So domestic it hurts

Today I was so domestic it hurt  – almost physically as I just about got my pointer finger stuck in the electric beater as I tried to push an undercooked sweet potato through the rotating whisk thingies.  It is Canadian Thanksgiving this weekend and normally we would have planned to mark the occasion with turkey of some sort but we had other plans for this weekend – unfortunately those plans fell through (or crashed ) so we decided last minute to do our own Canadian Thanksgiving.

Thankfully  Sainsbury’s (grocery store) accommodates lazy domestics like me and we found a ’succulent boneless turkey breast basted in butter’ that I just had to stick in the oven.  Add to that some sweet potatoes (and marshmallows as per my mother in law’s famous recipe – although the hubby only wanted them on half as he apparently doesn’t like candy on his veggies!!) , carrots in maple syrup, peas and red wine and you have Thanksgiving (minus the fine china and chaos)

Succulent turkey breast

Happy Thanksgiving

For some reason I also felt inspired to make raspberry muffins so I bought all the ingredients and whipped up a batch while the succulent turkey breast cooked.  I couldn’t find ‘American’ sized muffin wrappers so I improvised and made them out of ‘greaseproof paper’ that belonged to our landlord and has been in our cupboard for 3 years.  I haven’t tried them yet as I am full of turkey but will let you know tomorrow morning – in the meantime Happy Thanksgiving – or Happy Sunday for those of you non Canadian types.

Raspberry muffins in home made muffin papers

One of these things is not like the other

I am a big fan of the ready meals as they are often quite yummy and easy to make (ie heat up).  Anyhoo I have never claimed to be a domestic goddess but heating up and serving I am pretty good at….which is why I think I have a false advertising claim against these guys…

One of these things is not like the other

Seriously?  All I did was put it in the oven and serve as per the directions.  Where is the juicy ground beef and the fork like design on the top? I know this is just a serving suggestion as from what I can tell this suggests you go out and buy ground beef and potatoes and make your own as it would take quite the Gordon Ramsey to create that from my dinner puddle.  Can’t complain too much though as it tasted good.

Oh yeah for those inquiring minds (non Brits) that want to know what cottage pie is…its ground beef and mashed potatoes (it can have carrots etc) but is basically what I have been calling Shephards Pie all of my life. Shephards pie is actually ground lamb and mashed potatoes vs ground beef.  Then there is Cumberland pie which is like cottage pie but the top usually has cheese or bread crumbs that makes a nice crust on the top (or so the package leads you to believe)….a wealth of information I am.

PS the hubby just came home to his freshly cooked dinner and asked if it was slop I said yes and he ate it anyway – luckily he’s not picky

Holy guacamole

So I am in the US for a week for a week on business and have been doing the whole ’table for one’ when I go out for dinner so tonight I decided against sitting at the bar reading the newspaper chatting to the bartender and decided to go for a takeaway and eat in my room (in my pyjamas, sitting on the bed watching  TV – I may never go home).

Anyhoo tonight’s I opted for Mexican cuisine as that is the one type of food I am finding hard to get in London but know that the US can do it well.  The restaurant was called Chipotle and is a fairly well known chain (for everyone but me apparently).  The concept is like a Mexican version of Mr Sub, you order then they dress your burrito/fajita/taco in front of you and put on your choice of salsa, sour cream, cheese, corn etc etc.  I opted for a fajita wrap and drooled all the way down the sneeze guard as my fajita was dressed.  In typical American style this wrap wasn’t jut a little taco bell style wrap it had to be about 4 pounds of solid yummyness that probably could have fed three hungry adults.

The wrap was delicious and if you are in the US looking for a quality quick service restaurant and are hungry I recommend Chipotle – oh and for the tech savvy amongst us – standing in a queue is like, soooo , yesterday – you can order your wrap in advance either online or on your iphone.  how. cool. is. that?  I might have to go back tomorrow just to try it out.

WTF? Friday

Seriously if I hadn’t walked by this restaurant on my lunch and if I hadn’t taken the picture myself I wouldn’ have believed it.

The restaurant is called Pure Waffle and on top of what I would consider ‘normal’ toppings ie whipped cream, fruit, sugar they offer savoury options including one topped with chicken and…..

…one with a HOT DOG….a honest to goodness American take-me-out-to-the-ball-game type hot dog laid to rest on a bun shaped waffle.  I don’t even know what to say, eeew doesn’t even cut it.

A simple concept made very un-simple

I think I should get a job at the UK Milk board (if one exists) because I have yet another post about milk…that’s okay it is one of the biggest search terms that brings traffic to my wee little blog so milk, milk, milk (yes, I am an SEO specialist, can’t you tell).

Anyhoo remember my story about the milk bags and how Canada has been selling their milk in bags for years and that we put it in a  simple container, cut off the tip then Bob’s your Uncle (I actually DO have an uncle Bob).

While perusing the aisles at our local Sainsbury’s (a grocery chain like Waitrose but not as swanky and slickly marketed)  I noticed they also started offering milk in bags and was promoting the ‘jug it’ contraption to store and pour the milk from.

From the picture,  you can see that the jug has a top and inside some plasticy bits that presumably stick on the outside and whatnot…I am wondering though why they have made such a simple concept of pouring milk from a bag so complicated….there is a 9 step process on the jugit website.

I am seriously thinking of starting my own milk jug company and steal the tried and tested (and glaringly simple) Canadian concept.  I think I will call it Adrienne’s Jugs…that should make for some good PR don’t you think?

