again for a half hour or so.  Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F or 200 degrees C.  After your bread has risen slice the top of it diagonally 3 or 4 times and then pop it in the oven for 25-30 minutes (this is the time according to the recipe - ours needed about 35 minutes).

And you will get something that looks like this...

Which you can serve with something that looks like this....

And there you have it.  French bread and cheese - an unbeatable combination!

Cupcakes : Dessert or Disaster?

So I bought this rosewater stuff in the baking aisle just because I've never heard of it and it seemed intriguing.  I tried to find recipes to use it in but this ingredient was pretty obscure.  I finally found the prettiest little rosewater cupcakes with whitechocolate meringue butttercream and thought this could be promising.  However, I am not the type of person who just whips up cupcakes.  I need an excuse for baking these type of things.  So when Nick asked me to make his assistant something for her birthday I was excited to have a reason to put my baking hat on and give these a go.

Now, another fun fact is that Nick's mum is currently staying with us.  We get along, but at times I feel as if we are passive aggressively fighting to win the title of "ultimate woman" in Nick's life.  So when Nick asked me to bake him cupcakes this triggered an impromptu bake-off between yours truly and the mum.

I was rummaging through cabinets trying to find food coloring, when I came across packets for something called blamanche.  The mum was hovering around me waiting for the opportunity to be of assistance to her son so when I asked her what blamanche was she got very excited and said she would make it for Nick for dessert tonight.

So there we were dancing around each other in our less than huge kitchen, each baking our respective desserts.  Her singing and humming, and me trying to focus on the cupcakes at hand.  I whipped up batter and got the cupcakes in the oven meanwhile she was heating milk and sugar on the stove.  She then added some little packet of stuff to it which turned the milk pepto-bismal pink.  This went in a jello-mold and was placed in a fridge.

I had started my frosting which required egg whites and a cup of sugar to be whisked together over medium heat until the sugar dissolved.  Then I beat them until they were at room temperature.  I then added 18 tablespoons of butter in chunks to form the frosting.  I beat these for ages and it looked like a soggy buttery mess.  The recipe said this might happen but not to worry and just keep beating.  So I took a seat on the kitchen floor and kept on beating to no avail.  It was still soggy and not coming together at all.  I was about to admit defeat award the title of ultimate woman to the mum but as I was sitting there I realized there was still a box of icing sugar in the pantry.  I grabbed it and sat down on the floor with renewed vigor and sifted in powdered sugar in batches until finally half a box of sugar later my frosting looked like frosting.  One point for the wife!  The recipe then calls for about 1/4 of a cup of white chocolate - but considering the amount of sugar I added I threw in the whole bar. After all the doctering up the icing was delish if I do say so myself.  And I had so much icing I made another batch of cupcakes.

So I iced the cupcakes and put some sprinkles on them and put them in the fridge.

After dinner the mum and I served up our desserts.  Her blamanche was quite possibly the most cringe inducing dessert I have ever had.  It was artificial strawberry flavor, not my favorite at the best of times, but it was the texture that really threw me.  Think of milk in jello formation - but with chunks every now and then from where the milk had burned when she was heating it up.  I could barely keep from dry heaving.  I tried to politely excuse myself because I'd consumed so much sugar taste-testing my frosting and I gave mine to Nick who ate 3/4 of the entire pie sized dessert.

My cupcakes on the other hand were rich and sweet.  The frosting was great, though the cake was a little eggy.

When we were alone later that night I had to ask the only non-biased taster who was winner of this unofficial bake-off.  I asked him which dessert he preferred and he gave a non-commital "its apples compared to oranges" type answer.  Can you say BS???  Then I asked him if we were making dessert tomorrow which would he want.  He said none because his stomach was killing him from the amount of blamanche he'd consumed.  Again BS response.  Then I asked him if I was making him dessert next week should I make cupcakes or blamanche.  His response...... "blamanche".

I lost to a pepto-bismal milk jello mold dessert.  The mum wins.  FML.

