Party in the USA : Summer 2010

Friends, I have some very exciting news to share with you!  

My very VERY generous parents took pity on my unemployed self and purchased plane tickets for me to go back to the good old USA!  

I'm thrilled.

I'll be spending a week in Chicago and then heading south to my old stomping ground where I'll be reliving the glory days with any one who wants to join me.  

In true Kelly Leigh fashion, I've put together my... 

Party in the USA To Do List : Summer 2010. 

1. Go to the pool and attempt to avoid getting burnt, but know that inevitably I will have a sunscreened hand print on my back. 
2. Do a flip off the diving board.
3. Go on a cupcake crawl in Chicago.
4. Walk and hang out along lake shore drive
5. Go shopping on Michigan Avenue and marvel at how far those dolla dolla bills go.
6. Help Amy to have the best bachelorette party ever.
7. Go to a comedy show.
8. Be the hottest bridesmaid at Amy's wedding!  Let the competition begin ladies! 
9. Eat chipotle
10. Go out for ice cream in the square with sisters.
11. Visit Amish country.
12. Drive with the radio up and the windows down.
13. Take my family dog, Maddy, on hikes and look for deer.
14. Spend the day covering our driveway in chalk.  
15. Run/dance/sing in the rain.  Weather permitting. 
16. Night of intoxicated raging around the nati to include : short skirts, acting like a soiled tween, making boys fall in love with me when I pop, lock, and drop it - and breaking their hearts when I tell them I'm married, a shot (or two) to the land of the free and the home of the brave, slumber party.
17. Go canoeing.
18. Eat sno cones.  
19. Garden brunch.
20. And last but not least make sure to hang out with all my American favorites!  I can't wait to see everyone!

What's on your To Do List this summer?

RIP Touchdown Jesus

Some times when you live abroad you get news from home that is unwelcome to say the least.  Today it seems many of my Midwestern friends' facebook statuses were dedicated to the "King of Kings" statue on I-75.  He is better known locally as Touchdown Jesus (for my international readers, this refers to the gesture the referee makes when someone scores in American football), and I think it is safe to say he will be sorely missed.

This picture does not do him justice.  He is massive, at 62 feet high.  Ironically, in what can only be described as an act of God, he was struck by lightening last night, and totally burned down.

I will always remember seeing him at the end of my long drives home from university in Chicago.  He seemed to welcome me home, back to my Christian roots, to friends and family who despite their love of Christ, always managed to have a good laugh at this statue.

He was most certainly an Ohio landmark, perhaps our equivalent to the Eiffel Tower, and I dare say not a soul, Christians, Atheists, Hindus or Jews, could drive past him without cracking a smile.

RIP Touchdown Jesus.

You will be missed.

Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble

Riverford is such a great scheme.  We order a "box" and get to be surprised with fruits and veggies we would never really think to buy.  This week's super fun veggie (or is it a fruit?) was rhubarb.  I was pumped.  My great grandpa used to make a mean strawberry rhubarb pie, so I decided it would be great to reproduce it here and blog about it.  After much investigative work (two emails), it has been concluded that Papa's rhubarb pie recipe died when he did (at the ripe old age of 100!), and it is no longer to be found.  Or else my mom and aunt are just too busy to go hunting for these things and it will turn up somewhere one day... fingers crossed!

Until then, I needed a substitute, and I found one, over at Dessert for Breakfast.  I was totally blown away with her photos and thought, man if this girl is half as good at cooking as she is at food photography this recipe is not going to disappoint.... (seriously, go check out her pictures for some mouth watering food porno).

And woo hoo it sure didn't!  The crumble was sweet, but with just enough salt to contrast the sweetness of the fruit, and a bit of orange zest for extra complexity.

I called Nick on his way home from work (he had a very big, important day yesterday thats why I made this for him, really I swear... ) and I asked him to pick up some vanilla ice cream at the corner store where he gets off the bus... They were out of vanilla, so he got strawberry.  Works for me!!

This is seriously SO good.  I'm not going to post the recipe, because I followed it spot on and you can see it here.

Oh and that ice cream?  I am a little afraid to say this, but my dear Cincinnatians, it beats Graeters... It's from a Sheffield company called Our Cow Molly, and I have never tasted ice cream so delicious.  Apparently they make it with milk and cream from their own cows right on the farm.  Nick and I are planning to go there soon, so I'll keep you posted.  Until then, I will be hiding from my fellow Cincinnatians for saying such blaspheming things against Graeters....

