Brit Recipes: Post-Paddy Bubble & Squeak

Stuck with leftover St. Patrick’s Day cabbage and spud? Here’s my home version of another cornerstone of English cuisine: Bubble and Squeak. So easy, not a real recipe really. I cook up some bacon and fry up the chopped, leftover spuds and greens in the rendered fat. I let everything brown for a few minutes without touching, then stir up and brown the other sides. That’s it! It all goes down very well with everyone, even Kate, though we keep her away from the Guiness…just kidding, Prodigal Wife is not a Guiness fan either.

Brit Celeb Radio #1 – All Things British and Langdon

Catherine Lyn Scott

Editor’s Note: This is the start of an exciting new weekly column on Anglotopia – Catherine Lyn Scott is a British publicist in Los Angeles who specializes in representing British Celebrities in Hollywood. She also happens to host the brilliant Brit Celeb Radio on LA Talk Radio. Catherine has kindly consented to post about the show every week and share it with Anglotopia’s readers. Enjoy!

Welcome to the first Brit Celeb Radio show played on ‘Anglotopia’…

Brit Celeb Radio is a fun filled British celebrity based show. Each week a special celebrity guest joins bubbly British host Catherine Lyn Scott in the studio.  Get your British celebrity fix with weekly reports from our Brit Entertainment Reporter Emily, who will share what those naughty British celebrities are up to.

Emily

If you love London, British Accents, Brits or anything British – this show is a must.    You can hear it each week LIVE on www.latalkradio.com at 1pm PST or 9pm GMT (UK time) or check back here and listen.
Past shows can be heard here: http://www.latalkradio.com/Catherine.php

This week those naughty British Celebrities are at it again… Listen to the show to find out who Brit Hottie ‘David Beckham’ took a bath with, news about Kate Winslet, Pop Group Girls Aloud and much more.  Here it from the Brits about the amazing ‘Notting Hill Carnival’, British TV and tea drinking from the Brits!  We were also joined in the studio with Radio Celebrity Langdon from Langdon Nation.

Listen to this week’s show now!

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Dispatches from the South: American Things I Still Can’t Do in Britain

Photo from Flickr

To continue with my “I’ve been here how long?” theme, this week we’ll take a look at some of the things I would like to adapt to, but just can’t seem to get the hang of.

On the up side, I am pleased to say I can now travel around without getting lost (too often), can complain about the weather with the best of them, and even speak the language like a native. What I still cannot get to grips with however, are British eggs, electricity, aspirin and time.

The electrical sockets here are 220 volt. Yes, even for a night light or a Glade Room Freshener. This makes the Brits very cautious around electricity and practically eliminates amusing anecdotes about the time you convinced your little brother to stick a bobbie pin into an outlet. As a safety precaution, wall plugs have switches on them, so you can turn the power off “at the mains.”

This is all well and good, as long as you remember to turn it on at the mains. I wish I had a 5 pence piece for every time my laptop ran out of power or I turned a light off and on half a dozen times wondering what was wrong with it or I returned to the kitchen after 20 minutes to see why I didn’t smell dinner cooking only to find the stove stone cold and the mains power still switched off.

And time, over here, is military-style, with trains arriving and leaving at such times as 16:34 or 19:04. And for some reason, I just cannot get used to this. The simple formula of subtracting 2 and losing the first digit (turning 18:46 into 16:46 or 6:46, for example) often has me thinking that my 18:47 train is due at 16:47 so that would make it 4:47. Even with a 24-hour watch, I would still have problems adjusting. The whole thing gives me a headache.

Which brings me to aspirin. The abiding belief that topping yourself by eating a handful of aspirin means you cannot buy it by the gross, as in the US. So I am forced to buy it in boxes of 12. And you can only buy one at a time. Consequently, when I get a headache, I have to go buy a box, take two and then put the box somewhere that I will remember it in the future. The medicine cabinet seems like a good place, and I swear that is where I put them, but weeks later, when I have another headache, the box has disappeared. So I have to buy another box.