Cheese and Wine Festival

Yesterday Nick and I went to the Cheese and Wine Festival at the Southbank Centre.  There were a bunch of wine festivals on the city but this was a CHEESE and WINE festival so I was sold.  The tube was suspended and it took us ages to get there but once we saw this we were pretty happy we went through all the fuss.

We started off with a delicious pear cider.  I don't know why but I always think cider is similar to beer which I don't really like - but its not and it tastes 1,000 times better.  Nick went back for seconds.

I stopped dead in my tracks when I saw this raclette making man serving up steaming hot dishes of gooey melted cheese over potatoes.  

Nick hadn't heard of raclette (obviously he is not cultured and hasn't made it to one of my mom's famous raclette parties) but he was smart enough to know that gobs of melted cheese on potatoes = good.  So we bought some.  Ah just look at him scraping off the melted stuff from that big hunk of cheese.... 

Yesssssssss

Do I even need to tell you it was good?  It was good.


Clearly this isn't enough cheese and potatoes for one night though so we bought some Cheddar Cheesy Mash.

Not exactly a looker but quite possibly the best mashed potatoes of my life.  No I'm not exaggerating.

Nick hogged them.  Typical.


Then I realized I was at a cheese and WINE festival and hadn't had any wine yet.  That situation was promptly fixed and we went cheese shopping.  We picked up some Tuma Rusa - a cow and sheep's milk cheese (the big white cheese below) which was really soft and mild.

Then we got another cheese from Normandy which I don't know its name mostly because the girl who sold it to me was French and it was difficult to pronounce let alone remember... but its the one in the middle right of the picture wrapped in grass.     

Overall the Cheese and Wine festival was a great Sunday out.  The only problem was they had so many cheeses it got to be a bit overwhelming at times when trying to decide which cheese you wanted.  Clearly we couldn't purchase ALL the cheese there but we went home with some winners.  They also had cheesy desserts like cheesecakes and cheesecake brownies, but we'd had enough cheese after our two rounds of potatoes.  One booth was selling make your own cheese kits.  I was REALLY tempted to buy one but they were pretty expensive and I'm not entirely sure I'd want our house to smell like a boys locker room.  


On the other hand I DO want our house to smell like fresh bread.  So hopefully I'll be baking some baguettes to serve with the cheeses we bought.  I'll keep you posted.

Ironing Shirts

I now iron Nick's shirts.  I am becoming such a domestic diva!  I should join a group of dive (plural of diva according to Beyonce) and do diva-ish things with them.  

I started ironing Nick's shirts because I honestly didn't want to carry them to the dry cleaners.  It's like a 15 minute walk and those shirts are heavy.  What am I his woman slave?!  I think not.  So I did what any sensible walking hating American lazy housewife would do.  I ironed them myself.

This is a revelation to me.  I have ironed 16 shirts this week.  Each shirt costs 1.20 to press at the dry cleaners.  That means I have saved 19.2 pounds in total so far.  This is equal to $31.52.  Nick wears a shirt everyday to work so that comes to about 312 pounds a year or $512.33 a year at the current conversion rate.  Why didn't I think of this before?  With all this money I am saving I could go and buy myself a whole new diva wardrobe.  Beyonce will probably invite me to join her own personal dive because I am such a classy female version of a hustler.    

If you are missing my obscure pop-culture references this video might help : Diva by Beyonce.

Also if anyone has any other money saving revelations they would like to share with me by all means I'd love to hear them.

Ask Kelly : Hanging Curtains in a Bay Window

The other day my dear friend Claire suggested I do a question/answer feature in the blog.  So we are going to try it out and see if I can answer your questions!  You are welcome to send questions and I'll try to answer them or at least find someone who can.  Here is the first question: 


dear kelly,

how do i hang curtains in a bay window? do i do three individual curtains or one over all three?

-bewildered by the bay


Dear bewildered by the bay,


You have to start off with an appropriate curtain pole. There are various types of curtain pole that you can use with bay windows and depending on the type you choose and the method you use to attach it to the wall you should end up either using two or four curtains (assuming you have a three sided bay). Fitting a curtain pole can be an easy to moderately challenging DIY task depending on the type you choose.


