Ice cream

Many years ago when my parents came to visit me for the first time in the United States we spent some time travelling around New England. I remember being in Rockport, Massachusetts, one afternoon and deciding we needed some ice cream. My father was delighted at the selection of flavors, and happy that they let him try a couple before he bought. I suggested that he buy a small ice cream. He indignantly insisted that he wanted a large. I suggested a small would be sufficient. He got the large and it very nearly defeated him. I think he only finished it out of sheer stubbornness!

Like many other things, ice cream servings do tend to be larger over here than in the UK. This afternoon a friend described the 'small' ice cream served at our most local ice cream stand as ' the size of a child's head.' We had run into her at a slightly further afield ice cream stand, where her kids were getting a treat after a long and sweaty hike. Ours were just getting a treat. Next time we should do a hike first!

This afternoon's destination is a local dairy farm. They sell a variety of ice cream flavours, all but one (the peanut butter one) made on the farm from the milk from their own Jersey and Holstein cows. You can tell how local the product is as soon as you step out of the car - one of the other products they sell (to enrich the soil in your garden) has a much stronger smell than any ice cream could! The kids like going here for ice cream because they like visiting the cows. You can't feed them or pet them, but there's just something irresistible about these very large animals.

Here's a pic of my (small - I asked for ONE scoop but I think the girl couldn't count that high!) ice cream:
I chose to have a particularly local icecream. Not only does the milk come from the cows on the farm, but one of the other main ingredients does too. It is a seasonal flavour, not offered all year round, so it is not listed on the flavours board.

Can you figure out what flavour my ice cream was? (I removed the name of the farm from the flavours board photo, so you can't just Google it!) It's one of those things that doesn't sound like a good idea necessarily, but is actually quite good. No prizes for the winning guess I'm afraid.

Later . . .

Memorial Day

Memorial Day around here always means going to the local parade. Obviously it's a time to remember those who have died while serving in the US military, but it's not just serviceman and former servicemen who march in the parade. Many of the local Boy Scout and Girl Scouts march too, and representatives from other local organizations, including the town council, the local community band and the high school marching band. There is always a large variety of vehicles, most of which are very shiny and very noisy - lots of sirens and horns going! The local air force base sends a couple of planes to do a fly past at the beginning and end of the parade. The one at the end is usually very low and very loud. The kids' favorite part is usually the fact that many of those in the parade carry large quantities of candy that they throw at children sitting on the side of the road.

And when it's all done we return home to a barbecue lunch. Not the first of the season, as DH likes to grill even in the winter, but often the first with fresh corn on the cob and somehow it still marks the beginning of summer even if the forecast for later this week is for colder weather again!

All in all, Memorial Day is a lot more upbeat than Remembrance Day and if you don't catch the speeches at the cemetery after the parade, it can be difficult to make the connection between the occasion and what it is we are supposed to be remembering.
















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Well trained!

DD went to a classmate's birthday party this afternoon. They had rented a local ice rink. The group had the entire rink to themselves for about an hour and got to watch the Zamboni clean up the ice before they skated. Then when the Zamboni came back out, the girls retreated to a squash court where tables were set up for them to have snacks, cake and ice cream. While they were doing that the public skating session started, so once they were done with snacks they got to go back out on the ice for another hour. DD had a blast. The only other time she's been skating was when she was in pre-school. She was nervous at first this afternoon, but gradually gained in confidence, despite three quite hard falls resulting on one very bruised knee.

I discovered that skating is not like riding a bicycle. Even admitting the fact that I was never particularly good at skating even when I was a teenager, my performance today was pathetic. I could blame the rental skates I suppose. I still have the skates I had as a teenager, and they still fit, which thoroughly confused DD whose feet are still growing. However, even though DH kindly cleaned the rust off them, my blades were in dire need of sharpening and when I discovered that there was no one at the rink who could sharpen them for me I decided it would be safer to go with the rentals. I pottered around the rink a couple of times and that was enough. It was much more fun hanging out at the side of the rink gossiping with the other mommies and taking photos of the kids.

DD enjoyed herself so much that she decided that she wants to go skating again on a regular basis AND she'd like her next birthday party to be at the rink. The last few years she's had the option of taking a family trip to somewhere like Washington D.C. instead of a party and has always chosen the trip. So I asked her if she'd rather have the skating party than a family trip. (The party would probably be the cheaper option!) Her answer proved she is well-trained: "Hmm. Can we go to Canada?"

Search terms

I find it interesting to look at the search terms that have led people to my blog. There's a wide variety and looking at them I see how some led to my blog, but not others:

would you immigrate to the American state
graphs of culture shock
American almost monarchy
American friendliness versus British reticence
filling out a green visa on the plane
American culture time flies when you’re having fun
American bizarre
mcdonalds scottish restaurant radio bam
average American dinner time
things you can put maple syrup on
Americans shocked at British vacation time
places Americans shouldn’t travel
mailing maple syrup overseas
advantages of drive-thru weddings
drive thru bars
when is dinner time for most Americans
future plans and ambitions
statistics on people who cook casserole

The winners in terms of sheer frequency though are variations on the following two:

why Americans shouldn’t travel – 8%
Smarties vs m&ms – 16%!

The Why Some Americans Shouldn't be Allowed to Travel post was lazyblogging - little more than a link to another web page. The Smarties post was written back in January 2007.

Unimportant happy things

Bella Foxx tagged me. The rules are below.

Rules:

1. Mention the person who nominated you.
2. List six unimportant things that make you happy.
3. Tag six blogs, state the rules & notify them with a teeny comment on their blog.

Six things that make me happy, unimportant things . . . let me see . . . That's harder than I first thought! There are lots of little things that make me happy - like hugs and kisses from my kids & DH, but I wouldn't count those as unimportant because unimportant means something I could live without.

1. matching necklace and earring sets (I wore jewelery far more often B.C. - Before Children)
   
2. more pairs of shoes than DH thinks are necessary (I had more of those B.C. too!)
   