Do Bengals Care About Bengals?

My passion in life is endangered species conservation, and many people don't understand that.  For those of you who don't get why people try to prevent extinctions, well I honestly don't think you'll ever get it.  But maybe some people just aren't very informed about the subject, so I wanted to share this with you, especially my fellow Cincinnatians and Bengals Fans.





1,411 TIGERS LEFT IN INDIA!?!  Does this make anyone else sick?  I just don't know how we're going to explain ourselves to our kids when they say, "But that animal was so cool!  Didn't you do anything to try to save them?"


I've been thinking though, fellow Cincinnatians, Chad, Marvin, Carson, the rest of the boys and Ben-Gals - why don't we do something about this?

When the tiger goes extinct then how powerful will our team mascot look? I'm not sure what I'm proposing exactly, a collaboration between The Cincinnati Zoo and The Bengals Nation maybe?  Just imagine what a little Who Dey power could do for this amazing cat!  Think about it - Paul Brown stadium has a seating capacity of 65,535 seats.  Even an optional $1 donation with the price of tickets could probably raise some pretty serious funds.  So who's with me, Bengals Fans?!

Please holler back in the comments section I'd like to know if any other nati people think this is a serious issue.  Visit Save Our Tigers for more info on the tiger situation.  And if you're not from Cincinnati, but your favorite mascot is also in trouble, we can talk about that too!

Christmas Eve in Cincinnati

Nick and I flew home to Cincinnati for Christmas this year and I was so busy doing nati things I really didn't do much blogging.  So I wanted to back track a bit and share our Christmas festivities with the world.  This year Christmas lasted 3 days and my waistline isn't too happy about that right now.  Here are the culprits from Christmas Eve.

Nick made mojitos for everyone and unsurprisingly they went down like a treat!

Next we have Skyline Dip - sour cream, chili, and cheddar cheese (for you non-Cincinnatians....) Made by my mom.

Shrimp and crab with dips made by my Aunt Niki....

I forget the name of these but they were preserved lemons and cheese wrapped in pastry with a yogurt dipping sauce.  Also compliments of Niki.  They were vegetarian and salty deliciousness which means I ate A LOT of them.

Then we were on to the main course, which for some reason in my family is always Indian themed.  I have no idea where this tradition comes from, but every time I suggest we eat something different I'm told thats absolutely impossible because "It's a tradition."  Specifically, my mom makes Lamb Curry and my Aunt Suzy makes a Saag Paneer type dish.  We also got nan, rice, and mint chutney from Baba India, our favorite Indian Place in Cincinnati.

Look at the spread!

As if we hadn't had enough food at this point we then moved onto dessert.  My mom keeps asking me why I never cook for her, and this is the reason.  Does it look like we need more food?! I suggested I make dessert but she had already bought it from the Bonbonerie.  Their sugar cookies are to die for so I thought it best not to bother competing with them.

We also got some chocolate cupcakes and mint brownies.  Yum!

And of course what would any Cincinnati Christmas celebration be without a large selection of Graeter's Icecream?  If you don't know, Graeter's makes the best icecream in the world.  In Cincinnati no one bothers with those silly boys, Ben and Jerry, and when a Cincinnati girl breaks up with her bf she reaches for a pint of Graeters - not Haagen Dazs.  My cousin, Luc, and my sister, Dani, helped to dish it out in all sorts of flavors.

And that concludes our feast.  Needless to say we all waddled to bed before Santa came!

Goodbye 2009... Hello 2010

By golly, 2009 went by fast!  This has been a hectic but fantastic year for me so I thought I'd share some of the more fabulous moments of 2009 with you...

I graduated in May from Loyola University of Chicago, and thanks to a year of studying abroad I kicked my GPA up so high I graduated with magna cum laude honors - check out those cords.  Thank you Deakin University.  And thank you parents for funding my wildest dreams.

I was also super busy planning what many referred to as "the social event of the summer" - thats right the Vollman/DeCourcy Wedding.  After 8 years of internet dating and obscene amounts of money spent on phone bills and airfare Nick and I got married July 17th.

