12 Nov 2011- Lifting weights and eating too much at the Hometown Buffet!

When your lower body is strong and used to carrying your body weight back and forth, there isn’t a strong need to work out the upper body. This is the problem I have, and thus means my upper body is quite a bit weaker then my lower half. However, this is a problem I’m trying to resolve using light weights and lots of reps. Winston re-introduced a reluctant me to weights the other day, and he first tried me out on 15lb weights. No joy there- they were too heavy! Then he tried out 10lb weights. My biceps could cope, but my triceps couldn’t. So, in the end, he tried out 5lb weights on my triceps, and my triceps and most of my upper body muscles could cope with it! I won’t bore you with the details of the exercises done, but suffice to say that I felt a bit sore afterwards. I’d already done half an hour of cardio earlier that day, and we spent an hour doing weights (a lot of that time was spent learning how to do the exercises properly, and stretching, so not all that time was ‘pumping iron’, hehe!)

My main motivation for doing weights that day was because we wanted to visit the local branch of HOMETOWN BUFFET, and it is better to do some exercise to compensate for major food intake then none at all! I basically stuffed my face, and so did Winston. However, Winston has an aversion to desserts if they’re not of the cookie and vanilla icecream variety, so he had more plates of savoury food then I did. Hometown buffet only costs about $10 per person at dinnertime, so it was well cheap, and the range of food you could pick from was a lot more diverse then a buffet place in London. It is known for making ‘homecooked’ American food with a bias towards the deep-fried, saucy, and barbecued! Winston told me he used to go there with his friend Yan during university days because of its cheapness, and because he loved the deep fried chicken.

When I say deep-fried, that place really deep fries chicken until the oil is oozing out of the perfectly cooked piece of chicken wrapped in its crispy seasoned skin jacket- a principle it lends to all other deep fried items of food. And a principle it carries out very well.

I have a particular method of eating at buffets that has held me in good stead over the years. My method has relaxed a bit as I’ve gotten older, but generally, you avoid eating any savoury carbohydrates like potatoes, rice or noodles, get one small item of everything on your first plate so that you only pick what you like when you get subsequent plates, and avoid drinking much while you’re eating multiple plates of food. One thing about American buffets is if you don’t like something, you can leave it, and you won’t be charged a penalty for doing so. But can you imagine the amount of waste there must be with American buffets if you really don’t like a food item, or only partially eat it? This is a question I put to Winston, and I asked him if wasted food was composted, or perhaps even fed as slop to pigs. Winston told me health rules over here mean that not all wasted food is ‘re-used’. Instead, it is just thrown away or disposed of accordingly (maybe via incineration or something is my guess). In London, most buffet places operate a wastage policy where the amount of waste left affects the size of the wastage monetary fine. I think this is the right way to go because it makes the public more conscious of what they choose to eat without leaving much waste. Unfortunately, I wasn’t a complete angel when it came to eating all my food. I did leave some waste behind, but this is not something I do normally!

I took pictures of all the plates of food I obtained from the buffet place. What you see on those plates is what I mostly ate. When something was too breaded (e.g the corn dog) or too saucey (like heavily coated saucy ribs) or too strongly seasoned, I’d only eat a bit of it, hence the waste. I’ve listed what I selected on each plate, so you can see the diversity of dishes I tried. I avoided certain items like deep fried egg rolls, since you can eat those anywhere, and only ate one tiny portion of food if it was swimming in a creamy sauce for taste purposes- such food leaves me feeling a bit bloated if I eat too much of it (I avoid eating large portions of most dairy products- must be a bit of the lactose intolerancy inherent in the South East Asian race in me, lol!)

 I took two pictures of the first plate I had since the chicken thigh obscured all the other goodies on my plate:

Yum!

 

First plate: Small piece boiled and lightly seasoned cabbage; 2 seasoned potato wedges; 1 corn dog; 2 popcorn breaded prawns; 1 tiny piece sage stuffing; 1 piece sautéed Portuguese sausage with green peppers; 1 piece sautéed beef with celery and carrots; 1 small portion buffalo babyback ribs; 1 deep fried seasoned chicken thigh; 1 tiny portion creamy chicken; 1 tiny piece spoonbread.

Second plate: 2 large BBQ sauced ribs; 1 small portion honey glazed babyback ribs; 1 piece calzone enclosing pepperoni, mozzarella and pork bits; 1 piece sweet and sour chicken; 1 tiny piece garlic toasted bread; 1 small portion stir-fried mixed veg; 1 portion mixed raw salad leaves, sliced raw mushrooms, cooked sliced beetroot, and cooked sweetcorn kernels drizzled with low calorie French dressing and sprinkled with roasted pine nuts.