3. plants in the house (Don't have as many of those as I used to B.C. either. Hmm - there is a theme here!)
   
4. laundry that's been dried on the line (It's been 4 years since I had an outdoor clothes line, so clearly I can manage without it, but I'd still like to have one again.)
5. comments on my blog
   
6. a perfectly tidy and organized house! (It would be nice, but I seem to manage without it!)
   

Now I have to tag 6 people.
A Brit Different
A Brit Out of Water
Crunchie Mummy
Expatmum
Paradise Lost in Translation
Yael

Meme

Wife in Hong Kong tagged me for this meme:

1. What are your current obsessions?
Obsessions? I never obsess about anything ;-)

2. Which item from your wardrobe do you wear most often?
Probably my comfy stretchy travel skirt from Coldwater Creek or its ripoff copies from Target.

3. What’s for dinner?
Dinner tonight was not typical. I finished off the pasta salad DS took to school for lunch because he only ate half of it, then I had half a PB&J. The kids had sandwiches. It was DDs night for Girl Scouts so dinner had to be quick.

4. Last thing you bought?
I went to the supermarket while DD was at Girl Scouts for more cold cuts, milk and Tetley's British Blend. Then I gassed the car up - so petrol was the last thing I bought. (Anyone else notice my schizophrenic code-switching there - American to English?)

5.What are you listening to?
The quiet hum of the computer.

6. Favourite kid’s film?
There are so many good ones! Ratatouille. Wallace & Gromit movies. Flushed Away. Chicken Run.

7. Favourite holiday spots?
The Dordogne, the Loire, and Acadia National Park in Maine. (Except for all the tourists!)

8. What are you reading now?
A mindless beach book that is so unmemorable I can't even remember the title.

9. Four words to describe yourself?
Talkative. Smart. Overweight. Unfocused.

10. Guilty pleasure?
Chocolate

11. Favourite author?
Again, so many to choose from.

12. First spring thing?
Daffodils

13. Planning to travel to next?
Possibly Montréal. Can't afford a trip to the UK right now, but we might as well get some use out of our passports!

14. a) Best thing you ate and b) drank recently?
a) Anything my husband cooked. b) Starbucks dark chocolate frappuccino

15. When did you last get tipsy?
Probably my husband's company Christmas party.

16. Favourite ever film?
Picnic at Hanging Rock (I finally found the book, but had to order it from Australia.)

17. Favourite band?
Not as big a deal in my life as in some people's as I find it hard to do other things while listening to music. Changes on a regular basis, but always 'oldies'. The Police, Les Négresses Vertes, The Housemartins, Pink Floyd . . .

18. What new blogs are you reading?
Haven't really added any new ones to my list recently - it's hard enough keeping up with the ones I already have on my RSS feed. The newest ones on my list are probably Brits'n'Bobs and Another ReDesign of the Wheel.

19. Biggest regret?
Not raising the kids bilingual.

Rules of the meme. Respond and rework. Answer questions on your own blog. Replace one question. Add one question. Tag 8 people. Now I tag

Boojam
Limey at Brits'n'Bobs
Tasha the Coding Mamma
Daffodilly
Nicola

And anyone else who'd like to do this because I see that at least one of the people I put on this list has already been tagged, so I give up . . .

Bizarre little video

Wow - someone actually got paid $10,000 for this! It was created for a competition, but I didn't even see the name of the sponsoring company the first time I watched it. (It is there, and this is an ad for them!)

Cooking by heart

How many recipes do you know by heart? The UKTV Food channel recently surveyed 3,000 British people about their cooking habits and discovered that on average they knew 6 recipes by heart. (A recipe being a dish that includes 4 or more ingredients.)

The top ten dishes British people feel most comfortable cooking (and the percentage of people who can cook them without a recipe) are apparently:

Spaghetti bolognese (65%)

Roast dinner (54%)

Chilli con carne (42%)

Lasagne (41%)

Cottage or shepherd's pie (38%)

Meat or fish stir fry (38%)

Beef casserole (34%)

Macaroni cheese (32%)

Toad in the hole (30%)

Meat, fish or vegetable curry (26%)

Source: UKTV Food survey

I could manage 7 of those without a recipe, 8 if I'm allowed to use a jar of Patak's or Trader Joe's curry sauce! (Interestingly, Patak's has recipes on their websites - but only five TOTAL on their US site as opposed to the dozens and dozens of recipes on their UK site!)

This household beats the average because those surveyed admitted they made an average of just four home-cooked meals per week, and they own just five cook books. Hmm - I probably have five cookbooks that I use on a regular basis, but there are at least thirty cookbooks in my living room alone. If home-cooked means eating at home, and not eating take-away or frozen/prepared meals, we eat home-cooked meals ALL the time! Very occasionally (once every couple of months) we have pizza. Equally rarely, a box of Trader Joe's samosas will sometimes serve as dinner - though less often since they annoyingly stopped selling the India Relish that went so well with them!

I'm trying to think of actual recipes I know though. A lot of the meals I cook don't really seem to qualify as needing recipes! Baked boneless, skinless chicken breast with some kind of spice mix like Montreal Chicken, served with rice (cooked in chicken stock with onions and garlic), and microwaved peas. Ground (minced) turkey with garlic, onion, mushrooms, zucchini (courgettes) and pasta sauce from a jar, served over pasta. Does it count if the pasta sauce comes out of a jar? Can you tell my main goal is simply to get people fed? Sometimes I do chop a lot of veggies and do a chicken stir fry. That takes more effort, but it still doesn't really need a recipe! Hmm ... chicken casserole! That one counts, I'm sure! Bite-sized pieces of boneless, skinless, chicken, with onions, garlic, mushrooms, canned corn, tomato paste, cubed potatoes, a couple of bay leaves, thyme and chicken stock. Throw it all in a casserole dish and bung it in the oven till done! Quantities? Times? No. Can't give you those. Fill the casserole dish. Check it occasionally while it's cooking till it seems done. This one is perfectly edible (indeed, better) when reheated the next day, so a little over-cooking won't harm it.

