Early Christmas

So sad for all those affected by the shooting yesterday. Newtown, CT is only a couple of hours from Albany. It puts so many things in perspective.


With events of the past 48 hours in mind, this is only a short post about our early Christmas today. What with all the traveling (not together) we're doing over the next few weeks it was present time today.

Kitty got a nice new winter jumper. She's not that impressed though and walks with her belly on the ground when wearing it. It's very funny, will have to get a video soon.

Christmas Cat

It was Christmas pudding eating time! After steaming again for an hour it was ready to eat. As I had one big and one little, we made a tiered pudding!

Pudding!!

Poured Brandy over it and ready with fire...

Fire...

Flaming pudding (hard to see I know)...

... success!!

It was really good. Just like I hoped it would taste. I will 100 % be making this again next year.

We also had jigsaw puzzle completion this past week (after finding the last piece under the couch - I blame the cat).

Much harder than it looked

Thanksgiving 2012

It was nice to have such a long weekend, eat good food and take it easy. Here is the story of our thanksgiving feast. The success of the clams from last year meant we had steamer clams again! We had to request Price Chopper (our supermarket) get some in (which they were really nice about) so we had some nice fresh clams. I made two little loaves of white bread to go with the clams (which were cooked in a white wine garlic sauce). Yum!

Fresh homemade bread

Lunch

Instead of eating all the food in one sitting, we had clams at lunch time and then we had fish for the main course. Whole red snapper, which we roasted, jalapeño and cheddar cheese corn bread, lemon asparagus and mashed sweet potatoes with goats cheese and maple balsamic. All were delicious, including the fish, but I think the potatoes were my favorite!

Red snapper before the oven

Corn bread

Dinner time

For desert I (actually Matt made them) made my favorite pumpkin chocolate chip muffins (see the recipe here). They were as delicious as always and the silicone baking cups were very successful :-)

Muffins!!

I don't really remember what else we did apart from cook and eat on thanksgiving but it was successful nonetheless. We went black Friday the next day, but didn't do the crazy early thing - we got to the mall around 9.30/10 and still got some good deals.

The holidays are here :-)

Carbon Dioxide

I read an article this morning on the newest measurements of Carbon Dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere (you can find the BBC article, based on a World Meteorological Organization report here).

I know I don't usually talk about "work" related things on my blog. But this is less work and more world problem. Here is a graph from co2now.org of atmosphere carbon dioxide since 1958...




This to me, is quite shocking. Since I started my undergraduate degree in meteorology in 2001, CO2 has increased about 20 parts per million. I vividly remember being shown in various classes that CO2 concentration was 370 ppm and using that number in exams. Now it is OVER 390 ppm.

CO2 isn't a gas that we emit and then disappears quickly. It sticks around in the atmosphere for years (some estimates are up to 200 years). SO, if we want to mitigate the impact of CO2 on changing the climate and warming the earth we need to start stabilizing CO2. This means emitting less. A lot less.

Just think about it. I really need to start riding my bike more.

Christmas Pudding

I decided to take my chances and make a traditional Christmas pudding for the first time. I figured I could make it and we would eat it when we exchanged gifts before I left for home for Christmas. Plus, if it tasted terrible I knew I could get the real good stuff when I got home. Win win.

So the first step wasn't even in the recipe. The recipe required candied peel. I couldn't find any candied peel anywhere so I made it. Semi-successfully.

I started by scoring and peeling 7 lemons and 4 large oranges.

Oranges and lemon peeling complete

The peels were then boiled in water and drained, then boiled in water and drained again. This is supposed to get rid of some of the bitterness in the peel. After boiling and cooling, came the tedious part. Scraping out the white pith from all the peel and chopping the peel into strips.

A giant pile of pith and the useful orange and lemon peel

The strips of peel were then cooked in a sugar syrup in a pan. This is where things went a little wrong. I used the same amount of syrup for the orange and the lemon and it was supposed to simmer for 45 minutes. I stupidly left them simmering without checking regularly enough and the orange peel sugar syrup got a little burnt. But the lemon was perfect! After simmering the peel was laid out to cool and after a day or two I put them in a sandwich bag with some sugar and shook it to coat the peel in sugar.

Candied lemon peel success!

