Exam weekend

So... Brent took another exam a few weeks ago. If you still haven't caught on to this whole ordeal and are trying to figure out why a guy who graduated from college 4+ years ago is still taking exams, you can read about them here, here and here.

This time he attempted Exam 9, the last one, if he were taking them in order. Which he is not. Mostly because the CAS only offers 7 and 8 in the spring and 9 in the fall so unless you are planning to take a year off in between 7 and 8 (which he can't, Farmer's Actuarial Student policy requires he take one at every sitting unless it is an authorized break for medical, family, etc reasons). He can usually tell right away if he passed or not but he said this time it's a close one. So we'll be waiting until the end of next month to find out. He sure studied a lot. He reached the 250+ hour region so hopefully between that and the trillions of prayers, he passed. Woo!

The Casualty Actuarial Society (the group that does this whole thing) is an American society so his co-workers don't have exams the same time he does, in fact the British exams are set up totally different. Brent and the few other members of the CAS in London take the exams wherever the CAS can rent an office space and pay a local actuary to proctor the exam. This time it was in Mayfair, which for those of you who don't know (I didn't), is the "Boardwalk" equivalent on the UK Monopoly board. Sweet! The office was in a building above a Bentley dealership. I think. I can't remember but there were Jaguar, Bentley, BMW and Mercedes dealerships (the fancy kind where it's just a big office with a few choice models inside, no lot or anything) on that street and I know he was above one of them.

After the exam was over, I met up with him and we ate at a Brazilian run cafe in Mayfair then walked around the area for awhile. We passed the Wellington Arch and walked through a corner of Hyde Park.

After our walk we saw Fantastic Mr. Fox. That was seriously one of the best movies I have seen in a really long time. It was so clever and unique and funny! So good. You should all be looking up showtimes at your local cinema.

The next day Brent went back to work but we met at the train station afterwards and went to the temple. We booked a room in the accommodations centre on temple grounds which we've been wanting to try out for some time now.

After we got checked in, we walked down the street to a local pub. Kind of strange, right? Well, pubs are all over the place and usually have really delicious food and this one was actually more of a family restaurant than a pub. It reminded us of a TGI Fridays or similar place. The food was fabulous and the dessert was big enough to feed an army. We got the "Mega Sundae for 2" and we had to laugh when the waitress brought it out. This thing had 2 scoops each of vanilla and chocolate ice cream, 4 cream puffs, 4 brownie squares (with a caramel/fudge center) tons of whipped cream, strawberry and chocolate syrup and it was sprinkled with Cadbury crunchy nuggets and buttons and had sticks of chocolate poking out of it. Woah, I'm remembering the overstuffed feeling just thinking about it. It was scrumptious and we of course did not finish it.

When we got back to the accommodation, we just enjoyed our great view and went to bed early. In the morning we did a session at the temple then took the train home. We're definitely going to do that again.

So there you have it. Exam, awesome movie, way too much delicious food and the temple. I'd call that a pretty good week. Especially since I get my hubby to myself for a few weeks now.

Thoup of the week

In honor of our niece Molly, we didn't have soup this week, we had thoup. (She has a lisp, you see, and is 4 and very, very cute.)

This week's thoup: Herbed Potato which we served with bacon crumbled on top and garlic bread to dip
Cook time: 20-30 minutes Yield: 5 servings

2 medium potatoes, peeled and diced
2 cups water
1 large onion, chopped
1/4 cup butter, cubed
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 teaspoon dried rosemary, crushed
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 1/2 cups milk

~Place potatoes and water in a large saucepan; cook over medium heat until tender. Meanwhile, in another saucepan, sauté onion & butter until tender. Stir in the flour, salt, thyme, rosemary, and pepper. Gradually add milk. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes. Add potatoes with cooking liquid; heat through.

Result: SO yummy and creamy and warm. Because of the rosemary and thyme, it felt very autumn-y. It's not so much for the health-conscious as the cold-and-want-something-warm-and-filling-conscious.

Adjustments: I diced a rib of celery and a clove or 2 of garlic and sautéed them with the onion. The flavor was a bit mild so next time I may substitute veggie broth for some or all of the water. Or up the herbs, or both. Actually, now that I think about it I'll probably drain the potatoes, add them then just stir in veggie broth until I like the consistency/flavor. Oh, and I'll double the recipe. We did *not* have enough leftovers.

