soccer, mustache, eggnog

You were sold on this post as soon as you read the title, right? What do these three things have in common? They were part of our life in the past week (or, in the case of the 'stache, the past month).

Last Wednesday we went to the absolutely lovely new stadium in Cape Town to watch the USA soccer team play South Africa for the Mandela Cup. Big B and I got totally decked out.

Our seats were *incredible*...and this is coming from the world's least sports fanatical person. I enjoyed my status as the odd one out in red, white, and blue while the other 59,999 people around me were in green and yellow. The USA won- go figure. I also had a quote on the front page of the Cape Times the next morning where I was blabbering on about how the USA was going to win. Clearly I missed my calling in high stakes sports gambling.

For more pictures of our dress up silliness click here.

It is now the fourth week of Movember, and thus time for your latest 'stache update. In a show of solidarity, I decided to participate myself. That's the kind of wife I am.

All this in one week! I continue to amaze myself.

And finally, I've been thoroughly and completely bitten by the holiday spirit bug. I am out-of-my gourd excited for Thanksgiving tomorrow (my absolute most favorite holiday of all time). The Elf soundtrack has made it's first (and second, and third) appearance. And I made homemade eggnog. I have very wonderful memories of my Grammy making eggnog for the family at Christmas time. She and my grandpa would get milk delivered to their house in glass bottles, and she would save up these bottles and fill them with the goodstuff. It was just heavenly. So I dug deep into my Schrier genes and made some pretty good eggnog myself.

Eggnog

serves 2 generously

2 cups milk

2 eggs, well beaten

2 tablespoons honey or confectioners sugar

a splash of vanilla extract

a few good shakes of cinnamon

one shake of nutmeg

a healthy glug of whiskey, bourbon, or brandy (if you are into that sort of thing, which I am. besides, i reckon it offsets the raw egg)

Mix all these fine ingredients together. After vigorously whisking in a bowl, I poured it into a milk jug and shook the living daylights of out it just to be sure it was properly mixed.

Enjoy by the glass, or on top of your morning oatmeal as I did this morning (pointedly ignoring the fact that there is whiskey in it). What's better than that?

Backgammon World Cup

It's a simple equation really: 

     Brendan and I love backgammon

+   my family loves backgammon

+   we were on vacation during the World Cup

_____________________________________

Backgammon World Cup!!!!!

Brendan and I worked through the logistics one night. We will have 6 countries (people). The first round will be a round robin, with the top four winners going through. The semi-finals are next, leaving two countries to fight for fame, glory, and a rad "trophy" we bought on Camps Bay beach. 

Let me introduce you to the contenders:

Team Oman, because Oooo Man is he good at backgammon

Team Uzbekistan, or as the locals pronounce it: Uz-BECKY-stan

Team Malta, known to enjoy a single malta whiskey

Team India, lover of Indian-a Jones

Team Liechtenstein, and the Fraulein DD Von Liechtenstein

And Team (the Federated States of) Micronesia...because why not!?

There were many many matches over the three days of play and the tension grew thick...

And in the end, Liechtenstein was victorious!

Hopefully we don't have to wait four years for the rematch...

birthday celebrations, part 2

Friday we zipped out of town to Vermont for the weekend. I love the Green Mountain State and Brendan hadn't been there, so it seemed just the place for a joint birthday getaway. Parker, however, was none too pleased to see us leave. He watched from the window as we packed the car up.

pre-departure snap

we've arrived!

We stayed at a bed and breakfast on an 18th century farm. 

There were chickens, goats, horses...all very delightful and farmy. The B&B was on the Battenkill River and had a few miles of walking trails on site. 

Saturday was Brendan's birthday and we had big plans. I tip toed downstairs to sneak us up some tea in bed, and then he opened presents and got some birthday skype wishes from the fam. After a very hearty farm breakfast we were off for a canoe trip on the Battenkill.

 

It was a lovely warm morning, and we had the river to ourselves for most of the 3 hour journey.

After a quick clean up, we were off to a local pub for the USA vs Ghana game. 

Sadly, the USA is out but it was a great result for the African continent. We resolved henceforward to support Ghana fully. 

That evening there was a birthday dinner, a candle blown out, and a wish made that will hopefully come true.

Sunday brought another walk, another fun farm breakfast, and another game of soccer (England's loss prompted further resolve to root for Ghana). We made a slow trip back home, stopping at all sorts of places along the way, including the famous Vermont Country Store.

This classic old general store-style shop has all sorts of things, ranging from the very useful to the very silly but still fun (I would put their Yodeling Pickle in this category).

The masks also fall into that latter category.

And, it being Vermont, there was plenty of maple syrup to be had.

We tried maple mustard, maple cheese, maple dips, and maple cookies.

There were more stops at farm stalls and country shops picking up goodies (I'll do a separate post on the food later on), and posing for a funny photo here and there.

Our final stop was just outside Brattleboro at a river we spied on the way up. We had a picnic lunch and a dip in the cool water before getting onto the highway. A great end to a lovely weekend.

birthday celebrations, part 1

Our birthdays are 3 days apart, so each year brings a bundle of joint festivities and this year was no exception. Let's begin at the beginning...

Wednesday was my birthday, and I woke up to tea in bed and loads of fab pressies. I was seriously spoilt by the wonderful people in my life...and I just love it! Later that morning was the USA vs Algeria game, and I am happy to report that the anniversary of my birth brought the boys some good luck.