Somewhere in this flat, there are about 187 12-packs of aspirin with 10 tablets left in them. I expect we’ll find them if we ever move out.

Photo from Flickr

As for eggs, I spent 46 years developing the perfect tapping technique for cracking an American egg and then found out—to my bitter disappointment—that the skill is non-transferable. The problem, in my opinion, is they don’t feed their chickens enough DDT or whatever it is we feed them in the States because the shells here (on their brown, not white, eggs) are hard as walnuts.

Since it is my privilege to make breakfast on weekend mornings, and since my vegetarian wife and I have a limited selection of foods in common, a typical morning meal inevitably includes eggs. A favourite of mine is eggs over easy, and my wife likes fried eggs (they are the same thing, by the way) but the odds of me getting a yolk out of an eggshell in one piece are about the same as the Labour government sweeping to victory at the polls in the next general election.

Now, I know from experience that I have to hit the egg harder than I am used to, so I steel myself and give it a good whack. Generally, the first blow glances off the armour plating leaving hardly a nick. The second blow, delivered with more determination, adds a dent and a few cracks. So the third blow is practically guaranteed to end up with me holding a dripping mass of canary yellow goo, splintered eggshell and a good deal of something that unnervingly resembles snot in my hand.

We eat a lot of scrambled eggs.

But only if I remember to turn the stove on at the mains.

Dispatches from the North: BBC iPlayer for the Wii

I usually try to gear my posts toward an American audience, but I know we also have a large contingent of UK-based readers so here is a little post for you.

Last week I downloaded the BBC iPlayer Channel onto my Wii console. I recently saw an advertisement for the Wii promoting the improved BBC iPlayer Channel and other downloadable features and decided to give it a shot.

The first step is to make sure your Wii console is connected to your WiFi connection, all you need to do is to go into the Wii settings then go the Internet section and find the access point. Its basically the same as connecting a laptop to WiFi, a list of available networks will come up and you just choose yours, enter the network key and you are online. You can also use the WiFi connection to play some of the Wii games online with other players around the world and download a web browser that allows you to use your Wii to surf the web.

Once I got connected to the WiFi the rest was also fairly easy to do, although I wasn’t clear at first how to access the download area, but its kind of like the iTunes App Store. Some “apps” for the Wii are free (like the BBC iPlayer, an internet browser channel and a handful of other channels) and others you have to purchase points for like games and other activities. To access the Wii “apps” go to the Wii Shop Channel on the main menu, then go to the channel downloads section and BBC iPlayer is at the top of the list. Wait a few minutes (and listen to the annoying sound of Mario running across the screen collecting coins) and you will have BBC iPlayer on your Wii console!

Previous versions of the BBC iPlayer for the Wii have been a bit underwhelming and got bad reviews, but this one is pretty much the same as the web-based version. Although just like the web version, sometimes you have to give the content some time to load. That was the only downfall (and probably has more to do with our slow broadband connection) otherwise I was really impressed with the organization of the BBC iPlayer Channel and also the range of programs available to watch. I like that I can watch all the same BBC iPlayer programs in full screen on my TV whenever I want from the comfort of my couch without needing to use my laptop.

I would definitely recommend that if you are in the UK and you have a Wii that you download the BBC iPlayer. Its free and easy to navigate and you can catch up on all your favorite BBC programs right on your television whenever it is convenient.

This Week in Doctor Who: 11th Hour Promo Pics, BBC America Launch, Matt Smith and Karen Gillan Interviewed,

We’re just under 3 weeks now until the premiere (and five weeks until it premieres in America) of Matt Smith as the new Doctor in Doctor Who Series five. The publicity machine is ramping up and there’s much to report this week in our weekly edition of This Week in Doctor Who.

Official 11th Hour Synopsis Released

The BBC has released the official synopsis for the first episode of series 5. And it sounds exciting!

