bit late, but still good

once the three weeks it takes to find barley in the shops pass, you too can make this delicious soup!

Beef + Barley Soup

Ingredients:

-2 lbs stew beef, cut into 1" pieces

-2 cups chopped leek

-2 cups chopped carrot

-2 cups chopped celery

-2 cups chopped mushrooms

-4 garlic cloves, minced

-6 cups water

-1 1/2 tsp salt

-1 tsp thyme

-1/2 tsp ground black pepper

-4 bay leaves

-2 14-ounce cans beef broth (making your own with bullion also works, that's what I did)

-1 cup uncooked pearl barley

Directions:

1. Brown beef in a large pot, remove.

2. Saute garlic and vegetables until lightly browned.

3. Return beef to pan. Add the water spices and beef broth and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat and simmer for one hour.

4. Add the barley and cool for 30 minutes or until the beef and barley are tender. Discard the bay leaves.

Notes:

- More beef broth should be added as necessary.

- By separating a portion of the vegetables, not returning any beef to them and substituting a vegetable stock for the beef broth, and vegetarian version of this soup can be made. Follow all other steps as is.

things

[so I did this thing for facebook, cause I had a lull in work for about 20 minutes and as bored. It was an interesting exercise though, so I decided to post it. This is the original 25, but I think I will also post more as they come to me...]

1. I don't drink coffee

2. I started a blog on a whim a couple months ago, and am actually enjoying it

3. I miss my cat like crazy

4. I am an architecture snob

5. I love living in other countries, and intend to do it as much as I can, but New England will always be my home

6. I have a huge crush on Neil Patrick Harris

7. Hedgehogs have become a slight obsession of mine

8. People that can turn a blind eye to others' suffering baffle me

9. I am discovering a previously unknown love of boots

10. I take a LOT of pictures. But never try to take my camera away from me, I will beat you

11. I miss swimming and dancing

12. After Cadbury, I will never again be able to enjoy Hershey's

13. If you told me ten years ago that I would be the one in the room vehemently defending American Football to a whole bunch of foreigners, I would have told you you were crazy

14. I have roughly the memory of a goldfish

15. I have a tendency to overeat when I am bored

16. I honestly do not know what I would do with ten million dollars

17. When I haven't done CAD or sketch-up for a while, I start to miss it

18. I had told myself that I would never live in a block apartment building, but London is expensive and I don't make that much, so....

19. I love cheese

20. I sleep ten times better with Ben next to me

21. I try to be a good person, but I don't know how often I succeed

22. Autumn is my favourite season, but I love them all and don't understand how people can live in places with none (or just one really)

23. People who are passionate about what they do are my favourite kind of people

24. I absolutely love my family. Ben's ain't bad either

25. It may look like I have my life figured out, but the reality is quite the opposite

this is the best thing I have seen all week

Old House...


New House!


with the graduates of the planner/craftsman program down there (so the work can continue after the Foundation has finished playing it's role), our team based in Rose Town and the white dude in the top right is Hooper, our Director of International Projects here at the Foundation (who just happens to be from the NY side of the NY/CT/rt 84 border)


this is what I want to do, revitalize desolate areas, and honest to goodness make a difference in people's lives. things like this make you smile for a good 6 hours straight (at least)


this is just fantastic

live jazz+17th century crypt=awesome

so Englanders are wicked superstitious

leave Christmas decorations up past 6 january, they'll trounce you

stir your coffee/tea with a knife, they'll yell at you

open an umbrella indoors, and oh man, you just invited a beating

more interesting irrational behaviour to come as soon as I observe it!

I hate tuesdays

so the workshop for one of my projects got rescheduled from end of february to the middle of march, right smack in the middle of when Jen, Meredith, Andrea and Tom are coming over here to visit.

of course

and since it is, you know, my job, not sure how much (if anything) I can do about it. I will have to sepnd half the time my friends flew over here to see me (and not cheaply either) in another part of the country dealing with disgruntled townfolk

and the worst part is these people (the town) have waffled back and forth on dates and changed the damn thing like 20 times, and just had to settle on the dates I have visitor for the confirmed week for the workshop! bastards....

and then the bank/student loan fiasco. I have been trying to get this set up for like a week. wiring my money to myself and then giving it to other people should not be this difficult. I am [this] close to not paying at all and going on the lam (lamb? whatever...). everytime I think I have it set there is some number or code that I cannot find, the bank here doesn't know and the bank at home is ignoring my emails and not letting my mom talk to an actual human being whenever she calls.

add that to the fact that I an extremely overtired and not even that fact that it is a sunny gorgeous january day can get me out of this funk

damn tuesdays.....

finally!

Waitrose had pearl barley in stock!