DH is the one who knows most of the recipes in this house though. Occasionally, very occasionally, he deigns to write them down so that I can attempt them. Tonight's super yummy turkey burger recipe is one that he knows by heart, but I could never replicate it unless he wrote it down. (And he hasn't.) It involved ground (minced) turkey (of course!) and garam (chickpea) flour, egg substitute, Worcestershire sauce, garlic powder and a bunch of other spices. There were no measuring tools involved as far as I could see, yet the recipe turns out well every time. Here's one of my favorites he did share with me (but I certainly don't have it memorized yet!)

BLACK BEAN AND CORN SALAD

1 can black beans (rinsed & drained)
1 can corn (drained)
1 vidalia onion
1/2 each red, orange and yellow pepper
1/2 cucumber (English)
4 medium tomatoes (remove seeds)
1 can sliced black olives

3-4 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
abt 3 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro
4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
4 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 tbsp lime juice
1 crushed and minced clove of garlic
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1 pinch dried oregano

Put vegetables in bowl.

Mix liquids, herbs & spices in a jar. Shake hard for a minute. Pour over vegetables and stir to coat all.

Best if it sits overnight.

Enjoy! And if you do, please let me know in the comments, and leave one of your favorite recipes there too!

Of mice and bunnies

I don't remember the song about Little Bunny Foo Foo from my childhood. I remember a friend's 6 year-old daughter singing it to me with great glee some years ago though:

Little bunny, Foo Foo

Hopping through the forest

Scooping up the field mice

And bopping them on the head

No worse than many fairy tales of course, but some of the videos of it that I found online were pretty gruesome. Of course, there are sanitized versions around with no mention of the bopping on the head:

Little Bunny Foo Foo


On Saturday DS asked me a question I couldn't make sense of to start with.

- D'you think the bunny in the attic will keep me awake tonight?
- Huh?
- The bunny bopping the field mice on the head.

I explained that Little Bunny Foo Foo and the Easter Bunny are different rabbits, and that the Easter Bunny was unlikely to be hunting mice in our attic. He didn't seem entirely convinced. I guess he thinks rabbits are carnivores, despite seeing them regularly in the backyard eating the vegetation.

We do have mice in the attic, and would like them to be gone, but imaginary bunnies are not likely to be the answer to our problem. Nor indeed are the real bunnies we have in the yard, especially as they have problems of their own. Instead, DH has installed some (humane) traps in the basement. He complains about mice in the attic, but puts the traps in the basement. Where's the logic in that, I hear you asking. The logic in that is that the piece of attic where we hear the mice most often is inaccessible (to humans at least!), so we can't put any traps up there. The logic in that is that the traps in the basement have been being licked clean by the mice on a regular basis - so we know they're down there too - we just don't hear them as much as the ones above us. And we have caught mice in the basement before. In fact, we caught one this morning, and here he is having been transferred to a glass jar so the children could see him before he was taken back outside.


Not a wonderful photo I'm afraid, because my camera kept wanting to focus on the glass instead of the rodent. He appeared fairly traumatised by the whole experience of being caught, but I'm sure he'll be back. With friends. After all, he's found a nice supply of food in our basement. The peanut butter-laden traps have been down there for weeks and the mice have been cleaning them out on a regular basis and managing not to get caught until today. Why wouldn't he try to come back?

Britain's not what it used to be

The show All Things Considered on National Public Radio started a 5 part series today, 'Revisiting the Road to Canterbury', on Britain's struggles with its identity. From what I heard today I think the series is going to be well worth listening to.

The whole concept of what it means to be British has come into question in recent years, as immigration has increased and as the pillars of the old identity that united the kingdom — empire, monarchy, the Church of England — have been eroded.

I found it fascinating to hear a former Islamist extremist say that he thinks Britain has tried too hard to accommodate immigrants and Britain needs to become more like the United States if it wants to avoid immigrant groups becoming alienated and radicalized. He says,

In America, there is more of an understanding that citizenship is based on allegiance and not on ethnicity … and it's allegiance to a set of principles, a set of values, what it means to be American.

I am not sure that I entirely agree with his opinion - but of course I didn't grow up feeling that the society I was living in did not reflect my culture or values. (Nor have I lived for any extensive period of time in the UK in the last 20 years, so what do I know about Britain any more anyway?!) I suspect many Arab Americans who have had their identity and allegiance questioned in the years since 9/11 would disagree with him too.

The United States has certainly been dealing with the issue of immigrants for far longer than Britain has. But for all its experience with the issue, it is still one that the country struggles with.

More wildlife

Although we don't live far from the center of town, there is a lot of wildlife to be seen around here. We've seen bear, a bobcat, wild turkeys and deer in the back yard on occasion and have found raccoon footprints in the snow on our deck. I've also seen skunks, foxes, and possums, though not in our yard. I've not seen any coyotes, though we can often hear them howling in the early evening.

This morning on our way home from the dump an animal ran across the road in front of the car. My first thought was that it was the same color as the black squirrel that lives in our yard. My next was that it was a lot larger - longer, with a much thicker tail. I figured it was probably some kind of weasel. On looking it up when we got home, I found that it was what New Englanders call a 'fisher cat'. It's a North American marten - so, indeed, it is a member of the weasel family. Apparently fisher cats tend to be shy and secretive, more often heard than seen, as well as tending to be nocturnal so I consider myself lucky to have seen one.

(Image from http://www.catcustomer.com/fisher-cat/)

On our own with DS

Only one of the children is home this evening. DS asked when he got home from school if he can sleep in DD's bed instead of his own tonight. I know he misses her, and she's only been gone a couple of hours! I doubt she's missing us. I hope not anyway!

We decided to take DS out to dinner as a treat. I asked him where he'd like to go, and delightfully he answered, "Somewhere close and cheap so we don't have to spend too much of your money." Ahh - so cute! So we went somewhere close, but not as cheap as he would have liked. (He was thinking Friendly's or McDonalds I think. He's still never been to "that Scottish restaurant" as my sister used to call it, so for him it would be a treat.)

