Scottish Lasanga

We’ve been in Aberdeen for a little over two weeks, and I’ve only had one minor panic attack.  My advice to any Americans moving to the UK is to avoid going to the grocery store when you’re jetlagged, hungry, and overall cranky and then try to find the 20 ingredients you need to make your famous lasagna. It’s just not a good idea. 

In this scenario, you may find yourself worked up over the fact that there are no stewed tomatoes or Parmesan cheese to be found. And to make matters worse, as soon as I had located the majority of the things I needed, someone in the bakery burned the bread, setting off the fire alarm and forcing the evacuation of the entire store which meant the abandonment of my shopping cart. Which meant I had to start all over again at a new grocery store.

I was already in a pretty fragile state before the fire alarm, so I went from cranky to meltdown in about 60 seconds. I swear to you that in that moment, I was ready to give up, pack my bags and catch the first plane back to Houston. I just kept asking myself “Why did I ever think I could live without Target?”.

Of course, when I woke up the next morning, I felt pretty silly about my reaction and realized that I could easily improvise and still make my famous lasagna. So maybe I’d have to substitute some things, and possibly even stew my own tomatoes, and maybe it wouldn’t taste exactly as delicious, but it would still probably be tasty. I mean, Scottish people make Lasagna too, right?

So the next morning I set out on a mission, refreshed and determined to find the ingredients needed to make a satisfying dinner. Stewed Tomatoes became Chopped tomatoes in Tomato sauce.

Lasagna noodles came in short and fat form without squiggly edges. Who am I to judge how the Scots craft their lasagna noodles?

And though I still couldn’t locate grated Parmesan cheese at ASDA, I was able to find a big jug of it at Costco, so that was covered. When I had satisfactorily found all the ingredients (or suitable replacements) I headed home to actually cook the dish. And that’s where things got interesting.

I’ve mentioned that we’re currently renting furniture under the one bedroom apartment package. This contains pots and pans, cooking utensils, plates and glasses, and a few kitchen appliances such as an electric kettle and a toaster. It does not include mixing bowls or measuring cups.  I had to put on my creative hat, and muster up my patience but I found ways to improvise. For instance, in a jam, a Tupperware container makes a great mixing bowl.

The oven and I had a few words when she was apparently refusing to heat up. After some gentle prodding and encouragement (and a quick glance at the instruction manual), we came to an understanding and I think we’re going to become great friends.

I put the lasagna in the oven and crossed my fingers that it would at least be edible. When Jonathan got home he was so excited to have a home cooked meal, but I  warned him that it may taste a bit different from the lasagna he’s used to. Of course,  I also reminded him that since he moved me to this country without stewed tomatoes or squiggly edged lasagna noodles, that he was ultimately to blame if it was distasteful.

When it came out of the oven, it looked like my old lasagna. It smelled like my old lasagna. There was just one more piece of the puzzle and I winced as Jonathan dug in for a taste test. But what do you know, it tasted just like my old lasagna too!

I’ve included the recipe below, and trust me, it’s a fan favorite. I’ve marked any Scottish substitutions or changes I had to make in a different color, so that if you’re shopping in the UK, you know that Chopped Tomatoes in Tomato Juice is just a long-winded way of saying Stewed Tomatoes. 

And in case you were wondering, the southern translation of 'serve piping hot' is 'serve when it's really stinkin' hot'.

Doublin Family Lasagna(Which I believe was somewhere down the line adapted from a Betty Crocker recipe. Gotta give Betty her props.)

INGREDIENTS:

Meat Sauce:

1 lb ground beef
½ lb ground pork
2 small onions chopped
1 clove of garlic
1 lb can of stewed tomatoes (Chopped Toms in Tom Sauce)
1 15 oz can tomato sauce
1/8 cup parsley flakes
1/8 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp basil leaves

Cottage Cheese Layer:
3 cups creamed cottage cheese (2 12 oz cartons)
½ cup parmesan cheese
1 tbsp parsley flakes
1 tsp salt
1 tsp oregano

Other Ingredients:
¾ lb mozzarella cheese
1 package 8 oz lasagna noodles
½ cup Parmesan cheese
1 13x9x2 pan

