Just for Fun...

And because I have a feeling my mom might REALLY like to see this - a video by people I went to high school with. They did an earlier video, the really, really funny (and quite truthful) "Whole Foods Parking Lot." Mom - you just might recognize a certain person in here... And everyone else, enjoy!

All I Want for Christmas...

Is a "Gentleman's Hamper" and a box of Christmas crackers that cost £500. [Beware - crappy pictures below thanks to RIM, but be assured that the crackers seen below cost £250 and £500 respectively]

I walked through Fortnum & Mason today checking out their Christmas offerings. I was tempted by all the Queen's Diamond Jubilee merchandise already out and available for purchase, but what really caught my eye were the outrageously priced Christmas crackers. I grew up with crackers, we have them every year at Christmas dinner (or is Christmas eve?) and we all sit around wearing the paper crowns and telling the dumb jokes that come inside. But trust me, our crackers do NOT cost £500 for a box of six. The crackers we open come with such items as a compass (there is always a compass. Always.), a harmonica, a nail clipper (seriously?) and maybe some game that requires you to untwist and separate two metal pretzels. I wonder what the HELL is inside the ones that cost £500.* Maybe a silver plated compass? A crystal encrusted nail clipper? A gold plated mini-bowling game? Do you think the family that buys those does anything else for Christmas? Maybe those crackers are the only gifts. The kids open them, and the parents say "OK, Christmas is over. Enjoy." And the kids sit there wondering what they are going to do with a gold sewing kit and silver pencil sharpener. And do you think rather than a little "pop" when they open, the £500 pound crackers set off a 15 minute fireworks show that includes the family name spelled out in sparklers? I am so curious...

I also enjoyed perusing the hamper section of the Christmas floor. Hampers are quite British to me, I don't think they are nearly as popular in the states. I love how varied they are - kids hampers, the aforementioned "Gentleman's" hamper, one for the culinary aficionado and even a "family" one. I find it funny that the family hamper comes with four bottles of alcohol. I guess that sends a message to the recipient about what it must be like to spend the holidays with their family. "Happy holidays to you and your family! Now drink!" I wonder if people get hamper after hamper all season, to the point where they start re-gifting the five bottles of mustard and nine jars of chutney they have sitting around. You take the good stuff - the extra wine and liquor - to the people you like, and the bad stuff - the icky Christmas puddings and weird terrines - to the people you don't like. A way to be passive aggressive throughout the holidays!

* I just looked at the Fortnum & Mason website, and sure enough the £1,000 crackers do come with silver plated items such as "sugar dredgers" and egg cups. The £500 crackers only come with leather goods. Well obviously I must buy the £1,000 crackers now.

Leftovers!

So Thanksgiving was a success. I think I can say that. I figure if my food was really nasty I wouldn't still be eating it, five days later. I usually have a four day leftover limit, but with Thanksgiving leftovers I extend my limit by one day so I can get a bit more of the stuffing and sweet potatoes and sprouts that I love so much. I figure I am willing to put up with a tiny bit of mold and funk since Thanksgiving is just so good. Yum.

A full fridge. And my Innocent with its cute little knit hat. So cute.

I learned a few things about cooking Thanksgiving dinner. One, don't cut yourself during the second Thanksgiving related task you are doing. Yes, I did that. I started to prep on Wednesday and during the second job I did, cutting the bread for the stuffing, I managed to also cut two of my fingers with the serrated knife. So fun. So for the next day and a half I cooked like this (to save my guests from being served turkey with a side of blood):

Another gem I learned is that Thanksgiving is one of those nights where you tend to go just a liiitttllleee overboard. You make two types of potatoes because you love mashed so much, even if someone else in your family prefers roasted. You make stuffing because, again, you love it so much, even if the same person in your family won't touch it. You make two desserts, a pumpkin pie (with homemade pie crust) and a fruit crumble because one dessert isn't enough, and fruit desserts are just so appropriate. You make two homemade hors d'oeuvres to go with that roasted pear Bellini you insist on serving, because the roasted pear Bellini sounds too damn good not to make (and trust me, it was damn good), and so you need food to go along with it. So yes, I went overboard and made too much but hey! At least I am enjoying it all over again, for five. straight. days.

My arms, the bird apres Dave's stellar carving job and the other stuff.