For years now our choice of restaurant has usually been guided by one rule - it must be child-friendly. However, the restaurant we chose tonight is a small place that seems to discourage children in the evening by not having a printed children's menu. Our waitress handed all of us a regular menu, watched DS reading it, and finally said "Do you know what we have on our kids' menu?" Duh, no! She then recited the kids' offerings to us. After all, the littlest ones can't read, so why print a menu for them?! Well, the kids' menu usually has a picture on it to color to keep the kids entertained while they're waiting for their food! Kid-friendly restaurants also have paper cups with lids and straws. Not this one. DS was brought a heavy pint glass of water, and then an equally large glass of milk. He did a good fantastic job with both, not spilling either of them.

Being pint glasses, both the glasses he had were etched with beer company logos. One was from the Berkshire Brewing Company. He read the logo aloud, looked very puzzled and said "But why doesn't it say America?"


It took us a minute to realize that the only BBC he knows is:

Organic air

I didn't see any April Fool's Day stories today that were as good as last year's flying penguins story from the BBC, but I quite liked this ad on the WholeFoods supermarket website.


According to their site today, they've just opened their first supermarket in Antartica!

Not so lucky

Last summer when one of the baby bunnies in our back yard narrowly avoided being hit by the weedwhacker, my daughter christened him/her Lucky.

Yesterday, DH discovered lots of fur on the grass in the back yard.

Not easy to see until you look a little closer, given that the grass is not so green this time of year. We easily could have missed it.


DD assumed it was from the mother rabbit pulling out her fur to line a nest again. When she realized that it was more likely evidence that one of 'our' rabbits had been prey for the bobcat, she asked:

"Do you think it was Lucky?"
"No dear, I don't think it was lucky!"

Fortunately, she seemed happy with that answer! I just hope we don't start finding bones in the yard . . . Do bobcats eat the bones? Maybe it was a hawk that got the rabbit and that explains the lack of other remains. I DO hope they're off in the woods somewhere and not elsewhere in our yard!

A sign of spring

No daffodils yet, though I saw some this morning on my way to work that looked as though the flowers will be out within the next few days. The sign below at a local school is a different sign of spring.

There are vernal pools nearby with salamanders in them - who apparently tend to commit mass suicide by crossing the nearest roads. I have to admit I've never actually seen any salamanders crossing the road. Perhaps I've unknowingly driven over them? I'm not sure what to do if I see any - turn around and take a different route, or wait for them to cross the road? Clearly, they are not large creatures so the chances are that if I stop to let them cross the person in the car behind me won't see any obvious reason why I've stopped and will try to pass me - possibly killing the salamanders anyway :-(

They say time flies . . .

. . . when you're having fun. So I must be having lots of fun then! It is really hard to believe that I've been in the United States for almost 23 years now. TWENTY THREE YEARS? When did that happen?!!

I came here planning on spending 2 years here and then returning to the UK. Then I discovered that unless I paid out of my own pocket to take summer classes somewhere, there was no way I could graduate in less than 5 semesters. (This despite the fact that one semester I overloaded on credits and took far more classes than was recommended. Hah! I passed them all!) So I took some extra classes just because I wanted to (beginning Spanish, skiing, aerobics), and took 6 semesters (3 years) to finish my degree. That 6th semester I met someone who helped me find a job, with work permission, for the following fall. I deliberately turned all the paperwork for graduation in late so that I couldn't graduate in the spring, which meant that officially I was still a student and was able to work on campus over the summer. (Sneaky huh?! I had a good foreign student advisor, though of course his advice about delaying graduation was strictly off the record!) The short-term job I'd found finished in March, and I returned to the UK. I spent several months fruitlessly job-hunting, but then got two job offers back in the US and came back here.

It wasn't until I'd been here for ten years, and already had my green card, that I met DH. Since then, time has just flown by! Last weekend was our twelfth wedding anniversary. I cannot imagine my life now without him or my children. But I'm having a hard time believing I've been married twelve years already! When did that happen?!! Not only have I now lived in the US for longer than I've lived anywhere else, but I've spent more of my time in the US married to DH than not. And yet I'm still only almost American . . .

Tourism gets in the way

When I came to the United States, it was to do a Master's degree. I could have done that in the UK, though quite frankly at the time it would have been harder to find the funding to do it there. One of the main reasons I chose to do it here was because it gave me the chance to live in the United States for a while. Having spent a year living and studying in France, I realized that being a tourist and living somewhere were very different experiences. My family had never gone on package tours when we travelled to France. We went camping and shopped locally. We had more of an 'authentic' experience than many tourists. But it still wasn't the same as actually being immersed in the language and culture.

Rick Steves, an American travel writer, is the antithesis of ethnocentric and his mission is to encourage people to travel and learn that the way they live is not the only way to live. He writes guidebooks and has a travel show on TV encouraging people to travel independently, off the beaten path, and get to know the place they are visiting. (As a savvy business man, however, he does offer guided tours to Europe whilst touting how different they are from 'regular' tours!)

When asked in a recent interview , "What's the most important thing people can learn from traveling?" he responded:

A broader perspective. They can see themselves as part of a family of humankind. It's just quite an adjustment to find out that the people who sit on toilets on this planet are the odd ones. Most people squat. You're raised thinking this is the civilized way to go to the bathroom. But it's not. It's the Western way to go to the bathroom. But it's not more civilized than somebody who squats. A man in Afghanistan once told me that a third of this planet eats with spoons and forks, and a third of the planet eats with chopsticks, and a third eats with their fingers. And they're all just as civilized as one another.

In the same interview, he commented:

A lot of Americans comfort themselves thinking, "Well, everybody wants to be in America because we're the best." But you find that's not true in countries like Norway, Belgium or Bulgaria. I remember a long time ago, I was impressed that my friends in Bulgaria, who lived a bleak existence, wanted to stay there. They wanted their life to be better but they didn't want to abandon their country. That's a very powerful Eureka! moment when you're traveling: to realize that people don't have the American dream. They've got their own dream. And that's not a bad thing. That's a good thing.

