Monday 29 November (and a Laugh)

4:45am - wake up
5:30am - picked up by the shuttle bus to take us to IAD
6:15am - arrive at IAD
9:45am - depart IAD for LHR
10:15pm - arrive at LHR
12:20pm - arrive at home

My body has no idea what time it is, what meal it's supposed to be eating, or whether it should be awake or asleep.

In short, my body is [expletived] the [expletive] up.

You'll get a full post very soon on my activities since Thursday (complete with photos!) but as it's still vaguely Monday, let me give you the weekly (sort of) Monday Laugh:

The Tube is running a good service on all lines.

Haha!  Get it?  It's a joke, see, because when we arrived back in London we were welcomed by a Tube strike - the fourth in as many months!  Haha!

[Expletive.]

Food Glorious Food

I love sweet potatoes.  (You know this already.)  Apparently they're making a comeback - woop woop for the sweet potato!  Obviously we're having some for Thanksgiving - we'll use Ina's recipe.

This Thanksgiving, like all the Thanksgivings I can remember, my sister and I are playing the role of sous-chef.  This is my parents' house, so my mother is the executive chef and her brother - who with his wife is here for the holiday - is, as a gourmet and a total control freak (love you, Marquis) the executive sous-chef. What this means is that, although I love cooking and entertaining and am definitely a control freak in my own right, I am taking a total backseat in terms of Thanksgiving meal.

But I still want to share a recipe with you!  I made this dish last weekend - I'm very proud of it because I made it up as I went along, which I rarely do.  I should probably come up with a creative name for it, something along the lines of "chicken with chorizo over couscous."  Hm, maybe something more original is needed...

Chicken with Chorizo over Couscous
(serves 4)

4 pieces of chicken - I used 2 breasts and 2 legs with the skin on
1/2 c flour
salt
pepper
olive oil
1 lbs chorizo sausage
1 onion, diced
4 teaspoons of minced garlic - I use the pre-minced stuff because I'm lazy
2 tablespoons of dried sage
1 can diced tomatoes
1 c red wine
1 c chicken broth

Mix the flour with salt and pepper and dust the chicken with the mixture.  Brown the chicken on all sides and set aside.

Heat a large heavy pot on high heat and drizzle in a little olive oil.  Slit the chorizo casings open and crumble the meat into the pot.  Cook until browned.  Add the diced onion and the garlic and stir frequently until the onions are squishy and then sprinkle in the sage.  Pour in the tomatoes and the red wine and the chicken broth and bring to a light boil.  When the sauce is bubbling gently, immerse the chicken, lower the heat, and cover the pot.  Leave simmering for about an hour.

Ten minutes before you want to eat, make the couscous according the directions on the box.  (Make sure to put a chicken bullion in the water you use for the couscous!)

Serve the chicken with its chorizo sauce over the couscous with a light red wine and enjoy!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Well, folks, it's not yet 9am and I'm awake again.  Jetlag is in my soul.  But that's okay, because it means I get a longer Thanksgiving Day!

I have to admit - even if it makes me a bad American - that Thanksgiving isn't a hugely patriotic day for my family.  I have a funny feeling that today, with Jon here for the holiday, we'll have more discussions about the Pilgrims and the founding of the United States than ever before, but traditionally it's not something that really comes up.  Usually, on Thanksgiving - and, in fact, on most holidays when my family gets together - I feel more Jewish than anything else.

Don't worry, we're not going overboard in our Jewishness: there's sausage in the stuffing and we're having pumpkin cheesecake as a dessert option.  (For those of you who don't know anything about gastronomic Judaism, you're not supposed to eat pork and mixing meat and milk in a single meal is verboten.)  But my mother has set out bagels, lox, and cream cheese for breakfast; Yiddish phrases will be thrown around; and rather than counting our blessings we'll all spend the day lovingly kvetching.

I can't remember where I heard this story about American Jews and Thanksgiving, but it cracks me up - an ignorant colleague of an American Jew asked if American Jews celebrate Thanksgiving, and got this response: "Yes, but we celebrate it on the Friday because turkeys are cheaper the next day."  Ha!

Also, though these things aren't Jewish, I have warned Jon about encountering the following today, ranked in no particular order:

1. the quoting of Gilbert and Sullivan operettas
2. arguments (with no one in particular, because no one in this family disagrees) about how Obama is being hobbled by the Republicans
3. snarky comments about the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

We are basically the people the Tea Party loves to hate.

Okay, now I feel like I'm being really awful and cynical.  Sorry, guys.  I do recognize that I'm an incredibly lucky girl and have been blessed beyond measure.  I am so thankful for my family, my friends, and Jon - to whomever this thanks is due, thank you, thank you, thank you!