The lemon was delicious! Some of the orange peel was a little blacker than it should have been, but it still tasted good. A lot of work for 25 grams of candied mixed peel but the rest was a great snack!

Anyway, onto the pudding. The ingredient list:

1lb /450g dried mixed fruit (I used golden raisins, raisins, dried plums)
1 oz /25 g mixed candied peel, finely chopped
1 small cooking apple, peeled, cored and finely chopped 
Grated zest and juice ½ large orange and ½ lemon
4 tbsp brandy, plus a little extra for soaking at the end
2 oz /55 g all purpose flour, sifted
1 level tsp ground mixed spice (ginger, nutmeg and cloves)
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
4 oz /110 g shredded vegetarian suet (I ordered this on amazon as I couldn't find it here)
4oz /110g soft, dark brown sugar
4 oz /110 g white fresh bread crumbs
1 oz /25 g whole shelled almonds, roughly chopped
2 large, fresh eggs

So onto the steps...

Lightly butter a 2½ pint/1.4 litre pudding basin. I didn't have one/couldn't find one this size. Mine was slightly smaller so ended having a second mini pudding.


Place the dried fruits, candied peel, apple, orange and lemon juice into a large mixing bowl. Add the brandy and stir well. Cover the bowl with a clean tea towel and leave to marinate overnight.

Marinated dried fruits. Yum.

Stir together the flour, mixed spice and cinnamon in a very large mixing bowl. Add the suet, sugar, lemon and orange zest, bread crumbs, nuts and stir again until all the ingredients are well mixed. 

Add the marinaded dried fruits and stir again.

Beat the eggs lightly in a small bowl then stir quickly into the dry ingredients. The mixture should have a fairly soft consistency.

Spoon the mixture in to the greased pudding basins, gently pressing the mixture down with the back of a spoon. 

Puddings in bowls and ready for steaming

Cover with a double layer of greaseproof paper or baking parchment, then a layer of aluminum foil and tie securely with string.

Place the pudding in a steamer set over a saucepan of simmering water and steam the pudding for 7 hours. Make sure you check the water level frequently so it never boils dry. The pudding should be a deep brown color when cooked. The pudding is not a light cake but instead is a dark, sticky and dense sponge.

They've got their coats on and a ready for a long afternoon in the steamer. The little string handle was very useful for lifting them in and out

Place the pudding in a steamer set over a saucepan of simmering water and steam the pudding for 7 hours. I didn't have a big enough steamer set so just set the pudding in a large pan with 1-2 inches of water in the bottom and a lid. It worked just fine.Make sure you check the water level frequently so it never boils dry.

The pudding should be a deep brown color when cooked. The pudding is not a light cake but instead is a dark, sticky and dense sponge.

Remove the pudding from the steamer, cool completely. Remove the paper, prick the pudding with a skewer and pour in a little extra brandy. Cover with fresh greaseproof paper and retie with string. Store in a cool dry place until Christmas day. 

The puddings a week or so after steaming during an additional Brandy soaking. Looks like it should!

On Christmas day reheat the pudding by steaming again for about an hour. Serve with Brandy sauce, Brandy butter, cream or ice cream (my fave). Obviously I haven't got to this part yet but I promise to show a picture when it gets eaten. It smells like it should so I'm hopeful it will work!

It really wasn't that hard to make so if it tastes good I'll def do it again!

Bonfire Night is not here...

... because in the US, no one knows what bonfire night is! Unless they've seen V for Vendetta and have some kind of clue. But even then, most people have no idea.

"Remember, remember the fifth of November.
Gunpowder, Treason and Plot.
I see no reason why Gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgot."

Nowadays, November 5th is essentially a night where you have big bonfires, maybe burning an effigy of Guy Fawkes (or other disgraced person currently making headlines, I hear Mr Lance Armstrong will be making a few appearances this year) and have fireworks and sparklers. With the fireworks, it's a little like 4th July, except colder!

Bonfire night is essentially a celebration of successfully foiling a 1605 plot (plot) to blow up parliament (gunpowder), kill the king (treason) and lead a revolt to return Catholicism to Britain.

Many British people learn about this in school history lessons, usually in primary school. I hope they still do! Most will find the following picture of the conspirators very familiar, with Mr Guy Fawkes himself third from the right.