After the game, we returned to my office to share some coconut custard birthday pie (my fav) with the work friends. Yum.

The day ended splendidly with a great meal at home. I'm much more apt to want to cook a really decadent meal at home than go out, and we had a fun time cooking, singing, and dancing around the kitchen together. Being the mildly food-obsessed person that I am, I planned a menu a few weeks ago that included some of my favorite ingredients and dishes. 

We started with rosemary peach champagne cocktails (recipe at the end of the post). Nothing tastes more celebratory than champagne. 

prosciutto and melon for a starter

veggie and shrimp paella for the main course

and berries and cream for dessert

The courses fit wonderfully together, were really scrumptious, and provided some tasty leftovers. All in all, it was a great start to the end of my 20s!

Rosemary peach champagne cocktails

(adapted from Cooking Light magazine)

1 bottle champagne or sparkling wine

2 peaches, diced to 1 inch pieces

1 spring rosemary

honey

1 cup water

Put water, rosemary, and honey (I eyeballed this, but estimate I used about 1/4 cup) into a small pot and bring to boil. Let boil for roughly 5 minutes, then remove from heat and cool to room temp. Remove rosemary. Place peaches and rosemary simply syrup into blender and blend until smooth. Pass through sieve to remove any pulpy bits (and use this pulp in a smoothie- it's delish!), and then let this rosemary peach puree sit in your fridge for 4 hours (better if overnight). I made these up by putting 4 Tbs of the peach mixture into a glass and then topping with champagne, but the champs really reacts with the peach and gets very foamy and hard to pour. Instead, mix half the peach mixture with a bottle of champs in a pitcher, taste, and add more peach as necessary. Garnish glasses with a rosemary spring, and enjoy!

weekend in review

It's been a great, albeit tiring, few days around here. I am starting to think that's how we are going to feel about most days from here on out.

World Cup excitement continues. Friday was the USA vs Slovenia game. My fantastic boss let me leave work for a couple hours that morning to enjoy the game (she's the best!). We shouted and cheered as the USA came back from their deficit, were shocked by the bonkers ref who disallowed their winning goal, and generally had a fun time of it all. Brendan has really shown awesome spirit for his adopted country :)

Saturday brought our enormous moving to Africa yard sale. Pricing and set up was a very long and tiring process (especially since we live on a third floor apartment and had to shlep everything down), but it was a tremendous success. We managed to off-load 80% of our remaining stuff, and a friend/neighbor is holding a benefit yard sale next weekend (proceeds going to support an orphanage in Haiti) so he will be getting our remnants later this week. 

The neighboring kids on both sides were out as well. Two of them decided to maximize on the hot day and steady stream of customers by setting up a lemonade stand. Gotta love those budding entrepreneurs!

Our other neighbor, Ayo, harnessed his creative juices.

World Cup fever

Well sports fans, it's that special time that only comes once every four years: the World Cup. While I am not a soccer enthusiast in the least (or any other sport, for that matter), I have to admit the spirit is pretty contagious...especially when you are married to a very psyched South African. So for the opening game last Friday we sojourned to the Big Apple to meet some friends and take it all in.

Bars were streaming South African flags along with those of all the other nations playing. 

Here I am blowing my make believe vuvuzela, which is certainly much better for my long term hearing capacity than the real thing.

Joining us was our friend Diego from Mexico. You see, many moons ago Brendan had the intention of only staying in the good ol' USA for a year to complete a term in Yale's Fox Fellowship. Then he met a lovely, witty, and very talented woman in a tango class. She derailed his plans completely and they lived happily ever after. The End. 

Diego was also a member of the Fox Fellowship. He is now working for an NGO in New York, and so we simply had to watch the big Mexico vs South Africa battle together. SA's scoring of the first goal of the World Cup made for a happy Brendan. The 1-1 draw was icing on the cake. 

After the game we dashed off to lunch with two old friends. 

 

Chatal-line and Brendan became friends during his time at Yale. She was in a different fellowship (but similar in that it was all international folks), and now also finds herself back in NYC for work at the UN. 

Owen is one of my three oldest college friends (all met on the first day of Orientation). He is a New Yorker through and through, and a bucket of laughs. I call him Omar. He calls me Icebox. 

After a bit of a meander up 5th Avenue & through FAO Schwartz, and a brief stop into a cafe to mainline some caffeine and watch a bit of the afternoon soccer game, we were off to Central Park for a picnic. You see, we had one other Fox Fellow to see. 

Rafi (center) was visiting from Israel. We joined Rafi, his girlfriend Susan (Rafi too learned that American women make excellent partners), and their friends for a sunset snack. 

Diego and Brendan staged a Mexico/South Africa soccer truce.

And then we were on our way back to Grand Central.

It is so lovely and iconic. I'll miss gazing up at the constellations on the ceiling each time I pass through.

On a final closing note, let's talk shoes shall we?

After finding these in a store, falling deeply in love, and then being unimpressed by the shop's ability to give me a great deal, I turned to a good friend for help: the internet. One week later, I gave myself a lovely early birthday present. I spent the whole day tooling around the City breaking these puppies in, and nary a blister was to be had. And they are Clarks (model: Posy Flower), which means they are crazy comfortable. Consider these highly recommended.