Another helpful tidbit is to check your oven to make sure the heat is on, because YES, my oven decided to shut itself off right after I put the turkey in. I could not believe it. I had the dumb thing on for about five straight hours on Thursday, and then the turkey goes in, and the oven decides it's done for the day. The knob was switched to "on," the light was on, but there was no heat. For 90 minutes. Dave, his dad and I stood around staring at the stupid bird saying "it looks just as it did 90 minutes ago. It hasn't changed." Luckily the oven decided to cooperate after I turned it off and back on, and since I was using the convection setting, it heated up quite quickly. Instead of the turkey being done at 7:15, the heat came back at 7, so the turkey took until 8:30. It actually went much quicker than I expected, but I guess having a small-ish bird helped. When I finally checked the temperature, the meat thermometer shot up to 180, which is the high range, and I immediately thought "oh, no! Now it's going to be DRY!" But it wasn't, it was actually pretty good. I had slathered the thing with a pancetta butter, so that helped.

My pie was a huge success, based on the comments my lovely guests made. Dave even went so far as to say it was the best dessert he's ever had. Let me repeat that - the BEST dessert he has EVER had. And I didn't even need to pay him to say that. And it was just a Williams-Sonoma recipe. Yeah for Williams-Sonoma! The crust did not come out well. The raw crust looked amazing, then it shrank in the oven and got all blobby and wrinkly and I kept trying to push it back up the sides of the pie dish. I think the filling was so good, the less-than-flaky, too-thick-crust was forgiven.

I still have the turkey carcass in my fridge, does anyone want it? Maybe I'll leave it lying around to see if Riley picks it up and takes it to bed with her. Overall, my first Thanksgiving was a nice surprise. I would do it again next year...I think...although NOT doing it again next year sounds just fine too.

 Riley, hoping hoping hoping she gets some food. She got a little.

Here she's thinking that UNDER the table is a better strategy for finding bits of turkey. It wasn't.

And now - on to Christmas shopping!

For Once My Theory Worked!

A while ago I had this theory that if I started AND finished a new knitting project it would inspire me to finish the approximately five unfinished projects currently collecting dust somewhere in my flat/apartment. And I was right! It worked. I made a scarf. Really, all I make is scarves. They're soooo easy, I wear scarves, and since it's already winter for all intents and purposes, they're handy. So I made this one:

This one in particular was super easy. The yarn was huge, the needles huge and the stitches simple. This lead to a really huge scarf that I may never wear, but hey! It's finished at least.

After that one, with my confidence at an all time high, I decided to finish the one project I started last fall and then abandoned when we moved in January. It is a twisted cowl. Well, truth be told, I screwed it up early on and added an extra twist. But I was determined to finish it and I finally did. So my theory was a success. Here it is:

Now that I have made one new scarf and finished an incomplete one, I decided why not try and make three more. So I am. Seriously, I am going for three more scarves. Shall I take bets as to when I will give up and leave all three sitting in a pile on the floor? Dave, you say two weeks from now? Anyone want to take the under? Here are the three I am working on, or at least thinking about making:

An ascot. It's so cute, and I am going with a gray and green color scheme. It sounds sort of weird, who knows, maybe it will be and I'll never wear it either. This one is currently in production with an expected completion date of November 20th November 30th.

A lace one. I started this one but the yarn I chose wasn't showing off the pattern very well so I bought some thinner stuff and I am going to start again. Expected start date November 22nd (I'll take two days off to let my fingers rest). December 5th. I think. Maybe not.

And with the unusable yarn from the project above I am going to make a sort of twisted-quasi-lace scarf. Anticipated completion date of March 2013. This is the one that I will probably put down and never pick up again. Come November 2012, I'll be blogging about a revolutionary theory regarding knitting something new BEFORE finishing an old project. I'll consider myself so smart.

Turkey Travails

So my Thanksgiving dinner has gone from three people to five. Which isn't a huge jump by any means, but it does mean a whole turkey (yikes!) as opposed to a breast. I am planning on feeding six people to allow for enough (and leftovers of course), so now I need to make sides to feed six as well. Three people sounded so easy...six sounds like a party. And I have only ever cooked for other people, besides Dave, maybe twice in my life. Oy. I am still working on my menu but I am trying to find things that either I can make ahead or that can be made on the stove top since my oven is so small. I think we'll just have to eat room temp turkey and hot stuffing as I figure if I take the turkey out first and throw the sides in after it should be ok. And if anyone complains I'll just tell them to stuff it. And since I love desserts, I am now going to make two, if not three things. I have to get Dave's opinion on that since he's the dessert guy around here.

