Mussels + Beer = Brussels

Went about a month ago. A little behind posting, will try to do better. Aaron had a buisness meeting so we took the ferry to France and drove up to Brussels. Good city for just a day visit.

Cliffs of Dover from the ferry


Grand Place


Another view of Grand Place




Aaron and I enjoying Mussels and Beer (belgium blonde)


Manneken Pis

Sheep on a Hill

Or Wales. Went to see Snakes on a Plane, before the trip. Don't think the English quite got the movie. Aaron and I were cracking up and everyone else was a little too serious.
Wales was beautiful. The countryside reminded me of Ireland. Drove a lot, almost the entire country in one day. On the map distances don't look that long...


Inside of Tintern Abbey




Caernarfon Castle



Aaron took this picture. Already had climbed up two towers, didn't think I could make another. He went up and took a picture of me waiting.

Cooking up a Storm

One thing that is definitely an upside to being here is that we’re cooking a lot more since moving. Eating out is about the same expense as back home (if you keep to our method of thinking that if we spend a dollar back home we spend a pound here). What is different is the availability of the food we would normally have gone out for. Back home if we were eating out it would normally be for Mexican, Chinese, or any of a number of ethnic cuisines. Since the most common of those was Mexican, that’s not as much of an option here.

There’s also not as much to do in the evening since there’s not a house to maintain and we’re not preparing for a wedding and a move. In the last week we’ve had roast chicken, rigatoni with tomato vodka sauce, chocolate chip cookies, beef and lamb stew (see below), and spaghetti with tuna, caper and tomato sauce.

Needless to say we’re eating much healthier now, which is funny if you consider some of the British cuisine. My favorite was the traditional dessert that one celebrity chef made on TV. It was basically lemon flavored fat with a little flour. The actual name was something on a pond with the pond being the lemon flavored fat. How that was appetizing is still unknown to me.

But that’s the bad of British cuisine. There are some good things. The fish and chips is great, and beef and ale pie is very tasty, especially if there are mushrooms included. And there’s always bangers and mash or liver, bacon, and mash, neither of which Wife will eat.

When it comes down to it, though, any more we’re just as happy cooking dinner at home. It’s been really nice having time to do things like make stock. Wife is taking on one baking project a week and is getting more interested in cooking. Now we have to each have nights where one of us cooks.

But that’s enough rambling from me. Here’s the stew we had tonight.



Cheers,
Frog