PREPARATION: (About 2 hours)
Cook beef, pork, garlic and onions together in large pot on medium until brown and onion tender; drain fat (try to get lean beef and pork so less fat)
Add tomatoes and tomato sauce, ¼ cup parsley, sugar, 1 tsp salt, basil leaves; heat until it starts boiling; reduce heat to simmer and cook for 1 hour.
Heat oven to BAKE 350 degrees (about 180 Celsius)
Mix cottage cheese with ½ cup Parmesan cheese, I tbsp parsley, I tbsp salt and oregano leaves in bowl; set aside until meat is done
Cook noodles in boiling water (usually 2-3 at a time; you will need about 8) and lay them FLAT on wax paper (don’t let them touch or they will stick)
Set 1 or ½ cup of meat to the side to put on the top of lasagna
Put ½ of noodles on bottom of pan
Put a layer of meat
Layer of mozzarella cheese
Layer of cottage cheese
Repeat layering; sprinkle meat on top
Bake for 45 minutes uncovered; let stand for 15 minutes before cutting

Monday Progress Report: Scatter-brained

I would like to pre-emptively apologize for the rambling and random nature of this post, but that’s just what my mind is like lately so please bear with me. Another week has passed and there isn’t much to report on in terms of progress. Until we get our shipments in, we’ve got some pretty easy sailing ahead. Our Air Shipment supposedly reached Aberdeen on Friday, so I expect it to clear customs soon. Hopefully really soon because for now we have no cable and the only DVDs I brought with me are the second season of Sex and the City. Jonathan has been a trooper and indulged me by watching a few episodes but I’m sure he’s ready to have the first few seasons of LOST in our lineup. Am I the only one who finds re-runs extremely comforting? It’s always been therapeutic for me.

Our sea shipment is supposed to reach the UK on May 31^st and they estimate that it will take 2 weeks for it to clear customs and reach our house. That time frame would get it to us within 6 weeks which is super quick. Originally we were told 8-10 weeks was more likely. Fingers crossed! We’ve been handling the whole living out of suitcases thing pretty well, but I know that Aberdeen will feel much more like home once we have our own furniture.

A big giant step forward last week was that we actually received our pin numbers for our debit cards which means we can actually spend money in Aberdeen. The debit cards are read differently here so any time we had to swipe a card it was like a huge arrow pointing at us Americans. It’s embarrassing to feel like tourist in your own town, so I’m glad that we can now blend into the money-spending crowd.

 

Debit cards in hand, we headed down to Union Street which is the main shopping district of Aberdeen. I mainly wanted a cell phone case and some idea of what to get Jonathan for our anniversary this week. I had pretty good timing on the cell phone case because the store had just gotten their first shipment of otter boxes! I was sure I wouldn’t be able to find one in Scotland, but not only did I find one, I found one in PURPLE. And while I did get some good ideas for anniversary gifts, Jon surprised me by buying me some Hunter boots right there on the spot. I even got some fleece socks to go inside of them. He wanted to get me jewelry, but I insisted that the way into my heart was olive green rubber boots. What's more romantic than sloshing around in the mud? Happy Anniversary to me!

We also found good smelling candles and tons of summer clothes. Too bad it doesn’t get warm here…ever. Seriously, window shopping in Aberdeen is just depressing. The displays are full of maxi dresses, tank tops, bathing suits and other resort wear. If we ever go on a Greek Cruise, I know that I’m all set for a shopping spree, but what about if I want something new to wear around town? I guess I better stock up when the Fall and Winter clothes come in.

Of course, it got up to 52 degree this weekend and you would have thought it was a heat wave. I’m talking full on shorts and tank tops weather for the natives. I’m talking, going out to the beach for an ice cream cone. I’m talking, wakeboarding in the Dee River. These people are tough. I was simply excited to get out of the house with only two layers of clothes on (instead of my usual 3 or 4). Fifty-two degrees is still hot chocolate weather in my book, but I’m pretty stinkin' excited that this week’s forecast has temperatures in the low 60s! Some people say 75 degrees is the perfect temperature. Not me. I’m a 65 degree kind of girl.

This week I am hoping and praying and crossing my fingers that our Internet, phone, and cable are hooked up. The engineer is scheduled to come by on Thursday morning to set everything up, which should be just in time for the American Idol finale to air in Scotland. Thursday is Jonathan and I’s anniversary, but since we’ve been sans TV for the past 2 ½ weeks, we plan on buying a nice bottle of wine and letting Mr. Phillip Phillips serenade us from the comfort of our rental couch. Friday is Jon’s Friday off so we are brainstorming all of the day trips that we could possibly take to celebrate our four years of marriage. If you ever want to feel like you have ADD, go to the Visit Scotland website and try to pick just one thing to do. It borders on impossible. Skiing? Castles? Hiking? Wildlife parks? Golf? How do you choose?

