I was just glancing at my blog to see if I still like the way it works and it hit me that this thing has been going for almost a year now. I'm not claiming that it's been going consistently, just that it's been around for a year. What has that year gained me? A couple of my friends give me a hard time if I don't post for a while and one of them actually makes comments. However, no one else does. So this is a plea to any of my other friends who read this. Please comment. It makes the blog more fun when it's interactive. And calling me a wanker does not count as making a comment!
Also, what do you want to hear about after a year of this? I think I should do something fitting for an anniversary post, but first I need to think of a topic. I guess I could do the top things that annoy me about Britain, but I believe that's been covered pretty well in other posts. Maybe I should rank the top ten meals I've had since Wife and I have been here. That's actually not a bad idea for a post, but I'm not sure it has the necessary import for something as momentus as a year of writing boring drivel. I'll keep thinking and look for a post on the 20th (unless I forget).
Cheers,
Frog
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
Monday, February 05, 2007
Of Roasts and Super Bowls
Last weekend Wife and I had a cooking weekend. On Saturday Wife prepared a dish from Giada De Laurentiis That was couscous in a tomato broth with scampi. It turned out excellent. The couscous was really tasty with the tomato and complemented the shrimp really well. I better get to work or Wife is going to be a better cook than me.
On Sunday I tackled a boneless leg of lamb roast. My aunt gave me a meat cookbook for Christmas and it was a good thing she did. I was planning on roasting the lamb low and slow like you would beef, but according to the book the meat is already so tender that cooking it for a long time will completely break it down. Therefore I seared in a pan to give it a nice crust and then baked in 375 oven until it hit 130 degrees internally. The lamb turned out really well. Juicy, tender, and very flavorful.
Since I had excellent pan drippings I went ahead and made some gravy. It tasted okay, but I didn't let it reduce enough to really make it good. Then I reduced it some more and it ended up a bit too salty. Oh well, cook and learn.
To go with the roast we had a trio of roasted vegetables: carrots, cauliflower, and brussel sprouts. Wife and I both agreed that our poor kids are going to be laughed at for their irregular eating habits if they take after us. Please God have them take after us! I don't know how I could cope with a child that won't eat anything but peanut butter and jelly.
Yesterday was a bit disappointing because it was Super Bowl Sunday and I didn't throw a party. I've thrown a party for the last few years, but there's just not much call for it when the game doesn't start until about midnight here. To at least keep one tradition alive Wife made guacamole and I made chili, though not the uber-chili I usually make. That's a bit much for just the two of us. Besides, I didn't want to put that much effort in because I've got a horrible cold at the moment. (That's why I'm writing my blog during the work day because I'm home sick).
Cheers,
Frog
On Sunday I tackled a boneless leg of lamb roast. My aunt gave me a meat cookbook for Christmas and it was a good thing she did. I was planning on roasting the lamb low and slow like you would beef, but according to the book the meat is already so tender that cooking it for a long time will completely break it down. Therefore I seared in a pan to give it a nice crust and then baked in 375 oven until it hit 130 degrees internally. The lamb turned out really well. Juicy, tender, and very flavorful.
Since I had excellent pan drippings I went ahead and made some gravy. It tasted okay, but I didn't let it reduce enough to really make it good. Then I reduced it some more and it ended up a bit too salty. Oh well, cook and learn.
To go with the roast we had a trio of roasted vegetables: carrots, cauliflower, and brussel sprouts. Wife and I both agreed that our poor kids are going to be laughed at for their irregular eating habits if they take after us. Please God have them take after us! I don't know how I could cope with a child that won't eat anything but peanut butter and jelly.
Yesterday was a bit disappointing because it was Super Bowl Sunday and I didn't throw a party. I've thrown a party for the last few years, but there's just not much call for it when the game doesn't start until about midnight here. To at least keep one tradition alive Wife made guacamole and I made chili, though not the uber-chili I usually make. That's a bit much for just the two of us. Besides, I didn't want to put that much effort in because I've got a horrible cold at the moment. (That's why I'm writing my blog during the work day because I'm home sick).
Cheers,
Frog
Saturday, January 27, 2007
British TV
Wife and I have done a lot of complaining about British TV since we got here. The annoyance the programming selection causes is at its zenith at the moment. Celebrity Big Brother is on constantly (live feeds of celebrities sleeping!) However, there is a ray of light. The new series of Top Gear is on tomorrow night. If BBC America doesn't have this show yet it should.
However, for a selection of the worst in Brit TV with the funny commentary to go along with it, go to YouTube and search for Harry Hill's TV Burp. I think I could do his job except that I would I have to watch bad British TV all day long which would make me insane, or even more than I already am.
