L-O-V-E

 

I feel as if there is a possibility I am using this word loosely..

 

You know you're getting old when you find yourself fawning over cleaning supplies hoping someone will buy you an early Christmas present.

My wish was granted.

Swiffer Sweeper Vac is one of the best things that has ever happened to me (Eric, please don't take this personally). I despise sweeping my expanse of wood floors because it takes an eternity and I never seem to get all the dirt, but the Sweeper Vac, recently gifted to me by my thoughtful mother, has changed my life.

I think I need to get out more.

Temptation

The AARP is after me like no other.

Almost every day I get a new letter in the mail asking me to join.

I'm so popular.

Pretty soon I think I might cave, have you seen the free tote bag they are offering if you sign up? And all those discounts??

I can't hold out much longer!

London Bridges.. and more.

 

This really is the "London's bridges falling down" of the children's song!

I have decided to blog about our trip, already two months ago, starting from the end and going backwards!

While in England, we stayed in a beautiful town outside of London called Abingdon with Eric's kinda-sorta Aunt and her family, more about that later. While there, Eric's "Uncle" Dan took us out to London and brought us on a wonderful tour.

Here are a few pictures.

Big Ben

The beautiful Westminster Abbey where Prince William and the future Princess Kate will be getting married. It was impossible in such a crowded city to get a full shot of Westminster Abbey due to it's immense size, this picture does it no justice.

The Princess Di memorial walk.

 

At the time Princess Di died, I was only 9 and wasn't completely sure what the significance was. I do however remember this lady who was living with my family at the time sitting in her room with Priscilla listening to Elton John's A Candle in the Wind on repeat and using up kleenex after kleenex after kleenex! Oh the drama!!

In front of the Queen's Palace.. as close as we could get to it! She was home, she had her flag was up just like the royalty back in the 1700's to show their subjects they were home, and they were bringing in Christmas trees to decorate, which was pretty fun to watch!

 

Posing with a guard, yep it's true, they don't smile!

Last but not least, we saw this lady on the London Underground. What do you think her favorite color is? Yea, real mature, I know. Eric was aghast at my less than sneaky picture taking..

We have a ton more pictures of London, but I thought I would quit while I was ahead!

Home Remedies

 

Today, I was sent home from my internship because I am a miserable sniffling mess, and they didn't want me to get all the patients sick!

I decided to do all that was within my power to heal myself as quickly as possible, and hopefully I won't have to miss work tomorrow also!

 Healing Chicken Noodle Soup

64 oz of Chicken Broth (or more, my soup ended up being pretty thick)

One Whole Chicken, cut into 8 pieces

1 large onion

2-3 carrots

2-3 stalks of celery

3 TB lemon juice

10 oz of wide egg noodles

2-3 large cinnamon sticks

Fresh ginger to taste

1/2 c. finely chopped fresh parsley

2-3 TB tumeric

1/2 TB cayenne

Combine chicken broth and chicken in heavy large pot, like my lovely blue Christmas present in the picture! Bring to boil. Reduce heat; cover partially and simmer until chicken is cooked through, about 20 minutes. Transfer chicken to large bowl. Cool chicken and then discard skin and bones from chicken. Cut chicken meat into bite-size pieces and reserve.

Return broth to simmer. Add onion, carrots and celery, parsley,cinnamon, ginger, tumeric, and cayenne. Simmer until vegetables soften.

Stir in lemon juice, noodles, and reserved chicken. Simmer until noodles are tender.

I ended up adding all the fresh herbs in my fridge, and a quite a few spices I got when I was in India.. wish I could tell you what the Indian spices were, but I bought a lot of them just because they looked and smelled interesting!

*The reason, I started throwing in all these spices is because my mom told me tumeric, cayenne, and ginger were supposed to be especially good for sinus infections and colds. I thought if one is good, why not them all??  We will see how that theory pans out once I have recovered my sense of smell...:)*

 

Fresh Lime Soda.. salty!

I have been planning for days to blog about our big trip, but it seems way to overwhelming.

So, let me tell you about one of my favorite parts of being in India. A few days into our trip, I discovered this drink and just the thought of it got me through every crazy, hot day after that.

Fresh Lime Soda

Salty or Sweet

1/4 c. Freshly squeezed lime juice

2 tsp of salt, or 2 TB sugar/simple syrup

Club Soda

Stir together your lime juice and salt or sugar in a tall glass, then fill to the top with Club Soda. Enjoy!

I don't know anyone else who enjoys the salty version of this, most like it sweet, so it's up to you to decide if you are as crazy as I am, or not!

This is love...

Last Valentine's day, I got it into my head that I desperately needed a bird feeder outside my kitchen window. This Christmas, I got it. This little chickadee comes to my feeder about 50 times a day. Doesn't take much to entertain this lady.. oh wait, there is one thing that I do find more entertaining!

My husband hanging out the window in 5 degree weather putting up a bird feeder and telling each and every one of my precious birds exactly what he thinks of them.

Should I be posting this picture on the internet??

Life is so good at the Varghese house.

But maybe you should check with my long suffering husband before you take my word for it, I am confident he will be getting many crowns in heaven for this.

Away we go!

 

We are off! We have already flown from Minneapolis to New York, New York to London, and now we are waiting for a flight to Kuwait, and then finally to India!

The picture above is our meal. A stroke above the cookies and juice on the last flight! There was even a chocolate and a toothpick!

So far we have been through security three times in the last 20 hours. I think the longer I sit on a plane, the more suspicious looking I get as I had to be thoroughly patted down and scanned for "suspicious items" (Eric says I can't say the "B" word, as they are apparently scanning the internet for cooking blogs with terrorist tendencies) on the last checkpoint. I considered making a scene about the racial profiling going on, but Eric said he would under no circumstances visit me in jail if I did so.

Now we are sitting in the London airport and Eric is enthralled by the British accents. He has been trying to talk like a native, and is falling terribly short. He is reading over my shoulder as I type and just said "what do you mean trying to talk??".

Time to fly to Kuwait!