Sunshine on my Shoulders...

It was a lovely day here today, perfect for Mother's Day (it's celebrated on Mothering Sunday in the UK). I hope I'm not jinxing it by saying this, but spring seems to have come to Cambridge! Look at this:

the flowers in the apple trees in the back yard

another point of view, same flowers with even more sunshine!

Two weeks back, spring's arrival seemed less imminent. I even took some pictures then of the lovely winter weather we were having. This is the roof outside of my window as of 27 Feb.:

What's that, you ask? Take a closer look:


Yep, that's hail. We had a nice long hail storm that covered the backyard in a few layers of tiny spheres of ice and took away my hope for warm weather as our end-of-February present.

Peanut Butter Cups

Today, I went on a small culinary adventure--a progressive dinner around Churchill College!

Our progressive dinner had four stops, each held in different kitchens around the College site. Each stop was responsible for a part of the meal and all sixteen or so of us traveled from stop to stop in a group between courses.

First, we had appetizers--delicious artichoke dip and tomato and basil bruchetta--in the Pepperpots. Salad followed in Wolfson Flats. Chili and cornbread--the main--were featured in Jackie's kitchen.

left to right: artichoke dip (appetizers); bruchetta (appetizers); chili (mains); blue cheese and almond salad

Beverages came with us from stop to stop. We sampled Tesco's finest (budget) soda: pink lemonade (flavored with cranberry?!?!), cloudy lemonade (with real lemon juice) and the puzzler of the night: dandelion and burdock. I liked it; it tasted a bit like licorice.

Tesco dandelion & burdock soda

I was responsible for dessert, the last and final stop. We had strawberry (and/or kiwi) shortcake with fresh whipped cream and my latest take on peanut butter cups.

left to right: strawberries, shortcake slices, kiwis, peanut butter cups

I've been making homemade peanut butter cups for about a year and a half now, ever since I learned that the peanut butter-chocolate pairing is one of Nathan's favorites. It's been a big hit with the people I've served it to. Here's an attempt to write down what I did in my most recent iteration--happy cooking!

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Kristi's Peanut Butter Cups, version 06.03.2010

Ingredients

- 3 bars dark chocolate, preferably on the thin side, separated into squares
- (about) 3/4 cup crunchy peanut butter
- (about) 1/4 cup baking margarine
- (about) 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- (about) 1 cup coarsely crushed ginger snaps

Instructions

Heat peanut butter and margarine in a small pan over low heat. Once they have melted, stir in granulated sugar and crushed ginger snaps. Let topping cool enough so that it will not melt the chocolate; if you're in a rush, a few minutes in the freezer does nicely.

Spoon a layer of the peanut butter mixture onto each of the chocolate squares. Top with extra chocolate slivers.

Notes on substitutions:

Butter, margarine and other butter-substitutes will work fine for the butter. Avoid substituting with straight vegetable oil-the final filling will not maintain its shape at room temperature and you will need to refrigerate the peanut butter cups until you serve them.

Any type of crunchy, biscuit-y cookies should work instead of ginger snaps. Graham crackers are one good option.

Quavers and Minims

Until last October, the only time I had used the word 'quaver' in a musical context was during my freshman year of college when Sean, my flute teacher, had me read part of Quantz's 'On Playing the Flute. Then, I heard it at rehearsal and I almost couldn't suppress my laughter. In my mind, the word 'quaver' had been buried after the Baroque.

I remembered this specific language difference when one of my friends asked me if musical ensembles (or, to be more specific, the orchestra I play with) are different in England. For the most part*, I don't notice any difference. Except for those pesky note durations. Who would have thought that a minim is a half note?

In other (musical) news, the concert I mentioned a while back was last night. It went really well; the orchestra gelled just in time and I (miraculously) pulled off all the flute solos!

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*There is a huge choral music tradition here that is unlike any I've encountered elsewhere; however, that doesn't spill over that much to my music making experiences here so far.