After the wedding we moved to London and we got married again.... Actually we never really got married the first time!  HA tricked you!  It was all pretend because of the immigration stuff.  Here we are signing the legal papers.  It was a bit of an anti-climax after the first one.

Since moving to London I have been steadily improving my housewife skills with cooking and decorating.  I also learned how to knit - an achievement I suppose.  I applied to lots of jobs and I got one, but it sucked and I don't have it any more.  We just got back from a two week visit to Cincinnati and we had lots of fun there.  It's been a great year....

But of course today is January 1st and what would January 1st be without a few goals?  So here are a few for 2010.

1. Get experience for vet school
2. Do more and stop thinking about doing more
3. Be proactive about establishing myself in London
4. Be active and healthy and quit yo-yo dieting (cliche I know)
5. Make a really good new English friend

Happy New Year Everyone!

Nada - Too Much Hype?

Last night my family and I went to Nada, in downtown Cincinnati for dinner.  I was pretty excited as I have only heard good things about this trendy little place.  The decor was bright oranges and reds - really fun and exciting.  My sister, Lizzie, and I got there first and we started off with some drinks.  I had the fuzzy margarita which had peach puree in it - it was quite delicious.  Lizzie had a non-alcoholic pink grapefruit margarita which was also tasty.  They brought us some chips, salsa, and guacamole to munch on while we were waiting for everyone else.  The chips were salty and fresh and the guacamole was chunky, with the perfect touch of citrus.  It was so good we went through two rounds before everyone managed to get there and we ordered appetizers.

For starters the meat eaters ordered the Nada sliders and the ceviche.  According to Lizzie, the ceviche was presented well in a martini glass, and it was fruity and citrusy.  Lizzie also says, "the sliders had a nice golden buttery bun with a good kick of spice."  I had the mexican mac and cheese, which was served in a cute little pot.  The mac and cheese was super creamy and had poblano peppers mixed in which I found very innovative and really brought the whole flavor medley up a few notches.  It was my fave dish of the evening.

After the great drinks, delish chips and guac, and starters I had high hopes for my main dish.  There was only really one vegetarian main on the menu, the vegetarian soft tacos, so that's what I got.  The tacos came and were stuffed with a puree of black beans, mushrooms, and cheese.  And there's not much else I can say about them.  I felt completely let down.  Nothing tasted bad, but for a classy mexican restaurant the flavors were extremely bland.  I know that some chefs don't feel that inspired by vegetarian food - but why bother putting something on your menu that doesn't live up to every other item your producing?  It seemed the chef put no effort whatsoever into that dish - there was nothing creative or exciting about it.  To be perfectly honest, I can get better soft tacos at Chipotle for less than half the price.

The bottom line : What's Nada got to offer for us vegetarians?  Notta!

Fondue Party 2009

My family's fondue party tradition started when I was pretty young.  My mom would usually invite the neighbors around for a small, intimate gathering sometime around Christmas.  However, they started happening less regularly and my sister and I decided that we loved fondue parties so much that we needed to make sure they kept happening.  We had our first non-parent organized party last year and it was a big hit, so we planned another for this year.  We chose to have it at my sisters house, and wanted it to have a "Classy to Trashy" theme.  Meaning we planned on starting off with good food and drinks and maybe get slightly intoxicated as the night went on.

Because of my mad housewifing skills, I took care of most the food items, while my sister (who has more college drinking skills than me) took care of the beverage items.

We used two of my vodka infusions jars from the wedding to make mixed drinks in.  One was a pomegranate vodka drink made with pomegranate liquor, vodka, pomegranate juice and 7 up.  I thought this tasted a bit like medicine, but it was empty by the end of the night.  The other was filled with vodka, cinnamon sticks, and apples and left to soak overnight - we then topped it up with apple cider the next day.  This was certainly my drink of choice for the evening.

Judging by the inebriated state of many individuals at the party... these were a BIG hit.

I also made and decorated Christmas sugar cookies (I used the recipe for sugar cookies from the Joy of Cooking).  Quite festive - wouldn't you say?

I figured we needed something that was kinda healthy / green to really complete the food options so I made Christmas Guacamole.  I used two bags of avacados, about a handful of red grapes (cut into quarters), one lemon, and one pomegranate.  This was super tasty...

