Snow in the City

Hello everyone,

I hope this finds you warm and well. As I'm writing this (Monday evening) I’m in my room enjoying some lentil and bacon soup and cradling a warm tea. If you’re up on world news, you’ll know that the UK got blasted with cold weather blowing down from Russia. It’s been snowing all day here in Sheffield, and they say it will likely keep up until Friday. Not a lot has stuck, only about 6 inches or so in the city, but it’s enough to pretty much shut everything down. Because Sheffield is very hilly, there are cars that were trying to leave town but are just stuck halfway up the hills; apparently they can’t get up any farther, and they can’t go back because long queues have formed behind them. It’s a mess. Even the tube in London is partially shut down. I was planning on getting a haircut and going to the gym this afternoon, but they’re all closed. “Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.” It’s better this way anyway, since there is plenty to do around the house on a snowy evening.

The crazy thing is that just Saturday I didn’t even need a jacket, and it was a good thing too, because I was spending the afternoon outside with a family from church, Paul and Irene. Paul and Irene, who are both in my GC, are retired and are actively involved in their local conservation club. Saturday was a work day for the club, so I came along to give a hand, get some fresh air, and to get to know Paul and Irene a little better (This was my ‘dominion day’ of turning the wilderness into a garden. I haven’t had too many of them recently, sadly. I’ve been feeling rather city-fied). We got to put in a couple hours of good, honest work in a place called Shire Brook Valley. Interestingly, the valley was historically the boundary line between the Saxon kingdoms of Mercia to the south, and Northumbria to the north. It was also once the boundary between the ecclesiastical provinces of York and Canterbury. By the 80’s the local steel industry had turned the valley into a “degraded industrial landscape with a grade four polluted brook.” The woodlands are looking a lot better these days, but there is always rubbish to pull out of the brook, and brush to cut back from the trails.

Well, Paul and Irene have got to be the most 100% authentic British folks I’ve met yet. Point in case: Paul worked all day in his tall rubber ‘Wellies’, wool trousers, fleece jumper, brown leather vest, topped off with a real tweed cap.

When we were finished working we had tea together and talked until dinner. Dinner was dumplings, mashed potatoes, and salad, with bread pudding for pudding. Basically, it was a great day.

Well, I wanted to write a bit about food over here, but I’m realizing that food is an enormous subject. So I’ll spare you the details and just flash the highlights.

It’s very strange what they do have here, and what they don’t. For example, they don’t have brown sugar but they do have taco sauce. I’m sure you could find it if you looked hard enough, but they are not in the stores where I shop, at least.

There are different words for a lot of foods, i.e. Caster sugar instead of regular sugar. Icing sugar instead of powdered sugar.‘Jelly’ over here is really Jello. ‘Pie’ can mean a lot of things. They like fried eggs on top of chips (fries). They like baked beans for breakfast. Curry is the UK’s favourite food. They sell peanut butter in tiny little jars that last about three sandwiches. Coronation Chicken is delicious and was specially designed for the Queen’s coronation ceremony. It includes ingredients from the entire empire. Tea takes up three rows of shelves in the grocery store but coffee only gets a half shelf (mostly instant coffee). They don’t refrigerate their eggs. Tea-time is alive and well. Don’t bother looking for a good burger. Cadbury’s chocolate is just another brand. Take-out is called take-away. Queues form outside ‘chippies’ (fish ‘n chip shops) during lunch time. The international food scene is incredible. And Coronation Chicken is delicious. That about sums it up.

I’ve had a special request for the Thanksgiving stuffing recipe. I’ll put it up, but I warn you that I thought it was delicious probably because I was the one who made it. It may actually taste like cardboard. You’ll have to be the judge of that. I also didn’t exactly follow the recipe, especially in terms of measurements, but also in terms of ingredients. Anyway:

Sausage, Applesauce, Cranberry Stuffing:

1 1/2 cups cubed whole wheat bread, 3 3/4 cups cubed white bread, 1 pound ground turkey sausage, 1 cup chopped onion, 3/4 cup chopped celery, 2 1/2 teaspoons dried sage, 1 1/2 teaspoons dried rosemary, 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme, 1 Golden Delicious apple, cored and chopped, 3/4 cup dried cranberries, 1/3 cup minced fresh parsley, 1 cooked turkey liver, finely chopped, 3/4 cup turkey stock, 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted.

1. Preheat oven to 350 degree F (175 degree C). Spread the white and whole wheat bread cubes in a single layer on a large baking sheet. Bake for 5 to 7 minutes in the preheated oven, or until evenly toasted. Transfer toasted bread cubes to a large bowl.

2. In a large skillet, cook the sausage and onions over medium heat, stirring and breaking up the lumps until evenly browned. Add the celery, sage, rosemary, and thyme; cook, stirring, for 2 minutes to blend flavours.

3. Pour sausage mixture over bread in bowl. Mix in chopped apples, dried cranberries, parsley, and liver. Drizzle with turkey stock and melted butter, and mix lightly. Spoon into turkey to loosely fill.

Here is another one that you might like. This is a local dish (so they say), but I haven’t tried making it yet myself.

Baked Gammon in Cider:

1 middle gammon or slipper joint, 2 bay leaves, 2 teaspoons cloves, 2 tablespoons of golden syrup, 2 tablespoons Demerara sugar (it’s brown, but not sticky like US brown sugar), ½ pint cider, 1 tin peach halves, chopped chives.

Wash the joint, place in saucepan, cover with water, add the bay leaves and bring to the boil. Cover and simmer for half the total cooking time (20 minutes per pound, plus 20 minutes extra). Remove from pan and discard the liquid. Set the oven to 375F. Remove the skin from the joint, score, and press in the cloves. Place in a roasting tin, pour the syrup over the fatty sides and sprinkle with the sugar. Add cider to the tin and bake for the remainder of the cooking time. Baste with the liquid 2 or 3 times during cooking. 20 minutes before the end of cooking, add the drained peach halves, reserving the juice, and sprinkle with chopped chives. When cooked, remove the joint and peaches to a serving dish. Add the peach juice to the tin and boil rapidly to reduce to make a sauce; serve separately.

Let me know how that one turns out. It looks complicated but delicious.

Bye for now.

-Will

Current favourite Sheffield word: ‘while’ meaning ‘to,’ as in “I work 9 while 5.”