Last night we had a hot date in London. We even left the neighborhood!
We started at the Tate Modern, which is always free and which is open late on Fridays and Saturdays. It was fun to be in a Museum for a date and we really enjoyed wandering around without the usual crowds.
We had a glass of wine after the museum (at the museum) and watched the sun start to set over the Thames. Jim was really excited for me to take this picture of him. Escalators: Sunset:
Being told to be serious about the picture and looking like a sap as a result. I was trying to concentrate on looking at the BT tower, so that I wouldn't make a face.
This is how I really felt (much better, I'm sure you'll agree):
A delicious dinner at a Turkish restaurant, where we ate way too much (a frequent problem)and had deep conversations:
Unfortunately, at the end of the night there was a long tube ride home. Jim is always the most enthusiastic of all about long tube rides. He should be a tube cheerleader! Goooo TUBE!
I got this recipe from Ottolenghi, which is an awesome restaurant in London, which we enjoy as frequently as we can. They are all about really fresh ingredients and it's YUMMY!
So, as requested, I'm sharing the recipe (which I hope is legal. If not, I'll take it down!).
Make the sauce first: -Fry 2 crushed garlic cloves and 2 hot red chillies in 4 Tbs of olive oil (and use gloves or you will end up with welts on your face, lips and pain in your eyeballs when you try to remove your contacts) for 2 minutes -Add 8 chopped tomatoes, 370 ml of water, 4 TBSP of cider vinegar, 3 tsp salt, 2 tsp ground cumin and bring to a boil. Then simmer for 20 minutes until the sauce thickens a little. -add salt, pepper and coriander to taste
Cook 10 oz of green lentils
-Wash 7 oz of basmati rice and then drain -heat a couple of tablespoons of butter in a heavy saucepan and fry a handful of broken vermicelli noodles (uncooked) until they are golden brown. -Add the rice and stir until it's coated in butter -add 400ml of water, 1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg, 1.5 teaspoons of salt, 1/2 teaspoon black pepper -Boil and then reduce heat and simmer for 12 minutes
Heat 4 tablespoons of olive oil and fry, until dark brown, 2 thinly sliced white onions.
Combine lentils with the rice mixture and add most of the onions, leaving some for garnish. Serve hot with the spicy tomato sauce. YUMMY DELICIOUSNESS!
We're back to rain today (Monday), but the weekend was incredible and sunny with fake looking clouds and green, green grass. It was idyllic and about as good as it gets in London, weather-wise, so we decided to go on a family picnic in Hampstead Heath.
Evie was suited up in her Sunday best with her "Dimanche" Babar bib (courtesy of Linda Hall) on and her fabulous sun hat (courtesy of Nana and Papa), of which she is not a huge fan. She was good sport, though, and really seemed to enjoy her first picnic.
After a lot of winding around and bumping Evie's stroller through various fields punctuated with muskrat or rabbit holes, Jim finally found us the perfect picnic spot under a big tree.
It wasn't long before we were joined by this greyhound doggy friend, who was wearing...a Gucci collar. I took that opportunity to explain to Evie that if she wants something Gucci at some point in her life, she is going to have to save her pennies and that we would NEVER be buying our pets designer collar wear! The dog was pretty cute, though, and went off at lightning speed when his owners called him.
Evie experienced her first grass yesterday, as well. We have a patio with trees and ivy and leaves, but no grass, so she was tickled (literally) to spend some time in the grass.
Trees are also a great thrill, so Jim took Evie over to gaze up into the branches of the big tree that we were sitting under.
Future Photographer. She takes after her Dad!
Idyllic weather!
The excitement that is grass (she got a little TOO excited and toppled into the grass on her face, which she didn't like too much):
Flying with Daddy!
Playing with Mom.
Eventually the novelty of the picnic wore off and we moved on. Hampstead Heath has several swimming ponds: the co-ed pond, which gets really crowded and full of people who obviously have checked their modesty at the door and don't mind changing into their bathing suits in full view of everyone at the pond or are wearing far too little; the all woman pond, which is secluded and shaded; and the all man pond, which has a reputation for being a gay pick up area and is, in my opinion, the nicest pond area. I would swim there if I were a man...but NOT at this time of year. That splash in the distance of this picture is a man swimming. Apparently some guys swim year round. Impressive. Or insane?
Duck Butt:
Post-picnic status:
Meandering along a shady trail:
A man and his girl among bluebells and green leaves. Yay for spring!
She's not ready for solids yet, but she's definitely interested, so lately I've been letting her 'taste' (lick) the fruit that I'm eating. Today she tried her first banana!
On Easter morning we woke up to find that the Easter Bunny had brought Evie a very cool present: a xylophone! I'm afraid she was more into the wrapping paper than the actual xylophone, but Jim had a lot of fun with it! I'm not sure how much natural talent for playing the xylophone Evie is going to inherit. I know that my brief career as a xylophone player in the sixth grade band was pretty disastrous. Fortunately there was another xylophone player upon whom I was quick and able to blame all of the missed notes (it's amazing how well you can hear the xylophone, despite all of the other instruments in a band!).
We played Flying Nun for a little while, had a few spit ups, changed into dry and warm clothes and then headed out in search of the beach.
It's always easiest to travel as a two headed monster. I'm trying to impress upon Evie the importance of a great appreciation for costumes and boas. She seemed nonplussed.
She was so not interested in the beach (and who can blame her in THAT weather) that she almost slept through it again... Eventually, though, she woke up and charmed the pants off some waiters with her happy smiles and was keen to check out the sand and sea.
Watching the waves:
She wasn't so interested in feeling the sand...
so I tried a different angle. We'll know who to blame if she ends up hating sand later in life.
As we left the beach we were lucky enough to catch this great band:
And then our camera died, thus ending picture taking in Barcelona. It was a great first trip with Evie!
