Kitty Crocker's cooking frenzy.....

This week we tried out some new recipes, 

the luxury of lockdown and time at its finest!  

Jackson:  Yesterday my Mom and I spent over 2 hours making some Mango Masala Paninis. It consisted of a mango chutney and a spiced chickpea masala combined into a sandwich. To make the mango chutney, we put a cup of mango, some brown sugar, tamarind paste and water into a saucepan and cooked that for about 10 minutes. Then we threw it into our food processor for a bit and put it in the refrigerator. The spiced chickpea masala was a bit more complicated and included onion, chickpeas, tomatoes and a ton of spices such as ginger, turmeric, cumin, cinnamon, cloves and cayenne. After that was all mixed together and cooked we put that into the food processor as well. Once we had both of these done, we got some bread and put the mango chutney on one piece of bread and the spiced chickpea masala on the other and then put it on a pan to make it into a panini. It turned out very well and was delicious. Mom says it was the best dish she had ever made.  (mom note: there was also a roasted cauliflower curry, to make 3 layers for the panini.  It truly was sooooooooo good!  ...even if the presentation is lacking). 

This is the book that has the recipe:

    A few days ago we also went to Lidl because they had a mini American section that had some stuff such as root beer, cherry and vanilla soda, ben & jerry's ice cream, sweet baby rays bbq sauce, marshmallow fluff and oreo yogurt.  (mom note: our sugar intake just went up by 300%)! 

We also got a new large cast iron pan that we used when we made the Panini:

This was a pork loin we made with honey and butter goodness.

These are molasses cookies that turned out pretty well and are tough to stop eating! 

It's been lots of chopping and prepping, but we have been eating quite well!

KC here:  Big Sis, Pen-ia Childs, has struck again with sending yet another cookbook!  I'm all about soups with my salad lately, so this is a treat.  

Tonight I tried the Pumpkin, sausage, bean soup and it was delicious.  I just needed to add a bit of cayenne to give it some heat for us.

I also whipped up a veggie burger for the first time ever (and forgot to take a photo) with an amazing pineapple salsa.  And just as we were finishing off the burgers, feeling like they were dry and a bit boring, I realized my mistake of forgetting the home-made pineapple salsa in the fridge.  arggggggg.....

Oh, and I forgot, we had fish tacos, ala Chelsea (keeper of the home) Rossow, which are a favorite of ours and now on our fortnight rotation!

And lastly, I've been looking for toothpicks everywhere.  As I am getting down to about 8 left.  We finally found them after I broke down and asked someone at the grocery store.  She said they were next door at the mini-hardware store, under the code name 'cocktail sticks."  Good try Glaswegians, but as flummoxed as I was, I remain undaunted!!

Happy eating everyone,

kitty cookie crocker

ps. Cindy Brannan, when are we starting our zoom cooking club?  I'm ready!  💪

Worry and wanting

 

I have a friend that once said to me, "90% of what you worry about, never comes true!"  I've never forgotten her words, but I'm not always able to stop my racing mind either.  Here's a story that really put this in perspective for me, it's a bit scary to share as it is baring my soul, but what the hell.....

When covid hit, (March 2020) I was in Glasgow, on my way back to Dublin, having fun hanging out with Jackson and looking forward to St. Paddy's day with friends.  I got to enjoy the entire week in Scotland but once I arrived in Dublin, I was soon was frantically changing my flights to go home and get Jackson home.  I was not ever scared of covid (surprisingly), but I was working on my plan to leave the US to live in Glasgow and for that not to happen, scared me silly.  

With that said, I knew that my passport was expiring and so was Levi's, so in early April, I sent them in to be renewed.  Surely, they would have plenty of time to come back before flying out early August.  What I didn't know was that the agencies to renew them had completely shut down.  

I was okay in May, even not too concerned in June, but when July hit, I started to mildly panic - not true, I started to fully freak out!  I started to call the passport places, studying and understanding the phases of reopening, meditating on letting the universe guide this, and simmering silently - barely telling anyone about this impending doom.  BUT I WAS FULL OUT FRIGHTENED.