Our main mission is to find a suitable kennel or pet sitter for our pups so that we can take something more substantial than a day trip. Jon’s coworker recommended a place but when I called and asked how much notice is usually needed for a reservation the woman told me a year. A year! So, if we rely exclusively on that particular kennel, traveling this summer is out. I’ve got to find some backups pronto. Mainland Europe is calling my name, but I can’t book a flight until I know that my pups have an equally fun place to spend their holiday. Can any Aberdeen readers help me out with a referral?

The lovely beach town of Stonehaven.

Well I suppose that's enough rambling for one day. Check back later in the week for pictures from our weekend excursions to Stonehaven, the Dee River, and Aberdeen beach.

Phone Photos of the Week

All week I’ve been waxing on and on about the logistics of setting up a home in Aberdeen, when I know that what you really want to see is some pictures of this beautiful city. That’s why I’ve decided to add in a weekly segment of phone photos from the week.

I was going to call it “Walks with Sam” since that’s when I take most of my phone snapshots, though you can see by some of the following photos that he wasn’t too cooperative with the whole ‘sit still and look cute’ strategy. Not at all. Not when there are dogs to say hello to, and birds to chase, and territory to mark. Mom was seriously cramping his style this week.

Though I enjoy the scenery on my jogs with Bailey, my daily walks with Sam are when I really get to take it all in and stand in awe of the beauty around me. Luckily, this week has blessed us with some sun, so we got some good exploring done. We have also been meeting Jon at the office to walk him home and experimenting with the best routes to take.

So anyway, these are some of the snapshots I took with my phone camera during our first week in our new house. I’m pretty impressed with the camera on my phone, by the way. I’ve recently upgraded from the I-phone 3 to 4, and the camera alone was worth the switch.

Our house is around the block from the Gordon Highlanders Museum. I've always wanted to live in a place that was honeymoon worthy. Not many people have a deep desire to visit Midland or Houston, Texas on vacation. Well, not only do tourists visit my new country, they also visit my neighborhood. It's nice to see groups of school kids walking down our street on field trips.  I'm sure we'll follow suit and visit the museum soon.

These next two pictures were taken in Johnston Gardens, which is a beautiful park adjacent to our house that Sam and I frequent often.

If you look closely at  this next picture, you can see some hail left over from the hail storm we experienced on Wednesday.

It didn't take us long to place an order with Amazon UK. The shipping is just as fast, but they seem to ship each item individually, and you have to be home to receive it or else you'll be picking it up from the post office.

A babbling brook that we walk along on our way to Hazlehead Park. 

A very muddy Bailey on one of our forest walks. 

Directions to a series of walking paths in western Aberdeen. There is essentially a park in every direction.

  A horse wearing a jacket. It's cold here, y'all.

And apparently, this is what Samson does while Bailey and I are getting our morning exercise.

That’s all for this week, but if the weather holds out, we plan to venture out some this weekend and I’ll make sure to snap some pictures while we’re exploring. I may even get the fancy camera out if you’re lucky.

A Word about the Weather

The best word to describe the weather in Aberdeen is changeable. The forecast yesterday was for pure sunny skies, so you can imagine my surprise when I looked out the back window to discover a hail storm. 

The white streaks are hail.

hail on a garden dandelion

Yes, a hail storm on an otherwise perfectly pleasant afternoon. And then I was surprised again to look out at the same sky 5 minutes later and see this:

Nothing but blue skies and sunshine. It’s a common saying that in the British Isles, you can experience all four seasons in one day. I can attest to that. Well, except for Summer. I’m still waiting for Summer to make an appearance in Scotland since it is yet to rise much over 50 degrees and is currently in the 30s! Apparently, it is the coldest May on record in Aberdeen. Apparently. Just like last summer was apparently the hottest and driest on record in Houston. Apparently, Jonathan and I bring record breaking weather everywhere we go.

The changeable weather in Scotland can make planning outdoor activities pretty tricky. It’s one thing to watch a freak hail storm from the comfort of your warm and cozy kitchen. It’s quite another thing when the deceptively sunny sky leads you to believe it’s an excellent time to walk the ½ mile to the grocery store to pick up some bread. I may or may not be speaking from experience on this one.