When Jetlag Strikes

I had thought I was very clever.

My flight left at 4:20pm GMT and arrived at 7pm EST.

I figured that if I slept for a few hours on the flight and then had a coffee and stayed awake as late as possible, I'd sleep to a normal (for the eastern seaboard of the US) time and be jet lag free.

Well, folks, it's 7am EST (12pm GMT) and I'm awake.

Look how well that worked.

Sunset from the plane en route to Washington, DC

The eastern seaboard of the USA!

Congratulations!

Congrats to Helen who just got accepted into the Foreign Service!

(Please get posted somewhere exciting that I will want to visit.  kthanksbye.)

Frock Fridays (Belatedly)

Love this Preen dress on Carey Mulligan - I've been seeing this image all over the place and I cry a little bit inside every time I look at it because I don't own this dress.

Royal Wedding

I was never one of those girls who fantasized about marrying a prince.  I've never been obsessed with royals (unless we're talking pre-Renaissance monarchs, in which case I could probably tell you more than you care to know about them).  But yesterday, the following happened:

scene: open-plan office in London, mid-afternoon
Betsy: (loud squeal)
English colleagues: What's wrong?  Is everything okay?
Betsy: William and Kate are officially engaged!
English colleagues: (silence)
Betsy:  Guys, this is a big deal!
English colleagues: (silence)
Betsy:  Hello?  A royal wedding?  This is epic!
English colleagues: Okay...

Why is it that Americans are going crazy over this wedding and the Brits don't seem to care?  Sure, the media on both sides of the Atlantic is all over the engagement, but most English people I speak to seem to care more about who's going to pay for the whole shebang and how it's going to disrupt life in London than anything else.  Interesting.

Well, I warn you right now: I am going to go wedding crazy between now and the fateful day, whenever that may be.

via

Just like when, as a chorister, I sang at weddings and judged them mercilessly, I am going to hang on every word written about the engagement, the planning, and the wedding.  And you're going to get to hear about it.  Lucky you!

Thanksgiving Preparations

I have to admit, embarrassingly, that I had sort of forgotten that Thanksgiving is coming up.  I mean, I know that I'm going home soon, but since Thanksgiving isn't a holiday here in the UK (obviously) it has sort of flown under my radar.  But then I spent a glorious hour catching up on TheKitchn and now I am dreaming of golden roast turkey and smashed sweet potatoes and chestnut stuffing and ginger pumpkin pie and - oh, Lord, I'm salivating.  Nom.

Countdowns:

Jon and I fly to DC in ten days.

Thanksgiving is in twelve days.

We will be in NYC in fourteen days.

And then we fly back to London in sixteen days to start Christmas preparations!

Woop woop!

(Christmas, by the way, will be spent in Suffolk with Jon's family.  I'm sure you'll be hearing a lot about that in the weeks to come!)

Contradiction in Terms

I've been in a bit of a funk. I'm trying to explore why that is - explore with me, please?

My mom says that a funk always follows a manic period - and, to an extent, I've been a bit manic for the past five months.  I've been making an effort to create a new home, to assimilate to a new culture, and to succeed in a new work environment, and all of that combined has meant that I've been running on adrenaline since I moved to London in June.

So yes, Mom, I think you may be right.

But I also think my friend Christian may be right: she thinks that I've been working so hard to be wholly in this new life that I'm nervous about coming home for Thanksgiving.  (I'll be in DC November 22-25 and in NYC 26-27, if anyone wants to request an audience!)  Christian quickly put me - and any fears I may have - to rights, though.  Here's our conversation, exported with just a few edits from gchat:

christian: but what's this nervousness about coming home?
me: i don't knowwwwwwwww
christian: mmm i think you doooo
christian: worried that things will be different?
me: i guess?
christian:  i think you'll find we're still the same people we were when you left.  and altho your circumstances have changed drastically, i still know who you are.  its the truth, sister. we knew you way back when

It was exactly what I needed to hear.  Thanks, friend - you're the best.

In other news, it seems that I can't actually accept that I'm an employed Londoner now - not on the Internet, at least.  I refuse to unsubscribe to all of my US-based shopping emails (JCrew, Ann Taylor, RentTheRunway - I'm talking to you) as if I could, if I wanted, just order a dress off the website and have it delivered to my flat.  Also, I still compulsively check the Guardian's jobs website.  I'm not looking for another job, but I can't help checking to see what else is out there!  It's a problem, really.

What a contradiction I seem to be these days!  Le sigh.