leaving to fly back to the States in one hour!!

woo hoo!!!

two words

yes, please!

(watching Pride + Prejudice)

2 more days!!

Then I fly back to New England!

I am so excited.
Been looking forward to it for weeks.

yay for seeing people again! (and snow!)

new and improved Christmas Tree! (now with more baubles!)

*plus a new sofa and the apple cobbler outcome!*


tree with more little red balls, it looks fantastic



Dani, ever so elegantly, modeling the new sofa (plus new table!)The old sofa is now out on the curb, waiting to rot in sofa hell. We may have jumped on it a lot to break it further and inflict lots of damage to it, but that is only because we will all have back problems well into our old age because of that damn piece of furniture. So, you know, all is fair.

Apple Cobbler! It was deemed a success at the office, but I was not entirely satisfied with it. The apple part was delicious, but the dough part was a little weird. I have put a "do not use this recipe" note in my hodge-podge recipe book I am putting together over here. I will be experimenting with some more cobbler recipes in January for Justine's birthday.

walk this way

think you have to hop across the street on one foot?

The kitchen smells like apple cobbler

Experimental baking for the office lunch tomorrow (representing New England).

Weird new recipe, that and the guesstimating conversion of 450 degrees F, not only to Celsius, but to"the thing that heats our oven is an open flame in the back", means tomorrow could be a hit or my baking skills will be forever associated with (du du duuuuuuuuh) Cobbler Gone Wrong.

Not unlike the immortal and infamous Apple Pie Incident of 2004 (I am looking at you Ben).

But I have how hopes for the cobbler! Anyways, the flatmates say it smells delicious, therefore must taste good as well.

I hope it tastes delicious, my hand still hurts from peeling all those apples...

Will post update tomorrow!

What Grad Fellows REALLY do at work

From: Danielle Amarant
Sent: 15 December 2008 14:33
To: Laura Pinzon; Bethany Ritter; Bethania Soriano; Wilhelm Nothnagel; Katie Goodrum; Khaled El-Neshily
Subject: question of the hour


In a battle between the architects …

Who would win and why?

Zaha verses Richard rogers verses rmjm?

Now please be thorough as I am a dummy when it comes to this architecture non-sense


Context:

In a design competition

On the street outside a pub after a few pints

Airport security…


Danielle Amarant
Prince's Foundation Graduate Fellow in
Sustainable Architecture and Design

Prince's Foundation for the Built Environment
19-22 Charlotte Road London EC2 3SG UK
T: +44 020 7613 8500 F: +44 020 7613 8599
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Bethania Soriano
Sent: 15 December 2008 14:40
To: Danielle Amarant; Laura Pinzon; Bethany Ritter; Wilhelm Nothnagel; Katie Goodrum; Khaled El-Neshily
Subject: RE: question of the hour


It depends who’d the judge of that!! For instance… imagine their project proposals being presented to HRH!!!


BETHANIA SORIANO

Prince's Foundation Graduate Fellow in
Sustainable Architecture and Design

Prince's Foundation for the Built Environment
19-22 Charlotte Road London EC2 3SG UK
T: +44 020 7613 8500 F: +44 020 7613 8599
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Bethany Ritter
Sent: 15 December 2008 16:56
To: Bethania Soriano; Danielle Amarant; Laura Pinzon; Wilhelm Nothnagel; Katie Goodrum; Khaled El-Neshily
Subject: RE: question of the hour

Well, lets see…..Zaha would just sit on everybody, smother them, and win through the process of elimination; Rogers would drink a few too many pints, insult Zaha’s mother, get sat on and be smothered, and rmjm would sit smugly in the corner, watching the “old fool of an architect” slowly loose life from under Zaha’s enormous backside, then design something tall and phallic and triumphantly pronounce themselves “obviously the most viral” and the winners, only to get smooshed by Zaha Hadid in an unforeseen sneak attack.


Then airport security arrives and arrests Zaha. She is sent to go live out the remainder of her life in a nice retirement field or pasture with the other cows.


Bethany

My Legs Are Sore

Because Dani and I decided to climb the 193 steps (equivalent of a 14 storey building according to the guy on the intercom system in the station, advising people not to do exactly what we did) in the Covent Garden tube station instead of waiting for the elevator because we are (read: I am) impatient.