Third plate: 1 jalapeño cornbread muffin (that I only had 2 small bites of since it was too sweet to me for it to be a savoury, which is what it was designed for); 1 medium piece of baked sweet potato; 1 tiny portion minced taco meat; 1 tiny portion broccoli and bacon salad; few boiled broccoli florets; 1 small and very oniony portion of onion salsa with coriander; 1 highly spiced medium portion of mexican tomato salsa; 1 small portion of Mexican mixed sweetcorn salad; few slices of boiled beetroot (again, I know, but I love beetroot!).

 

Fourth plate: Dessert! Luckily, I was able to cut small portions of each dessert I put on my plate. Usual American portion size is three times as large for each cut-able dessert. In the bowl was: one cinnamon cookie; 1 tiny portion hot peach cobbler; 1 tiny portion hot peach oat crumble; 1 tiny portion hot bread and butter pudding. In the other bowl: fat free plain frozen yogurt sprinkled with some chopped walnuts. On the plate: 1 small piece plain chocolate cake; 1 small piece American brownie; 1 small piece carrot cake with cheese frosting; 1 small piece moist chocolate cake; 1 piece of chocolate fudge (which was so sweet I could only eat a tiny bite of it and thus left it).

After such a huge feast, I was so full I couldn’t stand completely straight because that made my distended stomach hurt! I’d drank half a medium glass of Mexican cinnamon milk and consumed a few small portions of fresh cut pineapple after my huge meal to help with digestion, but such measures only helped a tiny bit.

Looking and thinking about food later that evening hurt my overly sated body and mind, so I didn’t eat anything else for the rest of the day, and I chilled out with Winston being a couch potato!

Thank goodness I’m working out pretty regularly! Wouldn't you, if you were in my position? :)


 

10 Nov 2011- Technology, American Patriotism and Football, Junk food and Commercials

Today is the 10^th, and it’s only now that I’ve attempted to start a blog. (Thanks for reminding me with your suggestion, Olin!) I’d thought about making one before, but I wasn’t really enthusiastic about doing so, and it’s just so simple and easy for me to write an update on an MS document, and attach it to an email. I guess figuring out how to use a blog and its template will stimulate my brain and create new synaptic paths of creativity!

As I came to San Diego, California on the 19^th October, it wouldn’t be right for me to just start posting from today, so I have decided to post all my updates predating today on here too. This allows me to have one place to store all my updates, and helps with continuity.

I’ve said this before, but I’ll say it again: SKYPE IS AMAZING! Thank goodness it’s around, because seeing and hearing your relatives and friends is much more nicer then just hearing a disembodied voice on the end of the phone. And Skype is FREE! I’m very glad I managed to speak with Ma, Pa, my siblings, and Hank and Auntie! Cheers, Skype!

Having access to Skype makes me glad I was born during an age when technology caused the first personal computer to come about. With each year that passed since its development during the 1970’s, technology rapidly evolved allowing chips and circuitry, etc, to become smaller and smaller, thus allowing the first mobile phone to exist. Can you imagine a time without mobile phones now? Technology allows our lives to run smoothly, and although hacking and cracking is relatively rife (and we know how to defend ourselves with firewalls and such pretty well), we can’t really live without it. This has given rise to new stresses, like Facebook’s ‘neurotic limbo’ where you stay signed on and check all status updates all the time just in case you miss out on something good!

http://www.napier.ac.uk/media/Pages/NewsDetails.aspx?NewsID=187

Personally, I’m against going on Facebook too often, and I’m also against adding friends on Facebook unless I actually know these people! FB Friend collecting is all well and good if you work in the PR sector, or in a sector that means social ability and networking is important, but if FB collecting only occurs because you think, ‘The more friends I have, the better I look in the eyes of my friends’, then you might have a problem with self esteem.

Winston is watching the San Diego Chargers game against the Raiders at the moment. Emotions are going up and down, and if I could, I’d take a video of Winston showing his emotions in a very visceral manner, hehe! During a break or two in the game (and such breaks are frequent), an infomercial is shown which demonstrates patriotism to the American flag, and the job that the American military does to protect the American nation. This is done to ensure that each American’s inherent patriotism is maintained and provoked via emotion. Well, that’s how I see it anyhow!

Cousin Burt explained American football to me as being a ‘social sport’. Frequent breaks allow fellow Americans to talk with each other about the game currently happening, and this temporarily bonds them and lets them feel bonhomie with their fellow man. This is also why American businessmen like to conduct, discuss, and maybe close some of their business deals at football games. I’ve actually watched one San Diego Chargers game in full on the TV, and I have to admit it is kind of entertaining, even though I have no idea what’s happening! Perhaps I might try and learn some rules of the game, since I’m going to be watching a LIVE game with Winston and a bunch of his mates at the end of this month.

