London 2012

Being my mother's daughter, I have faithfully been instilled with a serious love for the Olympic games since I was a wee child.  I've had yesterday circled on our calendar for at least a month and even though David probably ought to have been studying, I told him the Opening Ceremonies were more than a worthy excuse to eat pizza with me on the couch and ignore his books.

Speaking of pizza, we made a pretty darn good one for dinner last night - a strawberry balsamic  pizza with roasted chicken, sweet onion, & applewood smoked bacon.  It was surprisingly simple to make and turned out DE-licious.  Find the recipe HERE.

MAKE IT. 

EAT IT.

LOVE IT.

 On the topic of love, did I mention I love the Olympics?  My mother kindly sent me a box of red, white, & blue decorations in the mail at the beginning of this month and, yes, I put them up last night for our own little Opening Ceremonies party.  And yes, they will stay up for the next two weeks while we watch little else than the Olympics, So You Think You Can Dance, & Project Runway.

Gosh I love summertime.

Go Team USA!!

the sweet stuff

Since I've got a fair bit of time on my hands as of late I'm trying to spend more time in the kitchen.  I never had much interest in making anything beyond PB&J's growing up (ask my mom), so now I'm attempting to make up for lost time by actually having dinner on the stove (no, not on the table yet, let's not get ahead of ourselves here) when David gets home and (to appease my sweet tooth) have some sort of baked good whipped up to nosh on during the week.

This week I couldn't resist my stroopwafel recipe. . . I've been craving these babies for a while now.

I've actually only made a (huge) batch of these guys once before and they turned out FAN-tasticlly.  That was probably around a year and a half ago.  It's not that they're that hard to make, exactly - - they just take a whole afternoon, which, it so happens, I had to spare on Tuesday.
(Recipe to follow after the hoards of pictures)

STROOPWAFELS

Waffle Cookies

4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 cup unsalted butter
2 large eggs
1 package active dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water

Filling

1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
1 cups unsalted butter
1 tsp ground cinnamon (+ a little more if you like)
6 Tbsp dark corn syrup (dark is preferred, but I used light this time - because I didn't want to run to the store - and it seems to work just as well)

Instructions

1. Preheat pizzelle iron
2. TO MAKE WAFFLES: Disolve the yeast in the warm water.  Cut butter into the flour.  Mix in the sugar, cinnamon, eggs, and yeast mixture.  Mix well and set aside to rise for 30-60 minutes.
3. Roll dough into balls and squeeze each ball into the preheated pizzelle iron and bake for about 30 seconds or to desired color.  Cut waffles into two thin halves.
4. TO MAKE FILLING: In a saucepan boil the brown sugar, butter, cinnamon, and dark corn syrup until it reaches the soft ball stage (234-240 F), stirring constantly.
5. TO ASSEMBLE: Spread filling between the prior cut halves!

Makes about 24 servings - - BEST if eaten after they've cooled :)

P.S. This batch turned out A-mazing.  I've already eaten too much many of them.  We're going to have to make some friends ASAP so we can give these guys away before I gain 5 pounds.

art

Etsy and I have a love/ hate relationship. 
It's such a BIG site offering SO many options that I often get overwhelmed at the thought of sifting through 157+ pages of information.   
However, when someone LINKS to something they've already found for me, I'm rarely disappointed.

Like this shop and these two darling London prints?
I'm in love.

Can you give yourself presents for St. Patrick's Day?  I'm so tempted...

pret for brunch

bowl

the good stuff:

vanilla yogurt

pomegranate seeds

apple shavings

granola

honey

A favorite impersonation from a favorite kitchen.

Now serving this side of the pond in NY, DC & Chicago.

Please excuse my while I close my eyes and pretend I'm in Hyde Park.

 

bad timing

turns out I took my trip across the pond exactly 1 year too early.

darn it. 

and p.s. can we all just agree that Kate's dress is gorgeous?? 

and p.s.s. in case you were wondering, no,  I didn't watch the nuptials.
we actually don't get cable at my apartment...or any channels for that matter.
double darn it.
but don't worry, momma TiVoed it for me back at home :)

day 3

love
 

London
(proper noun)
the most wonderful city I know 

 need I explain?
the plays
the museums
the double deckers
the center
the accents
the countryside
the traveling
the pictures
the long weekend trips
the shopping
the food
the friends
the memories

{ I think it explains itself }
 

virgin atlantic

I know they doesn't mean to taunt me.

I know they aren't out to get me.

But they keep sending me e-mails asking me to come back to 

London.