Guy Fawkes was the first man connected to the plot that was found in the cellars below parliament and arrested. Although I think it is well known that Fawkes was not the leader, as he was the first one caught red handed, his name is synonymous with November 5th (hence the whole V for Vendetta mask and story).

Anyway, seeing as I will not be partaking in any kind of fireworks or bonfire I wanted to share the story with you all. You can find way more detail online if you want to know more

I will say that during 5th November fireworks they do not play patriotic British music... that's one huge difference between 5th November and 4th July fireworks displays!!

Learning to Cook

Last week we went to a cooking class at the local kitchen shop. It was a special class by one of my favourite local chefs, Ric Orlando. He is the owner of New World Bistro in Albany (amazing food) and two time champion of Chopped on the Food Network. Can't wait to try his other restaurant near Woodstock.

The class itself was a lot of fun (although I wish we had known about the bring your own wine rule), with the chef demonstrating how to cook all the food while we all watched. He was very entertaining with lots of stories and cooking tips. I would highly recommend anyone doing a class like this.

The menu consisted of pear mustard and homemade ricotta on toast, gluten free gnocchi with a tomato sauce, pork loin with pickled cherry peppers and cannoli cones. We got a copy of all the recipes too if anyone wants to see how to make this stuff! The photos are from Matt's phone but they came out pretty well I think. We got samples of all the food he made and here is what we got!...

After our cheese making experiment earlier this year (here) it was nice to see how to do it successfully, even with a few things that went wrong! The pear mostarda is kind of like a condiment that you could eat with bread and cheese with pear, dried figs, mustard, mustard oil and mustard seeds among other things, cooked in a sugary syrup. It may sound weird but it was really good. We already got mustard oil and black mustard seeds from the Asian market so will be making it soon!

This was the most amazing gnocchi. Light, fluffy and delicious. I am so excited to have such a good gnocchi recipe. We've made it a couple of times before but it was nowhere near as good as this! The sauce was good too. There were big chunks of bacon in it but I wanted to try the gnocchi so much I picked out the bacon and ate the rest of the sauce. I would never usually do this but I'm glad I did! (We actually got more food than in the picture but it looked so good I tucked in before getting a pic).

I didn't try the pork of course, but Matt said it was the best he had ever had. He's even made it since then as Price Chopper had buy one get two free on pork tenderloin last week. His attempt wasn't quite as good as Chef cooked, but according to Matt, still the best pork he had ever made by a long way! Everyone at the class was raving about how tasty and moist the pork was so I'm pretty sure it was a big hit!

Cannoli cream served in an ice cream cone with pistachios and shaved chocolate. Do  I need to say more apart from more please!!

Adventures in China IV (the final chapter)

So after the journey, purple mountain and food, the final installment is here. Wednesday was the final day of the workshop and after lunch we had a free afternoon/evening. A group of us decided to take a trip to downtown and visit the Confucius Temple. This involved taking the nicest, cleanest subway I've ever seen! They are in the process of extending it across the river which would have been useful for me this time, but I'm glad we got to ride it anyway.

The temple was in a historic part of downtown and is very very popular with Chinese tourists. It kind of looked like a China town you would expect to see in Disney or something except it was the real deal. The temple area had a small river running through it where you could take trips on a boat (which I didn't do) but there was these huge golden dragons on one of the walls.

Confucius Temple, Nanjing

The temple itself was very intricate and quite different to the Ming Temple at Purple Mountain. Here is Mr Confucius himself.

Confucius at the Confucius Temple

You could learn how to do all the correct techniques for prayer and worship that seemed to involve putting red ribbons on the trees, bowing, lighting incense and hitting the giant drum, but it was still pretty neat to see everyone doing it without actually doing it myself.

Chinese characters carvings

There were huge intricate pictures inside the temple that were carved out of marble depicting various scenes from the life of Confucius. It would have been nice to spend more time inside the temple and around the whole area but we had a limited amount of time and wanted to see as much as possible!

Confucius Temple

After the temple we took a walk to the main downtown area. Surprisingly, although I don't know why, this was like any downtown in any big city. Giant brand new skyscrapers, malls, Tiffany & Co., Louis Vuitton, all the pricey designer shops are there!!