Food commercials show a lot during football game breaks. The Americans know how to make a mouthwateringly unhealthy burger- no wonder a lot of the nation is obese! But if commercials are playing on the sensuality of taking that first juicy bite of savoury beef/chicken or pork smothered with cheese and other toppings, or sandwiched between toasted buns for a good value price, no wonder American consumers in large numbers are consuming them. Winston is like my conscience in this respect, because you know how much I like my food, especially fried food! Thinking that I may be betraying him by getting junk food on the sly is actually helping my hips stay relatively slim, and along with the regular exercise that I’m getting on the elliptical machine and via weights, I’m maintaining my weight and perhaps losing a little in the process. Fingers crossed I stay self-aware enough to look the same when I go back to London!

I’m going to end this post on a mouthwatering and healthy note by posting a picture of the arrozcaldo I made the other day- it’s brown rice porridge topped with a ginger, garlic, and pineapple marinated chicken mess garnished with chopped green onions, with a small portion of sliced green beans in mirin and soy sauce dressing at the side:

 

It was tangy and yummy! Sorry I can’t give the recipe for the chicken though. It was an experiment I made up!

Jen :)

P.S So that you’re not tempted by the McRib, I hope you enjoy reading the chart I obtained from a forum called MacResource.

 

7 Nov 2011- Film Festing, Ramen Feasting, and San Diego Rain

It’s been a bit of a film fest for me recently! Therefore, I’d like to share with you the films that I recommend for watching that have JEN approval!

THE RAMEN GIRL- Synopsis:

‘Abby, four years out of college, an aimless child of privilege, comes to Tokyo to be with her boyfriend, who promptly leaves for Osaka. She wants to stay in Tokyo in hopes he'll come back to her, but she's miserable: she speaks little Japanese and has a dull job as a law-firm gopher. She stumbles into the neighborhood ramen shop operated by the aging master chef Maezumi and his wife Reiko. His soup cheers Abby, so she decides to apprentice herself to him. He's uninterested, she's insistent, so he shouts at her and gives her all the cleaning to do. Weeks go by; she's persistent. Will he ever actually teach her to cook? And if he does, will she bring the requisite spirit to the job?’

Brittany Murphy acted well in this film, which revolves around the world of ramen noodles. Until I saw this film, I had no idea that you had to have special training to become a Ramen chef, and that making ramen and its broth is a long drawn out and meticulous process. If you take a peek on YouTube, you will find a clip from Cooking With Dog that shows you how to make Yakituba Ramen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wa0umYJVGg. Winston and I watched it and really felt like eating proper ramen, not the ready-made variety, but we couldn’t be bothered to drive all the way to the store to get ingredients because we’d eaten already! But sometimes, ready-made ramen hits the spot, so here’s a picture of some I made the other day:

BATTLE FOR TERRA- Synopsis:

‘BATTLE for TERRA is a fantastic journey to worlds we have only dreamed of. It is a story of friendship, family, sacrifice and most importantly, the realization that all of our survival relies on our earth's precious natural resources.’

When I first watched this film, I thought it had a similar premise to Avatar. However, the film manages to engage you enough so you don’t think about Avatar, and it has smooth animation and great landscapes to look at for a non-3D film.

A VERY HAROLD AND KUMAR 3D CHRISTMAS- Synopsis:

‘Six years have elapsed since Guantanemo Bay, leaving Harold and Kumar estranged from one another with very different families, friends and lives. But when Kumar arrives on Harold's doorstep during the holiday season with a mysterious package in hand, he inadvertently burns down Harold's father-in-law's beloved Christmas tree. To fix the problem, Harold and Kumar embark on a mission through New York City to find the perfect Christmas tree, once again stumbling into trouble at every single turn.’

Winston and I went out yesterday night with a bunch of mates to watch this in the cinema. American audiences laugh a bit more louder then British audiences, but this film deserved the laughs and was really funny! The film pushes comedic boundaries as much as it did with the previous Harold and Kumar films, and as long as you’re open-minded and not offended by un-PC humour, you’ll be fine!

Previous to watching this, we met up with Winston's friends, Nick and Joy (his fiancé), and we ate at the In n’ Out burger place. We ate a Double Double burger animal style, which was composed of two beef patties smothered with melted cheese and fried onions along with a large slice of beef tomato and lettuce leaves in between a toasted white burger bun. We accompanied this with fries and a refillable soft drink (I had low calorie lemonade to compensate for all the calories I was consuming!)

 

My first American burger and it was so tasty! However, I didn’t have space to eat popcorn at the cinema, so unfortunately, trying out the popcorn will have to wait until I go to the cinema again.

