Rudders at Home

As you all know by now, I had a couple girlfriends in this past Saturday night. The plan was to have some food, have some drinks, and well, have some ice cream. I think we succeeded on all parts there, and when my camera came out, it didn’t stay in my hands for very long. So, let me share some pictures from our girls night in.

I’m not sure what this picture on the left is all about. I think I look a bit more like Vanna White. “I’d like to buy a vowel, Pat.” Or maybe I’m saying,  “Welcome to my kitchen, let me feed you some ice cream.” but, really, I think I’m supposed to be showing off the couple boxes of ice cream that I prepared in advance of my friends’ arrival. It’s a good thing I did, too, as the one kind I did try to freeze while they were there didn’t freeze very well and turned into something more like soup.

On to the ice cream. First we have Margarita ice cream, then Cheesecake ice cream, and the last is Vietnamese Coffee ice cream churning away in my ice cream maker.

They all seemed to be a pretty big hit, judging by the reaction of the crowd. The recipe for the margarita ice cream came from Nigella, and the recipe can be found here on the BBC website. I thought it was pretty good, and extremely easy to make. You don’t need an ice cream maker at all. Just throw everything together in a container and stick in the freezer. I did it the night before and it was perfect on Saturday. I had to let it soften a bit before scooping it out but it all worked fine.

The next two kinds I made, I got the recipes from David Leibovitz’s The Perfect Scoop ice cream cookbook. The cheesecake ice cream was absolutely gorgeous, and was so easy to make. I mixed it up that morning before the girls came over. Once it was churned I added in some crushed gingersnap cookies, which was a brilliant thing. They added that graham cracker crust taste to it and the cookies absorbed some of the cream, so were soft when you bit into them and not hard little bullets in the ice cream, like I was afraid they might end up being.

We were running late in the night which is why the last one came out a bit soupy. I think we might have gotten caught up in drinks and other things and so the ice cream came at the end of the evening. Still, the Vietnamese coffee ice cream was pretty tasty. Basically, it’s just a combination of strong coffee and condensed milk with some cream and then churned in the ice cream maker. It wasn’t as rich as the other ice creams I made at the weekend, but it was still nice and I could see it being very refreshing on a hot day.

The evening started off with drinks, margaritas to be exact, and once both, Rochelle and Anneli had arrived we broke into nachos and then dinner. Dinner was my vegetarian chilli which turned out really well this time, with Anneli’s nachos grande, and Rochelle’s homemade guacamole.

Then, right as we started to dish out ice cream, the girls cottoned on to the fact that we have a Wii. And I promptly displayed the fact that I don’t know how to run it. I broke out the only game I really know how to play and the only game I really enjoy, and that’s Rayman’s Raving Rabbids, so we proceeded to play that and eat ice cream until it was time for the girls to catch their trains.

As I said before, my camera wasn’t in my hands for long. At some point in the evening, someone took some rogue videos of us playing on the Wii. There were also a number of “artistic” shots, which included this cracking photo of the miniature American flag I have by the front door.

A few more pictures of our evening are available in the gallery.

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Sometimes it’s about killing rabbids.

I hosted a girl’s night in this weekend, with Mexican food and loads of home made ice cream. I think we all had a bit of a blast, but the surprise highlight of the evening was playing on the Wii.

This is what happens when your camera finds it’s way into someone else’s hands. Personally, the laughter in the background by the person filming is really the best part. Apart from the fact that it’s obvious we don’t know what we’re doing!

Sorry things are a bit sideways -- I found this video of us playing Rayman’s Raving Rabbids on my camera the next day. I couldn’t delete it, just immediately put it on YouTube to share with everyone! I’ll share more pictures from the evening later on!

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Some people relax at the weekend, and this is what Paul and I most often try to do. Followed by as little as possible. Sometimes, however, it’s nice to have a change, and a change is exactly what we had this past weekend. We were actually social this weekend and had some company around!

Paul’s friend Howard came down to London to visit us with his lovely wife. Howard was Paul’s best man at our wedding, and we finally met Howard’s wife, Alina, last year. We haven’t seen them in between at all, so it was extremely nice to see the two of them again. They had some things they needed to get done in London, so we invited them to stay with us.

Seeing as they aren’t from London, Paul and I did our tourist bit. We took them round a few sights. It was a particularly nice day in London on Saturday, so we started the day at Borough Market and then wound our way along the Thames up to the Tattershall Castle, where we had a drink and a bit of rest. Then trekked on out again and made a stop at Fortnum & Mason by way of Buckingham Palace. It’s a pretty long walk, so we stopped off at the O’Neil’s in Soho, where the boys had a drink and us girls had a nice sit down for a bit.

We ended the night at the Texas Embassy for dinner, but more importantly, for margaritas. The margaritas, for the record, were pretty yum. After a big full meal of TexMex, we headed home, where Paul introduced Howard to tennis on the Wii. I think he’s been waiting to have someone new to play with.

Started Sunday off with a big cooked breakfast, and I had a nice excuse to make pancakes. I haven’t had them in a while, and I was getting hungry for them. We saw them off in the afternoon and Paul and I have quickly settled back in to our doing “not much of anything.”

It was a good weekend. Definitely a nice break from the norm.

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It’s a quiet day today. Raining a bit, and Paul and I are sacked out on the couch watching a movie. But we haven’t been lazy all weekend!

Yes, this afternoon we’re watching Kill Bill Vol. 2. I guess I’m just keeping half an eye on it – not really my thing. So, we had a good weekend here. We had our friend Kevin over this weekend for dinner and a night out. We haven’t had any one over in ages, so it was kinda nice to have someone else around the house for a bit. I made chile for dinner and then made some ice cream, then went out in town here. Bromley’s not that bad to go out in. Best part is that we can walk everywhere. Most pubs are crawling with what seem like really young folks, but we went to a new place called the Partridge where folks seemed more our age. Rather a good night out – good to catch up with Kevin.

Our Sunday here has been pretty lazy. Just bought a paper, did some laundry and now we’re crashed on the couch watching tv. It’s all warm and cozy and it’s nice not having to go anywhere. All the cleaning’s done and we’re just relaxing letting the time pass.

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