Daycations...............................it was fun while it lasted.....

 As Levi's time off dwindles down, we attempted to visit more museums and fun places with the extra time on our hands.  

The Hunterian Museum:

The Hunterian museum is housed inside Glasgow Uni.  There are many parts to it, with some areas yet to be open.  Charles Rennie Mackintosh's house is connected to the art museum and it is what I (Kitty) want to see most of all since it is supposedly art nouveau style.  The Hunterian is the oldest museum in Scotland.  

Inside the Hunterian Museum includes collections of many things such as rocks and minerals, dinosaurs and fossils, zoology and scientific instruments. The Zoology collection has a ton of specimens of insects. There are also scientific instruments ranging from the 18th century to more recently in the 20th century.   (hmmm, not sure which boy wrote this....plagiarism much?)

The Hunterian Art Gallery:

All of this came from William Hunter, a renowned anatomist and physician, that went to University of Glasgow.  He was a voracious collector, which was all bequeathed to the University.  I found Levi contemplating apples.  I think you will notice that the boys liked the next museum/science center, than the Hunerian.

The Glasgow Science Centre:

Jackson:

Sunday we all walked to the Glasgow Science Centre. It was about a 40 minute walk from our flat and we walked right next to the River Clyde to get there. It was a cloudy day and after we walked over a bridge that took us over the river, we arrived at the Science Centre. Inside there were many hands on experiments or puzzles to try out. There were many optical illusions, a section on space, anatomy and electricity and energy. They even had a harp with no strings but instead beams of invisible infrared lights that would make sound if your hand passed through it. 

On the walk back we walked a different way and passed by some cool murals on the side of this brick building. They all looked like they were done using spray paint which is very impressive.

Levi: The second museum was amazing there were three floors and the first was creativity and physics based.  There were a lot of puzzles and magnets, things like the tower of Hanoi type puzzles and electricity generating crank wheels that power a radio. I liked the electricity type stuff and the puzzles of course. The second floor was my favorite, it was about electricity, renewable energy and the future, it had a bunch of simulations about renewable energy and how it would impact the future if we had/did not have renewable energy in the world, there was a part where there are 4 wheels you can crank in front of a race track and there are 4 cars, red, green, yellow, and blue. When you crank the wheel the car starts going and races around the track and you can race with other people and a board counts the rounds of your car around the track. The second floor was very fun and had so many things that were very fun to use. Finally the third floor was about the human body.  When you first go up, there are 3 machines;  the first one is a thing you can grip that shows your grip strength versus the average human, the second one is a bar that tests the time you can hang from the bar, and the third one is a machine that shows your strength of your own jump and landing, it was a cool floor and my favorite part was a little section where you put your hands on metal strips and it shows your heartbeat. The museum was very cool and I learned a lot from it! 9 out of 10 I recommend it!

                    kitty crocker's chaotic cooking corner

It has been a great week for cooking and listening to books.  I've found that the more time I am in the kitchen, the more books I can "read" when they are audible.  Woooohoooo - win-win!  I never knew how much happiness I would find whilst cooking.  In fact, I barely even recognize myself!  I mean, I have a full functioning bakers cabinet, complete with treacle!  (is it a Harry Potter ingredient?)  Who would have ever thought?  It just goes to show, you never know how life will turn out, so you might just go with the flow and find your joy!  And since eating is a passion of everyone in this Flat, we are all joyously meandering along.

Here is a break down of the week of Kitty vs. the Kitchen:

Meat filled Monday - Thanks to Aunt Tessy, we learned how to make ribs in the crock pot by standing them on end.  Fabulous!

Taco Tuesday - was dressed up as Creamy Tuscan Chicken, ala the internet.  Completely yummy!

Work-it Wednesday - Was a meat pie direct from my favorite Israeli Ayala.  So quick and easy.  I thought I would have leftovers, since I made a bunch, but alas, the boys ate every bit of it.  (they supplemented with hot sauce for full disclosure).

Thirsty Thursday - Was brought to us via Chelsea Rossow (keeper of the GR house and gardens) and her fabulous fish taco homemade recipe.  It took me a while to get it all together, but the boys loved it.  I think I will always say "this is a recipe from Chelsea" so Levi will eat it without question!  😛

Free Friday - I don't have to cook!   Yippeeee!  I ended up eating tortilla corn chips dipped in left over cold chicken korma.  Seriously?!?!  And it was good......

Chaos in the Kitchen also showed up this week.  I did find out why you don't melt the butter when you make scones!?!?  I thought it was a good idea at the time, but the boys loved them and ate them within 24 hours none-the-less.  I gave myself a D-, or maybe an E for effort!  Maybe I should just call them Scone pancakes or Sconecakes??  