Downtown Nanjing

I think my favourite moment on the walk around was seeing a guy come out of a random door carrying a cage full of a variety of animals, which he strapped to his moped (there are hundreds and thousands of mopeds everywhere in Nanjing) and drove off. I managed to sneak a picture and it made me smile (although I don't want to think about what is going to happen to these little guys).

Where are they going?

As I mentioned in the food post, we all had dinner at a big restaurant in one of the malls (which was great) and then took a taxi back to the hotel. The next morning I hd breakfast and hit the long road home. This was probably the scariest part of the whole trip as I was doing it along.

Step 1: Get taxi to train station. Should have been simple as the people at the hotel told the driver where to go and I knew roughly the way to get there. Driver turned the wrong way out of the hotel and I had no idea where he was going as I knew we at least had to cross the Yangtze and we went the wrong way for that. After pointing at the Chinese for train station that I had written down he spoke some Chinese and did a "choo choo" sound, so at least I knew we where going to a train station even if it was the wrong one. Anyway, it turned out he was just taking a really long route to the bridge (to get more money I'm sure) and we made it eventually. Unfortunately the detour meant I missed the train I wanted to get.

Step 2: Get a train ticket to Shanghai Hongqiao (SH) train station and get on train. This sounds simple. It was not. I was faced with twenty lines of people all standing in front of ticket windows that were labeled only in Chinese. Which line was I supposed to get in?? I picked a random one and I had my ticket from SH to Nanjing and I pointed at the SH name and the line to try and ask a man if I was in the right place. He seemed to understand, took my 140 yuan and gave it to his friend at the front who bought my ticket. Unfortunately the pointing didn't work as he got a ticket from SH to Nanjing instead of Nanjing to SH. I managed to explain this with pointing and he realised the mistake. We got in another line to get money back, went to a third line to get the right ticket. Unsuccessful again, this time the ticket was from Nanjing to Shanghai instead of SH. A fourth line was required to swap this ticket for the right one. At last!! My train was leaving in about 20-25 mins so the nice man and his friend took me to where you wait for the trains, showed me that I could show my ticket to get free bottled water and where they would display when it was ok to go get on the train. He was very nice and despite our language barrier we figured it out in the end. We even swapped business cards, although his is all in Chinese characters so I have no idea what he does!

Step 3: Take train to SH. Easy and fast.Was entertained by lady with little baby sitting next to me. Also learnt that Chinese babies like peekaboo and don't wear diapers/nappies. One of these was slightly disturbing.

Step 4: Take subway from train station to airport. Easy again! Ticket machine had an English button and I get a seat the whole way. It took about 90 minutes. I decided this was a better option than a taxi as it was a lot cheaper and a lot less scary!

Step 5: Take flight home. Once again I had no one sitting next to me which made the journey a lot nicer and more comfy. Got some sleep. The line in immigration for non-citizens was enormous, and it took forever. Did enjoy some arguments as people tried skipping the line to catch there flights.

Step 6: Home!! Yay. 6 crazy days and the longest 36 hour Friday ever.

Me and one the followers of Confucius

Adventures in China III

Ok, so I've covered the journey there (here) and the day I spent at purple mountain (here). The next step is a short post about all the food and drink I had in Nanjing. I mentioned the delicious steamed sea bass I had on Sunday night but that was nothing compared to the rest of the week! I was a little worried with my dietary choices that I would struggle to find food I could eat, but it really wasn't a problem :-)

Breakfast was a buffet provided by the hotel each morning. There was a whole array of different foods that varied each day. There was always cereal, toast, pastries etc. but there was always a whole lot more local food. There doesn't seem to be any real distinguishing feature of each meal in China (in Nanjing at least). If you eat it for dinner then you'd eat it for breakfast too... fried rice, noodles, mushrooms, sushi, seaweed salad, soup and one day they had something that was labeled donkey. Not sure if it was a translation issue or if it really was donkey! I don't have photos from breakfast though so you'll have to take my word for the fact it was a very nice start to the day!

On Monday night we had a workshop banquet and on Wednesday night a group of us went to a restaurant for dinner. I'm grouping these together as the food experience was very similar. Family style food where everything was brought out dish by dish. You never knew how many dishes there were going to be or when it would end! Luckily we had some people at our table who were able to tell us what each dish was so my no land meat eating wasn't a problem.

