hello from hammersmith...

i am spending the night in london at some friend's house. they are out of town skiing so i've got their whole flat to myself... i felt a little apprehensive about staying in london by my self (why isn't freddy here?!?). i made it here safely though and without any troubles, some minor door/key issues were quickly overcome with the help of my telephone bodyguard. i quickly jetted over to starbucks afterwards, which thankfully was just across the road, and treated myself to a venti vanilla latte and a chocolate and caramel shortbread (which i totally forgot about until now... which means i have a nice little breakfast in store for me)!

anyway... i actually had some stuff to accomplish tonight. so after fiddling around with the internet, television, and my camera i finally decided to get to it and finish my essay that is due tomorrow. thankfully it is done... and ready to be handed in (phew, one thing i can check off my list).

i've got a full day tomorrow with lectures starting at 9am and going until 4pm... fridays are definitely my heaviest days, which is nice in a way... because it will make me appreciate the saturdays in my life all the more.

these are the kinds of things that make me appreciate living in the UK. this flat isn't overtly lush... i seem to be slightly enamored by the bathroom... seriously though, who installs these kinds of toilets anymore?? there is something slightly magical about flushing the toilet like that though.... i have to admit.

this flat isn't overtly lush... check out how sweet the bathroom features are. granted, no water comes out of the 'hot' tap... but it looks nice nevertheless.

the shower faucet tap is equally covetable.

totally fancy chandelier in their living room and there is seriously intense moulding all throughout the house.

the kind of dinners i eat when i am alone: smushed peanut butter sandwich (that spent the whole day being carted around in my bag) and milk from a wine glass.

xx

Yes it is Wednesday and snowing again

Right,

Jenny and I have been discussing some very important blog stuff. How to indicate who has written a post. I know there are probably only 10 people who actually check this blog regularly and I'm sure they have no problem differentiating between our posts (mine are easily identifiable by my witty yet incisive prose!). Obviously one way would just be to sign the end of the blog. I also thought of having different coloured text which would have worked with the old grey background. But Jenny has suggested, and we will try, using a distinctive and colour coded sign off.

Jenny= xx
Freddy= xo (like Gossip Girl... also I thought xy might be more appropriate but making science jokes isn't actually that funny)

I realise this is probably just for our benefit, and we probably check our own blog more in one day than all the hits from other people we get. This is, however, to some extent a way of chronicling our lives (like a diary or memoir) and is not just about letting our family know what we are up to (so, therefore, differentiating between who wrote what is important... I think)

xo

ohh my, wednesday already?

Woke up to a Wednesday morning with snow bucketing it down...

Have been back in England for just over a week now. It seriously feels like so much longer.

Anyway, I discovered how truly wonderful one of my Christmas gifts are on Monday went I went into london:

Teavana Tea Thermos with Strainer

I have long been presented with the problem of making coffee in the morning, putting it in a thermos thing, getting on my bike, getting to the train station, getting on the train, taking a sip of the coffee.... and feeling disgusted by the fact that over the course of 20min my coffee has become less than luke-warm. Seriously, all I ask for is something warm to drink without having to drink the vile coffee they sell at the station. Well, the problem is absolutely and totally solved. I got this thermos for Christmas and I used it yesterday for the first time. I am not kidding you... I think it actually made my drink even hotter (ok, maybe that's not possible). But, I made it all the way to Paddington and I could still just barely sip at it because it was still so piping hot. Now that is an invention I can get behind. And, it's not very big or heavy... so isn't a pain to carry in your bag after you are finished - and seriously no leaks at all.

Am looking forward to trying out my new Gingerbread flavour Nespresso coffee tomorrow during my early trip into London (on the bus at 7am... that's too early, right?) and having it stay nice and toasty warm! Hopefully some of the snow will have cleared by then!

xx

Brrrrrr

It is still freezing cold over here and our house continues to be covered in icicles and lots of snow.

Mac n Cheese

Here is a food post I meant to do before Christmas but didnt get around to. Again this was a dish that I never really liked growing up (and again its a jamie recipe). I think I didnt like it bc it was always a dish of last resort, in that it was only made if there wasn't anything else too interesting to make (it can be kinda boring and can be made quickly... both of which are not true for this dish!).

Ingredients:

salt and pepper

30g butter

1 and a half tbsp flour

5 cloves of garlic, peeled and sliced

3 bay leaves

500ml semi-skimmed milk

300g macaroni

4 tomatoes

75g grated cheddar

50g grated parmesan

some thyme

little bit of Worcestershire sauce

sprinkle of nutmeg (optional)

a big handful of fresh breadcrumbs

olive oil

Directions:

Melt butter in large ovenproof saucepan over low heat. Add flour and turn heat to medium to make a roux. Fry it for a little bit (gets rid of the floury taste). Add garlic and stir around till garlic is golden and sticky. Add bay leaves and slowly whisk in the milk. Bring to boil and then simmer on low heat. Preheat oven to 220 C.

