Thanksgiving

So…last weekend was the annual all you can eat, turkey/ham/stuffing and sides extravaganza that is Thanksgiving at the Woodcocks.  My friend Sacha is a genuine American and so holds it every year.  This year she’s had the audacity to be in the US over the official one, but given that all attendees are non-American and didn’t want to miss out, having it early seemed the obvious solution.

We all took a dish along, prepared to a recipe supplied by Sacha, to exacting standards.  This seemed like a perfectly great idea until I had to carry half a tonne of sweet potatoes across London…I thought I was never going to be able to feel my arms again!!

Anyhow, here’s what I made, sounds wrong but it’s utterly amazingly tasty:

Sweet Potato Casserole with Marshmallows

Serves 10

8 sweet potatoes

1tbsp vanilla

3 tbsp sugar

½ stick of butter

¼ tsp cinnamon

½ tsp nutmeg

1/8 cup orange juice (a splash if you’re more of the Nigella school of thought/ don’t won any US measuring gear)

Marshmallows

• Peel and boil the sweet potatoes until cooked.
• Mash.
• Add in all the other ingredients except the marshmallows and mix.
• Grease a baking dish.
• Tip in ingredients and decorate with marshmallows on top.
• Cook until hot – the marshmallows should melt and toast…mmm…

This is before it went into the oven at Sacha’s…when it came out I was too busy eating to take pics…

Happy (Early) Thanksgiving!

In considering Halloween Outfits

I have been invited to a Halloween party (/30^th).  Now, usually my involvement in Halloween is a slightly mystified, ‘huh, drunk idiots dressed as ghosts and the undead appear to have taken over Shoreditch’.  I feel this may be a direct result of having been brought up in a house where my mother would open the door, inform the small kids that we did not live in America, then close the door in their perplexed little faces.

But, given that turning up as me is not likely to be seen as sufficiently ‘joining in’, I thought I should look at my options.  Hmm…  This is where the feminist part of me does some bellowing.  It would seem that at Halloween kids look in cute pumpkin/ princess outfits, men look ridiculous and women look like whores.

I think this picture adequately illustrates the point I’m making…

Now, I’m all for a bit of fun, but good grief.

Given that I’m yet to find a fancy dress site that doesn’t have the words ‘sexy’ or ‘naughty’ in front of 90% of their women’s costumes (and the rest are wigs or hats) I’m thinking an alternative route may be called for.  I can either invest in some white gear and go as a ghost, or some black gear and go as a vampire.  Let’s face it I have the skin tone for either.  Or I go ‘fun’, which also has the handy knack of looking comfy, which the trussed up ‘ho look does not look to be.

On the fun scale I quite like one-sie cat costumes, Kigu-esque ones…  Whilst the real thing (flying squirrel, anyone?!) would be great I happened to see one in Primark yesterday that’s only £10, which may be a go-er.

Other than that I shall get some inspiration from American Apparel.  They seem to favour ballet/ Black Swan/ superhero looks, but then given that they are basically a leggings and leotards as fashion store, this is perhaps to be expected.  I particularly like the idea of this hoodie-dinosaur idea.

Two sides of Clapham

I spent Saturday in Clapham...an odd occurrence for an East Londoner like myself you may feel but then Sam lives there so that's reason enough.

It was such a gloriously sunny day that I mentally huffed and puffed at the weekend service tube line closures and bus services on my way down, eager to get out in the sun before it got dark.  I was at least rewarded with a glorious few hours on Clapham Common, albeit in a cardigan and tights.  Despite the other week's tropical weather it does seem to be heading towards more usual October temperatures now.  I noticed that the BBC is using pale yellow, green-ish and turquoise-y blue icons for the temperature on the weather forecast, as opposed to the oranges and bright yellows of summer.  It's all ok though as I have a new coat, scarf and hat I'm eager to wear and have started my annual trawl of all the boots in the world (well, London and the interweb anyhow) to try to find a pair that fit.  3 years of failure are behind me, I'm determined this year!

After a meat feast dinner (plus sides) at Bodeans...great food and lots of men on 'man dates' being all manly and eating plates of ribs that have you wondering if there are any cows left standing in the world...we ventured out for the evening.  We were headed to Brixton but had to venture to Clapham Juction to get the bus and saw a very different side to the blissed out Common of a few hours previously.  Yep, drunk idiots fighting on a skanky chucked out mattress.  Bleugh.

We passed though on the way home, skirting the kebab shops as, as Sam said, they're bad for your health.  Not the kebabs, the actual shops...there's always some fight or other kicking off in there.  A mini epicentre of dirt, belligerence and bad manners on an otherwise lovely area.  Oh well, I'll choose to hold the Common, sunshine and relaxation in my mind...