Recipe :: Butternut Squash Couscous

Another delicious recipe to share - and one I promised Sharon so here you are, enjoy!

Ingredients

1 butternut squash (2 pounds)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large yellow onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 cup canned diced tomatoes
1/3 cup dark or golden raisins
1 32-ounce container vegetable broth
1 15.5-ounce can chickpeas, drained
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 1/2 cups couscous
2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves
1/4 cup (1 ounce) almonds, chopped

Preparation

Halve and peel the squash. Remove the seeds and cut the squash into 1-inch chunks. Heat the oil in a Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the onion and cook for 5 minutes. Add the garlic, cayenne, cinnamon, nutmeg, and 1/2 teaspoon of the cumin and cook for 1 minute. Stir in the squash, tomatoes, raisins, broth, chickpeas, and 1 1/2 teaspoons of the salt. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 10 minutes. Uncover and cook until the squash is tender, 15 to 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a medium saucepan, bring 1 1/2 cups water and the remaining cumin and salt to a boil. Stir in the couscous. Cover, remove from heat, and let stand for 5 to 10 minutes. Fluff with a fork. Divide the couscous among individual bowls and ladle the squash over the top. Sprinkle with the parsley and almonds.

Makes 6 to 8 servings

Thank you Real Simple - definitely making our lives easier.

Source: http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/browse-all-recipes/butternut-squash-cumin-couscous-10000001548736/

Running into the next decade

The Sunday before CW turned 30, he celebrated his 20s by running a 10K race in St Albans with our friend Oliver. The weather was great - sun shining but not too hot or windy - so it was the perfect day for a race.

CW coming up to the finish, very closely followed by Oliver

Oliver catching site of his fan club

They both did very well and ran it just under 41 minutes - with only 12 seconds between them! They took 32nd and 33rd place out of about 465 people so they were quite pleased!

Well done guys!

Recipe :: Moussaka

Another favourite recipe to share!

Story behind these recipes: For a few months now we've been trying to make something new at least every weekend, and if we can, we use a new ingredient from the market. Recently we've experimented with butternut squash and sweet potatos for example. Last week we made another foray into Greek food - making Moussaka.

Ingredients

1 kg (2lbs) eggplant

oil

Meat Sauce:

1 large onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, crushed

2 tbsp oil

1kg (2lbs) ground beef or lamb

1 cup chopped, peeled tomatoes

2 tbsp tomato paste

1/2 cup white wine

2 tbsp chopped parsley

1tsp sugar

1/4 tsp cinnamon

salt and pepper

Cream Sauce:

1/4 cup butter

1/3 cup flour

2 cups milk

1/8 tsp nutmeg

1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

salt and pepper

1 egg, lightly beaten

Instructions

1. Cut eggplant into 1/4 inch slices with skin on. Sprinkle slices with salt. Oil base of baking dish, add layer of eggplant and brush with oil. Lightly brown under a hot grill, turn, brush again with oil and brown other side. Stack on a plate when cooked

2. Gently Fry onion and garlic in oil for 10 minutes. Add meat and brown over high heat, stirring well. Add remaining meat sauce ingredients, seasoning to taste. Cover adn simmer gently for 30 minutes.

3. Melt butter in a saucepan, stir in flour and cook gently for 2 minutes. Add milk all at once and bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Let sauce bubble gently for 1 minute.

4. Remove from heat, stir in nutmeg or cinnamon, 1 tablespoon of the cheese, and salt and pepper to taste. Cover top of sauce with greased paper if not required immediately.

5. Grease an oven dish, 13x9x2 inches, and place a layer of eggplant slices in the base. Top with half of the meat sauce, add another layer of eggplant, remainder of meat and finish with eggplant.

6. Stir beaten egg into cream sauce and spread on top. Sprinkle with remaining chesse. Bake for 1 hour at 180C (350F). Let stand 10 minutes before cutting into squares to serve.

