324: London Calling

So we’re headed to Ireland by way of London, but the booking guy (frequent flyer tickets–a begger-chooser issue) takes us into Heathrow and out of London City. Heathrow is on the west end of London. London City is on the east side. Clear immigration, pick up bags, clear customs, trek across city, check in again. In three hours. Um. No.

So I decide (because my research shows that I will have to take the train, the tube, four buses, a rickshaw, and three short walks on cobblestone) to hire a car and driver. This is the conversation I have with the immigration agent:
Agent: How long are you in London?
Jen: Three hours.
Agent: Why?
Jen: < Explaining transfer between airports >
Agent: Are you bent?
Jen: Yes. Isn’t that evident?
Agent: I could have told you how to get across to London City.
Jen: Great . . . but that’s information I could have used three weeks ago. I’ve hired a car.
Agent: You must be made of money.

Well, not really, though it was a little spendy (definitely more than the combo of train/tube/rickshaw/bus).

Our driver was great. He decided (it’s 7:30 in the morning — it’s rush hour in a major city) to drive straight through the heart of the city. We saw EVERYTHING. We went past Buckingham Palace, Harrod’s, the Ritz, around Trafalgar Square, through the theatre district, past the Victoria and Albert museum (hello, Rosetta Stone!), Big Ben, the Tower, the Queen’s “other” house, the London Eye . . . seriously–EVERYTHING.

He was worried we wouldn’t make it in time, but we made great time, made our flight, and had a pleasant and enjoyable tour of London. It was great. If you have to trek across London in a jiffy, do at least consider Easy Airport Cars.

I haven’t any pictures of the whirlwind tour . . . Michael had the camera with him and was already in Dublin.
Seriously, though . . . EVERYTHING.

Posted in Musings | Leave a comment

325: Ireland

I will write more when I get back.

Posted in Musings | 1 Comment

326: The First Rule About Supper Club is: Talk About Supper Club

10 Courses and Four Flights of Wine (two wines, two sakes) at the Aqua Supper Club . . . holy cow.
I wrote for seats (there were 20) within minutes of getting the email with the invitation with this menu:

-Amuse Buche-
Seafood stuffed Shitake Mushroom
Wild caught shrimp mixed with Washington Dungeness crab meat

-Soup-
Wild mushroom Soup
The pure suspended essence of wild Washington mushrooms

-Intermediate-
Red Snapper chips
Crisp red snapper chips with yellow fin poke accented
with basil and Kaiware sprouts

-Starter-
Scallops two ways
Scallop and white fish ceviche and Apple smoked bacon
wrapped scallops with apple curry sauce

-Intermediate-
Salmon Avocado roll

-Salad-
Char sui Duck salad
Lightly dressed micro greens, noki mushrooms with
medallions of char sui duck in butter lettuce

-Intermediate-
Ahi Trio
Ahi on organic radicchio with wasabi citrus aioli
Ahi on shiso with
Ahi on thai basil with Hawaiian sea salt

-Entree-
Herb crusted Olive oil poached Rack of lamb with wild mushroom curry sauce
Dry tea marinated Chilean sea bass with lemon grass cilantro burre blanc

-Intermediate-
Grilled Hamachi skin nigiri
Lightly seasoned and grilled hamachi skin nigiri topped with
shoyu, lemon juice, scallions and unagi sauce

-Dessert-
Crème Brule’ trio
Mango, Coconut and Oolong tea

Oh, yum. Each course came out like a little work of art, which we almost didn’t want to wreck by eating, but knew (and were delighted 10 times in a row) the taste explosion would match the beauty of the presentation. Oh, yum.

Wish you were there, but I want you to know that you CAN be part of the Supper Club. Contact Noel for information about the Supper Clubs, Aqua, Raw, Okane, or Uno.

Posted in Food | Leave a comment

327: Spaghetti Squash

photo-121

I halved the spaghetti squash and baked it for about an hour, scraped it out of the skins, and added sautee’d onions and Tullia’s to it. This particular bowl is topped with feta, though Farmerteen swears by smoked cheddar.

Posted in Food | Leave a comment

328: Foucher

Farmerteen once wrote a book about the “foucher” and what it [the future] might hold.

When I decided I really needed a set of noise-canceling headphones, Michael was in Beijing, and we were IMing at one of the points our timetables coincided.  Because of all his travel, he ends up with points, and I asked if he could order a set of noise-canceling headphones, so I could work, uninterrupted, in the house.

I mentioned that, if he were to order them and get overnight shipping, they would potentially arrive to me at a time and date BEFORE he ordered them.

photo-126

Nothing doing.

Apparently, in the foucher, everyone’s a skinflint.

Posted in Musings | Leave a comment

329: Christmas in February

Pathetic.

photo-114

Here we are, in February, still chipping away at our pathetic attempts at Christmas.  Michael and Farmerteen are working on their traditional, last minute gifts.  I have finished mine (so morally superior, I am — a ridiculous claim, as I just finished last night, at 11:20pm).

Posted in Musings | 1 Comment

330: Veggie Plates

veggieplates3

This is roasted cauliflower and red peppers, which involve simply shaking the cauliflower and red peppers with olive oil, spreading them out on a baking sheet, sprinkling them lightly with sea salt, and roasting them for about an hour at 400F.

veggieplates21

The carrots are steamed with chunks of ginger and tossed with a little honey.

veggieplates1

The green beans are flash-fry-steamed (tiny bit of oil, douses of water in a wok), and have a glaze of sweet chili paste on them.

Holy cow. Look at the difference between the end of my pony tail (brown), and the hair at my head (rapidly graying). It’s a sure sign that we have a teen in the house.

Posted in Food | Leave a comment

331: Bokchoy

We’re headed toward a very vegetable-heavy diet a’la Joel Fuhrman’s (not to be confused with Mark Fuhrman, who now lives near us in Sandpoint, ID) Eat to Live, which makes a compelling case for lots of leafy greens.

bokchoy1

Michael took the pictures before I added the garlicky-shrimp, but here’s the bokchoy (with soy), and the corn (steamed with light sprinkling of cayenne).

bokchoy2

I picked up those hand-thrown plates for less than a dollar a piece at the Goodwill. I love them, but they a) don’t really fit in the dishwasher and b) are too cold to plate food like this without warming them. My lovely corn-and-bokchoy ended up a bit tepid.

Posted in Food | Leave a comment

332: Party!

We haven’t had a house full of teenagers in a while. (And I think Michael’s okay if we don’t again for a while yet!)

party1

This many teenagers makes the ginormous livingroom seem kind of small.

party2

On the woodstove are pots of chili, vegan-gluten-free soup, and Campbell’s chicken noodle. The Campbell’s was nearly tragic, as it ran dry, with the big, plastic ladle in it. Fortunately, I was running the woodstove low enough that it did not burn or melt, and the tragedy was averted.

Skull Earrings!

Skull Earrings!

Farmerteen has a large group of very thoughtful friends. Their gifts reflected this thoughtfulness, as they were obviously chosen with her in mind . . . this is a nice group of teens.

party4

Bob, the handcrafted skull:
partybob

Posted in Farmerteen's Year of Firsts | Leave a comment

333: First Signs of Spring

There are a series of these out on the prairie that we cross from our house to the Valley. Some are as close as one tenth of a mile to the next one. None are particularly near houses. I think there is perhaps a development planned on some of the farmland, somewhere in the future, in the shadow of the high tension power lines.

firstsignsofspring1

Posted in Musings | Leave a comment