A simple plastic or metal curtain track (see the track here for example) is the easiest option but is not the best looking. You simply cut the track to length with a hacksaw and bend it into shape, attaching it to the wall or window frame along the way. This is also the cheapest method.


(Sorry for the fuglyness of these curtains.  We haven't fixed this room up yet.)

You can see the curtain track better here.

A bay window curtain pole (see this pole for example) is the most expensive option but also looks best. As the poles are not generally bendable apart from in specific parts the measuring of the bay and accurate cutting of the poles becomes a lot more important. If you wish to use only two curtains then you need to use the correct combination of end brackets and passing brackets or a pole set that only requires fixing at the two ends and in the middle (like the one we have in our bedroom shown below).

And here is a close up.

When ordering curtains remember that you need a curtain that is approximately double the width of the windows so that you have enough fabric to allow for attractive pleating. You can buy ready made curtains in a variety of sizes or have your own made. The drop or length of the curtains is up to you but you may wish either to have curtains that fall just below the window sill, to the top of your skirting board or to just above the floor. Having a lined curtain reduces the amount of light penetration and provides better insulation.


Hope I have left you less bewildered by the bay.  Let us know how it goes!  


-Kelly and Nick (today's guest blogger)

Personal Pumpkin Fondue

When I stumbled across this recipe for Roast Pumpkin with Cheese Fondue on epicurious I knew it was only a matter of time before I made it.  And today was just one of those gloomy London SAD inducing days that I'll probably see a lot of over the upcoming winter months.  So I knew it was a good time for one of those fattening, cheesy, heart-attack inducing recipes that I love.  Here is my recipe for personal pumpkin fondue for two.

Ingredients

• Two small baking pumpkins (mine were both 1.25 lbs)
• 10 oz heavy cream
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 5oz sharp cheddar (shredded)
• 2 cloves garlic
• Olive Oil
• 3 oz bread 

Preheat oven to 450 F / 220 C.  Chop up bread into 1/2 inch chunks and put on a baking sheet.  Toast in oven for 7 minutes.  Meanwhile, cut the lid off your pumpkin and scoop out the seeds and stringy bits.  In a bowl, mix heavy cream with water, nutmeg, a pinch of salt and 2 cloves crushed garlic.  Season the inside of pumpkin with salt and pepper.  Then add a layer of breadcrumbs, some cheese, and cream mixture.  Keep layering until your pumpkin is full.  Put the lid back on your pumpkin and bake for 45 minutes.  

To eat this personal pumpkin just remove the lid and scrape the sides of the pumpkin with a spoon.  And bask in cheesy gooey goodness.

My Mom is Cool

Yesterday I got a package from my mom with lots of cool stuff!  I love getting things in the mail but I haven't got a package for a really long time so I was super excited.  It felt like I was at Camp Ernst again... At camp all the parents used to send us TONS of candy in packages.  I don't know why because my mom didn't generally give us tons of candy but if she didn't send us candy at camp then she probably would have fallen into the bad mom category.  Like the mom of a girl in my cabin whose name was Dorkus.  Dorkus clearly didn't get any packages.

Yay!  Look at all this stuff.  We don't have Reese's in England and of course we don't have Busken's sugar cookies on hand.  I'm pretty sure that I told my mom not to send the cookies because I thought they wouldn't be any good by the time they got here.  She didn't listen to me and sent them anyways and they were super good!

Then there is the Cincinnati Chili mix.  Nick is REALLY excited about this because he says it's the only thing I  make for him that really tastes like he's eating meat.  I make an awesome vegetarian 3-way and I bet you couldn't tell the difference in a skyline chili taste - off.

And she sent me a book by Jane Goodall and Thane Maynard (head honcho at the Cincinnati Zoo) so that obviously scores some points.

Hooray for packages!  Thanks Mom!

 

Butternut Squash Soup with Fried Sage Leaves

Tonight for dinner I made this delightful fall soup.