Cheers,
Frog
However, for a selection of the worst in Brit TV with the funny commentary to go along with it, go to YouTube and search for Harry Hill's TV Burp. I think I could do his job except that I would I have to watch bad British TV all day long which would make me insane, or even more than I already am.
Cheers,
Frog
Saturday, January 20, 2007
Lunch...
Allow me a bit of self indulgent boasting if you will. Yesterday I was lucky enough to fly to Paris for lunch. Yup, just for lunch. There was a candidate for a position with my company who was there so I met with him over lunch for an initial interview.
I’ve done a lot of complaining lately about living here, but this was a really cool thing about being over here. I flew over, got downtown from the airport, had lunch, went up to the top of the Arc de Triomphe (see pictures below), and then came home. The food was pretty good. I had probably the best Caesar salad I’ve ever had (I know, what was I doing getting a Caesar salad, but trust me, this one was worth it). Then I had Steak au Poivre with some excellent mashed potatoes. Dessert was a chocolate fudge cake that almost exploded with fudge when I cut into it with my fork. The small scoop of vanilla ice cream that came with it was some of the best ice cream I’ve ever had. Give it to the French, they know dessert.
La Tour Eiffel (I wish I'd had a real camera because the sky was really cool, but this picture doesn't do it justice.)
Champs Elysées (Looking toward The Louvre. The jumbled looking parking lot at the bottom of the picture is actually a roundabout. Ask Wife about that sometime because she's run across that. There's a tunnel that other people who are lucky enough to find it take.)
Au revoir,
Frog
I’ve done a lot of complaining lately about living here, but this was a really cool thing about being over here. I flew over, got downtown from the airport, had lunch, went up to the top of the Arc de Triomphe (see pictures below), and then came home. The food was pretty good. I had probably the best Caesar salad I’ve ever had (I know, what was I doing getting a Caesar salad, but trust me, this one was worth it). Then I had Steak au Poivre with some excellent mashed potatoes. Dessert was a chocolate fudge cake that almost exploded with fudge when I cut into it with my fork. The small scoop of vanilla ice cream that came with it was some of the best ice cream I’ve ever had. Give it to the French, they know dessert.
La Tour Eiffel (I wish I'd had a real camera because the sky was really cool, but this picture doesn't do it justice.)
Champs Elysées (Looking toward The Louvre. The jumbled looking parking lot at the bottom of the picture is actually a roundabout. Ask Wife about that sometime because she's run across that. There's a tunnel that other people who are lucky enough to find it take.)
Au revoir,
Frog
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
I Love it When a Plan Comes Together
Celebrity Big Brother has taken over British TV. It’s Big Brother on several channels several hours of the day now. Wife is watching the train wreck at the moment because Face from the A-Team is in the house as well as Jermaine Jackson. Following in Michael’s footsteps of looking freaky, it looks as if Jermaine has had a recent chemical peel. Face seems to be too cool for all of it and sits around smoking cigars. Yes, good people, this is the crap that’s on TV here. Where are ESPN and Food Network when I need them?
Other random rants and musings:
Figure this out. Before we were home for Christmas I needed to get the tax tag renewed on the car. Since we were leaving on the 16th I went in early in December to get it taken care of. Not so fast, young American. In England they don’t have the new discs at the post office until the 15th of the month, so I couldn’t renew my taxes yet. I didn’t find this out until I’d spent 20 minutes in line. So back I went on the 15th, as if I didn’t have enough other things to worry about with leaving the next day for two and a half weeks.
If I have to hear one more time about how this warmer winter is an indication of global warming with no comment on El Nino (proven to cause this type of weather) I will no longer have any faith in the scientific community in this country.
Would anyone else vote for Dennis Miller for president?
There hasn’t been much cooking lately, but wife did make some really good cod croquettes for dinner tonight. She’s becoming a better and better cook. I need to start practicing more or she’s going to get better than me, and my competitive side can’t let that happen.
Short post, but that’s what I’ve got at the moment. Maybe I’ll be better about posting more if I keep the posts shorter. Whatever.
Cheers,
Frog
Other random rants and musings:
Figure this out. Before we were home for Christmas I needed to get the tax tag renewed on the car. Since we were leaving on the 16th I went in early in December to get it taken care of. Not so fast, young American. In England they don’t have the new discs at the post office until the 15th of the month, so I couldn’t renew my taxes yet. I didn’t find this out until I’d spent 20 minutes in line. So back I went on the 15th, as if I didn’t have enough other things to worry about with leaving the next day for two and a half weeks.
If I have to hear one more time about how this warmer winter is an indication of global warming with no comment on El Nino (proven to cause this type of weather) I will no longer have any faith in the scientific community in this country.
Would anyone else vote for Dennis Miller for president?
