Every time I get off the tube at Notting Hill Gate, I pass Recipease. When we were living in Notting Hill, that happened ALOT.

At first, I didn't pay much attention, then I looked at it some and chalked it up to be a kitchen goods store.

For my birthday this year though, I learned the truth of Recipease. It is partly a kitchen goods store, but even more so, it's Jamie Oliver's store that hosts cooking lessons! Paul surprised me with a voucher for a class and once I found out the real secret of it, I couldn't wait to give it a shot.

They offer lessons in all kinds of things. Steaks, street food, kids lessons, but I decided upon homemade pasta. I love pasta and Italian food, so I figured it was the perfect time to figure out how to make it at home.



The day of the class, Paul and I had a mad dash to the shop (I may have been sick and napping away through my alarm!) but we made it just in time to wash up and don our aprons. They put a maximum on the attendees to ensure there are enough work stations and that the teacher can ensure you're learning what you're doing.

We were going to be making a few different types of stuffed pasta - this one focused only on the pasta, not the sauce, although they do have another class that teaches both.  We were making ravioli, tortellini and bow-tie pasta. The instructor started off by explaining it all to us and I was amazed at how easy it was! Flour and egg, voila, you have pasta dough!

Next comes the hard part - we rolled out the dough, then fed it through the pasta press several times, each time tightening up the rolls, to make sure we got it as thin and compact as we could. Once we had our strips, we set about cutting them up into the right size and there was even a fancy cutter that helped get those cute serrated edges you see on ravioli.

After we've got our perfect cut-outs, we set to filling them with ricotta, spinach and lemon. Not too full, or they fall apart in the cooking, and then we squish up the edges to seal them up.

As we drop the pasta in water (just a quick 2-3 minutes until they rise to the surface), we also start on our sauce. Simply butter, lemon and mint to give us a rich, if not too unhealthy, topping for our pasta.

So after 1 hour (mostly due to our learning than the length of the task) and we were done, kicking up our feet with a glass of wine and a plate of our delicious creations.


Despite the simplicity of it, I haven't quite yet tried this at home since I don't have a pasta roller, but perhaps I'll find one in my stocking for Christmas?!

When I landed in Cambodia, I reached a major milestone in my travels.

2014 marks 100 years since the start of WWI - in the UK, there have been lots of events, books, television reminding us of the impact it had. With no living veterans left, it's up to us to pass along the histories, stories and memories of those who lived or battled through it.

Usually as an expat, when you run into new people (locals and even sometimes foreigners) the conversation goes like this:

Local: You're not from here?
Me: No, I'm from Texas
Local: Ah, you don't really have an accent. [Ummm, thank you?] So how long have you been in London?
Me: Two years.
Local: So how do you find it?

On good days, I gush and talk about travel and all the things to see and do in London.

On bad days, I say it's great, but then in typical UK fashion, I complain about the weather, commuting, rent prices, etc.

With locals, this seems to do the trick. With people from the US though, it never seems quite as simple.

If you're unhappy in your new home, that makes sense to them, they've heard the weather and food are terrible and you should just come home. Why did you go over there in the first place even?

If you're happy, it's even more confusing. But don't you miss family, friends and all the American food?! Are you turning into some crazy Brit over there? Have you forgotten about America?

Of course I exaggerate and not all the conversations go this way, or at least not to this extreme, but it's a tough conversation to have and the longer you're overseas the tougher it seems to get (after two years the questions of when are you coming home are becoming more and more frequent).

Perhaps there's a marker where you cross over and people realise you've found your place in the world (quite literally) and that may not be your home country.

Or, on the other hand, perhaps not. Perhaps we're destined to forever be in the land in-between explaining to someone why we're still making the choice to live in the UK. We'll have to see how I find it in a year and go from there!

When we were researching for our trip to Cinque Terre, we decided to get off the much beaten footpaths between Rio Maggiore and Monterosso to see what else was to be found in the area.  While those are the most famous, we knew there had to be finds that at least could give us more great gelato.  So after the good workout the first few days, we decided to spend the last few days of the vacation finding our sea legs on the ferries.