My, baked from scratch banana bread got a little burnt on the top, as I have yet to to make friends with this oven.  He's a surly chap, and has quit working on me once.   But I kinda liked it crispy on the top.  B-

I have also joined like 100 new FB groups and am loving all of the info I am getting from them.  From silent bookclubs, to American expats in the UK, to Rick Steves Europe (Estonia high on the list when we open up); I am finding out all sorts of stuff and am having a tough time trying to keep up on all of the information, which are the kind of problems that I like to have.  But the most exciting thing I learned is that there is a store in Glasgow that has a small American section that is prepping us for Thanksgiving.  So I got my trolley, and set out to find my treasures.  

This is direct from Chelsea, Michigan to Glasgow, Scotland.  The Chelsea Milling Company started in 1930.  Mabel White Holmes (owner) designed the first mix and it was marketed as a way to make biscuits that were "so easy, even a man could do it!"  💪. You go gurlll!  

I found it fitting for one of the two cast iron pans I stowed in my luggage as critical item(s) needed in my Scottish kitchen.  Better packing and moving has never been done!

Okay, Levi is back to school tomorrow, which I think I am going to enjoy more than he will.  The Scotland Squad is looking forward to bringing to you the Halloween edition next week, whatever that means in 2020.  Get your costumes ready...... I'm going as Kitty Crocker, chef in training;  complete with dirty dishes, make-up less face and a book being listened to in the kitchen.

Chaos Kitty signing off.......for now.

Happy eating y'all

   

Staycations all I ever wanted............. Week #1

 Well, I was hoping that we could go away for a week or so, during this October break that Levi has, but with covid, it is not meant to be.  I'm okay with it, as it still feels like we are on vacation anyway!  I've decided to keep us busy by having an outing every day, and since the museums are open, they are my first choice.  I haven't been to any of them, and they are mostly free, so why not checkout Glasgow from the inside?!?!  It is a great city and exploring it has been a blast!

I'll let the boys tell it from their perspective, but if you are following along, here are the two that we visited this past week.

This is the Kelvingrove Museum:

This is the front and it faces the river.  There are many stories about how it was built the wrong way around, and that the architect leapt to his death when it was discovered.  Truth or Glaswegian stories???   This side faces Glasgow Uni, and in my humble opinion, are two of the most beautiful buildings in Glasgow.  

This is the back side that faces the road.  Where most people enter and also think that it is the front.  Foolish tourists!!  

The building is just stunning inside and out! 

This is the Riverside Museum:

This is the home of the city's transport collection.

Levi: The week has been going very well so far and I have been having a lot of fun not having to go to school, we went to many museums and saw old cars, old gliders and a very old train of Scotland that was moved into the museum by truck.  The first museum (Riverside) had a lot of cars and vehicles, almost ALL cars and vehicles and I went with one of my friends from school, we saw some very cool old vehicles and even a bike that had two wheels of the front!  

The second  museum (Kelvingrove) was a museum of old animals, paintings, and sculptures. This museum had a bunch of floating heads as an exhibit and I thought that was interesting, but over all all the sculptures were very cool and the paintings were nice. My favorite out of all of them was the floating heads of course. 

I also just got a new bed this week. It was tough getting up the stairs but in the end it looks really nice and is now the best bed in the flat! I put some lights on it and it looks very nice now!  

Jackson:

This week we visited the Riverside museum with Levi's friend Cameron and his mom Karyn. Inside there were many historic vehicles including old cars and trains. They had old busses and even (one of) the original chitty chitty bang bang car(s). 

Right outside the Riverside museum on the water was the Tall Ship which we had a chance to go onto. The boat was built on the River Clyde in 1896 and is one of only 5 still afloat today. 

We also visited the Kelvingrove Art Museum. Inside there is a ton of art including a famous piece by Salvador Dali called 'Christ of Saint John of the Cross'.

Kitty:  I loved both museums and need to plan a couple more for the coming week.  My favourite part was hanging out with Cameron and Karyn.  We met them the first day of orientation at Levi's school in mid-August.  They are Scottish, but were also just moving to Glasgow from the US.  It was the greatest serendipitous meeting and I've been grateful ever since! I force Karyn to hang out with me weekly for tea.   They are good people and I feel lucky to call them our friends!

Kitty Crocker's progeny Jackson Bourdain

Oh happy day, look what I found at the top of the utility closet!  Never been used, KitchenAid no less.  I couldn't get over my good fortune.  Let the concoctions begin!!!!!  

Jackson:  Tonight along with our dinner, we made our own hummus! We got to use our food processor and used garlic, salt, lemon juice, tahini and chickpeas. We first boiled the chickpeas in order to get the skin off of them easily, then we put the garlic, salt and lemon in our food processor. After our chickpeas were done, we put our tahini and chickpeas into the food processor and added a bit of ice cold water to make the hummus more thick. The end result was a ton of delicious homemade hummus:

Neither of us have any clue on how to use this thing!

