On Brown Sauce

So someone asked recently what brown sauce was.  (Yes, Morgan, I'm looking at you.)  Well, I have an answer for you, and anyone else who is curious.

This is brown sauce:

That's a new bottle, because my roommates and I have gone through another bottle that size and one smaller bottle since the beginning of the year.  And that is because it is gorgeous.  I mean, seriously, lovely stuff that.

Its sort of like steak sauce, but better.  Its mostly vinegar and clove, and a few other spices and things.  Sweet and tangy, we put it on sausage, cover the plate for bangers and mash, and on cheese toasties and fried bread.  Its pretty much the everything sauce.  Eggs?  Brown sauce.  Bacon? Brown sauce.  Piece of bread you fried in butter on the stovetop until its crispy and salty and delicious? BROWN SAUCE.

Because brown sauce is gorgeous, and it belongs on everything which has pork, cheese, or bread.  Fact of life.

This is a pretty good time to talk about some food I've been eating.

Okay, sure there's the basic bangers and mash.  That's a classic.  We have it pretty much anytime we need a quick meal and someone has an essay due so they can't cook that night.  I won't lie, this was something I was apprehensive about, since neither sausage nor mashed potatoes are really my thing, and the word "bangers" was just not one that sounded particularly appetizing.  A "banger," however is just a sausage cooked on the stovetop, because of the way it pops and splatters.  And it turns out when you put mashed potatoes with brown sauce and sausage I actually quite like them.  Bangers take about twenty minutes on the stovetop and then you just have to boil potatoes for mash, so its pretty mindless, but still filling and tasty.

Cheese on toast is another one I eat a lot.  Its exactly what it sounds like: buttered toast which is then covered in cheese and microwaved until the cheese gets melty.  You eat it, have a heart attack, and then eat more of it.  I have it two or three times a week, minimum.

Then there's beans on toast, again, buttered toast, baked beans, which here are made in a tomato sauce instead of brown sugar.  Different, but still good.  Beans on toast is great for lunch if you're want a snack, but more than cheese on toast.

And then one day a week or so after I moved here, one of my roommates made cheese on toast, and then came in the living room with it covered in beans.  He made beans on cheese on toast.

I'm addicted, its a problem.

In other news, Davis is going to be here in a few hours, so I should probably leave this post here.  I'll try to put something a little more in depth up later.  Keep checking back and make sure you check my Twitter (@travelsofali) for updates on when blogs are coming.  Always feel free to send questions my way on twitter (like, "what is brown sauce and why do you keep talking about bathing in it?") and I'll do my best to answer them.

Until next time, my fearless followers!

A Very British Thanksgiving

So we all remember when my roommate made a comment about how Thanksgiving is a celebration of independence from Britain and I quickly set the record straight, well, I also ended up making a thanksgiving dinner for said roommate, and eight other people of course.

This last thursday a group of new friends arrived at my house and we began cooking.  The turkey was, for all intents and purposes, a group effort.  I had intended to have it in the oven by the time people started arriving but, well, he wasn't keen on thawing as quickly as we would have liked.  Oh yeah, and we named him Rhys.  He was our happy little welsh turkey, sitting in the sink in water and desperately trying to remain frozen.  Nevertheless, a few tried a true methods had him happily slathered in butter, divested of giblets and neck, and cooking merrily in the oven.

At this point, there were just me and a two other American girls working on the dinner (Left: Rose, Right Kerry), and mostly that was chopping and peeling and laughing and drinking wine.  Lea joined us a bit later.  While working, we listened to christmas music, watched Charlie Brown, and talked about the various traditions we have back home.  And of course, we made turkey hands.  You know, where you trace your hand and turn it into a turkey?  Everyone had to do it.  It was required.  As payment for dinner, you had to make a turkey hand.

Once dinner was ready, we all gathered around and took our seats and I had everyone say something they were thankful for, in the spirit of the day.  I think what made me happiest was that I actually recieved completely honest, heartfelt responses.  So often with young people you get answers like, "I'm thankful for jolly bears" or something similar to that.  Only Rob said he was thankful for his shirt, but everyone else said honest, real things they were thankful for, studying here, getting to be at a thanksgiving dinner, having friends, feeling welcomed, that sort of thing.  It was wonderfully honest.

Then we ate.  We had turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, peas, corn, gravy, cranberry sauce (homemade), rolls, stuffing (from inside the bird), vegan stuffing with eggplant (Sasha's girlfriend Lily is essentially vegan, and interestingly that stuffing was one of the biggest hits of the night), carrots sautéed with brown sugar and cinnamon, roasted garlic, green jello salad, and brussels sprouts.  I dont think anything was ignored except maybe the green jello salad (not surprising), although even that a few people tried and said it was decent.  No one had seconds, of course, and there were several, "I'm sorry, but this sh*t is weird."   Here's our spread:

We also had wine and "appeltizer" which is basically sparkling apple juice somewhat in the vein of Martinelli's.

After we ate, when everyone was beginning to fall into turkey coma, we (the americans) got everyone up and we all went for a walk.  Sadly, Jordan, one of my friends, came down sick and couldn't make it.  So we put all together a few takeaway boxes for her and walked them over to Beck House.  Then we walked down to the beach, got our feet soaking wet with freezing ocean water, and traipsed back home for a dessert (or pudding) of peach pie, apple crumble, and chocolate muffins, all of which was amazing.

Then, and this is the really amazing part, we all came together to do the washing up.  Kerry, Rose, and Rob did the dishes, Jeremy, Sasha, and Lea all put things into containers and fit them into the fridge, and Ross helped me remove the remainder of meat from the turkey for later.

In all, I'm calling this one a success.  There's not much more to say than that, so I'll leave it there.

Have some bad photos (more to follow, I'll change the title to read "updated" when I've added them, so check back!)