Fruit salad, Nanjing salted duck, black ear fungus, snails, fruit in gelatin and fried shrimp

 Anyway, there was SO much food - black ear fungus with chiles (delicious), more steamed fish and green leafy vegetables, lots of tasty tofu, sweet and sour shrimp (which was way better than anything I've had anywhere else) and a whole load of meat dishes that I obviously didn't try.

More snails, black ear fungus, fish, greens, fruit, chicken and the giant bowl of noodles to finish the meal!

More steamed fish, greens, and egg dish, beef, beans, black ear fungus, Nanjing translucent noodles and beer

The other thing I noticed about eating these kind of meals in Nanjing was that there is no main course/desert type division. Sweet things would appear in the middle of beef and fish course and noodles/rice always came out last (which was good as it meant I didn't fill up on starch). Some of the little sweet balls - i was told they were pumpkin but it didn't taste like pumpkin - were so good I could have eaten them the whole time.

The little fried balls on the right were so good, as was the fish

Most of the time I stuck to water, sprite and a few beers but on banquet night and restaurant night I had the delightful (not) experience of trying "Chinese Water" the local Nanjing liquor which was a type of vodka. I was not a fan, but others enjoyed it and I can verify it was very strong! Especially when served in what appeared to be soup bowls. I was polite and drank some but it really wasn't for me. Must be an acquired taste.

Chinese Water

Adventures in China II

I arrived late on Saturday (part I is here) and had all of Sunday to myself to go and see the city. I was a bit nervous about exploring by myself after seeing the language barrier but luckily I found an Ozzie/German in the hotel lobby that was also there for the workshop and we teamed up to take on Nanjing. Thanks Aurel!!

We decided to head towards Purple Mountain, a huge park area that is part of the city and just across the Yangtze (where the main city is). First stop was the World Culture Heritage site Xiaoling Tomb of the Ming Dynasty. I will first point out that is was drizzly and cloudy all day, which meant that photos were not as good as they could be.

One of the coolest parts of the tomb was the pathway that was lined with huge stone sculptures of animals. They were massive and very impressive. I believe they were supposed to show the stature of those who the tomb was honoring, as well as protect them.

Elephants!

See, I was really there

It wouldn't be right if there wasn't a lion

The whole tomb was in a scenic area and after walking along the animal path (and still not finding the actual tomb) we walked all around the gardens. I imagine they would be much nicer when all the trees and plants were flowering (and it wasn't raining) but it was still very pretty with lots of trees and plants that I couldn't identify.

Avenue of trees in the park

When we still hadn't found the tomb (this place was massive) we strolled up plum blossom hill (where there were no plum blossoms as it was September) and came across this beautiful structure. There was also a man on a bike at the top with a caged bird strapped on to the back. It seemed random!

The colors were amazing, especially the blue

After eventually finding the tomb (and all the people), it was very cool to see. I can't tell you a lot of stories about the tomb but I'm sure you can find more information online if you want!

Stonework inside the tomb area

The main part of the tomb and me. More wonderful colors that the cloud and camera don't do justice

The next part of the journey was the fun part. We wanted to go to a different area on the mountain but it was going to be a longish walk and there were no taxis so the bus it was. I'm pretty sure the driver took pity on us tourists pointing at a map and let us on without paying and told us when to get off. It turned out the bus didn't quite go where we thought and we still had to walk a way, but hey, I took the bus!

The Linggu Temple Scenic Area was the next stop as the map told us there was a pagoda there. This part of purple mountain was more deserted, but it still contained huge stone buildings and temples, as well as the pagoda at the top of the hill.

Pagoda 101

You could walk up to the top of the pagoda up a spiral staircase that successfully made me dizzy! Due to the low clouds (and pollution) there wasn't a very good view. You could faintly make out the central business district but you can get some idea of the scale from this pic at least.

View from Purple Mountain

There were a lot of other things to do in the area, including taking a gondola to the top but it was getting lateish and we had a workshop paid for dinner at 6 so we eventually found a taxi and got back to the hotel. Dinner was in the hotel and I had a whole steamed sea bass which was AMAZING. It was also pretty huge but totally worth it.

All the fun of the oral surgeon...