My acorn pan. I love it. Probably too much.

In honor of my upcoming kitchen extravaganza, I am trying out the convection oven setting today. I am making pumpkin acorns in honor of Dave's dad's visit. I thought I'd try the convection since I have never used it. It seems to work fine, and maybe a bit faster than the regular setting, even with the temp turned down slightly. And luckily my acorns seem to be turning out ok. I might have taste tested one, or two, or...

They look like little acorn soldiers, marching into battle. And the ones in the back aren't funky, they have chocolate chips inside. Because why not add chocolate chips? They're awesome.

Speaking of my oven, why in the world does the oven timer start at 30 minutes? Why doesn't it start at say, oh I don't know, ZERO? I have so many issues with appliances here but I'm not going to go into that today. I need to approach my cooking challenge with an open mind, not with negative thoughts about never ending beeps, and weird indecipherable icons racing through my mind.

Ooops, one is missing. How ever did that happen?

Since my acorn convection challenge was a success I have confidence that I can now cook a turkey, four or five sides, two or three desserts, a salad and hors d'oeuvres with no problem. No prob whatsoever. I figure it should only take me three days, so we'll be eating Thanksgiving dinner on...Sunday.

Baggie Blues

This is why our dog manages to go through four, yes FOUR baggies in eight minutes. It happened on our walk this morning and my arm and back got tired from bending down to pick it all up. I finally told her "enough!" And then she comes home from her walker outing and eats two bowls of food. I guess I better start stretching now, I have a busy morning ahead of me tomorrow.

By the way, too much information?!

The Piggies Were Out in Force

Did anyone else see all the Vespas on Sunday? Dave and I were taking the bus past Hyde Park Corner and we saw a mass of people and Vespas. It was just like what we saw in Berlin. Wait, I never wrote about Berlin. Well, what a shocker. I don't want to say the Hogs were out because Vespas are just too cute to call Hogs (I call every motorcycle a "hog" because it's just too good of a name not to use), although maybe Vespa owners hope to give off the same vibe as hog riders, who knows. But Vespas are just too darn precious, especially when they are dressed up with extra headlights and vibrant colors and flowers. Later we were on Carnaby Street and there were a ton of Vespas parked in that area and around Liberty.

I made Dave go back to Hyde Park Corner, on our way to the Natural History Museum, so I could see the little piggies again. But everyone was gone. Sigh. I missed the rally. I'm sure it was hardcore too.

I'm Fully Automated, Riley Celebrated the 11's and Other Bits and Bobs

So this was meant to be a Thursday Bits and Bobs. Then it turned into a Friday post, then a Saturday one, then a Monday one and now finally IS a Tuesday one. I still haven't quite got this whole "regular blogging" thing down. Maybe that will be one of my New Year's Resolutions. OK, so on to the good stuff:

Here's Riley celebrating 11/11/11 at 11:11:11 (actually it was more like 11:11:15, I was too slow). She really didn't seem to care all that much. I think she's holding out for 12/12/12.

I bought a new automatic toothbrush after being told I should use one by my dentist. Is that a ploy for them to get money from Oral-B? I had that thought while using said toothbrush this morning, and I realized I may have mistakenly fallen prey to their decades old scam, well ok, not decades old, maybe like 3-year old scam. But now I use that and a Clarisonic on my face, and I realized that my bedtime routine is now fully automated. I feel like my own personal robot. Now if only I could automate the bed making, dog walking and laundry my life would be so much simpler!

We went to the Natural History Museum on Sunday to see the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibit. It's one of those things I always say I'll do and then I never do it, so this year we did it. And it was amazing. I loved it, it was so inspiring. I totally want to grab my snorkel gear and head over to the Serpentine to try and photograph ducks under water. Well, maybe I don't but you get the idea. I'm so glad we finally saw it even though the exhibition room was about 95 degrees. Dave thinks they do that to keep the people moving.