I bought 4 bags instead of the one I needed....you know....just in case
and I get to try my beef and barley soup now!

only took three weeks

if it is any good I will post the recipe this week!

this is not good

friends are starting to get laid off back in the States at an alarming rate....

thinking good happy and hopeful thoughts for everyone

just a note to say

my flatmates are the best

the flat itself may have a few issues, but the girls are just fantastic

and Happy Birthday Justine!

life would be a lot easier if we were back on the barter system

banks suck

student loan companies suck

you would think in this international economy/world culture we have going here, someone would be able to do business between two countries without incurring ridiculous charges, if they were allowed to do business at all.

who cares which country the loan company's money came from, as long as they got it on time?
and with everything being digital and fast now-a-days, how difficult could it be to transfer money from a UK account into a US account, and why the hell would you charge so much to do it?

grrrrrrrr

(T-Mobile also sucks)

server? we don't need no stinkin server!

you know you have really bad server problems at work when the email has been down so long co-workers are reduced to conversing with each other over facebook....

also half the people who require AutoCAD have to bring in their laptops from home with the program already installed, as there is no budget for anymore software (and CAD licenses are so damn expensive)

but you have to admit, it all makes the work day pretty interesting!

places I want to go

Copenhagen
Barcelona
Istanbul
Florence (again)
New Zealand
Japan
Morocco
Prague
Amsterdam
Cairo
Germany
Cordoba
India
Dubai
Reykjavik
South Africa


I am going to see haw many I can get to while living over here, which means I have to actually start planning trips...hmmm
(more to post as they come to me)

ha, I can't get yelled at!

it is now fashionable to wear black and brown at the same time!

guess which two colours make up my entire outfit today? :)

I feel

I feel like the world is about to take a turn for the better

and that makes me hopeful

haven't felt that way about humanity for a while

Happy Obama Day!

I have found websites that are playing the whole ceremony online, found large screens here at work to broadcast it on, have contacted IT people to get it up and running and have rescheduled conflicting meetings...

...today is going to rock!

and, the sun just came out!

wanted : missing soup ingredient

so apparently, even though I thought barley was a pseudo-British thing, only one grocery store in a 1 mile radius of my flat carries it.

and they are conveniently "temporarily out of stock".

so the beef and barley soup I was going to make yesterday has turned into potato-leek soup using the leeks and onions I bought (the beef has gotten frozen until barley shows up on somebody's shelves), and I will have no problem eating the celery and carrots on their own.

Dani thinks next weekend will work out, barley-wise, third time is the charm!

(hopefully)

but the potato-leek soup smells delicious! (and the flatmates aren't complaining)

and once I do find some barley, I am going to stock-pile.

footwear

I don't care if it in January in London.

It is bright and sunny out and, damnit, I am wearing my flip flops!

flip flops!

you know what?

dealing with lawyers trying to take your all your possessions away because previous tenants didn't pay the Council Tax warrants a gin and tonic at 10 am.

a strong gin and tonic.

truer words were never spoken

you know what a fun word is?

huzzah!

it's an epidemic!

another girl on the second floor is pregnant!

with twins!

that brings the baby count in the Foundation to four (with three co-workers being pregnant).

I am going to stop drinking the water....

also sheep

no caption necessary

in a penguin mood this morning

and, for the heck of it, some more animals to brighten up your day (and the only animals that matter, in my humble opinion)

woo hoo!

I don't have to do taxes here!!

woot!

tried and true, but delicious

I was going to do a beef and barley soup this weekend, but have yet to find a recipe that calls to me, so will keep searching this week, make that soup next sunday and fall back on an old favourite today! (which has been deemed the best soup yet by the flatmates)

Rosemary Mushroom Soup

Ingredients:
-1 cup chopped mushrooms
-2 cloves minced garlic
-1 to 2 tbs chopped rosemary
-1/2 cup butter
-1 cup light cream
-1 can cream of mushroom soup*
-1/2 tsp hot paprika

Directions:
1. Saute mushrooms in butter. Add garlic and rosemary.

2. Mix in mushroom soup and light cream. Add paprika.

3. Heat until very hot. Serve garnished with sprigs of rosemary.



*If cream of mushroom soup not available pre-made (as in the UK), here is a recipe for home-made soup (which tastes really good, by the way)

Ingredients:
-1 cup diced mushrooms
-2 tbs chopped onions
-2 tbs butter
-2 tbs flour
-2 cups chicken broth
-1/2 cup light cream
-salt and pepper

Directions:
1. Saute mushrooms and onions until soft. Add flour and cook for at least one minute.

2. Add chicken broth and cook until thickened.

3. Add light cream, salt + pepper and mix well.

much like Hansel and Gretel

a dead Christmas tree sheds a lot of needles.

there is now a trail of pine needles leading through the entryway, into the elevator, down the hall and right to the front door of our flat.

not conspicuous at all, nope.

I very much dislike council tax

and the aggravations previous tenants bring to the situation.....

can I switch?

ran into her today:

would much rather run into:

any day.

all day.

back in the UK!

oof.

one crazy plane ride that had me leaving Boston at 9 am and getting into Heathrow at 9 pm later, and I am back in London.

sad to leave the people back in the States, but I must say it is nice to be back here.

or at least not having to live out of a suitcase anymore.

today is a bit strange, got back to my flat at 11 pm GMT and knew I had to go to sleep if I had any chance of waking up for work this morning. Unfortunately, it was only 6 pm EST (and internal Bethany time). Didn't fall asleep for another two hours, and still a bit off today. Thinking I should be fine tomorrow though.

and totally worth it.
great holiday.

and I get to finally unpack tonight!
woot!