Tulips, Tulips Everywhere

We're going to Holland next week, so I will probably have much more impressive photos of tulips soon, but here are some pics of tulips that I planted last year, which are a bit different than the regular, standard variety!

Come Dine With Us!

There's a British show that we watch here called "Come Dine With Me." It's about a group of 4 or 5 strangers that are grouped together to host dinner parties for each other. The show follows each person as they prepare, cook and serve the meal. When the meal is over, each of the other contestants rates the host on a scale of 1-10. At the end of the week, the person with the most points wins a prize.

Bas decide that it would be fun if we conduct our own "Come Dine With Me" experience - so we are going to take turns cooking dinner for each other on Saturday and Sunday nights. Since all cooking is pretty new for him, I will be cooking things I've never cooked before to make it more fair.

So last night was his night. In the morning he spent time looking through cookbooks and picked out his recipes. Then he made a list of what we would need, and we got it later at the store. He made...
1. Beer Can Chicken
2. Sesame Roasted Asparagus with Garlic & Soy Sauce
3. Roasted Garlic and Onions with Honey, Balsamic and Soy dressing.

And I must say - apart from seriously burning his dressing for the onions (it turned into Balsamic and Soy Hard Candy in the bottom of my pot, and was smoking like Mt. St. Helens when I found it...) he did a really good job! He got the timing right, and everything was done very well and tasted scrumptious!

Here we are sitting down to dinner. The sauce had just burned, and we hadn't tasted how good everything was yet, so I think Bas was feeling a little unconfident here! He was all smiles later.

And here's Luna patiently waiting for the food to show up!

So - it was a first great attempt, and everything tasted great - but he needed a little help in timing and preparation, so I scored him a 7! Scoring will obviously be a little subjective since we only have 1 person scoring the other... but hey it's the experience that counts!

Luna loves the pickles!

I wasn't sure if she would like them - because they are SO salty - but she does! She LOVES them! At least this morning, anyway...

It's Pickle Time!!

It's alittle early, but we've got fresh cucumbers coming in, so we decide to make cucumbers!! Yum, yum! They're super salty, and garlicky- but if you like that sort of thing, here's how you do it...

1. Mix 2 quarts water with 1 cup white vinegar, 1/2 cup salt and a 1/2 cup of sugar. Boil the mixture.

2. Place 1/2 a package of fresh dill in the bottom of a jar or sealable container.

3. Once mixture is boiling remove from heat and let cool.

4. Slice several cucumbers into spears - enough to fill your jar(s). Remove skin from 8 cloves of garlic.

5. Add cucumbers and garlic cloves to jars - don't worry you can really shove them in there.

6. Once mixture is cooled, add to jar(s), and top of with 2nd half of dill package.

7. Seal up, and should be ready to go the next day! The salt and sugar mixture brines the cucumbers, so they last forever!

Our Garden is Coming Along...

Here are some of the bulbs I put in last year...

And some people out on the lake on a boat.

And my little garden helper...

I love this one...

London Days 3 & 4

On Easter we went to The Ritz for lunch. The Ritz is known for it's afternoon tea, but we went for lunch. After snapping these pictures we were informed that you can't take pictures inside, so this is it. It was a real treat - probably my favorite part of the trip.

At the end of our meal, we disocvered that the President of the Ritz was seated at the table next to us. He had a special Ritz Teddy Bear sent over for Luna, and then when his family showed up for their private dinner in the next room, Luna had fun playing with their daughter Daisy.

Here it is on the outside.

The next day we went to the zoo. Here's Luna on the carousel.

Look Luna, it's your Personal Penguin... !

The meerkats were fun...

This little baby was so cute!

I love these giraffe doors!

Leaving the tube at Covent Garden.

Covent Garden... Eliza Doolittle is in there somewhere... hear her? "I ain't done nothin' wrong by speaking to the gentleman. I've a right to sell flowers if I keep off the kerb. I'm a respectable girl: so help me, I never spoke to him 'cept so far as to buy a flower off me."

And that afternoon we went to the British Museum. It's unbelieveable how much they have here from other countries - from when the Brits ruled all their colonies...

The Rosetta Stone...

They have more of the Parthenon than there is in Athens, I think...

The Black Obelisk - which dates from 825 BC, and has the earliest known depiction of an Israelite.

The maids arranged Luna's friends nicely on the bed...

And Luna figured out how to put on her own pants!