Mexican

Tonight we went out to eat with our friend Laura. We ate at the only Mexican pub within 20 miles of our home. It's called Chequers pub and has decent Mexican food...it no Tex-mex, but it has some good food. We've eaten there several times before and it always cracks me up that catfish is on the menu as well!

Diet Coke Love

Benjamin LOVES diet coke...this is proof! That is one big drink!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...

Here we are, on day 3 of snow in England! It actually snowed AGAIN last night. This is probably the most snow I've ever seen in my whole life! WOW!

In other news, a lot of the food at the commissary comes from Germany. We have a whole section of German food. Ben and I decided to try gnocchi! This is actually the second time I've made this dish. However, all the words, as you can imagine, are in German. I had to use a translation website, babelfish, to get an idea of how to cook these bad boys. I don't really think the translation helped. What do you think?

German: Mit besten, frischen Zutaten. Servierfertig vorbereitet bis auf die letzten Handgriffe. Probieren Sie dazu am besten eine unserer vielen herrlichen Feinschmecker-Saucen. Sie brauchen nur noch den Beutel zu offnen und die Gnocchi in kochendem Salzwasser zu kochen, bis sie aufschwimmen. Oder die Gnocchi in der Pfanne in ausgelassener Butter kurz anbraten.

English: With best, freshness added. Serve-finished prepares up to the last handles. Try in addition best one of our many wonderful gourmet Saucen. They need to offnen only the bag to and to cook the Gnocchi in cooking seawater, until they up-swim. Or the Gnocchi in the pan in omitted butter anbraten briefly.

Up-swim? Haha...I think that's my favorite part!! And I don't have seawater...hmm...

How does a pub work?

A pub is a family friendly place. It's quite opposite of a dirty smoke-filled bar picure that some people associate with the word 'pub'. This is The Half Moon pub that we've eaten at several times.

Pubs have such a home-like feeling to them! This one is decorated with Christmas trees, lights and streamers. The table in the middle is set up for a party. You can't tell but the bar is straight back. I couldn't take a good picture, because I didn't want anything to think I was strange. We already stand out when we open our mouths ;)

So, you walk in and you find yourself a table. No one is going to be at the door to seat you because let's face it, you don't need anyone to tell you what you already know. There's either a place for you to sit or there's not. Smoking is outside, it's not allowed inside!

Once you get to your table, you sit down and take note of the table number (you will need this later on).

You look at the menu and decide what you want. Now it's off to the bar and stand in a queue to order your drinks and food. They will ask you what table you are at and that's how they know where you are sitting. You pay the man or lady at the counter and they will give you the drinks you ordered. You better drink slowly, because you aren't getting any refills. You'll have to order another drink if you are thirsty.

The waitress will bring out a basket with your utensils and condiments inside. She'll also bring our your food when it's ready. We ordered some onion rings as 'starters' (not appetizers).

Once you are finished eating, you leave. No need to leave a tip because those waitress don't work for tips and they get paid more than American waitress.

Homemade Pumpkin Pie

I absolutely love this time year, mainly because it's pumpkin season! This year, I decided I would make a pumpkin pie with a real pumpkin. I used a blue pumpkin, which has less seeds and "goo" and more "meat" than a traditional pumpkin. FYI, blue pumpkins smell like watermelons!

Before - that doesn't even look like a pumpkin!

After

It took a while to cut the pumpkin. Thank goodness for a good knife and muscles!

We finally got the pumpkin cut in half...it's orange inside! I mean I knew it was going to be orange inside but didn't really know :)

We scooped out all of the yucky stuff! I saved the seeds so I could roast them later.


The next step is to put the pumpkin into the microwave with a little bit of water and cook until the pumpkin is soft. Scoop out the meat and throw away the skin.

Put the meat into the food processor and blend until creamy smooth.

Here's the pie before it went into the oven. YUMMY!

Benjamin taking a break from school work and eating some pie!

The verdict is in...both Benjamin and I think the pie tasted just like a canned pumpkin pie. Benjamin thought you could taste more spices in the homemade pie. We also both agreed that the homemade crust was a lot better that the store bought crust. I think I'll just stick to canned pumpkin pies with homemade crusts!

Ryan's Visit

We went to eat at the Halk Moon pub in Mildenhall. It was great catching up with a good friend!

On Saturday, we went to Emily's Tea Room! It was very delicious and we plan on going back soon. I got lemon tea with honey, which was just lovely. I really didn't know that British people put milk and sugar into their tea. I guess it depends on the kind of tea you get. I didn't put milk in my lemon tea because that just seemed wrong!

Here are the scones at Emily's Tea Room. They are several different jams to use from, these have blueberry jam. These scones had cherries and raisins! These were different the best ones I've had!

Pumpkin Time

I love autumn because that means I can go overboard with pumpkins! I love making pumpkin cookies, cakes, bread, cheesecake, pudding, you name it I've probably made it. Benjamin gets pretty excited about all the pumpkin goodies I make. Last year was the first year that I can remember carving pumpkins and I can't wait to do it again this year. Maybe it won't take 2 hours to do! To my delight, I found these lovely bars in the commissary! Thank you Kashi! 

 

I am going to be on the search for some more recipes this year.  Autumn just feels different in England. It actually feels like it is supposed to, not horribly hot like in Texas or North Carolina. It actually feels like a season change oh and by the way, it is starting to get darker over here a lot earlier than we were used to. I got to take down the sheet we had hanging up over the window. We had a sheet up, so the sun wouldn't be so bright in the mornings when the sun would come up at 4 in the morning. I've heard pretty soon that it will be completely dark by 4:00 pm!! I just can't imagine that!!

In other news, we bought Beatles Rockband a few days ago. It's really awesome! I'm learning a lot of songs, that I didn't even know they sang. It has several clips of audio before and after you play a song. Sometimes they talk about cheese and marmite sandwiches, which we all know is a Ploughmans or maybe just Benjamin and I know that, other times it's more serious commentary about the song. It's pretty epic playing the game and knowing that we live in England. I really want to go to Liverpool at some point and I'm sure we will. I want a picture on Abbey Road, even if Benjamin thinks I can't!

We also got our Scotland book from Amazon.co.uk today! We are getting ready for our New Years trip and fell in love with the dk travel books. Thanks mom for getting us hooked, the London book is wonderful and we've used it every time we go.

 

Scones

For all those wondering, here is a picture of heaven in food form!

Scone = biscuit + jam+ clotted cream = crazy delicious

Mushy peas

Okay, let's talk about mushy peas. British people love them and they come usually as a side with fish 'n chips. Well here's how you make them ...first you take some peas and you mash 'em, mash 'em (It's a song...oh nevermind!). Here's the result:

If that's not bad enough, look what I found in the grocery store:

Now they make mushy peas in a can...YUCK!! I can say this because I've tried them...TWICE! I've never really been a fan of peas but I am a fan of this comic I found.