Recipe :: Pastitso

filling

• 500g (1lb) long macaroni
• 4 tbsp butter
• 3/4 cup grated parmesan
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• salt and pepper
• 3 eggs lightly beaten

meat sauce

• 1 large onion chopped
• 1 clove garlic crushed
• 2 tbsp butter
• 750g (1 1/2 lbs) ground beef
• 1/4 tomato paste
• 1/2 cup dry red or white wine
• 1/2 cup stock
• 2 tbsp chopped parsley
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• salt and pepper

cream sauce

• 1/3 cup butter
• 1/2 cup flour
• 3 cups milk
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• salt and pepper
• 1 egg lightly beaten

instructions

1. Cook macaroni in boiling, salted water until just tender. Drain and return to pan

2. Melt butter until golden brown and pour over macaroni. Add 1/2 cup cheese, nutmeg, salt and pepper to taste and toss well. Leave until cool, add eggs and toss again. Keep aside

3. Make meat sauce. Gently fry onion and garlic in butter until onion is soft, increase heat and add ground beef. Stir well and cook until meat begins to brown

4. Add remaining meat sauce ingredients, cover and simmer over gentle heat for 20 minutes

5. Make cream sauce. Melt butter in saucepan, stir in flour and cook gently for 2 minutes. Add milk all at once and bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Boil gently for 1 minute

6. Add nutmeg, salt and pepper and cool a little before adding egg

7. Add 1/2 cup of this sauce to the cooked meat sauce

8. To assemble pastitso, butter a 13x9x3 inch oven dish. Spoon half of the prepared macaroni evenly across the base and top with meat sauce. Cover with remaining macaroni, leveling top

9. Pour on cream sauce and spread to completely cover macaroni. Sprinkly remaining cheese on top and cook in oven at 180C (350F) for 50 minutes until golden brown

10. Let stand for 10 minutes before cutting into squares to serve and enjoy

serves 6-8, cooking time 1 1/2 hours

source: unknown

Adventures in Picklescott

We finally indulged in the proper English countryside by taking a long weekend at a farmstead cottage in the Shropshire Hills.

Shropshire is an English county right on the Welsh border, just south of Chester. Our cottage, The Old Workshop, was a mile and a half from the village of Picklescott, which nestles in a small hollow next to a quaint running stream. Picklescott has no store, church or even public phone booth, but does have a very nice pub, the Glass and Bottle Inn.

The three of us - Guinness was welcome at the cottage - took the train up on Saturday and after locating a private hire driver willing to take us, we ventured over the Long Mynd (see below) to our rather secluded cottage. We took a short walk through some nearby woods and open fields full of curious sheep to take advantage of the afternoon sunlight, but then retired in front of the wood burning stove.

Sunday we got up and out for a long walk through the countryside. We wandered through Picklescott and then up onto the Long Mynd. The Long Mynd is a series of moorland hills that run for approximately ten miles north-south near the Welsh border. It is rather striking to suddenly come across this area, as there is farmland and small coppices of trees all around and then you walk over a hilltop and there it is stretching out in front of you.

We traipsed over a few of the hills and down into a couple of the hollows as well before enjoying a somewhat windswept packed lunch. Then just as suddenly, we wandered off the Long Mynd and back into the farmland.

Some of us thought he could dig us a shortcut home...

We ended, well nearly ended, our walk at the Bottle and Glass Inn for a nice pint, then made a somewhat more sedated mile and a half walk home over the country lanes.

Monday morning didn't involve a 530 wakeup or hour long commute, but rather a breakfast of eggs on toast, with the eggs coming directly from the hen house outside our door!

Filled with good countryside food, we embarked in a different direction and ambled past several small villages, shorter hills, churchyards full of snowdrops and the occassional mud bog.

Our intention was to have a good wander, but get to the village of Castle Pulverbatch in time for lunch at the White Horse Inn. One problem, it wasn't open on a Monday afternoon in February. Oh well, home wasn't too far away and the sun was shining, so we enjoyed some PB&J on the patio!

