expat thanksgiving!

Happy belated Thanksgiving, had mine yesterday.
This was my contribution, tartlettes, haha. They were a fun item to contribute.

Fillings can be almost anything you want, mine were filled with:

Courgette (Zucs)
Pancetta
Tomato
Goat cheese
Oregano
Olive Oil
Crushed Red Pepper
Salt


Bake mini pie shells in the oven at 200 C (350F?) for 10mins, while you saute your fillings (minus the goat cheese and do the pancetta seperately of coursie), then put a table spoon sized dollop of goat cheese (use the best you can find, preferrably one with a washed/brie style rind in the center of each little crust. Load your other fillings on top of the cheese (mushrooms and onion are another favorite) bake another 10 mins or so, pull them out just as the crust starts to become golden.

Use your favorite pie crust recipe and feel free to use a store bought pastry dough if you are pressed for time. Enjoy!

something good..Bic Runga

this lovely kiwi is so poetic and dialed in to true emotion...please check her out! Album - Beautiful Collision


Something Good lyrics


Just wanna know ya
Just wanna talk to ya
I wanna hear about your day
I'd never leave ya
Never be mean to ya
I'd always let you get your way

Something good will come our way
And maybe this good thing's gonna happen today

If I were honest I 'd tell you everything
But it keeps coming out as lies
It's not a promise
In case you're wondering
It's not some blessing in disguise

But something good will come our way
And maybe this good thing's gonna happen today
Something good will come our way
And maybe this good things gonna happen today

I know romance is not in fashion
And my heart is on the line
If you would be so kind
To help me kill some time

Then something good just might come crashing
From the stars that light the sky
If you would be so kind
To help me kill some time

Just wanna know ya
Just wanna talk to ya
I wanna hear about your day
I'd never leave ya
Never be mean to ya
I'd always let you get your way

Something good will come our way
And maybe this good thing's gonna happen today
Something good will come our way
And maybe this good things gonna happen today

Something good will come our way


*****



Sway lyrics


Don't stray, don't ever go away
I should be much too smart for this
You know it gets the better of me
Sometimes, when you and I collide
I fall into an ocean of you, pull me out in time
Don't let me drown, let me down
I say it's all because of you
And here I go, losing my control
I'm practicing your name so I can say it to your face
It doesn't seem right, to look you in the eye
Let all the things you mean to me
Come tumbling out my mouth
Indeed it's time to tell you why
I say it's infinitely true

Say you'll stay, don't come and go
Like you do
Sway my way, yeah I need to know
All about you

And there's no cure, and no way to be sure
Why everything's turned inside out
Instilling so much doubt
It makes me so tired - I feel so uninspired
My head is battling with my heart
My logic has been torn apart
And now it all turns sour
Come sweeten every afternoon

It's all because of you
It's all because of you

Now it all turns sour, come sweeten every afternoon
It's time to tell you why, I say it's infinitely true

It's all because of you
It's all because of you
It's all because of you

it's 'baltic' in london

my favorite new expression...kind of used the way we may use arctic. It is baltic, 30s and 40s this week...thailand here I come, two and a half week countdown, but who's counting?

Tartiflette Reblochon

A fine sunday dish! Sarah's mom sent Reblochon (my favorite french cheese from the region I lived in Annecy)...oh lala, I researched recipes and this one was just loverly...give it a shot, easy peasey!

So what also follow are some pics of flatmates and a bit of our / my place!

"In Annecy, near the Alps in eastern France. In an area of town called le vieux Annecy, there are lots of bistros that all serve versions of this dish. The most important ingredient is the cheese, Reblochon. A creamy, washed-rind cheese, it's made from the milk of Alpine cattle and is praised for its complex, fruity, floral flavour. Annecy bistros usually serve tartiflette as a main course, and it's delicious with just a green salad, but I like it as a side dish too."

If you can't get hold of Reblochon, try using Crémier de Chaumes, Epoisses or even a mature Irish Ardrahan. Remove any tough rind.


Ingredients
50g unsalted butter, softened
175g bacon or pancetta, cut into 1cm lardons
250g cup mushrooms, sliced
1kg waxy potatoes, such as Cara, peeled and sliced to a 3mm thickness
Salt and freshly ground pepper
250g Reblochon cheese, cubed
568ml carton double cream



Instructions
Preheat the oven to 150°C/gas 2. With half the butter, grease a shallow baking dish, about 25 x 30cm.

Heat a frying pan over a medium-high heat. Add the bacon. Sauté for about 5 minutes until crisp and brown. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on kitchen paper.

Pour off all but 1 tbsp of the bacon fat. Return the pan to the heat and add the mushrooms. Sauté for about 5 minutes. Season.

Toss the potato slices with salt and pepper. Arrange half in a layer in the dish. Sprinkle with the bacon and mushrooms. Top with half the cheese, season again (remember the bacon is salty already). Top with the remaining potatoes. Pour enough cream over the top to just cover the potatoes - you may not need it all. Dot with the remaining butter.

Bake for about 1¼ hours, or until the potatoes are tender. Dot with the remaining cheese, and return to the oven until brown and bubbling (about 15 minutes). Remove from the oven, cover with foil and leave for 10-15 minutes before serving.

Flat & Kitchen Mate

Sarah (France)

Flatmates

Katherine (UK) & Erman (Turkey)

halloween!

Erman was a little more in context at our butler's wharf halloween party at the Clink Prison, a former prison now prison museum, good times. I seem to be on a run now of just dandy personas this time of year...it was a great time!

me in my humble abode

Oh Mercury

I am greeted by twin mercury statues on my way to school, been wanting to take a pic if they stood still long enough, I manged to snap one of them today!

Very Hogwarts...

We had an offsite for the department at this really, really old place called Apothocaries Hall in Central London last week, it was really cool, nice venue. It was here that the first labor agreements were ever drafted, quite a history. I also learned that LSE established the first ever Industrial Relations department...now I figure I should have known that but hey the school tends not to tout itself too much, so no, not my fault (and I'm not touting).
Can you find me in the pics? Hint, I'm nerdy and like to sit up front...