And that's why I call myself 'Almost American' - because so many of the Americans I've met have never travelled and simply cannot understand why everyone wouldn't want to be American. (Yet, at the same time they are angry at the number of people who want so badly to be here that they enter the country illegally!) Rick Steves wants Americans to

get over themselves. He wants us to please shed our geographic ego. "Everybody should travel before they vote," he has written.

It's unrealistic of course, but wouldn't that be nice?

Trying to get blood from a stone

In the "Unclear on the concept" category:


No, it's not a trash can/rubbish bin - it's a sap bucket!

Mud season

(Image from At Home in the Upper Valley.)

When it's mud season and you're visiting friends who live at the end of a long dirt driveway, given the choice of a) a fairly low-slung front wheel drive vehicle and b) an all-wheel drive SUV, make the smart choice and take vehicle b! (Actually, it probably wouldn't have made much difference as all the vehicles seemed to be getting stuck to some degree except for the ones that made for the nice dry spot in front of the garage.)

I do wish I'd had my camera with me!

Maple syrup - it's not just for pancakes!

It is sugaring season again here. Last week on my commute I saw the first sapbuckets out - a real sign that spring is on its way. We'll probably go out for breakfast at one of the sugar houses next weekend. (We were planning to go this weekend, but just didn't manage to haul ourselves out of bed on time, what with the change in the clocks and a late night for all at a party on Saturday!)

Maple syrup is NOT just for pancakes though. At our local sugar house they sell jugs of syrup of course, but they sell other maple products too. You can buy maple candies, and maple cream. (Think creamed honey, but maple flavoured.) You can buy candy floss (cotton candy) made from maple sugar. They sell 'sugar-on-snow' too, which is a cooked down version of maple syrup poured over a tray of snow so that it cools to a consistency where you can pick it up with fingers or a fork and eat it like candy. You can even do this at home (unlike making maple syrup!) Traditionally it's followed by a pickle to kill the sweetness.

One of my favourite chicken recipes calls for honey, but I replaced it with maple syrup once because I had no honey and it was delicious. There are more recipes using maple syrup here, here and here.

PEPPERY CHICKEN
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 cup sliced mushrooms

Marinade ingredients:

1 tsp olive oil
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp honey or maple syrup (but not the fake maple syrup rubbish!)
1/2 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tbsp white vinegar
1/2 tsp allspice (didn't have any of this the first few times I made this recipe and it was still good)
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper (I tend not to bother with this, preferring simply to add pepper to taste once the chicken is cooked.)

Mix all the marinade ingredients and pour over the chicken. The honey or maple syrup is easier to measure if you pour it into the same spoon you used for the olive oil - the remaining film of oil on the spoon helps the sticky sweet stuff slide right off! Refrigerate for about an hour. It's definitely better if you marinate it, rather than just pouring the sauce over the chicken and cooking it right away - which of course I do on occasion when I haven't planned ahead! You can marinade it for longer than an hour and it doesn't seem to harm it.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F, and bake the chicken until cooked.

Slice the mushrooms thinly and add to the sauce surrounding the chicken for the last few minutes of cooking time. I've sometimes added sun-dried tomatoes to the sauce at the beginning of the cooking time too.

Serve with rice or couscous.

I posted about maple sugaring last year, here, here and here. If you're in the north-eastern United States and looking for information about sugar houses that you can visit, try these sites:

• Maple Producers Association of Connecticut
• Maine Maple Producers Association
• Massachusetts Maple Producers Association
• New Hampshire Maple Producers
• New York State Maple Producers Association
• Vermont Maple Syrup

Ooh - thanks Kat!

Expat Kat at The Pea Green Boat just gave me this award:
According to the authors of this award, this blog invests and believes in the PROXIMITY - nearness in space, time and relationships! These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers! Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award."

So thanks Kat! I pass this on to Da Goof at Another Redesign of the Wheel, Laura of Are we Nearly There Yet Mummy?, Limey at Brits n' Bobs, Expat 21 at Expat Abroad, Maximus of Home and Other Thoughts From Abroad, Canoez at Paddling Upstream, Nicola of Some Mothers Do 'av Em, and Tasha at WAHM-BAM. If you haven't visited any of these blogs before - do take a look!

Blue skies and snowy days

I remember a January day my very first winter in New England - walking across the quiet, almost empty, university campus and really enjoying the feeling of being on holiday. There was snow on the ground and the sky was cloudless. I remember being quite delighted by the sun sparkling off the snow because I don't remember ever seeing snow in England sparkle. When we made Christmas decorations in primary school and used white glitter to decorate them it never occurred to me that snow really could sparkle like that - I thought it was a pretend thing!

Even when it's really cold (and even when I have to go to work), those sunny days in winter lift my spirits, especially when there's snow on the ground. Yesterday was one of those gorgeously sunny days and it was a nice day to be out and about:


Today it is not like that. We woke to grey skies and the forecast of 4 to 8 inches of snow. Instead of sitting in a puddle of sunshine on the dining room floor this afternoon reading a book, as I did yesterday, I've been sitting on the living room floor playing games with the husband and kids.

Quirkle is our game of choice this winter - one of those simple to learn games that requires some thought and strategy to play well. The snow is pretty and it's nice to have family time and an excuse for not having to go anywhere or do anything outside the house.



Having said that, once we get to the end of February I'm usually ready for winter to be over, or at least for there to be no more snow. But for all my griping about the weather, I would definitely miss New England winters if I ever moved back to the UK!

February vacation

We don't get half term holidays over here, but we do have this week off school anyway. The school year here is 10 days shorter than in the UK - 180 days rather than 190 and the holidays are arranged a little differently.

No October half-term, but we do get two days in November for Thanksgiving. Slightly less than 2 weeks at Christmas/New Year as opposed to two full weeks in the UK. A week in February, like February half term. We don't get two weeks off at Easter. We get one week in April. In my school district that vacation will now be shortened by 2 days because of the number of snow days we've had :-( By the middle to end of June we're done, whereas the state schools in the UK still have another 3 weeks to go.