All in all it was a very relaxing couple of days, which we all enjoyed. The cottage was absolutely perfect for us - decorated and outfitted extremely well and very much to our taste. We would have no hesitations about going back in the future or recommending it to anyone else!

A Rare English Snow Day

Last Monday we woke up to an amazing and beautiful sight – snow! There were already a few inches of snow on the ground and more heavily falling – an extremely rare occurrence! In the five winters we have experienced in this fine northern European country, we have only had three instances where snow fell, AND, actually stuck to the ground for longer than five seconds.

The combination of the snow and England’s transport system’s inability to deal with any adverse weather (see previous post) resulted in both of us staying home to work. Much of the morning was spent taking quick glances out the window to ensure the snow was still falling and then finally it was lunchtime - finally a chance to be a kid again!

We went out with Guinness and met up with Elliott and Bentley, human and dog respectively, for a good old romp in the snow. Snowballs were flying at humans and dogs alike; though for the dogs it was more for them to catch in their mouths.

Guinness flying for a snowball

"Throw the ball, just throw the

ball!" says Bentley

"Please just throw the bal

l, you're killing me!"

"Yes I know, I'm very cute, but why in the world am I sitting here in this wet cold white stuff?"

The two dogs had a great time and we humans didn’t exactly dislike our time outside. In fact, I reckon it was the best lunch break we’ve had in a long time!

Looking Back at 2008

Apologies for our silence as of late, we've both been super busy with life in general it seems. So to all of you reading this, Happy New Year a bit late! Hope you have had a good first 41 days of 2009 and may this year be a happy and healthy one!

It might be a bit late for reflections of 2008, we really enjoyed this photographic series showing world images from events and memories of last year.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

p.s. This was blog was started on 21 January but finished today, 10 February, hence the apparently wrong calculation of 41 days based on the blog post date.

Tales of Two Tails

This Christmas, we have the enormous pleasure of dogsitting our good friend's one year old black labrador, Bentley. He is an absolutely beautiful dog and arguably a little bigger than Guinness.

The two dogs really enjoy each other's company, whether alternating bones, wrestling, kissing, fighting over balls, or simply standing together with their tails wagging in sync. So the last few days we have been thoroughly entertained by their doggy antics (like those below).




Walking through our house has become treacherous needless to say as we navigate the two 75lb wagging behemoths who follow us everywhere we go. But we are enjoying every second of having another big drooling and wagging monster man amongst us and will hate to see him go.

The Girl Effect

I was sent this by a friend today and thought it was quite powerful so I wanted to share it with all of you.

Chester and Beyond...

A few weeks ago we went to visit some old neighbours in Chester, which is just over the border from North Wales. We had a great weekend catching up, eating good meals, enjoying the Olympics and visiting the area with them.

Chester is an historical cathedral town with ties to Roman Britain. Surrounded by city walls dating back 700 years, the city centre itself is made up of beautiful tudor style buildings, some over five stories. It is unique from many English cities in that it has what they call 'The Rows', an upper and lower level of shopping.


On Sunday we took a short drive over the border into a place called Llandudno. Now you might be trying to figure out how to say that, but you will never guess how it is actually pronounced. Click here for a recording.

Llandudno is the largest coastal resort in Wales. As with most British seaside resorts, it has a promenade, pebbly beach, pier and rubbish summer weather. We let the dogs have a bit of a swim before heading up the Great Orme which is a headland overlooking the bay and town. There we had a wonderful picnic lunch with jazz band accompaniment floating up from the pier and a bit of sunshine before heading off for a bit more walking.

Taking people up and down the Great Orme are some gondolas and a tram.

On the other side also sits a quaint little church and cemetery overlooking the sea.

Phil, Julie and CW with the dogs

Thanks again to Julie and Phil for a fantastic weekend! It was great seeing you both again - and we really appreciated your wonderful hospitality!


For a few more pictures of Llandudno, click here

Darling Diane

We recently spent a week in Provence celebrating the baptism of Diane, Cora’s new goddaughter. The whole week was really one big party, as over 40 people came for the event itself, but there were various people coming and going from Thursday straight through until Monday. Lots of good food, wine and fun was had, all in the glorious sunshine and blue skies of the south of France.