There hasn’t been much cooking lately, but wife did make some really good cod croquettes for dinner tonight. She’s becoming a better and better cook. I need to start practicing more or she’s going to get better than me, and my competitive side can’t let that happen.
Short post, but that’s what I’ve got at the moment. Maybe I’ll be better about posting more if I keep the posts shorter. Whatever.
Cheers,
Frog
Thursday, December 14, 2006
Becoming tour guides
Over the past month we have had family and friends come to visit. Very fun!! Makes me even more homesick and I never need to see stonehenge again. But it was a blast and I got to see more of England.
Lacock Village
Warwick Castle
More Warwick
Avebury, smaller version of Stonehenge
Village in the Cotswolds (can't remember name)
Lacock Village
Warwick Castle
More Warwick
Avebury, smaller version of Stonehenge
Village in the Cotswolds (can't remember name)
Thursday, December 07, 2006
My Beloved Jayhawks
Well, Jayhawk football has yet again failed to make it to a bowl game in consecutive years. Of course when you blow two games in which you hold large leads in the fourth quarter you don’t deserve to go to a bowl game.
Since football is over we might as well talk basketball. The relatively minor struggles of the Jayhawks have been much discussed in my family recently, and I have a theory. Granted I haven’t been able to see all the games yet (still waiting on DVD’s from my friend back home that’s recording the games for me), but I did see the Florida game.
In spite of what everyone said about it being a well played game it didn’t look particularly well played to me. The final score was misleading about the offensive output due to overtime. Florida had massive foul trouble throughout the game so were not at their full strength. KU made several mistakes that would have been fatal against a team not plagued by even bigger errors. This wasn’t so much one team grabbing victory as it was which team made less mistakes.
On, then, to my theory. Comparing Bill Self and Roy Williams is inevitable. Roy coached for a lot of very successful years at KU and these early season losses to inferior teams were very rare. However I can’t recall a team that Roy coached that didn’t have an upperclassman who was a vocal leader. KU is certainly lacking that at the moment, but my hope is that Julian Wright finds his voice and yanks the guys out of their stupor.
What does this have to do with my theory? Well, not much actually, that was a bit of digression. Now really to my theory. To me it appeared that from the beginning of the season Roy coaches his transition game. He pounds that into his players from day one of practice each year. This leads to his teams always looking very impressive early because early in the season every team is more focused on what they’re doing than game-planning for their opponents. KU fans got used to this approach which makes early season setbacks tougher to take now.
Bill Self has a different focus. He believes very strongly that ultimate success is rooted in lock down man defense which requires effort and focus night in and night out. His determination to instill this belief in his players at the beginning of the year leads to an offense that can be pretty anemic and a lack of defensive adjustments.
However the more I think about it the more this approach reminds me of how Norman Dale approached the Hickory team. He knew what it was going to take to win in the end and he wasn’t going to be put off of that vision by a few early losses or some criticism from the fans. Bill Self is the same way.
He’s just now got the team understanding that you win games when shots aren’t falling by making sure the other team’s offense is struggling as well (USC and Depaul went a long way toward proving that). Now I think he could make this point much more quickly if he would do a wholesale benching of guys that aren’t giving effort for walk-ons that will. I always thought that was one of Roy’s most effective tactics.
Now that Coach Self has got them going down the road to believing in his philosophy he’ll start putting in the defensive wrinkles and offensive sets that can make this team lethal. Now he has time with Christmas break to truly add all the X’s and O’s that when combined with the effort can make KU a great team. You can tell by his most recent comments that he’s been waiting for this stretch of relatively few games and lots of practice time.
The next few months are going to be a lot of fun!
Rock Chalk!
Frog
Since football is over we might as well talk basketball. The relatively minor struggles of the Jayhawks have been much discussed in my family recently, and I have a theory. Granted I haven’t been able to see all the games yet (still waiting on DVD’s from my friend back home that’s recording the games for me), but I did see the Florida game.
In spite of what everyone said about it being a well played game it didn’t look particularly well played to me. The final score was misleading about the offensive output due to overtime. Florida had massive foul trouble throughout the game so were not at their full strength. KU made several mistakes that would have been fatal against a team not plagued by even bigger errors. This wasn’t so much one team grabbing victory as it was which team made less mistakes.
On, then, to my theory. Comparing Bill Self and Roy Williams is inevitable. Roy coached for a lot of very successful years at KU and these early season losses to inferior teams were very rare. However I can’t recall a team that Roy coached that didn’t have an upperclassman who was a vocal leader. KU is certainly lacking that at the moment, but my hope is that Julian Wright finds his voice and yanks the guys out of their stupor.
