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!