I surely thought that we may be okay, as we have Luxembourg passports that are well within expiry dating since we just got them last year.  But then I googled and everything I read said, as an American citizen, you must have your American passport to leave the US.  Well shit.

I then started calling Delta, asking if I can get on without my American passport, they couldn't confirm, after hours on hold.  This was disconcerting at best.

Jaysus, Mary and Joseph!  What in the world can I do?  Is this a sign?  Am I not meant to leave?  I really want Levi to have an international education and I've planned this for so long.  I love all of my friends and family so deeply, but living in the US was slowly killing me.  My soul MUST travel.  My destiny is overseas, it is in the EU and ever since leaving Dublin, I HAD to get back.  Jackson (unknowingly) chose the destination when he went to Glasgow Uni and Scotland seemed perfectly fine for our next foray in living overseas.  I mean they speak the same language, so that is easy (right, ha, more on that later!)

So I did the next best thing I could think of, I called a psychic.  So much for trusting the universe, I needed someone who could tell me what the universe was saying to me.  I was losing sleep people!  Here's what she said, without a word from me.....

"Kitty, it seems that you see some kind of obstacle in your way.  You see it as a brick wall, something immovable, that can't be changed.  But what I see is a doorway, with those hanging beads, where it looks like an obstacle, but really isn't.  It is something that you actually walk right through."  (does anyone else reading this remember the hanging beads at Grandma VanWormer's house?  That is all I could think of). 

I then said to her, oh yes, that is why I am calling, my passport is not back, and I don't think I can leave the country.  She calmly said, that there is no worry at all.  Relax, this is all meant to be and you are leaving.  She saw me in Scotland.  It was a done deal. 

Whew!  I was so relieved and I believed her for about 2.5 days, and then I started to worry again.  Will I ever learn?  Sleepless nights, nobody to talk to about it, fear overtaking my every thought.  Packing, but wondering, will I really get out of the country?  More calls to Delta, daily calls to the passport agency.  Covid is forefront on everyone's mind, but not mine!  

Finally I get an email from the passport agency saying my passport was approved and ready to ship.  I am not even kidding when I say to you, I fell to my knees and wept!  Thanks to God and all of Her powers that let this be.  It wasn't until later that I looked up the number and realized, it was Levi's that got approved, not mine.  I quickly surmised, that was even better and now was the time to involve Oma.  If I can't go, I'll send Levi with Oma.  He needed to get there with time to quarantine before starting school.  As usual, my partner in crime was totally on board!  God bless Oma - I swear to you, I have the absolute best mom in the world!  (and I apologize to all of you who don't, and that includes you Jackson and Levi)!

My worry didn't stop completely, but it did abate a little.  I still wanted to be the one to go and start our new adventure together.  So I kept up my phone calls and finally got a person that told me to send a hand written note to the passport agency in Pittsburg, where mine was being held up, explain my situation, and ask for them to just return it.  Fees be damned, I got something out the next day, shipped it priority and waited.  A full 10 days before our scheduled flight, I FINALLY got an email saying my passport was approved and in the mail.  I received it one week before we left.  

PRAISE TO ALL THAT IS HOLY!  Miracles do happen!  But (of course) there's more....

So we are going to Scotland, at least we have what we need to go.  I still worried that the flights wouldn't go because of covid (spoiler alert, they were perfect, and we made it!  LOL). We are packed, we are at the airport and we are checking in.

I'm at the Delta counter talking to Gordon, because I practically lived at that airport and I know the staff, but it is John (new to me) checking us in.  I hand over the blue US passports still in full gratitude that I have these in my possession, and John sees red passports.  He pauses and then asks, "what is that? Do you have EU passports?"  Yes, in fact we do.  I kid you not, these are his next words almost verbatim..... "Oh, give me those, we don't want the US passports, these are better as you are flying into the EU and they will be what you want to fly with."

