Archie and Friends

Hi everyone,

Sorry for my lack of blogging.  We haven't really had internet except for on our phones for the past week.  But we're back in business and I can't wait to catch you all up with my silly little life.  Pictures of our new home will be coming soon, but right now we are still amongst boxes.

Anyways, Thursday was our last day on in London.  And while Nick and I didn't really have anyone to say tearful goodbyes to, Heidi requested we visit the local park to bid farewell to her dear friends, Rio the King Charles Spaniel, and Archie the Bull Mastiff mix.

They always have a fabulous time in the park together.  

Heidi likes Rio, but she LOVES Archie.  Though things weren't always like that, it certainly wasn't love at first sight.  She was intimidated by his large muscular physique when they first met.  But, she soon found out that looks can be quite deceiving, and developed a bit of a crush on this handsome young chap, which she expressed by jumping all over him and chasing him around.

Since Heidi seems to have made so many friends in the past two months she's lived in London, and I seem to have struggled in creating my own social circle in this country, I had to ask her for some advice.  

Heidi's Tips for Friendship 

With translations by Kelly

1.  Anyone can be your friend.  Even if they growl at you, don't take it personally.

1. Anyone can be your friend.  If someone shoots you down, don't take it personally.

2.  Greet any potential new friends by sniffing the crotch area

2. Greet potential new friends by introducing yourself and shaking hands.

3. You're never too busy to play with your friends.

3.  You're never too busy to play with your friends.

4. If you see a good friend from a distance, run up to them as quickly as possible!

4.  Run up to your friends and hug them!

5.  When playing with your friends nothing is more worthy of your attention.

5.  When you speak to people, they should have your full attention.

(Hint : turn your phone OFF!)

6.  If your friend hurts you when playing, it was an accident.  There's no reason to stop playing with them once you've recovered (in approximately 10 seconds).

6.  If someone says something offensive or annoying, they probably didn't mean it.  

There's no reason to hold it against them.

XOXO

Puppy kisses.

Heidi

Addicted to Purple

I'm so addicted to purple right now.  Lavender to be exact.  I bought purple nail polish at selfridges, and ate a purple cupcake from Candy Cakes that I stole from Nick (someone bought it for a leaving present for him).  Isn't it cute?  It didn't taste like I expected.  It was more muffinish than cup cake-ish.  There were even blueberries inside.

Nick also bought me these purple rainboots at Selfridges.  Have I ever told you how much I LOVE Selfridges?  I know it's all over priced and every time I walk in there I'm getting screwed like the rest of the tourists that shop there, but I appreciate the shop assistants' relentless flattery, even if she is making commission.  That's probably why when she told me, "I'm looking at your style, and purple is DEFINITELY your color,"  I said "Yes you're right!" and walked out the store with ridiculous purple Hunter rain boots, or "wellies" to use the British term.

I don't care though!  I kinda, sorta love them.  And now I'm actually willing it rain.  Rain is SO much more fun with purple wellies.  And they are so very practical for hiking with Heidi, which we will be doing a lot of in our new home!  (More to come on that later - we are moved in though!)

Also, isn't this picture neat?  I saw it on Rockstar Diaries, which I am addicted to probably more than the color purple.  The artist is Casey O'Connell, and the coolest thing is you can buy her paintings on LTL Prints, as wall graphics that you can just stick on the wall, and remove, and restick and do it again 100 times.  Perfect for people like us who are renting and can't put lots of holes in the walls.  Oh and it's only $15.    Don't you wish all paintings were mass produced like that?

Wouldn't it look really great on a purple/grey wall?  

Or am I just getting a little too purple obsessed? 

Cranberry Orange Muffins

Because I am such a suzy homemaker, I made my dear dear husband muffins on Wednesday, so that he could enjoy them for breakfast on his final day of work on Thursday.  Little did I know while slaving away over these delicious muffins, that the light of my life would be so hungover from his leaving party on Wednesday that he would be completely unable to consume anything without projectile vomiting for the entire day on Thursday.  I'm not joking, he showed up on the door step Wednesday night looking like a soiled tween after his first party with alcohol.  He also kept repeating "wig for Doodle" because apparently he had acquired an Elvis wig for our poor dog.  I guess thats a post for another day.

But nevermind that, at least I had muffins.  Very good muffins indeed, thanks to Madhuram's Eggless Cooking.  Yes, eggless *gasp*! Have I taken my vegetarianism to the next level and gone vegan on you?  No, but we were out of eggs.  And these were surprisingly good.  They were very zesty and not too sweet.

