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!