I did observe and find out that you can choose to add butter dressing, sliced jalapeños, and other condiments to the popcorn you buy, and that you are entitled to one free refill of popcorn! Next time, I’ll have to forsake a meal so I can stuff myself with popcorn, lol!

The boiling technique is a good way to reduce the oil normally used in making any type of fried breakfast. This is a technique I utilise when I cook anything junky that would normally be fried, and this is a technique that Winston copied off me when he made us breakfast the other day! He cooked hotdogs and boiled eggs, and sausage patties and bacon, and we ate these items with a portion of brown rice (cooked separately). All you need to do is put all the junky stuff in a big pan with enough water to cover all the flatter items, and to go halfway up the pre-washed egg and its shell. You turn up the heat until the water boils, turn down the heat to medium so the egg is cooked for at least four minutes or until the water disappears, (take the egg out before the pan is water-dry) and then turn down the heat so that the food fries in its own oil. This method takes little longer then frying, but at least it’s a tad healthier then the usual.

It rained recently in San Diego, which led to Winston saying the quip: ‘Rain makes San Diego people idiots’. There is a good reason for him saying this, because, apparently, such people will drive faster to get home quicker in rainy weather- totally against the normal rules of what to do if driving in the wet. And all because people here aren’t used to driving conditions which differ from the sunny! When we were out going to the mall, we even saw a woman whose car had ended up in a ditch and was being pulled out by a tow truck. It looked like her car had slipped in a wet patch and slid off the road.

What is more surprising is that some of the homeless people here actually own one-person tents. To live in. There are a few tents that are lined outside a certain building near here to which the police seem to turn a blind eye, and the good thing is the tents protect the homeless and their things pretty well!

5 Nov 2011- Pottering around making empanadas and cookies, & playing with Hair Clippers and the iPhone 4S

Today is the 5^th of November, which means I will have been here approximately 17 days. More then the usual 2 weeks I would have spent here if I’d been working a normal job with holiday allocation.

I’ve been asked, ‘How do you spend your days when Winston is away working?’ Well, I potter around. These days, I think Potter means Harry Potter to the younger generation. For those of my peer group, to potter around means to ‘to be gently active doing various things in an almost aimless manner’. So, that’s what I’ve been doing! I’ve been baking and making and working out and reading. I’ve watched TV episodes and films of interest. I’ve been writing my essay length letters, and trying my best to amuse and inform those who’ve been reading them (thank you!). I’ve been busy in my own way, and for now, that’s okay.

When Winston is around, we both potter together! But we also go out and hang out with mates and relatives, we have good conversations to get the brain waves moving, and we go either window shopping or shopping.

I’ve noticed since I’ve been here that random strangers will walk and say, ‘Hi, how are ya?’ on the street even if the reply they get comes four steps after they’ve gone past. First of all, why not contract the phrase to ‘Hi!’ so they can be sure of getting a reply almost instantaneously? I find the random greeting thing weird because in London, most people will avoid eye contact and saying hi to strangers, just in case that stranger turns out to be a really odd human being who might end up stalking you or worse! Here, I just reply with a small smile and nod of the head, or a little ‘Hi’ back. It’s foreign for me to do that, but when in Rome, do as the Romans do!

I’ve made and cooked a few things since I last emailed! I’ve made homemade empanadas with a corn masa dough encasing a savoury lentil, onion, thyme and spam filling, and I made chocolate cookies from scratch.

Making empanadas is a little time consuming and fiddly, and I’m not sure if I’d do them again. However, the ones I made were very nice taste-wise, although Winston did say I should have put more meat in them. Unfortunately, when baked, the dough shell cracked a fair bit on five of them, so I didn’t take any pictures of the finished product. However, I took a picture of them pre-baked. The one at the top left developed quite a big hole so I had to patch it! The only one that didn’t crack was the one on the bottom right. Once baked, the dough is reminiscent of a Jamaican patty.

Shiny because they were brushed with oil!

As for the cookies, they were chocolate (one of my favourite things to enjoy in a sublime moment of decadence) nutella peanut butter cookies, made with wholewheat flour.

I made 30 cookies in total, and they have a slightly chewy texture with a moreish flavour.

The only convenience food item that I have tried so far is Rice-a-Roni. It’s par-boiled rice with small bits of pasta shaped like rice to which you add a special seasoning, water, and either oil or butter. I tried the broccoli au gratin flavour. This is what the packaging and rice-a-roni looks like:

 

You add oil (as per the first rice and pasta bits picture above), and cook it in the microwave until the pasta turns brown. Then you add special seasoning and water, and cook it the rest of the way in the microwave for 15 minutes. The process looks like this:

 

It tastes okay, and is relatively healthy as long as you use a little bit of olive oil. For a fuller tasting version, butter can be used, but I’d rather not use that.

