Valentines Day #9

As our closest friends and family know, each valentines day, we forgo the marked up set menus and other painful date "stuff" and instead make something unique that we have never cooked before. Traditionally, it has involved some type of exotic seafood not available in land-locked (though lake plenty) Minnesota. This was was a slight exception. On the menu was crab cakes as a starter, followed by rack of lamb with stuffed tomatoes and a olive-prune sauce. 

Let's just say it was a definite crowd pleaser. The crab cakes were set upon a salad of thinly sliced radishes and a granny smith apple, combined with a ruby red grapefruit and juicy orange. The citrus was a great compliment to the crab cakes. 

For the rack of lamb, its just about as easy as it gets, we made a sauce of sea salt, fresh rosemary and good olive oil and rubbed it on the lamb, browned it on a skillet, then cooked at about 175C (I think) for 15 minutes. It turned out to be the best piece of meat we've ever cooked, perfectly done.

We stuffed the tomatoes with couscous, feta, spring onions and cilantro, using the inside of the tomatoes combined with some tomato paste as the filling, which was also magnificent!

The sauce of olives and prunes, with a healthy dose of red wine, was very unusual by itself, but ended up complimenting the rest of the meal beautifully!

Bon appetite!

Day Trip: Royal Standard of England Pub

If you find yourself in London on a cloudy Saturday morning and aren't sure what to do. Here's a hint...try the Royal Standard of England. This pub, which won pub of the year in 2009, dates back some 900 years. The interior suggests that is a true statement. 

Erin, Kate, Stuart and I headed out on the Metropolitan line until the end, where you take a 20 minute, 20 pound cab to the pub. About 75-90 minute trip in all, but it removes you from the hustle and bustle of the city. Alternatively, if its not closed the Marylebone train line has a train that drops you off about 1.5 miles from the pub at Beaconsfield station. 

The pub is sooo great, I think there are 3-4 fireplaces, more beams than you can count, a reliable food selection, and it allows dogs, which is a plus for the Stu and Kate. The bar oozes Old English Pub, which is why Stu's shirt complemented it perfectly. 

Our table was in a neat little nook that allowed for several hours of chillin with a real ale and nibblin on some treats. The beer selections at the pub are also great, with a handful of hand-pumped ales, some local regular taps, as well as a good selection of belgians. Its a great destination pub and restaurant that helps fulfill a great day in England!!

Wadi Rum, Petra, Dead Sea, Jordan

---It took me a while to get the third segment of our Christmas trip onto the blog, but not before craziness has struck the very countries we visited. Our thoughts go out to those we met in Jordan and Egypt who have been affected by the demonstrations and our prayers go out for a successful transition to a new government that will benefit all the people of Egypt and Jordan---

We arrived in Amman airport (directly from Sharm) around sunset and picked up our rental, which we got from Thrifty, who has some old cars available for rent, ours didn't come with break pads:-). We were a little nervous about renting a car in Jordan, but there are very few roads in the country and having the car made things very flexible. 

Whenever I see the above picture, I think of my dad humming the Indiana Jones theme song and soon thereafter watching the cast swivel through the canyon to a grand introduction to Petra. Unfortunately, contrary to what one might presume from watching "The Last Crusade," you cannot go into the particular monument used in the movie, and as far as I know the holy grail isn't sitting at the bottom of a crack in the floor inside.  Petra is actually an entire civilization that consists of a massive network of tombs, monuments and other buildings, made by the Nabataeans in the 6th century. Personally, I had no idea it would have as many things to see as it does. 

 

We spent about 5 or 6 hours at the site, but you could easily spend a whole day or more seeing everything there.  One note is that they do not take it easy on your wallet to see the sites. It was 50 JOD (about $65) for each of us to get in for the day, plus another 50 JOD for a guide that in our opinion, was very poor and a waste of time. Instead, print out the Wikipedia article and some other online resources, including a map. You can then save yourself the guide fee. It is also only 55 JOD for a two day pass, so if you have lots of time, I would recommend splitting the visit to two days.

After seeing the most famous building/tomb, which is actually the old treasury, we moved on to other sites and hikes, climbing around over and through various sites. Here is Erin walking down a staircase carved from the rock.

This is the biggest of all tombs that looks more like a palace than a tomb. All the tombs are amazing and were great to visit.

Following Petra we had a nice lunch at the Movenpick which is literally right outside the entrance to Petra and would be a great place to stay if you have the fundage. We stayed at the Marriott using reward points, so the price was obviously right for us.

After our lunch, we set out for Wadi Rum desert, our humble abode for the night.  We have a few friends and family that have spend a night in a Bedouin tent, and it was highly recommended by them. So we emailed Obeid, who has a series of tents in which he accommodates guests. The tent is managed by Obeid and his son, among others that included one of our hosts, his brother, who was an entertaining character to say the least!

It was a pretty unique evening that included a meal cooked in the sand, lots of good tea, and some sisha to top it off. It was one of the other guests' birthday, so they had a cake for him. It was definitely a unique experience. The desert was freezing at night, but they had plenty of blankets to stay warm with. Below is our tent, pretty homely, huh?

After the night in the tent, Uncle Mo took us for a jeep ride in the desert, which had fantastic scenery, including unique rock formations, amazing colors in the rock, and lots and lots of sand!

Soon after the jeep ride, we got in the car and headed towards the Dead Sea, which borders Israel. It doesn't border the countries below, so we smartly stayed straight upon reaching this junction. 

After a few hours on the road and getting lost in the Medina in a town on the way, we made it to the Dead Sea for a beautiful sunset and had a great dinner at the Movenpick, where we stayed for the last two nights of our whirlwind vacation.

The next morning after breakfast, Joelskie, Erin and I got our suits on and checked out the Dead Sea water, which is the saltiest in the world, resulting in the ability to float like a full time synchronized swimmer!! I can finally swim like Lissa! You can see us popping out of the water like a bobber. 

They also have a bucket of mud that you can spread on yourself before jumping in, which results in ultra-smooth skin. 

The Movenpick Dead Sea also has one of the best rated spas in the world, containing over 10 different pools that vary in water temperature, number of jets, or salt content. We spent 9 hours at the spa and each got a nice massage. You can see how relaxed Erin is after hers!

The Dead Sea was a great way to end the trip, relax, and get the sand out of our hair and toes. We wouldn't have done Jordan any other way and highly recommend all we did on the final leg of the trip! I would suggest anybody visiting Petra, Wadi Rum and the Dead Sea to rent a car, as they are all pretty far apart, and very far from Amman. A taxi or hired driver would cost you significantly more.