Bundles of Joy?
Rachel Ray calls them Bundles of Joy but I'm not so sure of that. They were an absolute pain to make but maybe that's because it was my first time using phyllo dough. And the end result was not so great but they do look good when you bite into them - the green peas and orange carrots contrast nicely with the rest of the mixture and the pastry. IF I ever make them again I will definitely add some spice to the mix. I also think I should have baked them a little longer because they did not have the golden color I was expecting.

Bundles of Joy

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3/4 pound red potatoes, peeled and quartered
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon turmeric
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 yellow onion, chopped (about 1 cup)
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
3/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup frozen peas, thawed
3/4 cup frozen carrots, thawed
10 frozen phyllo sheets, thawed and covered with a moist kitchen towel
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 cup apple butter

Bring a medium saucepan of salted water to a boil. Add the potatoes, lower the heat and simmer until tender, about 15 minutes. Drain and mash.

Meanwhile, in a heavy skillet, toast the cumin and turmeric over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Add the oil, onion, garlic and salt and cook, stirring, until the onion is softened, about 7 minutes. Stir in the peas and carrots. Remove from the heat and stir in the mashed potatoes.

Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 400°. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Brush 1 phyllo sheet with melted butter. Top with another phyllo sheet; brush lightly with butter. Cut lengthwise into five 2 1/2-inch-wide strips. Place 1 heaping tablespoon of the vegetable mixture at the end of each strip. Working with 1 strip at a time, fold the corner over the filling to enclose, forming a triangle; continue folding the strip like a flag, keeping the triangle shape. Place the resulting bundles seam side down on the baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining phyllo sheets and filling. Bake until golden, about 10 minutes.

In a small bowl, stir the apple butter with 3/4 cup water. Serve warm or at room temperature with the bundles.


Posted by Beverley on Sun Sep 28, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (2)
Category: Recipes
Nan’s 90th Birthday
imageLast month my Nan celebrated her 93rd birthday. I was going through some photos and came across this one of her 90th. Nan is in the middle with her sisters, Aunty Betty on the left and Aunty Hilda on the right. Unfortunately Aunty Hilda died nearly two years ago so visiting England in a few weeks won't be quite the same but seeing Nan and Aunty Bett will be great.


Posted by Beverley on Sun Sep 28, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (4)
Category: Family/Friends News
Hallway Bathroom Remodel - Day 13
The work on the bathroom moves forward and Alex is doing a fabulous job. Some of the highlights over the last fews weeks include finishing the plumbing and all the electrical. We finally put up all the drywall, cutting out perfect holes for the outlets, pipes, etc. We (for the most part I really mean Alex when I say 'we') have started the mudding and I (and I do mean me this time) even hope to start painting by the end of the week.

Drywall coming along nicely and an updated sink vent pipe.

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Alex preparing to sweat the pipes for the hot and cold water into the sink. The propane torch is one of his new toys, bought after Diana showed him how to use it.

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In this picture you can see how careful Alex is when cutting out the holes for the outlets and pipes.

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The last pictures show the final plumbing job and the start of the mudding process.

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As a last note I should point out that the numbers in the heading are purely for keeping the postings in order. We are obviously way beyond the 13th day of work - so many days I no longer care to count them.

Posted by Beverley on Sat Sep 27, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (2)
Category: Home Repairs
Ben Moves to Palo Alto
Ben has started his new position as the Takahashi Fellow in Japanese Studies at Stanford University. Read all about it here

Kirsten and the girls will stay in Tanzania for the time being with lots of trips to the US to visit Ben. Alex and I hope that we will also be able to see them on one of their trips out to the west coast.


Posted by Beverley on Sat Sep 27, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Category: Family/Friends News
Catch-up Time
It's been a few weeks since I last wrote and so much has been going on I don't know where to begin. I've been really busy at work with the arrival of all my new students. They all went through an intensive week of lectures, labs, and tutorials to bring them up to speed. This took place daily from 8am to 10pm and is appropriately called 'Bootcamp'. Classes started last week so everyone should be settled in soon and things will slowly start getting back to normal.

Home is still not back to normal but the bathroom is coming along quite nicely. Over the next few postings I'll bring you all up to date on that and all the other things going on in my life.



Posted by Beverley on Sat Sep 27, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (1)
Category: Miscellaneous
Brandal’s Laundry
Janet did some laundry today for Brandal, their visiting great dane. She has quite a selection of toys to play with.

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Posted by Beverley on Mon Sep 08, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (1)
Category: Family/Friends News, Pets
The Frog of the Northern Neck
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Klaus was about to knock off what he thought was a leaf from the side of the shed and then realized it was a frog - Fred the Frog, perhaps?