Divinity Fudge

The other day I was reading a book about a pastry chef (move over Shakespeare, chick lit is where it’s at) as such it had a recipe between each new chapter (more value for your money, a novel AND a cookbook). I normally ignore recipes of any kind however one of them, Divinity Fudge, reminded me of my as my Grandfather used to make it for me a lot as a kid. He would also let me eat as much as I wanted and due to the sugar content I was usually physically vibrating from a sugar high when my parents came to pick me up.

Divinity fudge isn’t like traditional fudge that you would normally cut a chunk off of and eat, it is more like mini soft meringues.  After seeing the recipe I had an instant craving to make it. The recipe is fairly simple but I am impatient and usually don’t wait for the sugar to get to hard ball stage (not owning a candy thermometer means I guess and always get it wrong) but they turned out okay.

The key (other than getting the hard ball stage bit right) as my grandfather used to say, was to ‘beat air in it’s pants’ (American pants aka trousers, not British pants aka undies) once you mixed it all together by taking a wooden spoon and beating it to death…I did this then plugged in the electric mixer for some added oomph  – I ended up spraying the wall and floor with the wonderfully sticky and sugary goo.

Beating the air in it's pants

The recipe is below (bear in mind my Grandfather was diabetic – I don’t recommend any diabetics attempting this recipe). Just in case you are wondering, I made these Friday and I only have 5 left and the hubby has only had 2 – they are a bit too sweet for his liking….which is fine by me!

Divinity Fudge recipe

2.5 cups of sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup (aka Golden Syrup in the UK)
1/2 cup water
pinch of salt
3 large egg whites
1tsp vanilla
1/2 cup dried cherries, blueberries or cranberries (optional – I tend to leave these out as they are too healthy)
1/2 chopped pecans (optional -  I also leave these out as I am a purist when it comes to sugary treats)

In a 2 quart saucepan mix the sugar corn syrup water and salt.  Using a candy thermometer heat to hardball stage (250 to 266 degrees) stirring only until sugar is dissolved.  Meanwhile beat the eggs to stiff peaks.  When the syrup reaches 260 degrees F add it gradually to the egg whites while beating at high speed in a mixer.  Continue to beat until the candy takes shape (about 5 minutes) Stir in vanilla, nuts and dries fruit.  Quickly drop the candy from a teaspoon on to waxed paper finishing each piece with a swirl and cool to room temperature.

WTF? Friday

I have seen lots of pictures of funny named products from around the world but this one I saw myself when wandering through our local Poundland (for those of you not in the know, everything in the shop costs a pound – the British version of the dollar store). Couldn’t resist….

Whilst on the topic, did anyone notice the wardrobe malfunction of the woman sitting behind Pete Sampras at Wimbledon last weekend? I presume it was a wardrobe malfunction…might not have been, this is London and anything goes…even gingham and a bra (no surprise but Mom taught me the textile based word ‘gingham’ as I had some hand made pink gingham dresses…hawt).

Toaster chicken

For those of you dying to know how my chicken fingers in the toaster bag idea worked (actually here they are called chicken goujons here, Lord only knows what a goujon is)….

Voila…they were actually pretty good, nice and crunchy and were a nice addition to my ceasar salad wrap. I am so domestic it is unreal!

Happy St Patrick’s Day

So it’s St Patrick’s day…a day to head to the pub for a pint of green beer. If you are Canadian/American you are nodding your head thinking back to previous St Patrick’s Days when you were in the bar watching the bartender drop a few drops of green food colouring into your pint or at the fancier pubs when they actually had a thing-a-ma-jig that dispensed green food colouring automatically as the pint was being pulled.

If you aren’t Canadian you probably think I am nuts as I recently found out that in fact they don’t drink green beer here or in Ireland.

We were chatting with some friends…one whom is actually Irish, and the topic of St Patrick’s day came up to which I exclaimed oooh we will have to go out for some green beer this year as I haven’t been out on a St Patrick’s day in London yet…at which point the conversation stopped and I was met with the same silence as I did when I made my milk comment a few weeks back.  I then explained that in Canada we make the beer turns green on St Patrick’s day and that I assumed we stole said tradition from the Irish…evidently not as neither the English or Irish constituents in the group had consumed green beer.
Based on the looks I got on the tube this morning I don’t think they dress up like leprechauns and say ‘top of the mornin’ to ya’ either… (just kidding about that last bit I really didn’t’ dress up as a leprechaun but I am really not sure if it will feel like St Patrick’s day if I am at the pub drinking regular coloured beer!)

Buy one get something free

It seems the gang at my office (myself included) has a bit of an addiction to GBK (Gourmet Burger Kitchen)…they serve these great big burgers (chicken, beef, emu, buffalo) and chips (although only fat chips as they got rid of the skinny ones which sucks). Anyhoo we tend to go fairly often but it is mostly because they are sending these 2 for 1 vouchers around almost weekly…and really with the credit crunch on it is our fiscal responsibility to find economical eating solutions.

Anyway today I received an Easter themed one and after reading it, literally had no idea what it meant.

It basically says that Easter comes early and that they are giving me a two for one with a twist….

Order any main course burger or salad (ha, I didn’t even know they served salad…anyway this bit wasn’t in the coupon) and we’ll buy the dearest.

I read it twice then laughed to myself thinking hahah they meant buy a burger and they will buy you dessert cause they surely can’t mean dearest…what the hell is dearest.

I tested my dessert typo theory on my colleague at which point I was told no, dearest means most expensive….really? So if I was to call someone my nearest and dearest friend I am really calling them my closest and most expensive friend??

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