Another interesting thing about the Scottish sky is the length of days here. Since Aberdeen is so near to the Arctic Circle, the days are extremely long in the summer and hardly existent in the winter.

As we’re a month out from the Summer solstice, the daylight is currently stretching from about 3 AM to 10PM. To illustrate, this is a picture I took at 5 o’clock this morning.

And here is one I took at 9:30 last night.

I have yet to see it actually get dark in Aberdeen because it is still light when I go to bed around 10 and it is definitely light outside before my lazy bum rolls out of bed at 6:30 AM to see Jon off to work.

It’s a pretty nice feature of the summer’s here, but the winter will be quite opposite. Not only is the weather harsh, but daylight only lasts from 10 AM -3 PM on the shortest days. And “daylight” is no guarantee that the sun will make an appearance from behind the thick blanket of gray clouds that often covers the winter sky.

Seasonal Affective Disorder is a big problem in Scotland, and it’s easy to understand why. I’ve been getting bummed simply because the next 3 days have non-stop rain forecasted. I can’t imagine how to handle weeks of freezing temperatures and no sunlight. I could do as the Scots do and drink copious amounts of whisky (alcoholism is a big problem here as well), or I could just get out of Scotland for a bit.

I’m thinking that winter would be a great time to visit the folks in Louisiana. Of course, with Jonathan and I’s luck, we’d probably bring record snow fall amounts with us to the New Orleans area.

Buying a Car in Scotland

For all intents and purposes, buying a car in Scotland looks a lot like buying a car in the States. Let me assure you, it is quite different. The main difference is the car salesmen. In the States, we couldn’t so much as step foot onto a car lot without someone immediately offering to help us out. So persuasive were these US salesmen that Jonathan once took my car in for an oil change and left with a brand new car. Don’t expect that sort of sales pitch in Scotland.

Two days before we bought our car, we went to the dealerships during business hours to scope out the front runners from our Internet search. We expected someone to greet us, rattle off the car’s specs, knock a couple thousand off the price, etc, but no one approached us at all.  In fact at one point we saw a salesman come out onto the lot and we braced ourselves for the pitch, but to our surprise he just kept on walking by us. Strange. I may be wrong about this, but I think car salesmen are on salary in the UK, rather than working off of commission, which would explain their hesitancy to come and chat us up in the cold and rainy Scottish weather.

Running out of time before our rental car needed to be returned, we headed out on Friday morning with a mission to test drive some cars. After walking inside the dealership to seek out sales associates (who all avoided eye contact, by the way), we ended up test driving a Land Rover Freelander, and Audi A4 station wagon, and a BMW X1.

Though we loved the look and feel of the Audi, it was ruled out because despite being considerably more expensive than the other two, it didn’t have leather seats and it didn’t have seat warmers. Let me repeat: It did not have seat warmers. In Aberdeen. That’s a deal breaker if I ever heard one. I wasn’t aware that they even made luxury vehicles without seat warmers anymore. Even our rental Vauxhall had not only seat warmers, but a steering wheel warmer as well.

So with the Audi ruled out, our decision came down to the Freelander or the X1. The Freelander was more economical, more rugged, and we liked the general style of it. The X1 was more luxurious with a backup camera, navigation system, and rear DVD players.

Ultimately it came down to size. The BMW X1 was the smallest car that we could get that would still hold our dogs in the back.

I promise, I'm not that bad of a photographer; the car is parked on a slope.

I think it's smaller frame will make it easier to drive, both on the hectic roads of the city and the smaller roads in the country. And even though it can’t climb rocks like the Freelander can, it’s still okay for driving in the snow so that we can hit the Grampian slopes come next winter.

Another aspect of buying a car in Scotland that differed greatly from any experience we've had in the States is the haggling over price. Even though we were paying in cash, there was little negotiation over asking price. When Jon point blank posed the question of lowering the cost, the salesman said "we'll knock off $1,000 pounds", which from what I hear is a pretty standard answer. Of course, 1,000 pounds translates to $1,600 so that's nothing to scoff at. I think that as a buyer, you have more power if you're looking at a manual versus an automatic. When there is only one automatic on the lot, you lose a bit of your edge.