I also tried an Almond Joy chocolate bar. It’s basically like a Bounty bar, but with a roasted almond to top the bar off. After abstaining from chocolate for so long, it was a pleasure to have it.

Recently, Winston and I bought hair clippers. Who’d have thought cutting his hair would be fraught with stress and difficulties!? I had told him I’d cut hair before, but I neglected to say I’d cut only Belle’s hair when I was younger. He thought I meant I’d cut male hair before. It took several hours, and I got so stressed that I became overly emotional at points and escaped to a different room for a brief respite. He was being very technical and protective of his hair, but in the end we resolved the issue and he had his hair cut pretty well. However, a lot of it came off before I perfected the fade. He’s actually allowing me to cut his hair in future so I can perfect my hair clipper technique. Maybe I’ll actually be very good at wielding them in future, and it means I could cut Danny and Pa’s hair thus saving them lots of money, hehe!

We saw a 4x4 car’s left front door wrenched off its hinges the other day. My goodness, it was loud, and the funny thing was that the owner came out to check the damage and just went ‘Oh mah gawd, what happened?’ It looked like he might have been a shade drunk, and his student mates were in the car with him. The car was going into an underground parking garage and the open (!) door hit the entrance pillar. The driver heard a noise, but he didn’t stop- he kept on going, which is why the door came off. I dread to think how much such damage could have cost, because I think he also gouged the entrance pillar.

Winston finally got his iPhone 4S in white, 16GB. It’s a sleek marvel that is marginally thinner then his old iPhone 4 (the latter will find its home with his cousin in the Philippines, lucky kid!).

 

We’ve been playing with the Siri (Artificial Intelligence Assistant) function, but it won’t recognise my British accent when I ask it questions. When I say ‘Winston’ it thinks I’m saying ‘Allen’, and when I ask the question ‘Is Winston as mad as a hatter?’ Siri understands it as ‘Is Winston as mad as a hoster?’

By the way, I’ve called Winston ‘Hank’ twice, completely by accident. One was when I asked Winston to play a movie, and once in relation to food. Thankfully for me, Winston didn’t get pissed off but he did notice my mistakes and made me pay for it by teasing me for a bit! Phew!

Anyway, it’s time for me to go now and potter around!

Until next time,

Jen:)

2 Nov 2011- American Football, a Comb, and TIMING!

Every Sunday here is an American football TV day. This means that from 9am or 10am in the morning until late evening, there are MULTIPLE football games! For me, this means being a football widow somewhat, since I’m not into watching sports on the TV, but Winston definitely is! His iPAD definitely comes into its own here, otherwise I’d be pretty bored. So, Sundays for me are currently ‘Watch Good British program series’ days! The Sunday before last, I watched all the episodes of ‘Misfits’- that’s 2 series worth, 7 episodes per series. Last Sunday, I watched all 6 episodes of ‘The Fades’, and this Sunday, I plan to watch as many episodes of ‘Being Human’ as I can. These are all award-nominated or award-winning series, and if you haven’t seen them already, you should! They are all of a supernatural bent, and if you like to see how British producers are dealing with the restrictions in their programming budgets, these are great showcases for showing how creativity and imagination can be used to maximize low budgets. For example, Misfits uses a mostly barren city/estate area for filming with a small number of regular cast members per episode. This isn’t noticed so much because of a good script, editing, and the use of special effects and makeup only to emphasize and enhance the script when necessary. At least, that’s how I see it!

Reading what I’ve just written makes me look like a sad, sad person, but have you ever considered how many hours a day the average person devotes to TV? I hardly watch a lot of TV most days- I prefer to read as you well know- so it’s nice to have big TV binges every now and then!

I heard time recently went back for the UK by one hour. British wintertime is officially here, and the prediction at present is that a milder Christmas without snow might occur in December 2011: http://www.weatheronline.co.uk/cgi-app/reports?MENU=Seasonal-outlook. Weather forecasting is not an exact science, and I admire weather forecasts for doing their best to predict the weather, but I also admire Mother Nature for having a sense of humour and can imagine her sticking two fingers up at predictions and saying ‘HAHA! (like Nelson Muntz on the Simpsons) Fooled you!!!!!’

The good thing about time going back is that the time difference between London and California is now only 7 hours, making for better Skype chat scheduling. Yester-day was mainly a Skype day, and seeing family and framily (friends so close they’re like your family) was brilliant! If you haven’t used Skype before, then you should try it! Soon, however, time will go back in California too. I’m not sure when that will occur since I find the weather to be quite sunny and warm, and I can’t see how time going back could be justified!

