Monday, November 22, 2010

Happy Thanksgiving Dance!


Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

Thanksgiving Dinner Alternative to Turkey: Sirloin Steak


One day last week, I featured on this blog a suggestion as to how those who are going to be forced to spend Thanksgiving alone in the USA this year could still enjoy a traditional, roast turkey, Thanksgiving dinner. There is another issue surrounding Thanksgiving dinner, however, which should be considered, in the sense that there are some people who quite simply do not like turkey. Whether such people are spending Thanksgiving alone, as part of a small group, or at a huge family gathering, they are clearly going to have to prepare or be served something other than turkey for Thanksgiving dinner.

Particularly where a turkey alternative for Thanksgiving dinner is to be prepared only for one person in a large group, the last thing anyone is going to want to do is offer something which is complicated, requiring a lot of individual time and attention. This is not being harsh to the unfortunate person who does not like turkey, it is simply a practical consideration. This is where sirloin steak makes an excellent choice as a turkey alternative (make sure your guest is not vegetarian!) as it can be very easily prepared properly as you attend to the other pots, pans and ingredients for the meal.

Where the sirloin steak is to be served only to one of the guests in a larger group, it can of course be very effectively accompanied by most of the turkey trimmings. Where you are preparing only sirloin steak, however, and no turkey, you may wish to consider this recipe in full.

Ingredients

1 thick slice of sirloin steak
A few small, new potatoes
A few Brussels sprouts
1 egg
1 tomato
Little butter
Salt and pepper
Pinch of dried dill
Pinch of dried nutmeg
Sunflower oil for frying

Method

The first step is to get your potatoes on to cook. They should be washed and added to a pot of lightly salted, cold water. They should be put on a high heat until the water starts to boil and then the heat may be reduced to achieve a simmer. Whole, new potatoes like this will take around thirty minutes' simmering to cook.

When the potatoes have been simmering for around ten minutes, it is time to cook the sirloin steak. This may be the stage where you have your turkey already out of the oven and covered with tinfoil to rest, giving you a little free time to attend to the dish for the person who does not like turkey. Prior to putting the steak on to cook, put a dinner plate in to the oven at a low heat. This will be needed to effectively rest the steak.

The steak can of course be griddled or grilled but I have chosen simply to shallow fry it in a frying pan. I am using a little sunflower oil to do so and bringing that up to a fairly high heat before I add the steak (seasoned on both sides with salt and black pepper) and reducing the heat to medium. When you are frying a steak, resist the temptation to move it around in the pan. The only time you move it during cooking should be to turn it. Different people like their steaks cooked to different extents (if you are the cook only and not the person who will be eating it, you should check!) and cooking a one inch thick sirloin such as this for five minutes each side will allow it to be served medium rare.

When you have turned the steak, the sprouts should be added to a pot of boiling water and allowed to cook for a total of ten to fifteen minutes, depending upon how big they are.


When the steak is ready, the plate should be removed from the oven and the steak transferred on to it. A large sheet of tinfoil should then be used to cover the steak and plate and wrapped securely around the edges to seal. Be sure to use oven protecting gloves for this process, as everything will be very hot! The tomato should then be halved and each half placed flat side down in to the pan vacated by the steak to fry for around five minutes.

The egg could be fried in the same pan as the tomatoes are cooking, especially if space is at a premium. I have used a separate small pan, however, with only the tiniest amount of sunflower oil. The pan should be fairly hot before the egg is broken firstly in to a small bowl and then inserted carefully in the pan. As there are a great many common mistakes made when frying an egg, you may wish to click here for some very helpful and practical tips and advice. The egg will take three to four minutes to fry.

Plating up involves draining the potatoes before returning them to the empty pot with a little butter and dried dill to be swirled around. The sprouts should be similarly drained before being swirled in butter and ground nutmeg. It is simply a matter thereafter of plating up the individual component parts of the meal as shown and serving your turkey alternative Thanksgiving dinner to your guest.

I Don't Know Why I Love This, But I Do

I Think Every Grilling Attempt by Young Men Involves Food on Fire and Beer

... and, oh yes, some young ladies wondering aloud if the grill is supposed to be a mass of flames. Like this.


Man, does that look familiar.

I know why you wanna hate me...

... because all this lovely pictures of food! I know, I know... eveything looks so delicious!!


At Cup & Cakes.

 
At Lolita Bakery; as you see they've got now some Christmas' stuff!

 
 Today at El Cafetó, one of my faves around Barcelona. 

Did you had a good Monday? Mine was ok, except for the point that these days I'm missing my family and my two best friends, Rose and Jairo, so so much... 

 Jairo & me last summer.
 Jairo and Curro <3
 Rose & me, last summer too.

Rose is at Málaga, working for Ryanair; and Jairo is at Katowice, Poland... you can follow his adventures here (try the google translator is you don't speak spanish... it's so so SO funny, promise! And if you're from Poland, give him some love!). 

Anyway, tomorrow I'm having 3 jobs interview... maybe one of them goes right, who knows? I'll tell you tomorrow!
Thanks for being there, you sweethearts!!



Hedgehogs Are Full of teh Awesome!

No, really.

50 Free Holiday Cards from Shutterfly for Bloggers!

I found out about this amazing deal from my friend Sarah @ Sarah's Hearts Home and Jessica @ Cress Life. I am pretty excited to use Shutterfly for my Christmas pictures this year. I have never used their site before, although I do have an account. They have so many cute Christmas cards on their site! A couple of my friends have used Shutterfly for Christmas cards last year and I still have their pictures hanging on the fridge! I am looking forward to trying it out myself. There are so many cute cards that I had a hard time choosing my favorites. Here are a few that I narrowed down. Be sure to check out the rest of the cards they offer at http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-cards.