So why is it, after so many years of February half term, it feels far too early this year to be having a week off school right now? Maybe I got too used to the private school vacations of two weeks in March? (Perfect timing for cheap tickets to the UK! It's been three years now though since I had vacation in March. Sniff!) Maybe it's because I ended up with almost a month off for Christmas because of all the snow days? (If only I'd know in advance that was coming, we'd have gone to the UK!) It certainly feels as though we had just barely got started with a school routine, and now we're on holiday again. Of course, DH with his paltry annual allowance of something like 6 days off has no sympathy!

Ok, I'm off to plan our calendar so we don't get to Friday and find the week has slipped by and we haven't even left the house! Library, movies, museums, kids' theatre - there are so many choices!

Another expat interview

Several of the bloggers I read have been participating in the 5 questions interview meme. I volunteered to have Not from Around Here interview me, and she sent the following questions:

(1) What do you miss most about the UK?
After 23 years over here in the US, the biggest thing I miss right now about the UK is my family. I wish my kids had a chance to get to know their English cousins better. I wish I had been able to be around and help my sister's family out when she and her husband both underwent significant surgeries last fall. I miss my mum and dad - but video Skype phone calls are great!

(2) What main message would you like to pass along to your kids about your multi-national existence?
That it is important to learn not just about the British and American cultures, but others too. Too many problems in this world stem from people believing that their way is the only way, when in fact there are often many different ways to do something that are equally good.

(3) What about America do you like the most but perhaps am reticent to admit because you're "Almost American"?
I don't think I would be reticent about admitting it, but I do like the sense of possibility over here. To repeat a blog post from a couple of years ago, I like:

the can-do attitude over here. If someone in the UK said they were thinking about maybe writing a book, the reaction would be, "What, you?" If someone in the US said the same thing the response would be "Go for it!"

I wonder how much that has changed with bloggers like Tom Reynolds, Petite Anglaise and others getting publishing deals now and becoming celebrities?

(4) How would you change America and how would you change the UK if given the chance?
The United States definitely needs a health care system that doesn't leave people in fear of bankruptcy if they actually get sick. Yes, I know the NHS isn't perfect, but in the UK no one has to fear losing their car, house, life savings and credit rating because they can't pay their medical bills. Sadly, I don't see this changing in the US any time soon, despite the change in regime.

I've been away from the UK so long now, that it would almost be like moving to a 'foreign' country if I moved back, so I honestly be sure what I would change. What I read online seems to imply that in many ways Britain is adopting some of the worst aspects of American culture - such as fast food and violence - and I think that's sad.

(5) If you had all the time (and resources) in the world, what would you do with your time?
Time AND resources eh? So I get to imagine having won the biggest lottery I can think of? Excellent! Travel would be very high on the list. The kids have not spent enough time with their relatives in the UK, or enough time over there to get any real sense of how Britain is different from the US beyond some superficial differences in vocabulary. (Lorry, biscuit . . .) I'd like them to see some of the other places in Europe that DH and I have seen, and DD has expressed a strong interest in visiting Asia. I would also like to spend more time on some of my craft interests that keep getting pushed to one side. I have a loom that hasn't been used in over a year, and DH is still waiting for me to ever knit him a sweater!

Thanks NFAH for the interesting questions - some answers were immediately obvious, others I had to think about a little harder.

Here are the directions if you want to participate in the meme:

1. Leave me a comment saying, “Interview me,” not forgetting that I'll need your email address. (No need to make it public - just put it in the little box thingy and I'll be able to see it but my readers won't.)
2. I will respond by emailing you five questions. (I get to pick the questions).
3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

Dinnertime

Both children are usually pretty good eaters. They like a lot of things I'm told many other children their age won't eat. But for some reason DS has decided in the last 6 weeks or so that nothing we cook is good enough for him any more. He will request something for dinner and then refuse to eat it when it's served. Unless it's cheerios, goldfish crackers or a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, there's no guarantee he'll eat it. Some yogurts are acceptable, and anything mom and dad would classify as junk food, though we rarely, if ever, serve it. Tonight's dinner conversation was typical:

On seeing dinner being prepared by DH:

That's yucky!
How do you know? You've never tasted it!
I just hate it!
But you like everything that's in it!
Well, I'm not going to eat it!
Then you're going to be very hungry because that's all that's on offer tonight!

When it was actually put in front of him:

You know I don't like that!
(We ignore him.)
The sauce is touching the broccoli!
(We ignore him.)
I'm not hungry! I'm full!
But I bet you have room for chocolate ice cream don't you?!
Yes!
Well, the ice cream is only for people who've eaten at least half their dinner!

The faces he pulled were quite entertaining, but he wouldn't let me take a photo of him:


Nor, apparently, was it acceptable to take pictures of his 'disgusting' dinner:

(The empty cup was going to have milk or water poured into it after he'd eaten some of his dinner. We've learned not to fill it at the beginning of the meal as otherwise he just fills up on liquid!)

My dinner, on the other hand, was very nice:



Just kidding! The teatowel and cocktail napkins were joke gifts from DH this holiday season! I had the same pasta with homemade tomato sauce with olives, pork, and broccoli that the kids had and I'm looking forward to the leftovers for lunch at work tomorrow (even without an accompanying glass of red wine!)

DS never did eat any of his dinner, but that's OK - guess what he's having for dinner tomorrow?! :-)

Follow-up: He did indeed get offered the same meal a second time - and guess what? This time it was deemed yummy and he ate it all up!

Future plans

Apparently just before Christmas DD was making plans for her future. I found the following written on a small scrap of paper hidden under her bed. I'm not quite sure why the numbering changed mid-stream - it looked as though she was making plans for specific ages, but then suddenly it changed to specific dates. Perhaps she wanted to throw me off in case I found the list!

