I can hear my neighbors, well neighbor to be precise. We live in an old bakery and by old I mean, like historic. We share the building with a single father named Martin; I like Martin but due to our doors being so close and the walls so badly insulated I know quite a bit about him. I know his girlfriend drives a BMW, he has two children, snores, and oddly enough, vomits in the morning.

Now I'm not shy, and have even spoken with this man for hours on end on several occasions (outside, not through the walls), but I wonder, with all the noise I've made, what could he possibly think?

Especially recently.. Now get your head out of the gutter, it's not quite like that. The other night I was making pecan tassies, to help me with my pecan withdrawals and I was making a gluten-free oat crust, when I moved the casserole dish from the hot burner (hob) to the cool one, as it was an accident for it to be on the hot one to begin with. The bowl exploded; really exploded shrapnel everywhere including my foot, tiny shards of glass flew right into my foot, and I screamed for a good 30minutes. Now if I live so close to my neighbor that I can hear him vomit in the mornings should I be concerned that even through an explosion and the after-math of screaming he doesn't say anything? Call anyone?

Just seems odd, that's all I'm saying.

So just a few days ago, I was here, in Oundle, with nothing to do. I often find myself in this situation; I daily purchase a cappuccino from one of the four coffee shops in town, but sadly that only assuages my boredom for the amount of time it takes to finish the drink and work a couple of practice questions in my LSAT study book. Often I turn to my host here, Oliver, to entertain me. On this particular day Oliver was working dilligently on his laptop and I felt that disturbing him would be unfair, so I turned, as I often do, to the pantry.

Well, we don't have a panty, but you get the idea; I don't need your sass okay? And what did I find in the "pantry" you might ask, Cardamom, a big bag of Cardamom. Off to google I went, and then the Co-Op for a bar of chocolate and pistachios.. Here's what I came up with; if some of the ingredients look weird, it's because it's what we had.

Cardamom and Pistachio Bites, dipped in Chocolate

1/2 cup of butter

2/3 cup of sugar

1 tsp cardamom

1/4 cup milk

1 2/3 cup self-rising flour

2/3 cup pistachios chopped

1 bar of dark chocolate

1 egg

Oven temp: 200C

Cream butter spread, sugar, and cardamom. Add milk and half the pistachios; mix thoroughly. Slowing incorporate flour, should gather and ball up as you stir it. Take the ball of dough (which will be sticky) and cover in cling wrap and put in freezer till it firms up, maybe 20 minutes. Remove ball from freezer and place on counter top which is covered in flour. Dust with flour until the dough can be handled without sticking to your hands. Roll out dough on countertop and cut into small squares, about 2x2 inches. Crack egg and whisk with fork in a small dish. Place squares on greased cookie sheet and use basting brush or finger to brush egg mixture on top of each square. Bake until golden and poofy. Allow cookies to cool.

Break chocolate bar up and add to the top of a double boiler (sauce pan on top of sauce pan of boiling water). Stir constantly, adding 2 tablespoons of milk to get a shiney color. Dip the top of each cookie in melted chocolate and top with the rest of the chopped pistachios and extra sugar.

Perhaps a bit dry on their own, but nice as tea or coffee bites.

Recently, on a trip to London, I did my traditional pilgrimage to Whole Foods on Kensington HighStreet, and to my delight I wondered upon a huge table of discounted spices. I had always wanted to try cardamom; kheer, indian rice pudding, is one of my all time favorites and heavily flavored with cardamom. At 99p I couldn't really pass up the opportunity.

Oli and I went off for a wander around Edinburgh this last weekend. I say wander when really I mean we were on a quite specific mission to find and acquire "authentic Scottish tartans" to be mailed back to the U.S. in time for the annual McNabb family reunion. From Oundle the drive is about 5 hours, which is not bad for a girl from Texas, but to an English person it's clearly a feat, so Oli and I set off early that morning and arrived at about lunch time.

Whenever I venture to a new big city I look on HappyCow's Returaunt Guide to find a suitable and often off the beaten path place to eat. As usual HappyCow did not disappoint and we were able to grab a bite at the EngineShed restaurant, a vegetarian cafe/bakery/tofu processor housed in a converted train station. The daily menu was presented on a blackboard but the salad bar was to say the least imaginative; I love the idea of trying something completely new and the EngineShed presented me with plenty of options. I had the butternut squash soup and salad plate and Oli had the lemon and mushroom pasta (though I still regret not venturing for the savory nut pies).

So if you've ever had saag paneer or even "Googled it" you'll notice that it varies quite a bit from place to place with the creamy/spinach ratio. Mine turned out a little more on the creamy side than most, but it was lovely.
Coupled with two mini-whole wheat pitas it made quite a lovely lunch, and is still one of Oli's and my "easy to make" fast and warm dinners.

(recipe serves 3)

Ingredients:

1/2 package (8oz) of paneer cheese

2 tbsp of flour

1/4 cup of shaved parmesan

2 cups of semi-skimmed milk

2 1/2 cups (packed) de-thawed frozen spinach

1 tbsp salt

black pepper to taste

Add small amount of cooking spray to a pan and brown paneer on each side. Remove paneer from pan and set to the side. Add butter to pan with sliced onions and garlic and sauté until caramelized, add chili powder/ flakes, and cumin at the end of the sauté. Add 1/2 tbsp of flour to the onions and garlic and incorporate (soaking up the butter from the sauté) slowly add another 1/2 tbsp of flour to the mixture and incorporate well. Gently mix in (and I mean gently) small amounts of the milk, stirring constanly, and then the rest of the flour to make a rue. Once you've added all of the flour and about 1/2 a cup of the milk, add the shaved parmesan, black pepper, and salt. slowly add another 1/2 cup of the milk and then add in the spinach and cooked paneer, mixing constantly. Slowly incorporate the last cup of milk and allow for the mixture to simmer until thickened to desired consistency.

Add more salt to taste and enjoy!

My life in the United Kindom thus far has incited a great love for semi-skimmed cappuccinos; my favorite is the froth. Semi-colons are also my favorite.

Sorry about the dirty utensils, I couldn't help myself. I'm Whitney by the way.