I ended up picking the Retro Plaid Christmas Card. I have always enjoyed Country Christmas decor, and this card seemed to fit the style I was looking for.

It's hard to believe Christmas is almost here!! And I am so glad that Shutterfly is offering this awesome deal for bloggers!

To enter for 50 Free Holiday Cards, click this link: http://bit.ly/sfly2010


video, ultah, sleepover, playful kiss series

Ini udah study week. Hmmm. Should I happy or sad?
Semestinya happy, karena gak lama lagi pulang Palopo, udah 3 bulan gak injek2. Miss my family.
But the bad thing is, exams soon. And I havent started my revision yet. =(
Pokoknya semester ini harus doing well.


Mau cerita apa ya?? Ada banyak sih yg mau diceritain, tapi gak tau mulai darimana.


First, video project buat communication skills kemaren. Aku se-group ama student from different batch, Business Studies. Jadinya kita bikin video tentang cultural misunderstanding. Aku se group ama temen indo, Arnold, Dede dan 1 lagi anak malay, JK. Lumayan sih videonya. It scored well too. =)


Ini screenshoots videonya. ;)
Aku sendirian cewe. Hehe.
The Casts =P
Arnold - Anty - Dede - JK
Big thanks to cameraman, Dicky. Hehe
Hmm pasti pada penasaran liat videonya kan?
Yauda deh aku embed deh.
ini diaa..

Second, kemaren ultahnya Tat Yang juga, salah satu classmates. Kita rayain deh rame2.
Arsenal Cake!
Birthday Boy =P 
Birthday boy and the asian girls in class =P
Jackson-Tat Yang-MarVin
Polaroided dooong XD
Third, SLEEPOVER! Haha. Si Trace, Feli dan Leni dateng kerumah buat sleepover rame2. Katanya mereka desperate pengen bikin video gila2an ku kayak waktu bareng Ivy dan Leni. Hehe. Banyak makan kita itu hari, sate, J.co, dan main monopoli. And took a lot of retarded pics! =P
Normal =P
Started to retarded. Haha
Hungry fellaaas!!! XDD
Snowy Christmas =D
trace looks like bugs bunny O_o
Feli gepeng aka smashed XD
Haha leni = dragonfly XD
Back to normal and sweets
Hahaha no comments *ROFL* XDDD
The simpsons or alien?
all become human penyet haha
Four, Playful Kiss! XD Argh ini korean drama sweet sekali. Jadi pengen punya pacar jadinya kalo nonton ini. Romantis banget deh. ♥♥ Bikin teriak2 nontonnya gara2 terlalu sweet. Haha.. XD
Apalagi pemainnya juga oke2. Pokoknya harus nonton. =)

Sweetest scene. urgh melting melting!
mau mau mauuuuuuuuuu

Kisses XD
Sweet sweet ♥♥♥
Arrrrrggggggh!






Our Home

So lately I've been thinking about our home and where it is on the map. To be honest I never in a million years thought I'd end up living in Florida of all the places in the world. Nor did Nathan for that matter. Sometimes we throw around the idea of moving somewhere else, but not in a real serious sort of conversation. I love Florida don't get me wrong...I was born to live near water...I love the beaches and I love the laid back kind of lifestyle everyone leads here. I just don't know if this is the place I was meant to settle down in. I miss the seasons. The winter's here are simply amazing...but the summer's here are horrendous. I miss the fall season, and I miss the snow season. I just don't want to live somewhere where there's snow on the ground for 6 months like Michigan. (where I'm from)haha

The only issue in finding our place is that because Nathan works for NASA, he'd have to re-locate to one of their other centers. California would be ideal, but it is REALLY expensive to live there. Then there's Texas, I wouldn't mind checking out Houston, I'm definitely not opposed. Last option we would consider is Washington D.C. Who really knows where we'll end up. I don't think we will be in Florida forever though. Just the thought of leaving our beautiful house, friends, familiar favorite spots makes me a little sad. It really sucks starting all over. I really don't see myself raising a family here, and because we are going to start trying for a family very soon, I'm wondering what our future holds in this sunny state.


Losers Don't Dictate Terms

... that's the only thing I can think of every time I read these kind of sentiments coming from the White House.
Nov. 20 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama said countries running trade surpluses should boost domestic demand and allow their currencies to strengthen, repeating criticism he made of China a week ago at a meeting of global leaders.

“Countries with big surpluses have to figure out how they can expand demand,” Obama said today at briefing after a North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit in Lisbon. “Countries with significant deficits, we have to save more and focus not only on consumption, but also on production and exports.”
We've worshipped consumption and demonized production and now we're prostrate before our creditors, forced to print paper money to cover our debt payments. Obama and his buddies' sound like Wesley Mouch from Atlas Shrugged issuing Directive 10-289.
"In the name of the general welfare," read Wesley Mouch, "to protect the people's security, to achieve full equality and total stability, it is decreed for the duration of the national emergency..."
Everyone around the world should stop trying to make money by producing valuable things at good prices because, well, we're losing. Oh yeah, that's going to work out well. It's like the academics think that everyone else is out for "fairness" just like they are. They don't like the idea of competition and winners and losers, so they want to ban it. Instead, the Chinese and Germans are happily kicking our butts and will continue to do so.


The Obama Admnistration might be surprised to discover that the rest of the world isn't banning "touching" in their schools.