Which leads me to tell you about a film I saw recently, called TIMER. Winston bought it to my attention, and it doesn’t contain any easily recognizable celebrity stars, but it is actually a good film! The basic premise is that in the future, an implantable device called a TIMER will be available to everyone for an implant fee of $79.99 plus tax, with small monthly subscription payments. This timer works off body heat, and counts down the number of days, hours, minutes and seconds until you meet your one true love.  If such a device existed in real life, I reckon it would be pretty useful!! But then, where would the excitement of being in a relationship go if you knew right at the beginning they weren’t the one for you? Obviously, there are those who are Pro-TIMER and those who are Anti-TIMER, but it is watching the situations that occur with such people that are interesting. Try and watch it if you can! We watched it via streaming through Netflix, but I don’t think Netflix is available on the UK, so see if there is an alternative available.

Anyhow, I now know that I can’t live without a comb (a brush is optional for me). I took my detangling comb back in London for granted, and didn’t bring it with me to use in the US. Finger combing is only good up to a certain extent, and if, like me, you like styling your hair, a comb is an invaluable tool for spreading product on. Even the boyfriend has a brush, but I’m not going to use that since he uses hair gel. So, I bought myself a CONAIR branded brush and comb set that says it is specifically for use on thin or fine hair. Ideal for me, as I don’t want to lose too much hair especially since I’m getting older, hehe!

 

One last thing: I made tortilla chips from scratch the other day! It takes a bit of time, but baking tortilla chips from scratch is a lot healthier then the tortilla chips you buy in the supermarket here in the US. The majority of tortilla chips both here and in the UK are deep fried to given that crisp texture.

In order to make them, you need corn masa flour. That’s ground corn that has been limed during production to allow corn niacin to become bio-available for the human body. This flour is then mixed with water and a bit of salt to make a soft dough, and the dough is divided into small round balls that are rolled out flat between two sheets of plastic wrap. These are each cooked in a dry pan on medium heat until the identifiable heat spots of cooked tortilla show up. I turn the tortilla to ensure the other side is cooked, and put the tortilla aside on a plate. Once all the tortillas are cooked, I cut them up with scissors into tortilla chip shape, spray or coat liberally with oil, and then spread them one layer thick (no overlapping edges) on a baking tray to cook at 176 degrees C (or 350 degrees F) for 12 to 15 minutes. Once cooked until crisp, I coat them with seasoning while they’re fresh out of the oven.

My first attempt at making these was ‘M’eh’. My second attempt was a bit better, but it took a while to get the heating right for each of the batches until I researched online to find out the best average temperature for baking tortilla chips at. Below are pictures of my second attempt, with first batch at wrong temp, second batch at  almost the right temp, and third batch at right temp! My discovery: cooking at the wrong temperature makes tortilla chips too chewy!

First Batch- Wrong Temperature

Second Batch- Almost the right temperature

Third Batch- Right temperature at last!

I also discovered that onion powder used for seasoning shouldn’t be put on chips until they are cooked as onion powder can burn. That’s why you can see dark spots on the tortilla chips above.

If you can find the right flour and have the time, try making them. I prefer them because I know what’s in them!

Until next time,

Jen :)

31 Oct 2011- Halloween, Fancy Dress, Facepainting, and Nilaga!

Today is officially All Hallow’s Eve, but here, the young youths and adults have been celebrating it in advance since Saturday, and the ‘ickle kiddies will be celebrating it this Monday!

I have never seen so many fancy dress costumes that had nothing to do with Halloween. According to the news, the most popular Halloween costume of this year is Charlie Sheen. CHARLIE SHEEN! How does one manage to dress like that?! I guess that means the holding of a few bottles of alcohol, a white shirt, a suit, and a slurry tone of voice spouting outrageous phrases and profanities!

I saw a girl dressed as Katy Perry, a man wearing a baby suit, a Superman pimp with Supergirl on one side and Selena the witch (Supergirl’s enemy in the 1984 film) on the other…basically, I saw many costumes, and a lot of them weren’t to do with Halloween! It’s true, most of the female costumes are sexy versions- I even saw an Alice in Wonderland girl costume that reminded me of those Japanese flicks where a cartoon woman old enough to be an adult but with the look of a prepubescent girl does cosplay to look cute and sexy. I distinctly remember Alice only being a young girl in the book, and not wearing so much see-through lace! Some of the women’s costumes here were quite scanty, but if the girl has the body for it, then good for her! I do feel a little like a puritan saying all this, but I thought Halloween was to a celebration to pay homage to the dead, therefore costumes should allude to some aspect of that? What do you reckon?

