The Food of Love

Since I finally organized my pictures from my Christmas baking exploits, I figured it's time to share.

This is sort of a tale of the good, the bad, and the ugly. Since I'm all about inverting expectations, I'll cover the ugly first.

First, a back story. When I was little, every year at Christmas my great-grandmother would make this fabulous coconut cake. We're talking amazing, bakery-quality stuff. She'd crack open a real coconut, spread the icing just so, and apparently would even use tons of toothpicks to make the layers stand right. After she died, my dad's mom attempted to re-create the masterpiece. It sadly never lived up to the memory, always tending to fall on the dry side.

Well, this year I decided to try my hand at the famous cake. I will preface the following pictures to say that this cake was absolutely delicious, if a bit too sweet. I subbed coconut milk for regular which was a bit much. I'll go half and half next time. Also, I didn't use real coconut, but I'm not sure that made too much of a difference. The real problem with this cake was the absolute disaster that came from trying to get it out of the pan and standing up. Mom tried to dump it out, with little success. Still. It was not dry. This was almost more of a coconut cake soup than anything. Here's the recipe and the pictures. Look for my second go next year. I will not be defeated!

“Thunder is good, thunder is impressive; but it is lightning that does all the work”

Ooh, Abrams (of Abrams and Bettis) also just let me know that this week is Lightning Awareness Week. I posted that simply for the opportunity to put up this picture (via lightningphotography.com). So cool!


...but, you know, stay inside and all that jazz.

(Also, I don't want to hear the mocking of my watching the Weather Channel. It's informative! Back off.)

"Turkey is undoubtedly one of the best gifts that the New World has made to the Old."

Why is Turkey Lovers Month in June? Wouldn't November make a lot more sense? Nevertheless, I do love turkey, so I felt the need to celebrate.

I made a quite tasty sandwich for dinner tonight. A couple of slices of deli meat, whole wheat bread (granted not homemade - my bread-maker and I are at odds at the moment - but still tasty), lettuce and tomatoes, and half a wedge of Laughing Cow cheese (sooo creamy and low-cal!) = yummy. Unfortunately, it looked so good, I neglected to take a picture before I ate it.

A few other ways to mark the month:

Turkey, Cranberry, and Brie Panini
Turkey Taco Salad
Grilled Cheese, Pear, and Smoked Turkey Sandwich
Turkey Florentine
Turkey Wild Rice Casserole

Shockingly enough, most of those blog posts were written right after Thanksgiving when, naturally, one would have plenty of turkey on hand. But, hey, who am I to question those crazy folks over at eatturkey.com? I mean why not go full-on crazy and celebrate apples in June? Or snow in August? Or Christmas in July? Oh wait...that one's been done:


What is the world coming to?

This little piggy went to market...

Ack! So cute. The pig was afraid of mud, so his owner gave him boots! Adorable. And ironic - a pig afraid of mud. Sometimes life is just wonderful.

via A Cup of Jo and Now Voyager

"What kinda man are you?"

"Courage is not a man with a gun in his hand. It's knowing you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what"

I do not care for my choices for president this year. In the category of "If only they were real..." (currently occupied by Josh Lyman and Frederick Wentworth), I have decided Atticus Finch is my write-in candidate. Particularly if he appears in the form of Gregory Peck. Who's with me?

A Love Letter to London

London is a hard city. By that, I don't mean it's difficult. It's...gritty. A little rough around the edges.

When you think of Paris, you think smoke and cafes. Proposals. Patisseries. Washington, DC has a much higher crime rate, but the impression it typically leaves is a bit impersonal, politicians with their heads in their Blackberrys. Cold marble buildings. Wide streets with plenty of room to avoid your neighbor.

London is a huge city, but in a way it's also quite small. The streets are narrow, the buildings are small. It's crowded. It's easy to get overwhelmed here. It's also, however, quite easy to love once you settle in. Everyone can be a Londoner. There are probably more nationalities here than anywhere in the world.

The parks are lovely, the bridges imposing, the buildings charming. There's never a lack of things to do or see. Samuel Johnson said, "When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life." I'm definitely ready to go home, but part of me will always miss this city: wandering down streets with three names, popping around a corner and seeing another famous facade, catching a ride home in a famed double-decker bus. It's easy to get used to, but leaving a place always makes you realize the things you'll miss.

So, on that vaguely annoyingly sentimental note, here are a few photos from my last tromps around London. See you all across the pond!

God Save the Queen

I just had the perfect last day in London. I decided I wanted to see Buckingham Palace this morning, so took my double-decker bus down across the Waterloo Bridge.


Then I walked down the South Bank and across to Westminster.

As I approached St. James Park I kept seeing all these police officers. Then I started hearing drums. As I neared the Palace there were tons of people lined up along a parade route.


Turns out it's the Queen's birthday celebrations. 15 minutes waiting and a mini-bus with reject royals rode past.


Then Harry, William, and Camilla passed in a carriage. Unfortunately Camilla's hat blocked William from me. Looks like I'll have to enchant him with my beauty some other day. Cough, cough.
Then! Then the Queen rode by. She looked...old. But her blue outfit was quite fetching.


I was just thinking that I was bummed I hadn't gotten to see her while I was here. I went to her church back in October, but she wasn't at Windsor that day. Definitely an awesome "right place at the right time" moment this morning.

Tomorrow is Maryland! But now I must pack. Boo.

Presumably once you pop, you will stop...

Ha! Pringles Can Inventor Buried in Pringles Can. Now that's going out in style.

(via Serious Eats and The Cincinnati Enquirer)

The things we see...

This is the craziest thing I've seen in a long time. Try it.

The thing he was trying to prove? Worked completely on me.

So. Weird.