We decided not to go home for Thanksgiving this year, so Dave's dad will be coming to visit instead. In honor of his visit, I have decided to make Thanksgiving dinner myself. I don't know how it will all fit in my 1ft by 2ft oven, so that will be fun. I ordered a 2-3kg turkey breast (and then two days later the meat department manager called to tell me a 2-3kg turkey is really small, so I shouldn't hold out hope of getting one, but he did want to assure me they would have crowns and breasts in so I would have something to pick from. Um ok. I ordered a breast, but thanks for the courtesy call!) I haven't decided on the rest of the menu, but I did tell Dave he could have some input. He's not really a Thanksgiving person, which to me is almost sacrilege. I personally could shove my face in a bowl of stuffing and be happy, but him, not so much. So that's why we'll have (duck fat) roasted potatoes and not mashed (sniff-sniff) (and I just mistyped "duck" and I will not leave the typo there, thank god I caught it, my mom would have wondered...). We'll also have his favorite Ina warm goat cheese salad to start, but that's all I know right now. Oh, and pumpkin pie. He could probably shove his face in a pumpkin pie while I have mine in the stuffing and we could be done with it. Not sure what his dad would do though...

We are going home for Christmas so that will be nice. This will be my first Christmas home in five years. In 2007 we actually came to London and Paris over Christmas for a vacation, which basically prompted our move overseas. In 2008 Dave and I were living apart (sniff-sniff) so I came to visit him during my school break, and our Christmas Eve flight to Florence was cancelled so we stayed in London (we ate cereal because we hadn't anticipated being here so had no food and didn't know that NOTHING is open on Christmas day. I could go on, the story is longer, but I won't). In 2009 we went to Italy and then spent Christmas here with Riley (so sweet) and then last year we went to Paris and got stuck and couldn't make it to Italy (deja vu!) and then spent Christmas here again, with Riley (again, so sweet). So it will be nice to be home in California for once. Never mind that we have to fly back to London on Christmas night, we'll still have 10 days to eat, eat and eat in San Francisco and Napa. Can't wait!

I think that's it for now. I am trying to do all my Christmas shopping early so I can go home and relax. I don't really want to have to brave the stores and crowds when I could be eating a cobb salad or drinking a Coffee Bean. Such are my priorities. Screw the gifts for other people, I just want to eat!

A Little Too Much Info?

I love the over abundance of information here. Granted, that's not always the case (maybe you could give us a bit more bus and tube arrival info TFL...) but sometimes they go overboard with info here. It's almost as though they put up signs to explain other signs. I remember right before the Royal Wedding there were signs up around Buckingham Palace and Green Park to explain what exactly was going on. Because no one would have known otherwise. No, there was NO advance notice of a wedding.

While walking Riley today I saw this:

I love that they had to put a notice on the display stating that a new panel is coming soon. It's as though they expect people to see the blank panel and freak out "Oh my god! Where is the informational panel? The words are missing! What aren't they telling us? We can't use the bikes now! RUN! Run away!" Never mind that all the info needed to rent the bikes is right there on the front of the machine.

It reminds of standardized tests and the pages "left intentionally blank." I always used to laugh (to myself, because anyone who laughs out loud during standardized tests is clearly not well) whenever I would come to one of those pages. I'd like to know the thinking behind it and what the testing companies assume - "we better put a notice in the test saying this page is blank. Because clearly anyone taking this test is too stupid to realize the page is blank on purpose." Isn't it enough to see that the test goes from say question #30 on page 9 to question #31 on page 11? Do test takers really sit there and think "oh my god! This page is blank! They need to put more questions. Two hundred questions isn't enough for me. I need more!" I know I never thought that. Do other people? Do people really need to know that the Barclays Bike display is awaiting a new panel but that they can and should proceed as normal? Do they get calls from people asking if a panel is missing and when it can be expected? Did they really need to expend so much time and man power and money to install that "new panel coming soon" panel? I have so many questions...

Scenes From a Fall Day - Battersea

Oops, one fall scene from Hyde Park too...

 

Different day, as the sky was not so horribly gray - look! Sunshine!

Shhhh....Riley's Sleeping

Just kidding! It was haircut (or furcut) time and I thought I'd get all artistic with her leftover fur. It looks like her though. Maybe I could make an art career out of this. People would pay good money for fur portraits they could hang on their wall, wouldn't they?