10 - See Beverly Hills Chew Wa Wa
11 - own all high school vidios
12 -
13 - Get ears perced
14 - Get first boy friend
15 -
16 -
17 -
18 - Take dads canoe building class
19 - own a horse
Dec 20 - Live on farm
Dec 21 - own livestock
Dec 22 - Request song
Dec 23 - Move to apartment but own farm
24 - have child
25 - move to New york
26 - see the macys thanks giving day parade in New york
27 - buy car
28 - buy a house
29 - Get marryed

She must have written it on a day she was in a good mood because there is no mention of leaving home until Dec (i.e. age?) 20. We do need to have a little chat about the fact that she apparently has no ambition to go to university. Of course that would save DH and I a ton of money in the short term, but probably not in the long run as she will need financial support from us if she ends up in dead-end jobs because of a lack of education! I'm not necessarily excited about her having a child before she gets married either. That's worth a few conversations too!

The end of an error

One can only hope!

Culture shock

Not from Around Here pointed me in the direction of an excellent post on depression and culture shock on An American Bedu's blog. The post itself is interesting, the comments even more so. Culture shock is so much more complicated than many people realize. Many people think it goes away if you live long enough in the 'foreign' culture, but that's not always true. Some people never get over it and choose to go back home, as expat21 discussed recently on her blog. However, it's not true that returning 'home' will always be an improvement. There is truth in the saying "You can never go home" and reverse culture shock can be just as powerful as the regular kind!

Most of the 'graphs' of culture shock I've found online are based on the foreign-exchange student/temporary stay abroad experience rather than that of the immigrant:

A visa by any other name

From The Independent newspaper, January 10, 2009:

For more than 20 years, the vast majority of British visitors to America have entered the US under the Visa Waiver Program. This involves filling in a green form, code name I-94W, while on board the flight to America. But from Monday 12 January, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is introducing a new set of rules.

Even though you might be eligible to visit the US under the visa waiver program, you will now have to apply online at least 3 days in advance of your planned trip to the US to ask for permission. Even if you are simply going to be changing planes in the US and continuing on to another destination, you will need to ask permission. (In the past, transit-only passengers did not need a visa as far as I know, so long as they were not planning on leaving the airport.) Customs and Border Protection has a page here explaining what you need to know. If you've ever been to the US and filled out the I-94 W on the plane before landing, the new ESTA program asks for exactly the same information - only before you travel to the US rather than as you arrive.

It sounds as though for many people it could be a tiny improvement - one less thing to deal with on the plane - except that, for now at least, you still have to fill in the form on the plane too! And of course, if you're someone (yes, there are some) who never goes online, filling out the online-only form could prove problematic. I forsee a market for travel agents charging to do this! The US government currently does not charge people to submit an ESTA application, but they reserve the right to do so in the future.

When I downloaded one of the PDF files that explained more about the program, it said I could find out more about the program at http://www.cpb.gov/esta. Hmm - that address gave me a page load error: "Firefox can't find the server at www.cpb.gov". So I thought I'd take a look at the site where you can actually fill out the information in advance of your visit to the US - https://esta.cpb.dhs.gov - and guess what? That server couldn't be found either!

Why am I not surprised? (Addendum - anonymous pointed out that I had mistyped the address. The sad thing is that I did it not once but multiple times, each time checking the address against the addresses listed in the PDF file. I guess I was tireder than I thought, or just getting old, as dyslexia is not something I usually have a problem with!)

The correct address is significantly longer than https://esta.cbp.dhs.gov. (Spot the difference in the address?) If you actually need it, and want to avoid the typing mistakes I made, it is (currently) linked to from near the top of this Customs and Border Protection page. And if I were you, if the response you get from the system is that you ARE authorized to travel to the US, I'd make sure you print that screen out and tuck the printout in with your passport and tickets! (Actually, the instructions do tell you to keep a record of your application number and have it with you as you enter the US.)

Happy 2009!

A little late because we've been away and I didn't plan ahead to have a post appear on New Year's Day, but Happy New Year anyway! Here's a quick look back at 2008 from (not my) Uncle Jay:

Mandalas

I was inspired this afternoon by the beautiful artwork at Chewy's blogsite, "The Back of my Headboard," particularly by the gorgeous mandalas she has created. They are done in Photoshop, which I have used a little but not enough to figure out how to create such images myself. (It's the math of the rotations and flips of the picture that's beyond me to figure out on my own.) I was wondering if she would teach me, or if I could find a class - and then as I went back into her archives I found she had linked to a fantastic tutorial on exactly how to create mandalas. (Although I visit her blog from time to time, it wasn't on my RSS feed - if it was I'd've known about the tutorial a couple of months ago.) Thanks Chewy - and you're on my RSS feed now!

Here's the first mandala I've made, from a photo of a snowy tree in our yard:

Nice to see you!

We've been using Skype for a while now to call family in the UK. I think the first time I logged in to Skype there were fewer than a million people online. Nowadays it's more like 15 million. I was surprised this morning when it was only 10 million - but I suppose a lot of people use it for business. Anyway, we have only recently started making video calls using Skype, and I have to say it's wonderful! We made a couple of calls to the UK today and saw my parents, my niece and nephews and their parents. It's a long time since my kids have seen their cousins, and DS probably doesn't have a really clear memory of them, so being able to see and talk to them was really nice. DS enjoyed putting his face close to the camera to show off the fact that he's lost two of his baby teeth and there is a new one coming through.

The best part of the calls was the fact that I was using a Macbook with a built-in camera, so I was able to walk around the house with it. At one point my sister said, "Take me to the kitchen!" and I did. My mother wanted a closer look at a piece of artwork on the wall so I obliged. We were about to hang up when my kids yelled that my father-in-law was just pulling up on the driveway. My mum said she'd stay online until he came in the house so she could say hello to him - after all it wasn't going to cost any extra! Rather than walk away from the computer to let him in, I took the laptop to the front door with me, so as he walked in the house she greeted him with a cheery "Merry Christmas!" The look on his face was priceless! The kids' great-great-aunt (in her 90's) was with him, and her reaction was complete discombobulation - at first she thought she was looking at herself, then she thought it was a video and finally asked "Is she answering me back?" Great-great-aunt is, as my mother-in-law used to say, a hot ticket and she commented later in the day that she'd love to live for another 90 years just to see what new technologies will come along.