The Doctor has regenerated into a brand new man, but danger strikes before he can even recover. With the TARDIS wrecked, and the sonic screwdriver destroyed, the new Doctor has just 20 minutes to save the whole world – and only Amy Pond to help him.

The 11th Hour Promo Pics

Here are some official promotional pictures from the BBC for the first episode of series 5 – The Eleventh Hour.

Special Doctor Who Event at Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo

BBC America will be hitting the road and attending the upcoming Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo with an exclusive airing of the first 2 episodes of Series 5.

From the C2E2 blog:

The new series of Doctor Who – featuring the debut of Matt Smith as The Doctor and Karen Gillan as companion Amy Pond – kicks off on BBC America on Saturday, April 17, but BBC America and C2E2 are giving Chicago fans a head start!

BBC America presents its special premiere screening of the first two episodes of Doctor Who on Friday, April 16. Fans attending will be the first to see Episode 2 in the U.S.

After spending the day at the con, gather together with your fellow Who fans at 8 PM in room E353 to witness the first two adventures of The Doctor and Amy Pond.

This happens to be right in our backyard and we’re going to try and attend if we can get press access. It would be a lot of fun!

Matt Smith Interview in the Guardian

New Doctor Matt Smith was recently interview by the Guardian. They followed him for 6 months as the new series filmed and there are some very interesting tidbits about the upcoming series.

Here’s an excerpt:

Today Smith is wearing jeans and a sweater rather than the Time Lord’s natty new bow tie and tweed jacket – but there’s still no mistaking the thick, shiny quiff that will surely spawn a million youthful imitations this spring. (The bow tie, with tweed jacket and braces, was Smith’s idea, and a last-minute replacement for a ‘more piratey’ look that the producers had developed.) Though Smith, 27, received good notices for his breakthrough TV role, in the little-watched BBC2 political drama Party Animals, he was a surprise choice to play the Doctor. His energy and projection silence the room as the read-through gets under way, but they are almost matched by Moffat, who reads the stage directions so fast that people have trouble turning their pages quickly enough to keep up.

‘It’s basically Trumpton,’ Moffat says of Leadworth, the fictional English village in which the Doctor – his Tardis out of control – crash-lands at the beginning of the episode. At 60 minutes, this episode will be a third longer than most, yet it still has plenty to get through. Smith hasn’t quite finished regenerating – a process that varies in length from Doctor to Doctor, but for Smith will carry on throughout episode one of the new run. There’s his new companion to introduce: Amy Pond, played by 22-year-old Karen Gillan – who was the last person to audition for the role, and who Moffat says was ‘a bit kookier’ than the others. And then, of course, there’s the obligatory threat of global annihilation – in the form of the Atraxi, an orbiting crowd of thuggish galactic policemen – to dispatch.

Read the rest of the excellent article here.

Karen Gillan Interviewed at the BBC

New companion Karen Gillan was recently interviewed over at BBC Radio 1 Newsbeat and let slip some interesting tidbits about her upcoming work on Series 5.

Here’s an excerpt:

Doctor Who’s new companion, actress Karen Gillan, says she’s “completely nervous” about the airing of her first episode.

The 22-year-old admitted the series debut was always going to be daunting but that the production team were all “really proud” of their work.

Doctor number eleven – Matt Smith – will also be introduced when the show returns at Easter.

Gillan said her on-screen partner would win over fans and silence those who’ve raised eyebrows about choosing a relatively unknown young actor.

“What Matt’s done is something completely incredible”, she said. “He’s completely made the part his own and I think people really are going to fall in love with his Doctor.”

The Inverness-born actress said that Smith is a bit of a joker on set and “like an annoying older brother – but annoying in a brilliant way.”

Read the rest of the Karen Gillan interview here.

She also revealed that the 27-year-old brings a guitar to the set, to strum away at during takes. (Although she’s yet to find out if he’s any good).

Be sure to check back next Monday for more great Doctor Who News in This Week in Doctor Who.

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