Dry Ingredients

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 3/4 cup brown sugar ( I used a mixture of light and dark, but mostly light)
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 cup chopped nuts

Wet Ingredients

• 1/3 cup canola oil
• 2/3 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
• 2 teaspoons ground flax seed (a hippy ingredient I'll admit, but I had it on hand because we put it in smoothies, its a good supplement for vegetarians.) 
• 1/2 cup water
• Zest from one orange
• 1 cup freshly chopped cranberries

Start by preheating the oven to 375 F or 190 C.  Mix together all the dry ingredients in a large bowl and set aside.  In a food processor, add 1/2 cup of water and 2 teaspoons ground flax seed and blend until it gets frothy.  Squeeze 2/3 cup of orange juice, (from about 2 oranges) and add water to the juice till you reach one cup of liquid.  Add the flax seed mixture and the orange zest to this and stir well.  Pour all the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix until it just comes together.  Gently fold in your cranberries.  Spoon into muffin liners and pop in the oven for about 20 minutes (mine took more like 23 minutes to be exact).  

Let cool (just a bit though, they are SO good warm), unwrap and enjoy!  

ps.  We just finished these off yesterday, and that means they kept well for at least 5 days.  

pss.  In case you were wondering, my husband also thought they were amazing after he recovered.

A Hike in the Forest and a Friend of Yogi Bear

Today we went on a little adventure to Epping Forest.  Nick and I love hiking there, and before we got Heidi we always said how much fun it would be to go there with a dog in tow.  We decided to make time for it today, even with the moving, since we won't have another chance to go there ever again.  It was more fun than we could've imagined.  Heidi was running laps around us.  Her gun dog genes kicked in and she was in her element.

She was definitely living up to her pointer name!  (and Nick managed to catch her in the act... finally!)

We sneaked into some Bear Grylls style shelters, but decided the whole survivor deal isn't for us.  They were a bit soggy and cramped inside.

Then we tried our hand at some wildlife photography... and got some pictures of these underwater lovers.

I tried my best to get a good shot of this bird, but it was not cooperating.  I have to admit it looked a lot more interesting before I blew it up on my computer anyways.

Also, we met a lot of fun dogs, including the son of this year's Crufts champion, the Hungarian Vizsla named Yogi!

Of course, Nick had the camera at that point, and I thought the owner would think I was effing weird if I was like "Nick take a picture of that dog!  We're in the presence of greatness!" Apparently, the guy bought him three and half years ago, before Yogi was a doggy sensation, and didn't pay much for him at all.  For those of you who don't get it - let's just say this guy hit the jackpot as far as buying a purebred dog goes.  I'm usually the type who is all "Have your pet spayed or neutered" ala Bob Barker, but man this owner must have been so pumped his vizsla still had the family jewels in tact.  He's gonna get paid a lot of money for letting his dog bang some bitches... Do you think his pick up line will be,"Hey there Boo Boo!"??? 

(you know... like Yogi bear and Boo boo? Yes? No? Are my obscure pop culture references lost on you?)

Sweet Potato Hash Browns

I haven't been cooking anything fancy lately.  We've been too busy with the move for me to do much experimenting in the kitchen.  I'm just trying to keep my cooking short and sweet and move along to the next task.

One thing that has been reoccurring a lot lately is sweet potato hash browns.  Sweet potatoes are nutritious and delicious, and by cooking sweet potatoes this way instead of baking them in the oven, it saves a lot of time.  This dish is pretty versatile so nothing is exact and don't get yourself worked about about anything.  It'll turn out.  I didn't add any onions or leeks this time, but sometimes I do, so you could try that if you wanted.

Ingredients

• A handful of mushrooms
• 1-2 sweet potatoes, (grated - done in a few seconds with a food processor)
• a Paula Deen sized knob of butter
• Salt and pepper to taste.

 In a pan, brown your mushrooms in a bit of butter.  When they are tender, add your grated sweet potato.  Cook the sweet potatoes and mushrooms stirring frequently until everything is tender, adding seasoning. Depending on your preferences you may want them to brown a little to add that extra crunch, or add some more butter if you're channeling your inner Paula and if they're not getting soft enough.  Obviously its up to you!

Serve with some eggs, sunny side up.

Its pretty much the perfect dish at any time of the day.  Its sweet enough for breakfast, but not overly sweet for dinner, and obviously lunch is no problemo.  If you grate extra sweet potato, it keeps perfectly well in the fridge and makes whipping this up even quicker and easier.

