First Home Made Dinner

Now that I have settled down a bit and have extra time. I had the chance to make home made lamb burgers. With the limited stock of ingredients I had, it came out pretty tasty!

Lamb Burger (Marinated with sauteed red wine onions with Herbs Du Provence)
over toasted Naan topped with Creamed Horseradish & Courgettes. 

Traveling Abroad...On a Budget

As I am currently on a budget, the best thing to do was to buy ingredients in bulk. But that doesn't mean I wanted to eat the same meal all the time. Therefore, using the same ingredients I made two relatively different dishes.

Green Curry Lamb Chop Stir Fry with Courgettes

Pan Fried Lamb Chops with Mint Jelly & Sauteed Courgettes 

The Competition...

While walking in central London, there was Laduree in the tiniest spot all covered in gold. Apparently these fresh Macarons are shipped in from Paris each morning.

 

As you can tell they make a lot of different varieties, not sure which ones to copy yet. (Salted Caramel, Strawberry, Vanilla, & Rose)

Pistachio, Lemon, Chocolate, & Bitter chocolate

We bought a couple to try, lemon was my favourite. Guess there is a lot of work ahead to perfect this recipe.

French Macarons!

This is what I have done today, made Macarons. With the help of my friend Christine, we tried out this Hazelnut & Dark Chocolate recipe. For the most part, it turned out great! Just needs some minor tweaking.

I also had a chance to play with my camera which is also a plus. Still need to learn all the functions on it though. We were thinking of making different Macarons and selling it at the local Greenwich Market. Currently someone is selling cupcakes for 2 pounds each! Hoping we can cash in on the tourists too.

If you want to know more about the market:
http://www.greenwichmarket.net/

Better yet, you can always come to London and help.

First Home Dinner

This was the first home cooked dinner I had in my new flat. Although it is not from scratch, it is pretty good! It is Meat Cappelletti (Proscuitto & Grana Padano) topped with Tomato & Marscarpone sauce. Also had fresh baked butter baguette. Can't forget the red wine, but unfortunately do not have any wine glasses yet. Therefore, had to drink it out of a mug  

Finally moved in!

Below is a virtual tour of my flat. It is well kept but still has its problems. The day before I moved in there was a big leak from the ceiling in the washroom. There wasn't any electricity and the washing machine wasn't working. All has been fixed now!

Will upload some pics from outings when I have a chance. Cheers. 

Kitchen

This is the kitchen, smaller than I am used to but pretty satisfied. Besides the backsplash, I would have chosen stainless steel and a glass table as well. It also has a garburator! 

Facilities

LEFT: There is a complex pool for lap swimming. Haven't tried it though.

 RIGHT: Beside the pool is the gym. It has the same equipment as GoodLife, so all is good. Went for the first time today. 

My Bed & Bathroom

RIGHT: The bed is spacious enough, but not used to the independent radiator. Did not go big on the bed spread, went to the local wal-mart equivalent. Maybe someone can share their 1000 thread count egyptian set?

LEFT: This is the 3 piece bathroom, it's pretty modern but the shower door is finicky.

Window

This is the only window in the whole flat, but it's pretty nice to have the double doors. The weather has been pretty nice the couple days so the breeze is a nice adjustment from all the rain.

Balcony

RIGHT: At the far back you can see the Tube system which is literally 2 minutes walk away. My neighbour isn't really that close to me, it's just the zoom on the camera.









LEFT: The south side of my building taken from my "balcony". There aren't many cars right now, but usually packed along the sides.

My Flat!

This is the main entrance to my building. It is basically a complex made up of 10+ buildings. The funny thing is they all have American names (Alaska, California, etc). If you look closely, you can spot my flat.