Add pasta to a pan of boiling salted water and cook according to instructions on packet. Roughly chop tomatoes and add salt and pepper. Drain pasta and add to sauce. Stir it all around. Take off heat and stir in cheeses, tomatoes, and thyme. Add Worcestershire sauce and nutmeg if you fancy. Add salt and pepper to taste. Don't worry if its too wet bc it will thicken in oven. Bake in oven for 30 mins.

While that is cooking put breadcrumbs and thyme into a pan with some olive oil on medium heat. Stir till breadcrumbs become crunchy and golden. They make a nice addition to sprinkle over the mac n cheese. A nice green salad also goes great with this dish.

Enjoy!

Price: 4/10 (I am always shocked that cheese seems expensive)

Taste: 8/10

Difficulty: 5/10 (it takes a while bc you have to put it in the oven but the more you make it the faster if goes)

Goulash

Ok so haven't done a food post in a while and am desperately trying to avoid work. So for the last year Jen has been going on about beef stew and how she really wants to eat it. I usually ignore this request as it is usually followed by a description of how in the States you can buy really good stew in a can?!? Growing up I was rarely fed food from a can (I know I was spoiled) so it just doesn't appeal to me. Actually beef stew in general has never been a favourite of mine. We used to eat kalops (a swedish beef stew) a lot at home and it never really appealed to me. However all this changed when we went to Moya (a slovakian restaurant) before Christmas to celebrate Gabe's PhD viva. I decided to have Goulash and I loved it. I know its silly, its essentially beef stew but if you call it Goulash I seem to like it more... a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, or perhaps not in my case. So after scouring the internet for a recipe here is what I came up with.

Ingredients:

250 g beef (the longer you have to stew it the worse the beef can be, I didnt have long so I used sirloin... I know pretty plush, but it was only 6 quid for 400 g)

1 onion

1 clove garlic

butter/olive oil

salt and pepper

200 ml beef stock

2 tbsp tomato puree

2 bell peppers (sliced)

2 tomatoes (sliced)

1 tbsp paprika

1 tsp mccormicks spicy all season (optional)

Directions:

Chop steak into cubes. Fry with onions, garlic, and butter/olive oil (or both). Salt and pepper. When steak is brown add beef stock and tomoato puree. Mix it all around. Add peppers, tomoatoes, paprika, and I used this all season spice I found lying in our cupboard. You can also add a splash of red wine. Bring to boil and the let simmer for 30 mins with lid on the pan. You can leave it for as long as you want I reckon but you might want to add the veg at a later stage in that case. Easy peasy. In moya they served it with dumplings, but we just ate it with bread which was equally nice.

Price: 7/10

Taste: 9/10

Difficulty: 4/10

"Frozen Britain"

Freddy and I arrived back to England on Monday night. Desperately sad to have left the US and all our family there. We are still pretty horribly jet-lagged. We have gone to sleep both nights at 4am... and did not wake up Tuesday until 4pm. Managed to get up today at 1pm... so we are getting a little bit better.

We didn't realize it but we have come back to the UK in the middle of the worst cold spell since 1981... yesterday at 4pm it started to snow. Oxford never gets a lot of snow - so we weren't expecting much. It normally doesn't stick and if it does it isn't too impressive. When we looked out our window around 8pm there were buckets of snow outside and it looked absolutely magical. This morning (okay, afternoon) we woke up to about a foot of snow outside

The view out our front window.

Taking out the recycling with snow well above our ankles.

Don't think we will be cycling anywhere for the next couple of days....

Freddy at the backside of our house.

Cold and windy as we headed to the shops to stock up on supplies.

The front of our house all covered in snow.

Decked out in some newly acquired mid-west winter buffalo check gear.

Not many cars made it out of our street today...

Thankfully we didn't arrive back into the UK last night... we probably wouldn't have made it into Heathrow - and if we had it would have been a nasty and long trip into Oxford trying to move luggage in all that snow. Luckily we are both at home and haven't had to try to commute in to any jobs or anything today. Classes start back up for me on Monday... so until then I am just trying to get my essays written while staying warm by the fire and drinking lots of tea.

Hope you aren't too cold and snowed in wherever you are!

let it snow...