The main event was the Fondue of course, and for this I used eight pounds of cheese, mostly emental and some other cheaper swisses.  I basically followed the Joy of Cooking recipe for this too.  For the wine I used a big bottle of Yellow Tail and we added some of my great uncles homemade kirsch.  Fondue is pretty much fool proof, and this one didn't disappoint.

Here are some classy people enjoying the fruits of my labor...

My sister was pretty confused about the effort I put into the food, she kept saying she didn't think I realized what kind of party this was going to be.  I soon understood what she meant because not long after this picture was taken the night took a quick turn for trashy.  Let's just say it was a lot more drunken college shenanigans and shot taking than Martha Stewart-esque cultured and well organized dinner party.

Personally, I may or may not have ended up at Ramundo's Pizzeria around 3:30 am with no ride home.  It's also possible I ate 3 slices (but who's counting) of pizza while walking home in the sleeting rain with my husband and a boy who may have been carrying a large metal pot stolen from my sisters kitchen to be used as a barf bucket.  I can honestly say the night ended a bit more trashy than I anticipated.  Was it a success?  I'll let you be the judge.

A Day At Findlay Market

Since I'm in Cincinnati now I've been doing all sorts of nati-type things.  You know like eating a large variety of regional food, trolling large suburban malls, and bonding with the fam.  My sisters and I are planning a fondue party for Saturday night so my Aunt Suzy offered to take me to Findlay Market to stock up on cheese.  (More on the fondue party later)

I'm ashamed to say it, but I've never actually been to Findlay before this visit.  For those of you who are not Cincinnatians, Findlay Market is a food market in Over-the-Rhine, and according to wikipedia is Ohio's "oldest, continuously operated public market."

Suzy is definitely a good Findlay Market tour guide so I'll let you know where she went to stock up.  One of our first stops was a sausage stall, Kroeger and Sons Sausage.  This stall had a huge variety of weiners - all shapes and sizes - but mostly German.  Now of course I don't eat this stuff, but if I did it would look pretty enticing.  See.....

Man, talk about a sausage fest!

Next up was Colonel De Ray's spices.  Apparently he, "takes the common and makes it uncommon."  And he sure had a wide range of spices.  My mom instructed me to pick up herbs de provence and south western spice for her, but when I asked for southwestern spice they asked me which type.  Apparently they have 3 different kinds!  So of course I called my mom and told her asssistant to interrupt her meeting due to this "life and death situation."  She needed Debbies Southwestern spice - CRISIS AVERTED!

Last but not least we went got to the big cheese, literally.  I mean I bought over 8 pounds of cheese.  The woman behind the counter at Silverglades was very helpful, and we came up with an assortment of mostly emmental, and some other baby swiss cheeses (which mostly help to cut the cost - fondue isn't cheap!)

We finished off the day with two tasty crepes and some good conversation.  Findlay Market is such a neat little Cincinnati treasure I'm shocked I haven't been sooner.

Vegetarian 3-Way

Cincinnati Chili is an institution in the Queen City.  Most of us Cincinnatians grow up on this stuff.  Even my family of food snobs appreciates a coney or a 3 way (or both) from Skyline.  Cincinnatians like an occasion to gorge ourselves on this stuff, especially after sporting events.  It was always great fun to get some Skyline after a summer swim meet.  (Note: I refer to Cincinnati Chili as Skyline because that's the chain I'll go to bat for, many an argument has occured in the Nati due to allegiance to various chili restaurants) 

You may be wondering, however, how my vegetarian self can eat this bowl of ground beef atop spagetti?  Well first of all I have a confession.  I tell people I went vegetarian in the 3rd grade.  This is mostly true.  I continued to indulge in Skyline for about 2 years till 5th grade when my morals got the best of me.  Whew!  Glad that's off my chest!  I will have you know that skyline does do a black bean chili which is vegetarian.  It's good, but its not as good as the real deal.

I ate black bean chili for years, feeling disappointed that it just wasn't totally up to par.  Until one fateful day when I was driving my friends back to school in Chicago from Cincinnati.  Liza's family had given her bags full of Cincinnati chili related products.... and she forgot them in the back of my car.  I meant to give them back to her, but we were both really busy, honestly, and they sat in my car for a long, long time.  And then one day it dawned on me - I could use vegetarian ground beef with the skyline chili packets and make it vegetarian!  So I stole Liza's Cincinnati Chili packets and went to work in the kitchen - and wouldn't you know it - this vegetarian chili is totally up to par with Skyline!  My meat eating taste testers claim they actually can't tell the difference.