Ingredients

• 1 Butternut Squash
• 1 Onion
• 1 Tablespoon chopped sage leaves
• 30 Whole sage leaves
• 3 Tablespoons butter
• 1 Veggie stock cube
• 2 pinches hot chili pepper
• 1/3 cup of Parmesan plus extra for garnish 

Chop onions and add these to a large stock pot with 1 tablespoon of butter.  Heat these over medium heat until soft then add tablespoon of chopped sage and heat for about a minute.  Peel and chop butternut squash into chunks and add this to the pot along with 5 cups of water and veggie stock cube.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until tender - about 20 minutes.

When the squash is tender use an immersion blender to puree it all into a thick soup.

Then add a third of a cup of cheese and your hot chili pepper.  Set the soup over low heat while you fry your sage.  To do this heat 2 tablespoons of butter in a skillet over medium heat.  When your butter is heated put your sage in and fry it till it crisps up just about a minute or two.  

 

Spoon your soup into bowls, grate a bit of cheese over the top and add 3 or 4 sage leaves.  

This is hearty fall soup for those chilly autumn nights.  It has a sweet nutty flavor and the sage adds a bit of crunch.  Healthy and delicious.  Enjoy!

Painting the Ceiling

I spent this weekend painting the ceiling of our toilet.  Nick ripped out these funny old cardboard squares from the ceiling, the kind you would throw your pencils into in grade school and try to get them to stick.  Then he patched the holes.  Then we fitted moulding around the top (really just to cover up the biggest holes).  The molding was cool because they only cost us about 3.95 each, plus we had to buy a mitre block but was overall really cheap and easy to put up.  I must admit I'm skeptical of anything cheap - and this moulding was made out of styrofoam - not plaster.  ugh...  but actually the fact it was styrofoam worked out perfectly because our house is really old and nothing is at a right angle.  So we were able to push and bend the moulding to fit, whereas if it had been plaster that would be a definite no go.  I have to confess I can't even tell.  It looks exactly the same as the expensive plaster stuff.    

With the moulding up it was time to paint.  Nick hates painting.  I didn't realize this translated into "Nick will do a shitty half-assed job at painting when forced to" until I made him paint some cupboards with me and then I threw a complete bitch fit when I saw his finished product - cupboards with big globby drip marks all over them.  So I tackled this project myself.

I actually don't mind painting.  But I have learned that painting ceilings is a different story all together.  First of all this toilet is tiny and I can only stand on a ladder to paint half the ceiling, then I have to stand on the toilet to paint the other half and this is about a foot lower than the ladder so I can barely reach the ceiling from there.  Then you have neck strain.  I am actually in pain from the bizarre position my neck was in for hours yesterday and today.  Looking up is actually really uncomfortable.  Another problem : Small space with lots of paint fumes + looking straight up = dizziness.  Oh and then there is the tingly/prickly feeling in my arm from reaching and having it straight in the air for long periods of time.  Painting ceilings is definitely no fun!

But being finished with painting ceilings is awesomeness!  Woo Hoo!  Martha Stewart would be proud.

Moroccan Eggplant and Carrot Salads

When Nick left for Africa I asked (ok demanded) he bring me back a souvenir.  He got me a cookbook, "Moroccan Cooking" to be exact.

So I scoured the pages only to find Moroccans are not very vegetarian friendly, so most the recipes would have to be heavily adapted.  But there were a few promising veggie options.  So I made them for dinner.

Morrocan Eggplant Salad

Ingredients

• 2 eggplants
• 1/2 can of chopped tomatoes
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• Red pepper flakes
• Juice from 1/2 a lemon
• 4 tablespoons olive oil

Put eggplant on a a baking sheet and place in a 150 C / 300 F oven for 40 minutes.  Remove from oven and let cool.  Then peel the skins off.

Chop the eggplant into bite sized pieces.  Meanwhile, in a skillet, crush garlic and saute it in 4 tablespoons olive oil over low heat.  The add the eggplant, tomatoes, lemon juice, salt and pepper,1 teaspoon of paprika, and a pinch of red pepper flakes.