Posted by Beverley on Mon Sep 08, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Category: Family/Friends News, Pets
Family in Dubai
Ben, Kirsten, Astrid, & Pippa visited Dubai earlier this year and had a great time. They spent some time exploring the desert

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Look at the amazing dune behind them

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Here they are on top of the world

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The camels seem to be very popular with everyone

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Posted by Beverley on Mon Sep 08, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (1)
Category: Family/Friends News
hallway Bathroom Remodel - Day 12
I saw the light at the end of the tunnel today. We managed to get up one piece of green board but it was a comedy of errors. The big problem? I'm too short! We had to build braces so I could hold up one end while Alex screwed in the other end. Green board is really HEAVY and my arms are already feeling the ache. Here is our one piece of green board on the ceiling.

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Posted by Beverley on Sun Sep 07, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (1)
Category: Home Repairs
Boo the Blogger
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Boo thinks she can do a better job than me when it comes to blogging. While that may be the case, I think she should make the bed before posing for a picture.






Posted by Beverley on Sat Sep 06, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (1)
Category:
Fred the Cricket
Recently, we had noticed droppings around a small portion of our patio. At first we thought we had mice but we couldn't figure out where they were coming from or going to - meaning that the droppings were clustered in a particular spot. Soon after, we discovered we had a huge cricket living in a potted plant near that spot and after some online research we think that the cricket (which we have of course named Fred) is making the mess. As you can see, Fred is quite a beast of a cricket.

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Posted by Beverley on Sat Sep 06, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Category: Pets
Hannah and Ike
imageTropical storm Hannah is moving up the Atlantic coast. Janet and Klaus sent this picture to show that the creek was higher than usual but not as high as tropical storm Ernesto which put the dock several feet under water.

At the moment they're not worried about Ike coming up the coast - they think it's going to blow over the gulf. I just want to remind them that that is where they thought Ernesto was headed before it made a sudden turn towards Virginia.
Posted by Beverley on Sat Sep 06, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Category: Family/Friends News
Batten Down the Hatches
Ahead of Hannah and Ike, Janet and Klaus took their boat to dry dock to weather out the storms. As I write Hannah is a tropical storm and Ike is a category 1 hurricane but you know how these things can change so tomorrow it might be a completely different story.

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Once home Klaus spent time putting away items that might blow in the winds.

A couple of years ago we were visiting Janet and Klaus during tropical storm Ernesto. I was quite excited to be in the midst of all this weather but unfortunately it did create quite a bit of damage in the area. A big branch had fallen off a tree in the yard and a tree almost toppled over down by the dock - the roots were showing when the wind blew. The gust were incredibly strong, almost blowing me over when I stood outside. Many houses in the Northern Neck area of the Chesapeake Bay suffered a lot of damage and Richmond was badly flooded. We lost electrical power for just over 24 hours but luckily the generator kicked in just when it should have.

This is the dock completely under water and me enjoying the novelty of it all.

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Falcon heading out for a bit of fresh air in his spiffy raincoat and Klaus and Hamish, the sensible ones, hunkered down and took a nap.

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The day after the storm it was as if nothing had happened but the colors in our photos seemed more intense than usual

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Posted by Beverley on Fri Sep 05, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Category: Family/Friends News
2 Great Great Danes
Janet and Klaus are dog sitting a friend of Falcon for a couple of weeks. Brandel is a female great dane and weighs only 135 lbs compared to Falcon who comes in at a cool 200 lbs.

Here Falcon quickly establishes who the boss is by laying down on Brandel's bed

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Brandel and Falcon vying for the attention of Klaus

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Posted by Beverley on Tue Sep 02, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (2)
Category: Family/Friends News, Pets
Peach Pattycakes
Last night on the spur of the moment I baked a 1/2 recipe of these peach pattycakes from the Everyday with Rachel Ray magazine. I bought this magazine the other week just to see what it was like - it's like a more laid back Martha Stewart. I served them with vanilla whipped cream for dessert.

Peach Pattycakes

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4 peaches (1 1/4 lbs) peeled, cut into 1/2" pieces
1/4 cup plus 4 tsp sugar
1 tbsp lemon juice
2 cups flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
6 tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1 cup heavy cream

Preheat ovento 400 degrees.

In a large bowl, combine the peaches, 2 tsp sugar and lemon juice. Let stand 15 minutes.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, 1/4 cup sugar, baking powder, and salt. Using your fingers, rub the butter into the flour mixture until it resembles coarse crumbs. Measure out 1 1/2 tbsp cream and set aside; stir the remaining cream into the flour mixture until just combined, then gently fold in the peach mixture and any juices.

On a lightly floured work surface, pat the dough into a 6 x 9" rectangle. Using a 3" round cookie cutter, cut out 6 rounds; combine the scraps and cut out 2 more rounds. Transfer rounds to a baking sheet. Brush with reserved cream and top with the remaining 2 tsp sugar. Bake the rounds until golden-brown, 20 to 25 minutes. Let cool on the bake sheet.

Serves 8

Posted by Beverley on Tue Sep 02, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (1)
Category: Recipes
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