At my last dentist cleaning in August the dentists finally convinced me to have my wisdom teeth taken out. They had started to poke through a couple of years ago and were partially erupted on one side and still under the gum on the other side. They hadn't been giving me any problems but they convinced me that they would start getting infected and the sooner they came out the better. The American attitude to wisdom teeth is very different to the British attitude. America... take them out asap even if they haven't come through or hurt you. British... take them out only if they are causing you pain. I never would have had them out if I was at home!!

So yesterday was the big day. I opted for IV sedation (unlike my badass officemate who did it with just local anesthetic!) as I'm a huge wimp. Matt had the afternoon off work to be my nurse. They were running a little late at the dentist so I had to wait about 20-25 minutes past my appointment time which made my nerves even worse. But fortunately, the procedure itself wasn't that bad. I did pass out just after they put the IV in, but I blame that on taking longer to search for a vein in my elbow joint before going with my hand, yuck!! After I woke up from the pass out I heard them saying to wait till my pulse got higher and then I woke up and it was done!

I think it only took about 30 minutes but I needed to rest at the dentist for a while before Matt could take me home (almost an hour I think). I really didn't like having the gauze in my mouth so it was good to get home and take that out. I feel better today than yesterday but the left side of my mouth is still really sore and swollen and I'm struggling to eat much. On the water and milk diet so far!

Anyway, just thought I'd let the blog world know that if I can get through this then anyone can. I just hope it doesn't take too long to heal. I'm def not ready to show my face in the real world yet and this is why.....!!!

Yuck!!! Chipmunk Ellie is in hiding!

Adventures in China I

Ni Hao! So for those that hadn't heard or seen on Facebook, I spent last week in China. I got to attend the International Workshop on Interdecadal Variability of the Global Monsoons in Nanjing. Nanjing is a former capital of China that is located about 190 miles northwest of Shanghai (don't worry, I had to look up where it was when I found out I was going)!

I got lucky on the long flight from Newark to Shanghai (~14 hours) as there was no one sitting next to me. This meant I had that little bit of extra room to curl up in a ball and get a few hours of rest which made all the difference when I arrived. I did manage to wake up in time for the midnight snack of ice cream on the plane though :-)

On arrival there was someone waiting for me at the airport. I had thought they were going to put me on the subway across Shanghai to the train station but as someone else was arriving ~1 hour after me they had a car and driver to take us across the city. This meant that my first hour in China was spent sitting in a Honda in an underground car park with a driver that didn't speak English. Quite bizarre! Anyway, we drove about an hour across Shanghai, which was completely terrifying with all the bobbing and weaving and huge trucks and horn honking. But we made it in one piece. The person who picked us up then took our money and bought train tickets to Nanjing for us and showed us where to get on the train.

The train to Nanjing was really nice. Clean, fast (although we were on a train that stopped a lot it only took 2 hours) and comfortable. I think I dozed off a little and by the time we arrived it was dark. A couple of students were waiting for us at the train station to put us in a taxi. The train station had a great view of downtown while we waited.

Nanjing downtown by night

It was raining when we arrived, so the "queue" for the taxi was enormous. I used quotations as it wasn't so much a queue as an area full of people pushing and shoving to get to the opening where you get in taxis. We were squashed in there for almost an hour but eventually got in a taxi and to the hotel.

I was staying in a very westernised hotel called the "Nanjing Suning Venice Hotel" and it was very nice. The rooms were big and very nice, although the one bizarre thing was the window between the main living/sleeping room and the bathroom. Why is there a giant window into the bathroom?! I eventually found the electric blind that covered the window but it was quite strange at first. At least there was a western toilet. I never want to use a squat toilet again!

My hotel room. Bathroom window and all.

The hotel was part of a large area called Venice City that had hundreds of apartments. Everybody in China seems to live in high rise flats/apartments and they were building new ones everywhere. I don't think I'm able to convey the scale that these cities are expanding.

View from my hotel room. This was the weather practically the whole time. Cloud and pollution and haze.

View from my hotel room in the other direction. It's just like Venice!

The workshop itself was excellent but I won't go into any detail about work things as most of you wouldn't find it very interesting. I have included a picture of the very nice conference hall we spent our time in. It made a change to be at a conference that had comfortable chairs!

Inside the conference

I'll write some other posts letting you all know what else in Nanjing I saw later. Xie Xie!