Cook covered for 20 minutes, then remove the lid and cook for 10 more minutes.

It's supposed to be served lukewarm or cold, but we were hungry and impatient so we ate it right away.

It was very good.  The eggplant had a nice tender texture, and I really liked the lemony flavor from the juice and the hint of spices.  Overall a tasty and healthy dish for dinner.

While the eggplant was in the oven I took the liberty to whip up a carrot salad as well.

Moroccan Carrot Salad

Ingredients  

• 5 medium sized carrots (this is what it called for but there was extra dressing so you could use more)
• 3 gloves garlic
• 1 lemon
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 pinch of cumin
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• orange flower water (new ingredient for me but we found easily in the baking aisle) 

Peel carrots and slice them at an angle to get pretty oval sized pieces.  Throw these into a pot of salted boiling water with 3 cloves of garlic for 10 minutes.  Drain, discard the garlic, and place carrots in a bowl.  To make dressing combine 4 tablespoons of olive oil with juice of 1 lemon, 1 tablespoon orange flower water, 1 teaspoon of sugar, 1 pinch of cumin, and some pepper.  Pour this over your carrots and you're done.

I don't even like carrots to be honest, but this is incredibly simple and delicious.  I'd never had orange flower before but I really liked it in this dish, it added a bit of an orangey floral note.  The combination of sweet and tangy was delightful.

Taming the Beast - Getting My Haircut

On Thursday I got my first hair cut since moving to London.  I'd been putting it off for quite a long time.  I don't really like anyone cutting my hair except for Denise at The 2nd Floor Salon.  Its not that I'm particularly finicky about my hair, I'm not.  I've just had some bad hair cutting experiences when I don't go to Denise.

Exhibit A: Free haircut I got freshman year for being a "hair model".  Affectionately known as "the dyke spike"  

Took me about 6 months to grow it out enough that my friends wouldn't just stare at me and laugh.  True story.

But I decided that the beast was getting out of control and so I finally booked in appointment.  When I showed up the girl took my hair down and frowned as if she just pulled the short stick on clients for the day.  I tried to explain that I was growing it out for Locks of Love but they don't do that here.  So she continued frowning and set me off to the hair washer.

This is confusing because my hair dresser washes my hair in America, but in Britain this is a separate job.  The hair-washer started washing my hair and then asked me if I wanted conditioner.  Uh - yes?  I mean why wouldn't I want conditioner?!  Does it cost more?  So she put some conditioner in and then asked if I wanted a head massage.  I mean yes I WANT a head massage but who doesn't and why are you asking?  Is it complimentary?  I said yes anyways.  It was free and it was a good head massage.  But jeez are all these questions necessary?

Then I went back to my hairdresser and she did my hair.  She did a good job, but wasn't very friendly.  I took a selfie so you can see.  Paris Hilton smile and peace sign.  I am that girl.

The Green Monster : Kiwi Style

Nick is home from his trip to Africa!  I'm so excited.  I don't feel like I am going to pee my pants when I'm alone at night anymore.  Its really great.  I missed him lots.

Last night we went grocery shopping together.  We actually really enjoy doing this together, but sometimes grocery shopping in London can be a chaotic mess.  Small children screaming and running around and crowds of people.  It's not ideal.  But we went at 7pm last night and for the first time we had a pleasant grocery shopping experience.  Not many people are there at that time.  Though there was a pair of screaming twin boys at the checkout which made us both reevaluate our desire to ever reproduce.  But overall night shopping was a success.

Kiwi's were on sale so we bought a bunch of them for our green monster smoothies, yes we are still being healthy.  I looked for some kiwi green monster smoothie recipes online but couldn't find any.  So I made one up.  Here it is for your viewing pleasure.

The Kiwi Green Monster

• 1 packet of wheatgrass
• 1 tablespoon flax seed
• 1.5 handfuls of spinach
• 2 kiwis 
• 3 ice cubes
• 3/4 cup of apple juice

This green monster was so much better than the last one!  It was tangy and refreshing and it actually tasted good - as opposed to not bad.  You should try it.  Seriously.  DO IT.

ps. Do you like my red nail polish?