They want me to spend Christmas with them caroling outside St. Paul's Cathedral and ice skating at Somerset House.

They even conveniently informed me that a one-way ticket from LAX to Heathrow is only 

$307...

All I want for Christmas mum...?

social graphing

Okay so most of the time I think Facebook apps aren't worth my attention.
(And most of the time I know I'm right)

I don't "Like" anyone's pages,

I rarely check the events I've been invited to,

and it's been ages since I've posted pictures.

 However,

this is kind of cool.

It's called "Social Graph" and this is what it makes for you:

These are my 774 friends on Facebook and how they are all linked to one another.

Interestingly enough, and upon closer inspection, they all end up being grouped into smaller subcategories:

The closer people are to the middle the more connections they have,
and they are all interconnected.

Small world, huh?

Which is probably, in large part, due to Facebook...
Food for thought.

P.S. Yes, this is another gem I've picked up from my Organizational Behavior class.

simple pleasures

Let me break it down for you:

 Me

+ 

The nurse at the front desk who recognized my

Cath Kidston

coin purse 

=

Immediate bond/
Automatic day-maker.

She gets a gold star for sure.

withdraws

I can't help it.

I got addicted.
Not to any illegal substances,
Not to some online video game that will completely consume my life until I loose all pigment in my skin from sitting inside on the computer all day,
Not to adrenaline inducing extreme sports.
No.
It's worse.
And I'm afraid the only cure is a plane ticket...

I'm having withdraws  from 

London, England.

In an attempt to compensate for my British fever I heard that Provo has its own little farmer's market on Saturday mornings down off Center.

Done.

I am so there.

I miss the open markets.

 I miss the crowds of people shopping.

I miss the endless booths of merchandise and antiques.

This was what I really wanted to see yesterday morning:

This is what I got:

I was a little disappointed.

!!!

look what I found!!!!

Stroopwafels!

I'm all sorts of the most excited

movie night

yesterday The Parent Trap.

tonight Notting Hill.

guess who's feeling a little nostalgic...? 

to be missed

1. chestnut trees in full bloom in the park

2. big red obnoxious double-decker buses around every corner

3. creamy, delicious, heavenly English yogurt

4. yellow rolling hills of rapeseed all over the British countryside

5. sweet honeycomb ice-cream

XOXO London

it was fun

frankie, bobby, nikki & tommy

Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons

Who knew these guys were so great?

Oh What A Night

Can't Take My Eyes Off of You

Beggin'
Sherry
My Eyes Adore You
C'Mon Marianne

At the rate I'm listening to these boys they'll make it to the top of my 25 most played list in no time.

as promised

our last day in London was the best
our last night in London was even better

here's how it went down:

Original Plan: Dinner plans at a Thai restaurant
Reality: That place is closed, wandering leads us to another Thai place closer to the theatre that ends up serving great pad thai and delicious banana goodness for dessert.
Great success.

Original Plan: We thought the show started at 8:00
Reality: The show started at 7:30, but since we ate dinner closer than we thought we made it on time

Original Plan: We thought Lissie was headlining.  She wasn't.
Reality: Since we eat dinner closer than we had planned we saw her play her 5 opening songs.
We were the happiest.

Original Plan: We weren't very excited for the Local Natives who were actually headlining the show
Reality:  They turned out to be amazing, so amazing in fact that we went to buy t-shirts afterwards

The Results of Reality:
Because we bought shirts two sweet, wonderful girls gave us post-concert party tickets so we got to go back and meet the band who turned out to be from Orange County and went to Tesoro High School.

The best of nights.

the last

dear London,
i haven't blogged about everything, but i've posted about our best times.  you were so much fun.  this was our last day together, lets remember it for a while and how great it all was:

tube ride to Oxford for some early morning shopping

lunch at Books For Cooks down off Portobello (arguably one of my favorite places in the city)

finally found Princess D's fountain (after 2 months of searching)

attempted rowing on the Serpentine

walk through the daisies in Hyde Park

the best of concerts that will eventually get a post all its own, stay tuned.

and that's a wrap.

watch out

 

these signs are all over London

apparently English elders don't look both ways before crossing

the theatre the theatre

how to see shows in  
{London}

1. be a student
2. go to the box office an hour before the show
3. get a huge discount on great seats
4. enjoy productions like these:

Les Miserables

A Midsummer Night's Dream at Shakespeare's Globe

Phantom of the Opera

Macbeth at Shakespeare's Globe

Peter Pan

Wicked

Sister Act

War Horse

Oliver

Legally Blonde