WHAT IN THE LITERAL F@$%?  Are you kidding me?  Are you telling me that I worried for nothing?  That those sleepless nights were all in vain?  That I never even needed the US ones in the first place?  That my Luxembourg passports are more valuable to me right now.  Crickey!

I was truly and completely gobsmacked!  

.............and all I can think of are THOSE GODDAMMMED BEADS!  

They are always just beads Kitty, absolutely everything is possible, just walk on through.    

   

    

A wee walk in the woods...

We found a new park and it's a good one!  We had a bit of sunshine, minimal rain, and temps in the 40's, so off we went. 

It was packed with people in wellies, and dirty pawed dogs.  We had neither, though were jealous of both!  But we were happy to slosh around in our trainers, Levi making slides out of wet leaves and a bit of a run.  

This adorable, ancient wall had a brick path behind it, that was most certainly the road less traveled.  So we took it per Robert Frost's instruction.

We finally found the River Kelvin and got to experience the Kelvin walkway from a different side of the city.  

The bridges were grand and a marvelous thing to behold.  There were even more pillars in the river where the bridges had eroded away centuries ago.  But the moss covered bricks were stunning in their own.

So here's to tree bathing in Scotland, it doesn't get much better than this!

Such a great way to spend an afternoon during lockdown. 

Kitty the wee walker

kitty crocker cooked a crock of crazy cookies 

So my sister, Pen-ia Childs, is like most big sisters and believes I have talents that I've never embodied.  God bless her.  So she sent me this great big, massively huge cookbook, and I'm intimidated by the size alone!  Then she followed it up with emails of 30 minute videos of how to make some of the recipes.  Did you read that, I said 30 minutes, for the video alone.  WTH?  I hate to be a disappointment, so I'm starting with the Chocolate Chip cookies.   Though I know full well that I am wholly capable of disappointing on the most basic of levels.  Oh well, here goes nothing.....

I had all of the ingredients, except the chocolate disks, she wants disks instead of chocolate chips.  Sorry Chef Saffitz, this is the best I can do at the moment, and truth be told, I'm nonplussed about it.  

The first thing to do is to brown the butter.  Hmmmm?  My earliest memories as a young Kitty Crocker and the Joy of Cooking Cookbook by my fairy god-mother Betty, never browned the butter.  But why not, times are a changing and I might just as well embrace them.  You boil half the butter until there are brown bits floating on top, then you begin.  

Once done, I mixed all of the wet ingredients in one bowl (as one does), the dry in another, and then finally together adding the chocolate chips to finalize my creation.  As I turn the page to see what's next, I read and I quote, "scoop and chill the dough for 12-48 hours."

WAIT, WHAT?

Betty what is this sheer nonsense?  Who does Claire Saffitz think she is delaying my cookie baking by a day or two.  This is utter madness!  

I am gobsmacked.  Completely gobsmacked!!  I decided to sit down, think this through and eat half my weight in cookie dough.  Screw you Claire, maybe I won't bake them at all!   

But...

I must confess, they are AMAZINGLY delicious.  Claire may have just redeemed herself!  She browns the butter for a deep butterscotchy flavor, and WOW, I'm converted!

As I chill the dough, I decide to whip up this little gem!  A veggie lasagna from Cookie & Kate.  With Jackson stepping in as a sous chef, it only took a couple of hours and it was primo deliciouso!

Now everybody is too full for cookies, (baked ones anyway) so we will wait until tomorrow to bake, that is if there is any dough left.    

It has been a superb, stomach stretching Sunday!

Happy week y'all,

Kitty 'cookie dough' Crocker

Last week with Papa

The past week was our fathers last week in Glasgow. He would fly out on January 8th. Since we were on lockdown there wasn't a ton of stuff to do, but we did venture into the city center many times to just walk around and explore the town and some parks. About a week ago, my dad, Levi and I took the train into town to walk around Glasgow Green. Glasgow Green is a large park on the east side of the city center and is the oldest park in the city (Established in the 15th century). 

In the middle of the park there is this huge obelisk dedicated to Admiral Nelson who was an officer in the Royal Navy. 