The baptism was held in the little village church that our friends Adeline and Thierry were married in a few years ago. It was a simple and beautiful ceremony and Diane was an absolute angel for (almost) the whole thing despite how hot she was in her little white dress.

The Christening

A very happy maman and papa with little Diane

Cora (Marraine), Thierry (Papa), Adeline (Maman) and Richard (Parrain) - and Diane of course who was getting a bit fed up being in that big dress

After the baptism we all went back to Adeline’s mom’s house.

There we enjoyed a nice meal followed by an afternoon relaxing around the pool and evening of more eating, dancing and simply having a good time together.

Unfortunately, by the end of the baptism Adeline was not feeling well and ended up in hospital for a few days (she is now doing much better and is back home again at her mom’s house). In her absence, Cora dove right into her role as marraine (godmother) and helped take care of Diane. We both really missed having time with Adeline but we did value the special time we were able to spend bonding with Diane who is an absolutely adorable baby!

Diane with her 'marraine'

Diane with her 'tonton'

The pictures speak to the cuteness of the little one. She was all smiles and quite easy going throughout most of the festivities.

We have loads and loads of pictures from the event so it will take us a while to get them all up onto our website, so for now here are just a few of our favourites of darling Diane and family.

Post-bath wrap-up

Adeline with Diane before bed

Always alert, always looking

Daddy's little girl

Darling little hands and little feet

Thank you Adeline and Thierry for giving me the enormous honour of being Diane's marraine, for hosting us in such a generous way and for always being such wonderful friends!

We are counting down the days until we can find a way to see you all again! Gros bisous!

4 years and 4,000 miles

Actually apparently it's only 3,963 miles between London and Chicago but nevertheless, it's far. And four years is just too long. So when my friend Kandy from Chicago told me she would come and visit I was thrilled to be able to see her!

After a couple of weeks in Spain, Kandy came and stayed with us for a few days before crossing the pond back to Chicago. It was an absolute whirlwind of a few days as we dragged her all over London and St Albans so she could experience as much as possible, but we had such a great time together!

Kandy wrote a wonderful little account of her experience with us on her blog so I'll let you read about it through her eyes.

"I took a short flight from Madrid to London Luton Airport and it was like stepping into a different world. It was a world that spoke English, which, ironically, my mind could not handle. In my head I would respond in Spanish and then have to translate it to English. It was the most bizarre feeling.

A short train ride and I step out of the train station to find a taxi queue. My taxi driver was full of history and told me that St. Michaels used to be its own parish, but was now a part of St. Albans. I was dizzy driving on the wrong side of the street. I could barely listen to a word he was saying because I was staring at the beautiful flowers, all of the green, the old buildings, the little bridge, the lead pane glass, just everything.

St. Albans is steeped in history. You trip over it at every corner. Cora and I spent Friday wandering around St. Albans and trying not to step on dead people in the cathedral. She took me through the park and pointed out the Roman ruins in the distance. There are Roman ruins in the park. It is just inconceivable. There are six churches in the town. It is absolutely beautiful. There are cobblestone streets and little shops. Houses line the streets with postage stamp gardens brimming with flowers.

Cora and CW live in a wee cozy little house with a sweet garden out back. They live on Blacksmith Lane, and truly, it is a lane. I have to admit when I arrived on Friday I was sick and I'd had about 4 hours of sleep. The day is a brilliant blur of bricks, either on the street or on the houses!

Saturday we got up early and took the train into London. Cora was not kidding when she said it was a hike up hill to the train station. When we left the house it was raining. We walked through St. James Park, through Green Park and then to Buckingham Palace to watch the changing of the guard. The concept of public space is much different in London. There are little chairs for rent so you can sit in the park. Grass is meant to be sat on. By the time we got to the palace it was nice and sunny. Ironically it was the first day I did not put on any sun screen because I figured it was going to be cloudy and rainy. The trees in the park are immense. It feels like you've stepped into a storybook.