Buying a car was somewhat ant-climatic since we weren’t able to leave the dealership with our purchase. Even though we set up our bank account with HSBC last Wednesday, we still didn’t have our debit cards by Friday meaning we didn’t have a way to actually pay for the car. (By the way, the answer to ‘how do you buy a car in Scotland?’ is apparently ‘with a debit card’.) We put a deposit down using our US credit card and made a bank transfer on Friday afternoon, but since it didn’t actually post until Monday, we were stuck in the Vauxhall for the weekend.

All’s well that ends well however, and we got to bring our baby home Monday afternoon. Here are some pictures of our new Beamer.

Okay, I'm a pretty bad photographer.

We’re very smitten with her, and are currently taking suggestions for what to call her. I'm leaning towards 'Ruby' for her red leather seats. Red leather wouldn't have been my first choice, but hey, at least they are warm and toasty which is more than the Audi's more stylish black seats could say. And actually, they are quite growing on me. Europe goggles strike again!

Home Tour

Hi there, welcome to our home! Now, if you’ll just take off your shoes and put on your Europe Goggles, I’ll give you the grand tour. What are Europe goggles, you ask? Well if you’re viewing from America, you’ll need to understand that homes stateside are generally more spacious and modern than those on the other side of the pond. If you're looking at homes in Scotland with American expectations, they are inevitably going to fall short. Therefore, my American readers, you’ll need the goggles to aid you in appreciating what a gem we’ve found here in Aberdeen.

For instance, while this is a nice bathroom in America…

this is considered a nice bathroom in Scotland.

Now there are without a doubt beautiful homes in Scotland with immaculate finishes and tons of space, but since the homes in Aberdeen are so expensive, we can’t really afford any of those.

So if you’ll kindly put on your Europe goggles and follow me in, I’ll show you into the living room, complete with a gas fireplace and lovely rental furniture.

PS. A fun game to play on this tour is "Where's Sammy?". You can tell by these photos that he's quite the Mamma's boy, following me everywhere I go.

And to the left of the hallway we have what will eventually will be our exercise room/office, but for now is serving as our master bedroom.

Pardon the mess, but I’m convinced that it is just darn impossible not to be messy when you are living out of a suitcase.

Across the hall, you’ll find a large family bathroom, and the only tub in the house. It’s also got heated floors and a rain shower! No Europe goggles needed for this room- this is just plain nice.

So if you walk straight through the entry hallway, you’ll walk through the French doors and into the spacious and functional kitchen.

 I love the layout of this kitchen and I am super excited about tons of cabinet storage and an American sized fridge. And would you look at that, granite countertops!

So, funny story and great example of what I mean by Europe Goggles: When we were looking at houses in Houston, we had so much to choose from that I could get really nit-picky about what I wanted in a home. Black sparkly granite made it onto my deal breaker list (nothing wrong with black granite, but light granite is more my personal style). Flash forward 2 years and I am overlooking the black sparkly aspect and just praising the Lord for a granite surface to work with. Ah, the power of Europe Goggles.

Another great aspect of the kitchen is that it overlooks an open space where we will eventually have our dining table and a small sitting area in front of the TV (which came with the house, by the way. Score!)

But the best part of the kitchen is its view of the back yard and the two sets of French doors leading outside.

It allows me to cook, do laundry, watch TV, read, and write, all while making sure my dogs aren’t trying to find their way under the fence on a bird chase.

That’s it for the downstairs, so if you’ll now watch your step, I’ll show you the upstairs. This floor contains the 3 bedrooms which are currently designated as guest, master, and future nursery.

Guest Room

Master

Future Nursery? For now, it's Sam's room for sunning himself.

There is a small bathroom upstairs which is en-suite to the master, but also has a door opened to the hallway for family access.

The Master bedroom also has a pretty decently sized closet, even without Europe goggles on.

Probably the most annoying thing about the house is that the washing machine is downstairs in the kitchen, but the dryer is upstairs in the utility closet. Of course, we’re so thankful to have an actual American style dryer that you won’t catch me complaining about that fact.

And of course, my absolute favorite part of the house is the back garden.

We don't have a garage, but having this shed is nice for storage.

I love watching the pups get to sniff and explore. They love this space, and even though it's smaller than some of the yards we saw in the suburbs, it's perfectly adequate for them to stretch their legs in between their daily walks.

So that completes the grand tour. Come back tomorrow and I’ll tell you all about our experience with buying a car in Scotland.