Marmalade Symphony

During a recent trip to Ikea, we picked up a jar of sylt fläder and apelsin (orange and elderflower) marmalade. Wafer thin slivers of orange in every bite creates a bright and faintly bitter contrast to the sweet, intensely orange jelly.

Marmalade swoon

This bottled bliss has been versatile with curried Brussels sprouts, spicy bison sausage sticks, mixed in salsa over salmon, muesli and almond milk, taquitos, crackers, oatmeal, straight from the jar...

Ikea better have their shelves stocked next time we head there!

- Cassaendra

Netflix'd

I have a confession. For the past few months, I've been devouring tv series on Netflix. The first major series I tackled was Doctor Who -- seventh through tenth doctors (2005 - 2012) -- over a span of 4-6 weeks. What a remarkable mix of adventure, tragedy, drama, and humor, as I had not heard of the time-space traveling adventurers growing up.

This led me to watch the entire Torchwood series, a spin-off of the Doctor Who series through Captain Jack Harkness' adventures. At first, the series was pretty light-hearted, but became very dark and quite engaging at its close.

Numerous long and short series later...

I discovered "The Guild," a web series based on a group of MMORPG players in a guild, a few days ago. Series 1-5 are available compiled on Netflix. While I am not a fan of comedies, I found this to be quite amusing since some of it is a bit familiar. *cough* Of course, I'll be watching series 6 very soon directly from their website.

The wonderful part about streaming entertainment is the availability of an entire series on demand, from the first episode through the conclusion, instead of waiting weekly over a span of years or skipping to the end. I've discovered several panned series that were fantastic only to find out, sadly, they were abruptly canceled, and the opposite with highly acclaimed series.

My favorite Doctor Who? I love Christopher Eccleston (distant, dark), David Tennant (light, brooding) and Matt Smith (playful, eccentric) equally. A few of the companions were painful to watch.

Perhaps I'll write a snippet about a few of the gems and rubbish I have discovered. So many series, so little time. Allons-y!

- Cassaendra

Aero

Walking in to Gaelic Imports in Parma, I squealed when I noticed three Aero chocolate boxes after reading about them in Mrs. L's blog -- mint, orange, and original -- and quickly grabbed an orange bar.

Aero orange choco 

The photograph is missing a green bar because mint was sold out. *pout*

When I see a bubbly center within chocolate covered anything, I think of crisped rice. Imagine my disappointment when I bit into the bar to discover a cake-like texture.

Aero is aerated milk chocolate. Hello. I love orange-chocolate, so no complaints with the prominent orange flavor and would buy it again, but at $1.50, the price is a touch steep for me.

Along with the chocolate bar, we snagged a meat pastie and beef pie. It was all right, as far as beef, peas, and potatoes baked in puff pastries go. They reminded me that I haven't had curry pan and piroshki in years.

- Cassaendra