We then walked to George square and then into the city center.

It was very weird being in town because there were basically no people out and about because of the lockdown. Most shops were closed that day even H&M, restaurants and basically any store that isn't a pharmacy or a grocery store. There were a few takeaway restaurants still open. We got some fruit for smoothies at Sainsburys and some other groceries then headed back to the station to take the train back home.

Later on it got colder and even snowed one day and I woke up to find this outside:

A while ago we went to Glasgow Uni to check out the lights they had.

 Here is us at Taco Mazama, one of the only Mexican restaurants near our house. The UK isn't really known for their Mexican food as much as Michigan is so we are missing Mexican food. 

For the past three weeks, my dad has been here in Scotland, I already said some stuff about him being here but here is the rest! He arrived on the eighteenth and we helped him unpack and get settled on the first couple of days, the first week I have already described but the next two weeks were amazing. 

For the second week of the break me, Jackson, and my dad would go on walks to shops and restaurants to see what was open and what wasn't. We went to one place called taco Mazama and I got a burrito and so did Jackson, my mom got a taco and my dad got a ghost pepper sauce covered duo taco bundle! The burrito was almost as good as the ones my dad makes. 

    We walked a pretty good amount around Glasgow and we even saw some cats in the streets by our home!  There is not a lot to do because of the virus but we still went to many places and got to see a lot of things considering that we are in tier 4 lockdown in the UK. We also watched the second season of a show we started a while ago almost every night, Jackson wasn't too interested in it though.

Speaking of daily shows, my mom forced all of us to watch a show called "The Crown". It's a show about the rise of the queen of Britain and how she became queen. It is a well-made show but just not interesting. We also played a game every night after dinner where we had a variety of games and each night a different person chose which one we would choose. We taught my dad how to play Rummikub and Sequence and had a lot of fun, especially when we all played cribbage with teams! The final week we didn't do much but we did go on a walk and go to some shops. Like Poundland and passed by some junk shops that are fun to see. 

On the final day, we hung around indoors as usual listened to music, and watched Star Trek: Into Darkness. It was very fun to have my dad visit and hang out with us for the 3 weeks of break. I am very thankful he got to come here because we all weren't sure that the airports would allow it, but they did! It was a great break but now I have to go back to working again. 

-Levi

Kitty Crocker

The break has been nice and I've enjoyed not having to cook every day.  I was grateful for the gift of Chef Tim that came for Christmas.  I got busy cleaning and prepping for my future cooking endeavors and while this looks minimal, it made me immensely happy!  I found some wonderful spice shelves and have installed them in the spice cabinet.  Oh happy day! 

Before 

(that is a bread tin they are sitting on and always falling off of)  

During

After

It's the little things that make one happy!

Have a fab week everyone,

👩‍🍳

Happy Hogmanay! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Hogmanay is what we Scots call New Year's Eve - 31 December - the big night that marks the arrival of the new year. Its origins reach back to the celebration of the winter solstice among the Vikings with wild parties in late December.

Happy Hogmanay, Happy New Year, Happy Everything!  Happy to see 2020 in our rearview mirror.  I'm ready for a new year and a new beginning, but 2020 wasn't all bad, was it?

I've decided to compile the best of 2020.  And since focus goes where energy flows, I'm leaving the bad part out.  No sense in focusing there in my humble opinion.  We get enough of that on the news, so here goes....