The sad part is we got to ground level at the same time those who rode the elevator did.

And now we don't have to go to the gym today!

And...

Who I inspire to be:



Not only does she have fantastic legs, but she takes the bad guys(/robots) down like bowling pins.

News Flash

I love chocolate.

Our Christmas Tree!!

Potato-Leek Soup

This is the best potato-leek soup I have ever made (not that there has been much competition):

Potato-Leek Soup

Ingredients:
-3 tbsp butter
-3 leeks
-1 medium or large onion
-6-8 russet potatoes
-3.5 cups chicken or vegetable broth (just enough to cover potatoes)
-1 cup heavy cream
-salt to taste
-fresh group pepper to taste

Directions:
1. Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat, then add onions and leeks. Cook stirring, until onions are slightly limp and slightly brown.

2. Add sliced potatoes to saucepan, then pour in enough broth to just cover the potatoes. Continue cooking over medium heat until potatoes are tender.

3. Using a potato masher, mash and stir potatoes until desired consistency is reached. As you mash the potatoes and soup thickens, turn down the heat and stir frequently to prevent scorching on the bottom.

4. Add one cup heavy cream (or more if desired) and salt and pepper to taste. Cook 15 minutes over low heat, then remove from heat and serve!

Woo Hoo!

The Patriots are playing the Bucs in London next fall!

I know if will be nigh on impossible to get tickets, but damn if I am not going to try.
Go Pats! Woot!

New Observation

When I get a cold, I sneeze a lot.

For Manda:

Spiced Pumpkin Ginger Soup (a pumpkin name Fitz not necessarily required)

Ingredients:
-a good "knob" of butter
-1 small leek, roughly chopped
-1 small onion, roughly chopped
-30 g ginger root, finely chopped*
-1 tsp cumin seeds
-1 small chili, chopped
-a few sprigs of thyme
-1 kg ripe pumpkin (or butternut squash)
-1.5 litres vegetable stock
-salt and pepper to taste
-2 tsp pumpkin seeds, lightly salted and toasted

Directions:
1. gently cook the leek, onion, ginger, cumin seeds, chili and thyme in the butter in a large saucepan until soft.

2. add the pumpkin and vegetable stock, bring to a boil, season with salt and pepper, then simmer for 20 minutes.

3. blend in a liquidiser until smooth (I used a hand blender directly in the pot, and left a few bits and pieces in) then drain through a fine mesh sieve (I did not do this part).

4. Reheat the soup and adjust the consistency with a little vegetable stock or water if necessary and re-season with salt and pepper.

5. Sprinkle with toasted pumpkin seeds and enjoy!


*(sorry for the metric measurements, its how the recipe came)

[also Happy Birthday to Jen!]

All I want for Christmas...

...is a hedgehog.

Soups and Trees

So I am trying this new thing where I cook a new soup every Sunday. Not only does it make the kitchen smell really really good, but I have half my dinners and lunches covered for the week!

First I made Potato-Leek Soup (which was delicious), then Pumpkin Ginger Soup (RIP Fitz the Pumpkin), then last week Chili (this country doesn't have cornmeal to make the necessary companion to a good chili - cornbread, which was disappointing) and I think today will be Vegetable Minestrone.

That and I am scoping out places to buy real Christmas trees in London. My goal is to not have to go on the tube with a 5 foot tall pine tree....

Home for the holidays!

Alright!

First real post! First off, there are far too many options available for customization of this thing. I started to just add my name, then got sucked in. I have a feeling I am going to be playing with this a lot today.

Now on to the reason for the post:

I have dates when I will be back Stateside!
I fly out evening 21 Dec from London, and get into Boston (also) evening 21 Dec. Then I can flit about New England visiting people until 6 Jan, when I fly back here. My goal is to visit as many people as I possibly can, it will be a busy two weeks.

The Great Blogging Experiment

Ok, so I have been meaning to do this for a while. Took me longer to come up with a witty blog title than to steel myself up for actually writing the damn thing. The jury is still out on the witty title portion.

I can pretty much guarantee postings will not be as frequent as I would like, writing not really being my medium, so I am viewing this as an experience, seeing what I can manage to do.

In all honesty, more pictures will probably find there way here than actual cohesive sentences....but we shall see!

[ps, thank god this thing has a spell check]