Thumbs Up for the Big Move

I've had a bit of bloggers block lately.  Mostly because we're pretty stressed with moving right now.  In fact, we're really stressed, and sometimes we wonder if this move is even worth it.  Now, perhaps I'm a product of my Catholic upbringing, but I think God does send us signs from time to time, and I think he just sent us one....

Conversation with Nick...
Nick- "Kelly, we really need to move out of this neighborhood."
Me - "Why?"
Nick - "A missing man's thumb was just found here."

Yes, if you don't believe me, here is the article.  A man has been missing for about a week, but his THUMB turned up in our neighborhood.  I wasn't a fan of being chased through the park while running, or the nasty little pervert that flashed me outside our house, or the story Nick told me of the man who ran into our street with his eyelids and mouth sewn shut - and I think this is definitely the last straw.  We'll be leaving now.

Dear God,

Point taken.

Love,

Kelly  

Okra Stir Fry

Those of you who know me, know I have a bit of an obsession with Indian food.  I know I'm so pale I'm practically see-through, but I'm pretty sure I actually WAS Indian in a past life.  I mean that would explain the fact that I can't go into an Indian restaurant without scarfing down enough food to make up for the fact that my very white parents had neglected to serve curry on a regular basis for my entire childhood.  One of my favorite dishes is Bhindi Masala, basically okra cooked in spices - though please don't depend on me for any literal translations.

I don't know why, but despite my love for it I have been a bit hesitant to delve into the world of Indian cooking.  I think the number of spices can be a little overwhelming, not to mention expensive if they're not already stocked in your pantry.

However, now that I'm a grown-up married person and I have an impressive collection of spices, I no longer have any excuses.  So here goes, my first attempt at a Bhindi dish, from Curry Bible.

Ingredients

• 280g/10oz Okra
• 1 red pepper
• 1 onion
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 tsp mustard seeds
• 1/2 tsp cumin seeds (I just used a bit less ground cumin)
• 3 large garlic cloves, chopped
• 1/2 tsp chili powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp garam masala

Slice off the tops of the okra, and then chop into bite-sized pieces.  

Slice the red pepper, and dice the onions.

Heat the oil in a wok over medium heat, and when hot add the mustard seeds and cumin.  Remove from the heat and add the garlic, stirring for about a minute until it's lightly browned.

Then add the okra, red pepper, and onion, increase the heat to medium-high and stir fry for two minutes.  Add the chilli powder and salt, and stir-fry for three more minutes.  Add the garam masala for stir-fry for one minute.  Remove from the heat and serve with rice.

This was SO easy.  I don't think I followed the instructions minute to minute perfectly, but it still turned out delicious.  The spices gave it a nice smokey flavor, and it was so colorful.  As a bonus - I think it's quite healthy!

While I don't think this will stop my all too frequent Indian deliveries, I think it could put a nice dent in them and add a little something to my cooking repertoire.

We Look Alike

We took Heidi hiking for the first time on Sunday.  She LOVED it.  I took a lot of pictures, though none of them turned out very well, but as I was going through them I did notice that the three of us are starting to look more and more alike.  I mean I know old married couples start to look like each other, and people tend to look like their pets, but seriously we've only been married half a year and only had Heidi a couple months.  This is happening way too fast.  Am I exaggerating as usual?  Check it out...

ps.  We found a dog friendly place to live today!

I didn't get to see it, and Nick says its not all that nice - 

but they will accept our little Doodle dog!  

We still need to put a deposit on it so we will wait to really celebrate.

Still Homeless

Saturday we went up to Sheffield to look at places to rent.  After calling about 30 properties during the week, in the end we only managed to view 6.  None of them would work.  As I said before, the dog is a major problem.  Nick is supposed to go up alone on Thursday (I can't go with him because we have no one to watch the dog), so I spent all day calling pretty much every suitable place we hadn't already called - about 20 places.  I have nothing to show for it.  I couldn't arrange a single dog friendly viewing.

We're at a bit of a loss.  Do we just pretend we don't have a dog and risk getting kicked out when the land lord finds out?  Does Nick move up there by himself until we can find a suitable place to live?  Do we just get rid of the dog?  These all sound like horrible options.  I would have never imagined having Heidi would be such a problem.  Now I finally understand why so many homeless people have dogs.

This picture will probably be what our DeCourcy Family Christmas card looks like this year.

The Golden Goose

"was thinking bout the goose and those dang golden eggs i want so bad"

Thank you Colin Smith for these words of wisdom.  They struck a chord with me.