I'm thinking now that we didn't need to double the recipe, but maybe we can freeze some??

A photo for our cookbook!  

Kitty:  Okay, week one of fun is finito, but we are now on to week two.  
We will let you know what shenanigans we get up to soon.  Until then, keep cooking, vote, lower your shades and savor your life!

Ciao! 

VOTE.......like your life depends on it!

We have voted, have you?  

This isn't my first rodeo, nor my first rodeo voting abroad.  It is a lengthy process and time consuming to vote from another country, but I can assure you, I wouldn't miss it for the world!  This year it was much more important to me as it was Jackson's first time voting.  I was so proud of how he handled himself.  He really took the time to research the candidates and vote with a conscience.  It seriously took us 4 hours to complete our ballots.  I saw Willow Smith talking about voting on "Red Table Talk," and mentioning just how confusing it is for a new, young voter.  I agree wholeheartedly and was glad that Jackson and I could discuss whatever he had questions about, while we researched the candidates and proposals.  Jackson asked questions that hadn't even occurred to me and challenged me on my decisions and how I made up my mind of how to cast my vote.  It was really pretty cool to vote together and take as much time as we wanted.  (instead of just voting for all the women, like I usually do).   😉

I'm not here to tell you how to vote, but I would encourage you to get out there and do it.  I do believe that every vote counts and that it is important to make your voice heard.  Take the time, make a plan, and VOTE like your life depends on it.  Because from my perspective,,,, it does!     

Jackson:

This year was my first year voting and we are overseas so we had to request Absentee Ballots. My Mom and I both filled out forms that would make sure we were registered to vote and request our Absentee Ballots at the same time. We mailed them to our clerk in Grand Rapids, and about a week after we got an email with our Ballot. We printed them out and cast our votes for the election which included voting for president, state senators, congress representatives and other local elections. It was interesting to see how many different types of elections there were in Grand Rapids and the State Proposals that were on this years ballot. After we were done casting our votes, we sent our ballots back to the United States in time for November 3rd. 

Levi: I am really excited for this week because I have October break and I get a 16 day weekend, it will be very fun and I am probably going to play games with my friends and go on walks, enjoy the stars and just enjoy my time off in general.  I have been waiting for some time off in school and finally the time has come! School has been going fantastic and has been very fun, we had to wear yellow on the 9th to spread mental health awareness and we donated 1 pound to charity groups. It was fun until I fell in the mud while playing football. The weeks have been fun and I am very relieved to finally have some time off!  

Jackson:

This week we got to try a new restaurant in the city center called Chaophraya. It is a Thai restaurant and was located right on Buchanan street. The inside was very nice and had statues and huge ceilings with big chandeliers. 

My Mom and I started by sharing the Chaophraya Platter that had Thai chicken tacos, traditional Thai fish cakes, chicken spring rolls, tempura prawns and spicy duck salad. Our favorites out of all of those were the Thai chicken tacos and the tempura prawns. 

I then ordered Pandan Chicken as a starter because I wasn't that hungry. The dish had tender chicken marinated and fried in fresh Thai spices wrapped in pandan leaves. 

For dessert we had the Chocolate Bombe that had a dark chocolate sphere filled with a chocolate mousse, peanuts and hot caramel sauce. It was very delicious. 

Kitty:  I ordered this as my entree (while Jackson 

ordered the chicken) 

It was to die for! 

We walked a full hour to get to the restaurant, and 

an hour home.  It was worth every mile!!

Later in the week we tried a new pizza restaurant called Paesano Pizza. Levi brought his friend Cameron from school. I ordered a pizza that had Spianata spicy salami from Calabria with tomato sugo, mozzarella and evoo. It was very tasty and I ate the entire pizza in one sitting. 

These were great restaurants, and the food was amazing!  As of this past Friday, Glasgow has gone on a two week shut down calling for restaurants to be closed (if they have a liquor license), due to the highest cases of the coronavirus thus far.  So with that said, Kitty Crocker is scheduled to be back next week.  Pray for us all, as I've already ruined a perfectly good banana bread! 

See you at the polls,

Kitty

OMG!

 Okay friends, due to the small issues of moving to a new country, arguing with my landlord over filthy accommodations, finding a new place to live, moving in, and starting everything over,,,, I just haven't had the time to even shave my legs!

LITERALLY!

I have been overdue for a bath and luckily the new Flat has one.  Not really lucky, as I wouldn't rent without one and my precious epsom salts.  My legs REALLY need attention.  So finally today after working all morning on setting up gas and electric for our new Flat, I was ready for a little R&R in the tub.  I mean I deserved at least this much I thought.