What does this have to do with my theory? Well, not much actually, that was a bit of digression. Now really to my theory. To me it appeared that from the beginning of the season Roy coaches his transition game. He pounds that into his players from day one of practice each year. This leads to his teams always looking very impressive early because early in the season every team is more focused on what they’re doing than game-planning for their opponents. KU fans got used to this approach which makes early season setbacks tougher to take now.
Bill Self has a different focus. He believes very strongly that ultimate success is rooted in lock down man defense which requires effort and focus night in and night out. His determination to instill this belief in his players at the beginning of the year leads to an offense that can be pretty anemic and a lack of defensive adjustments.
However the more I think about it the more this approach reminds me of how Norman Dale approached the Hickory team. He knew what it was going to take to win in the end and he wasn’t going to be put off of that vision by a few early losses or some criticism from the fans. Bill Self is the same way.
He’s just now got the team understanding that you win games when shots aren’t falling by making sure the other team’s offense is struggling as well (USC and Depaul went a long way toward proving that). Now I think he could make this point much more quickly if he would do a wholesale benching of guys that aren’t giving effort for walk-ons that will. I always thought that was one of Roy’s most effective tactics.
Now that Coach Self has got them going down the road to believing in his philosophy he’ll start putting in the defensive wrinkles and offensive sets that can make this team lethal. Now he has time with Christmas break to truly add all the X’s and O’s that when combined with the effort can make KU a great team. You can tell by his most recent comments that he’s been waiting for this stretch of relatively few games and lots of practice time.
The next few months are going to be a lot of fun!
Rock Chalk!
Frog
Sunday, December 03, 2006
Turkey, turkey, turkey…
As promised, here’s a recap of the Thanksgiving meal Wife and I made. Everything turned out pretty well. Juggling burners in our tiny kitchen was a bit of a challenge, but everything ended up coming out together and it was all really good.
We had a pretty aggressive menu planned for the amount of space we had to prepare it in:
Turkey
Dressing
Mashed potatoes
Gravy
Corn
Green beans with butter and almonds
Candied sweet potatoes
Jello salad
Rolls
Pumpkin pie
The turkey was done with the tried and true AB method. Blast it at high heat to brown it and then bake at a lower temp until the breast meat hits 161. Dressing was my grandma’s recipe that I’ve made for the family the last few holidays. It came out really well, possibly some of the best I’ve ever made.
For the mashed potatoes I tried something different. According to a couple websites and a cookbook on our shelf the best mashed potatoes are made by using a two part cooking process. The first cooking is at around 160 degrees for 30 minutes followed by a cool down period. After cooling down the potatoes are cooked again at 180-190 for another 30 minutes. This cooking process is supposed to keep the starches from breaking out of the cells and making the potatoes gummy. It seemed like it worked for that, but I don’t have a potato ricer or food mill so the effect was somewhat lost due to the lumps.
I couldn’t have been happier with the gravy. The only thing that was missing was more of it! Everything else was fine. Wife made it all possible with a ton of help throughout the day and by making the rolls and pie the day before. The rolls were from a recipe that her great-grandmother made, and the pie was extremely tasty, especially with the real whipped cream we made with it.
Mmmm….I might need to pull some leftovers out of the freezer for dinner.
Now that's a nice looking bird.
Gravy doesn't photograph well, but it sure is tasty!
The table all set and waiting for us to dive in.
Cheers,
Frog
We had a pretty aggressive menu planned for the amount of space we had to prepare it in:
Turkey
Dressing
Mashed potatoes
Gravy
Corn
Green beans with butter and almonds
Candied sweet potatoes
Jello salad
Rolls
Pumpkin pie
The turkey was done with the tried and true AB method. Blast it at high heat to brown it and then bake at a lower temp until the breast meat hits 161. Dressing was my grandma’s recipe that I’ve made for the family the last few holidays. It came out really well, possibly some of the best I’ve ever made.
For the mashed potatoes I tried something different. According to a couple websites and a cookbook on our shelf the best mashed potatoes are made by using a two part cooking process. The first cooking is at around 160 degrees for 30 minutes followed by a cool down period. After cooling down the potatoes are cooked again at 180-190 for another 30 minutes. This cooking process is supposed to keep the starches from breaking out of the cells and making the potatoes gummy. It seemed like it worked for that, but I don’t have a potato ricer or food mill so the effect was somewhat lost due to the lumps.
I couldn’t have been happier with the gravy. The only thing that was missing was more of it! Everything else was fine. Wife made it all possible with a ton of help throughout the day and by making the rolls and pie the day before. The rolls were from a recipe that her great-grandmother made, and the pie was extremely tasty, especially with the real whipped cream we made with it.
Mmmm….I might need to pull some leftovers out of the freezer for dinner.
Now that's a nice looking bird.
Gravy doesn't photograph well, but it sure is tasty!
The table all set and waiting for us to dive in.
Cheers,
Frog
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