Dealing With Home Sickness

Today for the first time I heard Miley Cyrus's "Party in the USA" hit British airwaves.  You have no idea how happy this makes me.  I know its not cool to be over 17 years old and publicly admit your love of Miley - but to hell with it.  If you say you don't like it you are most certainly a big fat liar.   The tune is catchy and that girl is a star.

This song is great because Miley is talking about being homesick but then a Jay - Z song comes on and it just goes away.  Oh, Jay - Z your rapping genius could put anyone at ease.  But if you are struggling a little more seriously with homesickness and Jay - Z just won't do it for you here are some of the techniques I have learned in my travels.

First off, if you think a call home will make you feel better - you're wrong.  Now I know our friends and family have the best intentions at heart, but they will probably say things that make you want to go home even more like "oh we just went to your favorite ice cream place and then we had a party and all your friends were there and its such a shame that you couldn't come!"  Damn straight its a shame.  If you really need to talk to them email or chat but don't call home its not a good idea.

I like to cook generally, but when I'm homesick I find its good to cook the food you miss.  I make lots of Skyline Chili (Cincinnati chili packets are lifesavers - please send more mom!), and lots of burritos a la Chipotle.

After all that cooking you should probably excercise.  Going for a run is great for a lot of reasons.  It is free, it will release endorphins and make you happy, and it'll help you understand the layout of your new neighborhood and find new fun things.

Another thing that helps is talking to someone who is from where you are from and probably homesick themselves.  You can talk about how awesome back home is, which inevitably is WAY more awesome than you ever thought when you were actually living there.  You can also ponder the social nuances of your new home together without offending any potential new friends.  I used this technique extensively in Australia when discussing how Australians did the dishes.  My American study abroad friends and I kept making the Aussies angry because we would leave the water running while doing dishes.  Not cool in a country that is drought prone, but with my American friends we could talk about how silly Australians were because we lived on a river!  There was lots of water.... right?    (Note: I'm aware I'm an environmental science person and this is not correct)

Last but not least take a tip from Miley and jam to some of your favorite tunes.  Music is scientifically proven to lift your spirits.  So are gays.  On that note I'll leave you with this....

How to Dress like a London Girl

Spotting Americans in London is easier than finding Waldo in Roman times.  Usually you don't even need to see them, you can hear them a mile away.  I honestly wasn't aware of how loud I talk until I moved here.  Nick is always telling me to take it down a few notches.

So If you can keep your voice down and you still feel like you're easily spotted... there are only two things you really need to consider.

1. Do I have on nice shoes?
2. Am I wearing a scarf?

If the answer to both is 'yes' then you are not easily spotted.  Congratulations!

If the answer to 1 is 'yes' and the answer to 2 is 'no' then you may be blending in as long as the rest of your outfit is as nice as your shoes.  Good job.

If the answer to 1 is 'no' and 2 is 'yes' and you are wearing crappy gym shoes - you stick out like a sore thumb!

If the answer to both 1 and 2 is 'no' - your Americaness is almost offensive.  British people won't offer you tea because you'll probably throw it into the harbor or do something equally ridiculous with it - you Yankee, you.

Armed with this advice all you American ladies can fit right in.  If you don't have a nice scarf don't worry!  They sell them on streets everywhere.  They're a dime a dozen (or 2 for 5 pounds) and come in a rainbow of colors so get a variety and you'll be sure to look put together with any outfit you wear!

Pumpkin Lasagna

I had extra pumpkin leftover from when I made pumpkin muffins so I had to try my hand at another pumpkin recipe.  I searched Taste Spotting, an awesome foodie website for pumpkin.  I searched through the photos until I found something very original on another foodie blog, One Perfect Bite.  I mean it was lasagna, and I needed to redeem myself after the last lasagna failure, plus I had pumpkin in the fridge.

First of all I went to pick up ingredients after work.  I needed to get some lasagna sheets.  Of course they only had no pre-cooking required sheets so I bought them.  And there I was going back on my first self imposed rule of lasagna making....