It's really not that long since the idea of video phone calls was still pure science fiction, and now not only can we make video calls but with Skype they are free! I wonder what we'll be doing with technology when I'm in my 90s?

Snow day

It didn't start snowing until almost 1 o'clock this afternoon, but school was cancelled for the day anyway. The kids and I had a lazy start to the day, having breakfast about 9. The squirrels were out there pigging out as usual, but suddenly there was a huge flurry of activity, animals racing across the lawn, that caught our attention. We realized that something large had just chased a couple of squirrels up a tree. They went too high for the larger animal to follow them, at which point it started to back down the tree and then raced off into the woods in pursuit of another squirrel. It took me a moment to figure out what it was - it looked vaguely racoon sized - but then as it turned and I saw its face and then looked again at its tail, I realized it was a bobcat! They're not particularly uncommon animals in North America, but it's really unusual to see them in broad daylight! Descriptions of them usually include the words 'elusive' and/or 'seldom seen'.

DS was convinced he'd seen a leopard or cheetah until I looked it up online and showed him some pictures. You can see why he was confused:

Of course the whole thing happened far too fast for me to get any photos of my own. We went out afterwards to look at the footprints, but although the bobcat's prints were noticeably different to all the squirrel prints out there they didn't look particularly cat-like. The snow on the ground this morning was covered in a layer of ice and there were several places where the bobcat hadn't even broken through the ice and so there were no pawprints at all!


The large white circles are not snowflakes but drops of water on the window.

Bacon flavoured chocolate?

Apparently I missed out on the excitement in the British press back in November that not only had Selfridges started to sell bacon flavoured chocolate, but that it had sold out. It reads as though it's some weird British thing - BUT the chocolate is produced by an American company in Chicago and sold here in the US through their website. They have some other interesting sounding offerings, but this one I think I'll pass on! Green & Black's is cheaper anyway, and easier to find. Oh, and "Mo's Bacon Bar" is only 41% cacao, so hardly worth the effort ;-) I wonder if it tastes better than the new Burger King perfume smells?

The scent of seduction . . .

. . . with a hint of flame-broiled meat - Flame - a new scent from Burger King! Apparently you can't buy any though because it's only available in the US (wonder why?) and it's already sold out. (Wonder why?) Hmm - if the date were different, I would say it was an April Fool . . .

Why would you emigrate?

Would you emigrate (would you have emigrated) if you knew the reality of the country you were moving to? I think for those of us who moved from the UK to the US or vice versa, we had a fairly good sense of what we were letting ourselves in for. There are always little things that surprise you though. Despite the similarities in the language, the differences can be disconcerting. Despite knowing about the US from TV shows and books, dealing with it on a day to day basis still resulted in some culture shock. I'm not sure if the shock is worse for those who come from a very different cultural and language background - surely you must expect the US to seem strange if you have moved here from Afghanistan or Somalia, whereas I was truly surprised to find the US seemed 'foreign'.

From http://booj.blogspot.com/2008/10/why-hell-would-you.html

" I like the idea developed in the Netherlands that if a foreigner wishes to immigrate there, then they have, apart from learning the language, to watch a film showing the life of the country, warts and all, drunks and nudes, hookers, hookahs, pornography, taxes, frost and floods and all. It gives a message to those who would enthusiastically tumble into Europe that it ain't necessarily quite the wonderful place you might think it to be. We have unemployment, we allow people to drink and become drunk, we allow people to express opinions, though we may not necessarily agree, we allow gays to express themselves. The clear message is "Don't like it? Don't come." "If you can't stand it, having come, go.""

Who ate the tree ornaments?

I finally found some chocolate tree ornaments - for some strange reason they're not very easy to find over here. I put them on the tree after the children were in bed. Within seconds of coming downstairs for breakfast the next morning, or so it seemed, they noticed them. They appear to have inherited my chocolate gene. I warned the children not to touch them.

The children left for school, I started on housework. As I was transferring laundry from the washing machine into the dryer, I found a very distinctive wrapper in with the laundry. Someone, though I couldn't tell who, had eaten one of the tree ornaments and put the wrapper in their pocket. (I suspect this was probably before I put the ornaments on the tree.) I wasn't counting as I put them on the tree, but I counted as I followed through on my warning and took them off the tree again and realized that not one but two of them were missing. However, there were a couple of new ornaments on the tree:

Both children deny having taken the chocolate off the tree in the first place, but given the appearance of the poinsettia leaves, I would bet it was DD. I can't believe she really thought I (the chocolate queen) wouldn't notice!

Postscript: She 'fessed up to taking one chocolate ornament off the tree, but denied having eaten the mini candy canes missing from the kitchen - this despite her breath smelling like mint this morning and the candy cane wrappers being hidden under her pillow. She claimed her brother must have put the candy canes in her mouth while she was asleep, and the wrappers under her pillow! She really doesn't lie very well, but I guess that's a good thing!

Would you drink sun tan oil?

When I lived in the south of France, my preferred brand of sun tan oil was Bergasol. It gave very little skin protection, but I did get a nice tan. Of course, given the amount of time I spent in the sun, I would have got a nice tan no matter which oil or lotion I'd used, given that back then no one used high SPF products. I certainly wasn't thinking about protecting myself against skin cancer. Apparently the original formula Bergasol is no longer sold because of the amount of the tanning accelerator psoralen, a cancer-causing substance, that was in it.


Despite its quintessential Englishness, I didn't encounter Earl Grey tea until many years later and disliked it intensely at first sniff. It took me a while to figure out why - the flavour comes from oil of bergamot - the same oil that gives Bergasol its distinctive smell! Earl Grey is DH's favorite kind of tea and I have to make sure that it is kept in a separate Tupperware container from my Tetley's British Blend so as not to contaminate it!