Homelessness and Horses

Nick and I have to move to Sheffield in 3 weeks.  Count 'em 1.. 2... 3....!!!!  He starts work April 1st.  This is a HUGE problem because currently we have NO WHERE to live.  We've been planning on going up to Sheffield to view properties on Saturday so I've called about 30 (I swear I'm not exaggerating) properties today to schedule viewings.  Most of them are either already off the market, or more likely, do not allow pets.  The ones that "consider pets" usually stop their considering when you mention you own anything larger than a shihtzu.  It's goddamn dog discrimination if you ask me.  However, Through the grace of God I've somehow managed to score 3 viewings - but the letting agency isn't sure if they allow pets and we have to talk to the land lords about it when we get there.  It doesn't look promising.  In fact, every time Heidi's been naughty today I've been threatening to send her to Battersea Dogs Home with the other unloved puppy riff raff.  It would solve our housing problems.

In between phoning irritating agencies I stumbled across this and thought, "maybe we could just be homeless vagabonds and camp in the English countryside and ride our horses all day with Heidi in tow."  She's never met a horse, and with our luck she wouldn't get along with them, but this seems like our best option right now.

(via)

Things I Want to Do Before I Leave London - Update

With under a month left until we move out of London I thought I should post an update of my London To Do list.  I guess I'll have to make a new one when we get to Sheffield.  Oh, and for those of you that I left hanging, our offer was not accepted on the ever so freaking perfect dream home.  I'd love to post a link, but I'm not sure that is proper netiquette, so just conjure up an imagine of the most cliche, well kept, 200 year old little British cottage in a village with sheep two minutes walk in one direction and forest in the other.  Got it?  Perfect right?  Yeah well its not ours.  Oh well, first up on our Sheffield To Do List : find a place to live (hopefully to be accomplished this Saturday - except we need a dogsitter again.  eeeeek.  why do all you useful people live 4,000 miles away???).  Ahem, without further ado.....

Things I want To Do Before I Leave London 

1. Get a puppy and give it a very English name (like Harry or Charles, but I'd call it Charlie) - oh and I want it to be an Englishpuppy - like an English Setter, or Pointer, or Bulldog.    We got a german shorthaired pointer puppy and gave it a german name, but I'm crossing this off anyways.
2. Take a trip to Paris with Nick
3. Visit relatives in France (may or may not be in conjunction with trip to Paris)
4. Go to a comedy show
5. Go to a night club and rage Nick is too embarrassed to take me dancing.  I'm too embarrassed to go alone.  Note to self: Make friends in Sheffield who like dancing.
6. Go on a boat tour down the Thames
7. Go to a Stich 'n' Bitch night  I probably should've gone more than once
8. Go to Ireland
9. Go to Scotland and catch Nessi (OK we didn't catch Nessi, but we did go to Inverness)
10. Go to Stonehenge (Does anyone know if this is as boring as it looks?  I feel like I should go... but it looks so boring)
11. Go to Bath
12. Buy something antique at Portobello Road Market
13. Get a job   I got one and I got fired/quit 3 weeks later.  Does that even count?
14. Visit London Zoo
15. Visit Museums
1. Victoria and Albert
2. Natural History Museum
3. National Gallery
4. National Portrait Gallery (My personal favorite)
5. Tower of London (Crown Jewel's are here - her majesty is so BLING)
16. Take Aerial Level 1 Circus Arts classes at Circus Space Never got this done, but did get to see Cirque Du Soleil
17. Finish fixing up the house. We worked hard on this.  It's not quite  finished.  But we're moving out and so it doesn't matter now and I'm crossing it off anyways.
18. See Big Ben and Parliament
19. Take Pictures of the Guards
20. Visit Borough Market
21. Ride the London Eye
22. Go to a Musical
1. We Will Rock You
2. Billy Elliot
3. Little Shop of Horrors
4. The Lion King
5. Lord of the Rings (Most boring musical ever DO NOT SEE THIS)
6. Thriller 
7. Avenue Q
23. See a major concert at the O2 
24. Go shopping at Harrods and Selfridges

What do you think friends?  How have I done?  I think some of these things can transfer over to the future Sheffield To Do List.  So it's not the end of the world that I haven't finished all of them I suppose.  

ps.  My friend Lauren just posted her Denver To Do List which reminded me that I had this saved and ready for posting.  If you're a To Do list fiend or from Denver, go check hers out!

pss.  Do you have a To Do List for the city you live in??? I'd love to see it or post it here to share with everyone.  I think it might be fun!