Here are some photos of the various Halloween getups I saw, and what Winston and I dressed as too (sorry for the blurry shots, I couldn’t get the right setting on my Blackberry):

We went to a Halloween house party first of all, which was held by Winston's friend Sid’s work colleague. I ate some bacon pasta, fried lumpia, hummus chips, crunchy fried chicken wings, tortilla chips with guacamole and spicy tomato salsa, and some meatballs in barbecue sauce. You know how hummus is usually eaten with breadsticks or pitta bread in the UK? Well, hummus chips here are thick and quite hard bland flour squares that are cooked with oil until they’re dry like crisps. You can buy hummus chips in packets, like crisps. I ended up eating them without hummus because I forgot to get some!

Winston made chicken wing nilaga the other day and it was so tasty that I’ve posted a picture of it below to remind me of how good it was. It had pieces of potato, cabbage, carrots and beans along with chicken wings all immersed in a tasty savoury chicken broth. It’s brilliant that he can cook!

Actually, I’m probably being over-enthusiastic regarding its simplicity, but this meal was preceded by me cooking two days worth of curry-type food, so you can understand why he cooked nilaga, haha!

I found out a pet hate of Winston's that I’d never have known if I hadn’t started eating them here in front of him. He doesn’t like it when people lick their fingers after eating crisps. We were eating cheesy cheetos, and he gave me a pair of chopsticks. I asked what they were for, and he told me they would stop the cheeto flavouring from going on my fingers, thus leading to finger licking!  There is some logic there, and it was an unusual novelty to use the chopsticks to eat crisps.

I watched two movies recently- one called ‘Daybreaker’, and the other called ‘I love Philip Morris’. Both are really good movies, but I especially liked Daybreakers. If you can, you should watch both movies!

Daybreaker Synopsis: ‘Two-time Academy Award nominee® Ethan Hawke plays Edward Dalton, a researcher in the year 2019, in which an unknown plague has transformed the world's population into vampires. As the human population nears extinction, vampires must capture and farm every remaining human, or find a blood substitute before time runs out. However, a covert group of vampires makes a remarkable discovery, one which has the power to save the human race.’

Hope you have a WICKED HALLOWEEN!!

MUHHAHAHAHAAHA!!!!!!!

28 Oct 2011- Trash TV & T-shirts, Fat & Food, Cars, and Mashed Potato Pizza Pies...

I’ve been watching some trash TV recently. It’s quite funny watching because some of the situations are just so outrageous. I watched a Jerry Spring show, and a Jeremy Kyle show, a Judge Mathis show, and The People’s Court. All these programmes seem to be peppered with DNA tests, paternity tests, money matters, and other litigious situations, along with doses of high emotion, shouting, and fighting. It is entertaining to watch, but you wonder why people can’t use common sense. I mean, there was one situation where an elder brother had cared for his younger brother all his life as they had no parents, and that elder brother was due to be married to a woman in two weeks, but the younger brother then slept with his elder brother’s finance, and told his brother on a previous show what he had done. That younger brother was forgiven by his elder brother because they were blood, and that elder brother went on to marry his fiancé who cheated on him. However, the younger brother went back on the same show to say he had recently slept with his elder brother’s wife, but that he wanted to be forgiven for his mistake again because he now had his own fiancé who was pregnant with his child for three months. The younger brother’s girlfriend had met him just after the previous show occurred so knew what he had done, but didn’t think it relevant to their own relationship because that younger brother said he wouldn’t do anything like that again. Conclusion: The elder brother refused to forgive his younger brother the second time, and said if his younger brother and wife could do that to him, they were welcome to each other and that the duty of the younger brother who was his best man at his wedding was to stop his elder brother from marrying his fiancé if she was going to cheat on him like that; the wife of the elder brother said she didn’t love her husband, but then the younger brother said he didn’t want her either so she was left all alone; the younger brother’s fiancé was heartbroken. It was a sad situation to see.

One show that isn’t trashy that I think is actually interesting to watch is Doctor Oz! I learned how to make a healthy burger recipe, and how to make a clean and healthy produce spray which breaks down and removes the pesticides from vegetables and fruit. Here are the links to them, and a picture of the healthy burger, which I will make one day:

http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/clean-and-healthy-produce-spray

http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/bills-ozified-chia-burger

I found out recently that I could borrow any one of Winston's T-shirts, and they fit me quite well! This is a great discovery, along with sock borrowing, so when I work out or just want a casual T-shirt to go shopping or something, I can borrow from Winston's stock. His only condition regarding me using them is not to touch the V-neck T-Shirts. It must be a macho thing so he can ensure his medallion and chest hair show, lol! (Just kidding!)

Another thing I discovered is that some girls who are quite rotund over here don’t seem to have an idea that really tight clothes are not becoming on them. I saw one girl in the lift wearing a tight vest, and tight jeggings, and I could see her rolls of fat defined under the fabric. Plus she only went down one floor via the lift. I asked Nell (cousin Merton’s girlfriend) why that is, and she told me it might be because their perception of body image is different from my perception, and because there is a higher proportion of large people over here, it doesn’t seem unusual to see other large people walking around in little or tight clothing. Nell asked me if there are many obese people over here, and I said I’ve only seen such people rarely. I said it might be due to us being used to eating smaller food portions and therefore having smaller stomachs? Is this a correct presumption?