This will be the first time using it, so I took the time to draw the bath water, find all of the accoutrements I needed like a new bar of lemongrass soap, a new razor, sugar face scrub, and some nail clippers as frankly my finger nails are getting out of control as well.

The water was perfect!

I had everything ready.

I couldn't wait to get in, so I dropped my robe and slid into the luxurious water.  

No sooner had I done that, when I see a workman, on the scaffolding next door with a perfect birds eye view of the entire tub.  

OMG!  WTF?  Holy sh&$!

What in the world do I do now?

I closed my eyes.  Kind of like toddlers do when playing hide-n-seek, and believe if I can't see you, well then certainly you can't see me!  RiGhT?!?

I then placed my hands and legs in strategic positions, to take a breath and decide what to do next.  I mean, come on, I needed this bath.  It was my right and I earned it this morning.  Am I gonna let this ruin my bath?

Let's look at this a different way, there must be a bright side.  This just may be a great way to meet people during lock down!   (just kidding Oma - take a breath!)

No is the answer, I'm having this bath!  The guy walked on to a different area of the scaffolding (I'm thinking he was wholly unimpressed), and I kept my strategic position and my eyes closed.  

As I relaxed more, I'd look frequently but didn't see him back for a while.  I figured out how to shave with my back sort of towards the window, and in the end I did have a nice bath, only seeing him once more.  But when I did look, he quickly moved on.  (or maybe he was running for his life?).

Anyway - I couldn't help but laugh at all of this.  As my favorite businesswoman as of late Sara Blakely says, if she hasn't laughed at herself in a while, she makes up something like singing in a packed elevator to keep herself laughing and grounded.  I doubt that she would try this stealthy bathtub move...  (at least not without her spanx on!)

When I came out of the 3 hour bath (okay not really, maybe 20 minutes tops), I said to Jackson, be careful in that shower, as the bath is a perfect view for the workmen outside.  To this Jackson replies, doesn't the window have a shade.  "No," I reply, because the bottom is stained glass and the top is too high to worry about.  Isn't it.......?  

I go back into the bathroom and really now did Laugh OUT loud.  

Sure enough, it does have a shade and it works perfectly well.  

So here's to laughing at yourself, or me, as the case may be!  

Happy bathing guys and I hope your baths are much more uneventful than mine!  

Kitty

ps. I did pass by one of the workmen in the hall to go outside, he was very friendly......😁

kitty crocker's cooking korner

In keeping with the theme above, I am going to fill you in on my new found baking abilities.  You may not know this, but I made scones from scratch the other day.  Yup, you heard me right, FROM SCRATCH.  It doesn't matter if Oma was on the phone with me the entire time and that they were a little dry from over baking.  I made them FROM SCRATCH people!  And the boys loved them!  So now, with my confidence at an all time high (maybe a low high), I decided to make blueberry muffins, because I gotta be honest, I don't actually like scones!  

I have dubbed these, Mishap Muffins. 

I got all of the ingredients, talked to friend #1 and asked if I could use the self-raising flour,  (who has ever heard of such a thing? but I bought it for the scones), and she said sure.  It wasn't hard, there was a super easy recipe on line, and with my baking cabinet fit to bursting with all of its contents, I got to work.

Jackson pitched in to help, ever so sweetly, and Levi only offered to 'help' with the eating. 

I mixed the dry ingredients in one bowl, the wet in another, buttered the baking tin, pre-heat the oven and set out to bake.  They did exactly what they were supposed to do, rising in the oven, looking spectacular with my bit of sugar on the top.  Made the Flat smell amazing.  All was right in the world. 

Up until I tried to take them out of the muffin tin.  For they wouldn't come out, however gently I asked and prodded them too.  The tops would come off just fine, but the bottoms had decided to stay put.  Well that was unacceptable, so I forced them to see the error of their ways.  Here you will see the outcome of our hard fought battle.  Muffins 1, Mama 0.    

Levi wouldn't try them until Jackson said they were good.  I thought they were amazing and decided not to judge my muffins on looks alone.  Since you can't tell how many you eat when they are in tatters, I just kept eating!  

I did do the next batch with baking paper cut into circles to mimic a baking cup.  And those looked perfect.  Jackson said that they even tasted better.  (?huh?) 

Either way, I was happy with my creation and they didn't last long in the kitchen.  I've sought out advice from friend #2 (as she is a closet 5 star chef), and I've got my marching orders on how to do them better next time.  I also have regular flour and real baking cups to line the muffin tin.  

As I told you from the beginning, where I lack in talent, I will make up in effort!  And that's some real hard efforting!  

kitty crocker over and out