• We moved to Scotland. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 In the midst of a pandemic.  A dream long awaited, a dream come true!  Against all odds.  Dream big friends, who knows, you just may attain them all! 💪
• Finding my new tribe.  My 'West End Girls' are my weekly sanity check.  And they are graciously helping me navigate Glasgow both inside and out.

me, Effie, Karyn & Aine

• Gaining a Glasgow Guardian Angel:  I don't know what I did to deserve her, but it was something beyond good!  Elle not only got us sorted for housing from before our move, but then walked me through the legal system.  Words fail me when I try to express my gratitude for such an amazing soul to welcome me to her hometown.  If I've ever had a guardian angel on this earth, it is most definitely Elle!    
• Audio books!  OMG, where have I been with these great treasures?  I've become addicted and have finished 25 in the past 4 months.  And you would think that I would catch up with that kind of speed and progress, but I'm adding more books than that, at an alarming rate.  The Silent BookClub on FB is to blame.  My favorites:  Untamed by Glennon Doyle, Greenlights by Mathew McConaughey, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Dare, The House in the Cerulean Sea, How to be an Anti-Racist and of course the Glaswegian Booker Prize winner - Shuggie Bain.  
• Walking EVERYWHERE!  In Michigan, we walked almost daily since the pandemic started and found the most beautiful parks in the area.  It was an awesome way to get the boys outside and explore during lockdown.  Now in Glasgow, we HAVE to walk everywhere (no car) and are enjoying the newness and exploring the area.  It is life giving stuff - try it!!

• The gift of time!  I love this newfound 'living of life' on my terms.  It is immeasurable the gratefulness I have for being able to do it.  It has allowed me to learn to cook and bake, given me time back with my boys, and allowed me to really relish life!  Is there anything more important - I think not.  
• Board Games - Every single night folks!  From Rummikub, Sequence, cribbage, Apples to Apples, marbles, to Racko.......it's a blast and gets everyone off of screens.  I can't recommend it enough.
• Rebounding - yup, I finally found a new exercise that I like (well, that's a relative term), but I love my mini-trampoline and actually look forward to working out on it.  It helps with the lymph system as well.  It's great fun and there are many tough workouts on youtube!  Life is good when you are in shape!
• And of course, last but not least, all of my family and friends, all over the globe:  I cherish all of you that I have encountered on my journey.  New and old, silver and gold.  I love you all!

Fireworks

Even celebrating New Year's was the most magical event!  I had gotten Jackson some fireworks for NYE, and any of you that remotely know J, knows that this is his THING!  I fretted and worried that we would start a new tradition of pissing off the neighbors in another country, since we've done such a good job of that in Heritage Hill, but worry be damned, we needed to celebrate getting rid of 2020 and starting 'a new.'  We trekked out at 11:45pm and set up in the openest spot we could find (still surrounded by tenement buildings-read apartments).  As the boys started lighting them off, all the people came to look out their windows.  I was figuring we didn't have much time, as people would get mad that it was too late and their dogs were freaking out, but they started yelling out their windows greetings of 'HAPPY NEW YEAR," in which I always yelled it back.  Then they started to come out and join us, and share their sparklers, asking where did we get the fireworks?  And all you HH neighbors, take a seat before you read this, they actually started to genuinely THANK us.  WTF?  They were so happy to have fireworks and some stayed long after they were done to talk.  We've been downright bullied in GR, whilst following all legal rules.  And the bullying wasn't once, or twice or even three times, it was constant.  I got to the point of sheer panic when Jackson would set up for the 4th of July display.  Even so far as calling in Ingrid's police officer husband one year to stem the flow of naysayers.  But these Scottish lasses and laddies were so grateful to be a part of our celebration.  I nearly wept with joy.  I'm sure I shed a tear or two.  My god, I thought, I sooooooooo dearly LOVE this country!   Maybe we're home.............

Words to live by......................................................................

I choose words every year, to fall back on and live by.  A mantra of sorts to get me through.  So what are my words for the new year you ask?

Last year was faith and trust.  They were perfect for 2020, more perfect than I knew when I chose them.  I thank them for the constant peaceful and reverent help they provided and let them go, for the new ones are really ready and exciting.  

My word(s) for the year ...

Celebrate Life!  

I invite you to join me.  Celebrate absolutely everything, all the time!  Life is worth living and you are in the drivers seat.  You have the power to make it whatever you want.  And celebrating it will only bring you more things to celebrate.  

Happy Hogmanay friends,

Kitty (fire) Cracker

💜

Dreams for 2021

To hug my friends once again

&

to travel