A white holiday season is always so much fun. Luckily we managed to get some snow here this past week. We made a trek out into the wilderness (umm.. okay, a walk to Starbucks) the other day. It might not seem like much - but it really did feel like an adventure. We all got bundled up - took the wagon for the kids to sit in - and marched off to Main Street in search of winter adventures. We triumphed in our journey... and came out the other side successfully. Despite a few tears, falls, and seriously windy moments in the cemetery.

Playing in the snow.

Dad's winter weather gear.

Everyone happy and warm... a luxury that wouldn't last long.

Our snow mobile...

Getting 6 adults and three kids out of the house and dressed in winter gear was not a simple task.

Stephanie with her camera and Swedish winter hat.

Now we just need some more snow so we can test out the new sled!

merry christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Freddy and I are here in St Louis for Christmas! It was 50 degrees yesterday (totally not Christmas-y - no coat even needed...) but today it was 23 and snowing! So much fun. Was really great to spend the day with lots of family and little kids. We got more presents then we know what to do with... and we've got enough candy, cookies and leftovers to last until next year.

Hope everyone has had a lovely day!

My family has certain traditions that we've carried on from many years ago... one of those is making a birthday cake for Jesus. Thankfully we've got some new little people who can help in the design now... there were a few years when my sister and I fought it out in some serious fights... a manger or a christmas tree? sprinkles or candies? what colour frosting? Well, this year all bets were off as a 3 year old and 2 year old took to the cake...

Uncle Freddy helped to write 'Happy Birthday Jesus' ... but it just got covered up by heaps of sprinkles.

Another tradition is that we always get new pajamas on Christmas eve... you normally get to pick yours out - but this year we swapped my mom's J.Crew ones for this lovely fleece primark pink and leopard one piece (it even covers your feet). I didn't think she was going to wear them... but she totally kept them on the whole time.

Everyone was very excited... there were tons of presents. We had to open them in two installments - first with the kids awake and then more when they were taking their nap.

Obie got a new train set.

Grace got kitted out in more princess gear than I have ever seen. Dresses, pajamas, magic wands, colouring books, pencils, stickers, lipsticks, nail polishes, handbags, nintendo games... all disney princess themed. She was seriously pumped.

Not only did she dress up in her own presents... she dressed up in her brothers too.

Freddy had fun playing with the new doll house.

Blowing out the candles on the birthday cake.

We played outside in the snow... it was seriously so cold though, so we didn't last too long.

All bundled up with Obie's new bike.

All the rubbish...

Family portrait.

Stephanie has requested that we are at the mall tomorrow morning when it opens... so we are off bright and early to try to find some bargains! Wish us luck!

the arch..

We are in St Louis for Christmas at my sister's house. We went down to see the arch because my childhood best friend, Mellissa, came to visit - and she had never been to St Louis before. So, the arch is a must.

Obie dressed up in his uncle Freddy's winter gear.

Papa and his grandson in matching jackets and hats.

Re-united after 8 years...

Taking photos of taking photos...

pizza hut officially now delivers...

i know this is old news to much of the western world... and probably the non-western world too, but to the quaint little town of oxford this is seriously big news. pizza hut now delivers! i know this may not sound like a big deal, but trust me, it is.

so, fred went to holland on saturday to visit a friend. i was pretty upset at first because i couldn't go too. i have had to work every day since saturday. it just doesn't seem fair that fred always gets to go on trips... i know, i know... it's not as if my life is that rough. but, nevertheless i just felt a little bummed.

as it happened though, i have had a great weekend. despite fred being in holland and having to work every day... and this is due to two very important factors.

1. i got to order pizza hut. for the first time. EVER. in oxford. and what did i order? a large supreme deep pan pizza and two sides. that's right. i was home alone and blew almost 20 quid on horrific greasy overpriced heaven.

the box did wish me 'seasons greetings' though...

so wrong. but yet so right.

2. the x-factor final weekend.

can you believe that if i had gone to holland i would have missed the x-factor final?!! ok, the x-factor is lame, i know that. it's rigged, it's hype, it's just cowell/cheryl promo, it's symbolic of all that is wrong in the world... rah rah rah rah rah. this may all be true but it is also truly fabulous and utterly addictive.

i'm not going to lie, i've devoted every, yes every, saturday and sunday night to x-factor since it started a couple months ago. so i've kind of invested a lot into it, right? i couldn't put all that time and effort (not money, i didn't ever vote... until the final) and then miss out on the end. right?! so, in light of the momentous occasion - i had some girls round and we made mulled wine, had chinese take away, minced pies and watched the x-factor final.

it was amazing.

we've got the x-factor.

joe mcelderry: the winner

to summarize: if your husband decides to ditch you and go hang out with his friends in a foreign country make sure it's the x-factor final weekend, that you've got some good food, and good friends to spend time with.