I saw cousin Merton and Nell at TGI Fridays the night before yesterday. Apart from the food and large people topic of conversation, we also caught up regarding work life, how long I was over here, and Halloween costumes and future events. I ate a few Jack Daniels fried chicken strips and drank a half pint of Guinness very slowly (took me about two hours). When it comes to crispy battered food, Americans do it very well! Then we all shared a peanut butter and chocolate ganache pie with Hershey’s chocolate sauce (It’s like cheesecake, but with a crushed graham cracker crust, a chocolate ganache layer, followed by a smooth and light peanut butter mousse, and topped with a thin layer of whipped cream). Quite rich so I’m glad we shared! It was nice to see both of them, but I’m sure I’ll see them again soon!

I made a tomato and egg omelette for brunch the other day and sprinkled some American smoked paprika and tumeric over it. I ate that with a little brown and white rice. Do not use too much American smoked paprika over food – it gives a very earthy taste which almost tastes a bit mouldy. British smoked paprika is a little sweeter. But is the American version supposed to be like that?

This sandwich was more appetizing. I had it at a local bar called Dirty Del’s the other evening. Winston only tried a bite of it because he wasn’t so hungry, but it was the first sandwich I’ve eaten over here, and it was well tasty! It’s called a Del Trio and is composed of two types of bologni, one type of salami, a slice of mozzarella, bean sprouts, watercress, lettuce, tomato, onions, jalapenos, and sliced gherkins sandwiched between two pieces of sourdough bread smeared with a very thin layer of mustard and mayonnaise (no butter). This was accompanied by a big pickled piece of cucumber.

I reckon most of my emails are going to contain quite detailed descriptions of food, so if it’s too much for you, sorry in advance! You know how much I like food, but at least this time around, I’m working out to compensate for all the calories I’m consuming now, and will be consuming in the future. I started working out on my first complete day here with Winston’s encouragement, and I found that I like working out half an hour on the elliptical machine every other day. However, I have also started following a 45 minute episode of Dance and Be Fit in between elliptical machine sessions.  I’m not the best at following all the dance moves, but I follow each episode until the end and do my best to copy them! Yesterday I did a few tricep dips and bicep exercises using 10lb weights, and my arms are a bit sore today. Not too sore though, that I can’t lift food to my mouth!

Winston and I saw our friends Annie and Aid (the married couple), and Rodney (their lodger and friend, and an amazing caricature artist) last night. We went to a popular pizza and bar place called Urban where I had my first ever mashed potato pizza. On the menu, pizza refers to the ingredients you can pick to put on a pizza base, and craft pies refer to pizzas with pre-chosen toppings. I got a bit confused as I always thought pies meant a pie crust with a filling, but that’s British thinking for you!

The mashed potato pie came and it was HUGE! Have a look-see (Winston's hand is there for size reference purposes):

The pie is composed of a thin and crisp dough base topped with a garlic and anchovy base sauce (as opposed to the normal tomato sauce) followed by a layer of seasoned mashed potato with pancetta (which, to me, looked more like British bacon- in the USA, bacon refers to the crisp pieces of streaky bacon that Americans like eating with maple syrup. I always thought pancetta was more like thin slices of cured ham…). This led to a conversation about British bacon. Winston said British bacon was Canadian ham in another guise, and that we British are used to having a different cut which means there is only a thin bit of fat on one side of it. Apparently, that isn’t how proper bacon is supposed to be (as per Winston and Sid’s opinion), but, to me, at least British bacon is a tiny bit more HEALTHY!

I saw a classic car exhibit at a car dealership the other day! I liked this car. I’m not sure what it is, but it looked racy!

Unfortunately, I’m obscuring its full shiny beauty!

Here’s Winston in front of some other cars- he hid the one I liked- can you see it peeking out behind him?

The implicit rule here was: No touching of cars allowed.

 

Anyhow, I better stop writing now. This seems like a really long post, but I’ve only done that because it’s going to be quite busy tonight, which means they’ll be a lot more to update you on in the next one.

Winston and I have been invited to a fancy dress house party with Annie and Sid tonight, so I’m get to use my face paint! My costume will be a long and ruffled black shirt and shorts with opaque black tights and pixie boots because the focus of my fancy dress should be my face, not my clothes! I’ll try and take some pictures of other costumes so you can see the variety of costumes people like to wear here for Halloween!

Until then…

Au revoir!

Jen :)