When I got home I started off with the bechamel sauce.  I melted about half a stick of butter in a saucepan.  And then added 1/4 cup of flour.  Three cups of milk.  Then I went to the fridge to get out my goats cheese, which of course had completely gone bad.  So I skipped on the goats cheese, probably for the better of my waistline.  I added two table spoons mascarpone (side note: I really hate it when giada says mascarpone.  it seriously offends me), 1/2 a teaspoon salt, and a pinch of nutmeg.  Set this aside.

Meanwhile I was boiling my no pre-cooking required lasagna sheets in an attempt to not end up with crunchy lasagna like last time.

Then I started on the filling.  It was at this point that I realized I only had a third of the required pumpkin.  Oops.  So in a mixing bowl I added about 10 oz of pumpkin to 1/3 tablespoon thyme, 1/3 tablespoon sage, a pinch of nutmeg, a slice of wholewheat bread made into bread crumbs, 1/4 cup mascarpone, some grated parmesan, 1/8 a cup of brown sugar, 1/3 tablespoon salt and some black pepper.

Ok so ready to layer it up.  Except see I ran into a problemo here.  those no pre-cooking required sheets that I decided to cook - they all stuck together.  It was pretty much lasagna surgery trying to get them apart.  But luckily I had only made a third of the recipe, so I only had to peel apart a third of the sheets.

So then you do the whole layering thing.  Grease your pan, lasagna, 1/3 pumpkin mixture, a ladle of bechemal sauce, lasagna, pumpkin, bechamel, lasagna, pumpkin bechemal, lasagna, bechamel, 1 slice of wholewheat breadcrumbs, parmesan, DONE.

Cover with foil, pop it in the oven for 30 minutes.  Take off the foil and bake for another 10 minutes.  Enjoy!

Sorry it doesn't look pretty but it was way tastier than my last attempt at lasagna.  I really liked the thyme and sage in it, they definitely added a dimension of earthiness that I wouldn't want to leave out.  And best of all its a new and exciting way to serve pumpkin.  Gotta love it.

Pumpkin Panic!

Let me just tell you - I am a big fan of pumpkin.  Huge fan.  Ginormous fan.  I love it.  I like it in bread, muffins, ebelskivers, soups, salads, oh and of course pie!  You get the point.  So basically I've been hunting this gourd down like a  coonhound since the end of September.  Problem is I haven't had much luck.  I looked for it in cans and straight from the vine - I even looked for it online!  (I hope you like it when I rhyme) Anyways I stumbled across some information on my online hunt that told me we are having a pumpkin crisis. Yes, CRISIS.  If you don't believe me read this... Pumpkin Farms Face Horrible Harvest

Enter panic mode.  Where in the H E double hockey sticks was I going to find this stuff?

Well, I was on my lunch break yesterday and I went to Planet Organic for lunch.  Which is basically awesome in so many ways.  One of them being they are the best  place for a healthy vegetarian lunch but also a great place to pick up organic grocercies.  Luckily yesterday the lunch line was SO long it went all the way into the grocery store part of the shop - and lo and behold I am standing next to a pumpkin display!  SCORE!

So here is my first pumpkin recipe of the season.  Hope you enjoy.

Spiced Pumpkin Muffins

First I had to make my own pumpkin puree.  So slice the pumpkin in half and scoop out the seeds.

Place the halves on a baking sheet in an oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit or 180 celsius for an hour.  Until they look like this...

Scrape out the flesh and put it in a blender and puree it.

Now you can use this instead of canned pumpkin.

For the pumpkin muffin recipes I used this recipe but I substituted canned pumpkin for my fresh stuff, buttermilk for soy, and I left out nuts and raisins just because I didn't have them.

I baked these in the oven at 400 degrees Fahrenheit or 200 degrees Celsius for 16 minutes.

And this is what came out...

These muffins are really fantastic.  They taste like fall, they have nice pumpkin flavor, and are super moist and delicious!  Yum.  Hooray for pumpkin!