Since I'm not as fancy as other bloggers, who come up with their own concoctions of ingredients for Cincinnati Chili I just make my mom send me packets of Cincinnati Recipe Chili mix.  If you don't have a native Cincinnatian willing to send you these then you can also get them on Amazon, here.

When I make this at home I use half a packet.

Put this in a pot with 3 oz of tomato paste.

Then add 3 cups of water to the pot, give it a good stir and turn the heat all the way up.  Add your "ground beef" - In America I was a big fan of Boca's veggie ground beef, but in England we use Quorn mince.  We use the whole 300g package.

Bring your chili to a boil and then turn the heat down and let it simmer until its at the right consistency.  This can be a bit of a personal preference.  I think it perfect when the water's boiled down to just above the top of the chili, but thats just me.  Nick likes it dryer.  Either way it'll take about 45 minutes.

When your chili is almost done throw some spaghetti in a pot.  We use whole wheat so we can pretend we're eating healthy.  Grate some mild cheddar cheese.  A (large) handful per 3 way is best.

Then to assemble, place spaghetti on the bottom, then chili, then cheese.

This makes enough for three 3-ways.  Serve with Tobasco and enjoy your meat free skyline!  Trick the meat-lovers and whip this up during a Who Dey game and see if anyone notices its veggie.  Chances are they won't!

Cincinnati

Please read this post in tune with Joni Mitchell's "California"

Sitting in a park in London, England
Lookin' around and it sure looks bad
They don't do interpretive dance
That was just a dream some of us had
Still a lot of lands to see
But I wouldn't want to stay here
It's too old and cold and settled in it's ways here
Oh, but Cincinnati
Cincinnati I'm coming home
I'm going to see the folks I dig
I'll even kiss a flying pig
Cincinnati I'm coming home



I met party animals in the South of Oz....

Who did the shark shuffle very well

They gave me back my smile
But left me with a cow-milking smell
Oh the Toole, Tom O'Toole
He baked good pies and cakes
And I might have stayed on with S2C there
But my heart cried out for you, Cincinnati
Oh Cincinnati I'm coming home
Oh make me feel good Queen City land
I'm your biggest fan
Cincinnati, I'm coming home

CHORUS:

Oh it gets so lonely
When you're walking
And the streets are full of strangers
All the news of home you read
Just gives you the blues
Just gives you the blues

So I bought me a ticket
I caught a plane to Namibia
Went to a party down a red dirt road
There were lots of pretty people there

They're saving cheetahs, collecting poo
They said, "How long can you hang around?"
I said "a month, maybe two,
Just until my dyke spike grows out..
Then I'm going home to Cincinnati"
Cincinnati I'm coming home
Oh will you take me as I am
Even if I don't eat ham? 
Cincinnati I'm coming home

CHORUS:

Oh it gets so lonely
When you're walking
And the streets are full of strangers
All the news of home you read
More about the war
And the bloody changes
Oh will you take me as l am?
Will you take me as l am?
Will you?

We're coming home Dec 14th - 29th.  Hope to see everyone then!

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!

 

Amo-Ink Thank You Notes

Ah the day has finally come when I have completed all of our wedding thank you notes!  I'm so excited.  Sorry if these have been a bit delayed but I have a few good excuses.  Our move to England, the fact that so many of you are still in college and your addresses keep changing being the top two.  Anyways thanks everyone for getting us so many nice gifts.

I have to say that I absolutely loved the stationary designed for us by Amy Owens.  She is really great and helped us with all the wedding day stuff.  The invites were fantastic and she also did the programs, menus, table numbers, and our luggage tags / escort cards.

Unfortunately I don't have all the work she did with us here in London but here are the thank yous.  So pretty.  Thanks Amy!

Check out more of her beautiful stuff at Amo-Ink!

Also, I must say that when I asked a lot of people for their new address they would say I didn't need to send them a Thank You.  But come on people!  You know you like getting snail mail.  It's way more fun than emailing or facebooking for sure.  So in honor of snail mail and in a shameless attempt to see who is reading my little blog I will send the first 5 people who comment a postcard!  woo hoo!