A Little Piece of Home...But For a Price

With the holidays coming up, I have been planning the glorious feasts I get to cook. Yes, you heard me, *get* to cook. Living so far away from anything even resembling family, I get to be hostess for all of our holiday meals this year and I'm quite excited about it. I've been making lists and menus and planning when/where I need to buy all of my ingredients. The problem is, there is no Thanksgiving here so the shelves at my local supermarkets are NOT stocked with a few of the essential items like pumpkin (canned or otherwise, they stopped selling pumpkins the day after Halloween or I'd just buy one and make my own puree), marshmallow fluff (for fudge of course!), cake mixes (specifically spice cake mix for pumpkin cookies) and several other items that would make holiday cooking much easier.

Now don't get me wrong, I fully intend on attempting many traditional English recipes for Christmas but I NEED some of my tried and true ingredients. So I asked a few American ladies at church and was directed to this website. Holy Moly! Jackpot! I found Libby's pumpkin, Duncan Hines cake mixes (*the* best cake mixes, btw), Crisco, marshmallow fluff, and tons of other stuff. AND the shipping is really affordable especially if you spend more than £50, then it's free. The problem is everything is so expensive that it was way too easy to spend £50+. I could have spent hundreds. They carry so many of our "favorite" things but I restrained myself. Do I *really* need to spend £4 for a tiny jar of Jiff? Or £11 (which to put in perspective is $18) for a 12 pack of A&W? Or £4 for a box of Kraft Mac N' Cheese? The answer to all of these questions is NO! I was willing to pay ridiculous prices for items that I *have* to have for holiday baking/cooking and a few one time treats but that's it. I'm going to attempt to only order from this website a couple of times a year and only in baking related emergencies.

I'm really excited to get my shipment though because not only will I be able to cook some of our holiday favorites, it was nice to see products I'm familiar with. Have you ever gone on a vacation out of the country and had to buy food from a local grocery store and all of the products and brands were totally foreign and new and you weren't sure if they'd even be what you were looking for? Well that's me, on a pretty constant basis. Luckily, we've lived here long enough and the food is pretty good (generally speaking) so I've been able to pick out a set of "regular" items and brands that I know won't fail me but sometimes I think the labels might as well be in Turkish because I have NO clue what I'm looking at.

So in conclusion: americansweets.co.uk is a lifesaver even though it made me miss home a little bit more and it's really expensive.

...at least the shipping was free.

Soup of the week returns!

Soup of the week has been going strong around here these days and I'm loving it. For the past 5 weeks we've had soup once a week. It's been so yummy!

There are 3 contributing factors to the high rate of success over last year's attempt:
1 - Since we have a lodger who is paying us for food, I feel much more of a "motivation" (read: guilt) to cook proper meals.
2 - It is rapidly cooling off and will stay cold until March/April
3 - I found some interesting recipes and ingredients that I don't usually cook with due to the whole "living in a new country" thing

I only have pictures for the last 2 weeks but here's the list.

~Beef Stew (I don't really use a recipe, I just put stuff in a pot and let it simmer for a few hours) - It turned out really well because although I'm not a huge fan of the flavor of English beef, it was SO tender. There were no weird chewy pieces.
~English Minestrone - Pretty much the same as regular but with cabbage instead of pasta. It was really yummy. Minestrone is one of my favorite foods.
~Chicken and Pumpkin Chowder - Surprisingly good. The pumpkin didn't have tons of flavor and it was way too soft so if you're going to let it simmer on the stove for longer than the recipe says don't put the pumpkin in until 20-25 minutes before you're going to serve it. I think less cooking time will save more of the flavor too. Charlotte isn't a big fan of all things creamy so she had her portion before I added the cream, making it more of a soup than a chowder.
~Tomato Basil Bisque - (I learned a super easy way to peel tomatoes for this time. Can't believe I had been doing it the hard way for all these years!) Always a hit. Took the leftovers to a Relief Society pot luck dinner and someone asked if they could take the extra home. The night we had it at home, I also tried my hand at homemade wheat rolls. It was my very first time and they turned out quite nicely. The recipe is called "Never Fail Rolls" so I had high hopes. I'm going to keep making them every few weeks because I am hosting my very first Christmas this year (Brent's parents and youngest sister, Camille, are coming) and I want the rolls to be perfect.

~Taco Soup served with plenty of avacado, tortilla chips, and sour cream- Also always a hit. I was interested to see how it would taste because they don't sell "Taco Seasoning" here so I bought a packet of "Mexican Spices" whatever that means. It was yummy. More fajita-y than taco but I think it was better that way.

I didn't feel like typing out the other recipes so if you want them, let me know and I can email them to you.

**Guide to English cooking:
cornflour = cornstarch
courgette = zucchini
single cream = light or regular cream
bacon lardons = not compatible because bacon is totally different here, just crumble your bacon after cooking
400g tin = 16oz can (roughly)