The changing of the guard was filled with pomp and circumstance, but someone definitely had a sense of humor. The band played a medley of swing music and an old 70's song. It was fun to see and get a sense of the tradition, but it was also a little confusing. If someone can explain why they walk up and down so many times that would be great!

It was amazing to watch and to think about the years of history and the fact that this happens day in and day out. While we were waiting for the new set of guards there was a line of horse drawn carriages and people dressed to the nines who drove by. One can only assume they were going to a wedding.

We walked from the palace up the Mall to Trafalgar square. We walked down Whitehall past the Horse Guards parade and a ton of big gorgeous government buildings. Everything is immense. At Westminster we decided to take a boat ride on the Thames to the Tower of London and back. There was a race between Thames watermen who were racing their boats up the Thames, against the tide, the old fashioned way. They were rowing the boats. That was a very lovely sight, because the boats were pretty, not because of the muscular men.

I love the Thames. I love the buildings, even the newer relatively ugly ones, lining the banks of the river. I love that each of the bridges has a story. I could not even quite conceive that I was at the Tower of London. I had read so much about it, including Queen Elizabeth's account of crossing under Traitor's Gate. I can't even quite explain how hard it was to conceptualize all of the history surrounding me. My little tired brain could not even take it all in.

We then took the tube to Camden Town. The moment we walked out on to the street I felt like I had come home. Imagine the Belmont/Halsted area, well, back about 5 years ago, and multiply that by 100. That is Camden Town. My people.

There is a huge warren-like-den of markets. Everything you could possibly want is for sale. When you get tired of shopping you can stop and eat, and smoke some shisha. I got my second wind when we got to Camden Town, but after wandering around for a while it was definitely time to head back home. Plus, I was laden with packages. I bought some big chunky bracelets because all the girls in Spain were wearing them. I also bought a couple of scarves because the girls in Madrid and London were wearing them. I did not buy any of the MC Hammer pants, which unfortunately were also fashionable.

We took the tube, and at Camden Station you can either take a long twisty staircase down or the elevator. We took the elevator. Then we transferred to our train station to get back to St. Albans. The long walk home, uphill again (I still cannot figure out how it is uphill both ways), just about did me in. We stopped by the house and got Guinness (Cora and CW's chocolate lab) and then off we went to the pub, the Rose and Crown, just down the street. I had a proper dinner of fish and chips and a Shandy in an old English pub. The ambiance, beer, and good company, capped off a brilliant day."

There's probably a bit more to come since she had a few days to herself before she left but for now, let's just say we had a fantastic time and we definitely won't let four more years go before we see each other again! Thanks Kandy for coming to visit!

A Night with Jack

For our birthdays, our extremely generous friends Thierry and Adeline who live in Oman gave us tickets to the Jack Johnson concert in Hyde Park. We have been big fans of 'Jack' for several years, and actually introduced Thierry to him back in Cambridge. The chance to see him in Europe was quite rare as this was his first European tour so we were extremely happy to go to get the chance to see him. We only wish that Thierry and Adeline could have joined us in Hyde Park but at least they were able to see him in Paris a week later.

It was rainly slightly (as it does so often in London) as we arrived at Marble Arch but thankfully the weather cleared by the time the first opening act was done. After a couple opening acts, including Ben Harper who was fantastic, Jack came on for a solid two hours of feel good guitar music. We were quite far away but the sound was amazing and they had some really great screens and stage animations so we were quite happy.

The sun made a solid appearance throughout his set and we even got to enjoy a beautiful sunset.

It was a wonderful day and we can only say thank you once more to Thierry and Adeline for getting us the tickets.

If you haven't heard Jack Johnson, check out his website www.jackjohnsonmusic.com and click on the Featured Music on the upper right hand corner.

For anyone interested in getting a taste of the concert, check out this clip someone made on the day (we attempted one of our own on the phone but the quality was too rubbish to post)