A Vegetarian and a Sunday Roast

21-29 January, 2012

Oh dear, I'm getting behind again.

Soooo, my friend Courtney from college-- we studied fashion together at Syracuse and both hail from the suburbs of Philadelphia-- now lives in Germany designing for Adidas.  She had a store trip to London and was able to add a few days to her trip to come visit us in Cambridge!  Yay!

Random side-note:  Courtney is vegetarian and this post ends with photos of a big slab of raw meat.  Hope not to offend, Court, but we were craving meat after you left.

We showed her the sights that Cambridge has to offer, took her to the two running apparel shops in town, and exposed her to the Fearnley Family Death Flu.  We even got ourselves a coupla pints out at one of our locals while Stephen minded the sleeping babes.  Bryce's developing accent emerged when he said her name: "Cote-nay."  Over and over and over again.  (He really took to her.)  

Later in the week we were invited to dinner at a friend's home where we had a delicious, perfectly roasted chicken and killer (I mean killer) scalloped spuds.   Managed to finally execute roasted veggies that were not undercooked and our hosts liked them, too.  (Secret, evidently, is par-boiling and goose fat.)  Also made a little chocolate cake, recipe courtesy of Kathryn, Layla's mom. (remember the post about Bryce's friend visiting from Brooklyn?)  Bryce helped me with it and it was a hit.

Thanks to that dinner I was finally inspired to make a Sunday Roast, like a good li'l wifey and it turned out well.  My late mother-in-law thankfully wrote down her secrets to a good Sunday roast and I am so glad to be able to attempt a go at it where I can buy all the things she mentioned in her instructions.  (For example, a cut of beef called "Silverside" and goose fat and really good spuds.)  I swear the potatoes here are better than any potatoes I've ever had back home.  Never dry, always creamy.  Sadly Bryce only ate the meat and no vegetables.  Ellis ate only vegetables and no meat.  Oh, and lots of little micro-sips of wine.  Ellis likes wine.

Did you know that gummy bears come from Germany??  I didn't!  They are so much better than the U.S. ones.  Different flavors and everything!  Thanks, Courtney!  (And for those dense and addictive cookies as well, if that is even the correct word for them)

St. John's College.  Our first time in, don't know what took us so long to check it out!  Gorgeous!

St. John's Chapel

Courtney and me inside St. John's College

Bridge of Sighs

St. John's student accommodation.  Not too shabby.

More St. Johns

The same student accommodation from across the green

Cote-nay and Bryce (This was the day after that face-plant I wrote about...)

Upside-down! 

No caption necessary

Look at the color of these yolks!  I love English hens.  And their eggs.  Do you know that brown chickens make brown eggs and white chickens make white eggs?  Well, my friend Emma who has chickens told me that her brown one lays brown and her white one lays white.  Just looked it up on the ole internet and it says it's not true, but I am going to believe it anyway because I like the idea of a purple chicken laying a purple egg and that's that.

Let me out!  (These glass doors are not the best for privacy or Bryce's overactive imagination in low-light)

Sunday Roast!  Tried a wet roast, rubbed with salt, pepp, rosemary, & thyme, uncovered, with 2 onions, beef stock, crushed garlic for 3.5 hours at 140C and it was yum.

Took a little trip to the Fitzwilliam Museum while the roast did its thing.  What a lovely museum in the heart of Cambridge.  Bryce likes the knights in armor and Stephen and I really enjoyed their collection of Impressionist art.  There was also a cello concert in one of the galleries which was a nice surprise and added some dimension for the quick-paced & easily-bored Bryce.

A-ha!  A pretty passive meal to warm us up after our venture into the cold.

"Where's the beef?"