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Ceri and I were lucky enough to get to hook up with Brian y Tarw Lloyd and his awesome daughter, Breanne Sciaroni yesterday at a couple of pubs in Portland, finishing up at the Horse Brass.
Ceri told them about our video demonstration for the US Ambassador and they both gamely volunteered to perform their versions, below:
Dear Mr Ambassador Barzun,
We, here at AmeriCymru, have loved and been charmed by your wonderful videos on learning some Welsh language phrases to welcome President Obama to Wales. We want to help you out in making the proper impression!
First, you will need a traditional Welshman's hat and a beer, as seen above. As we are in the US, we used an American beer. In Wales, you should use Brains.
When offering the beer to the President, you will need to blow smoke on it like a dragon, as seen below. If you were not born in Wales, you may have to use a cigarette to create this same effect.
You may also respectfully greet the President by engaging in traditional wing flapping, please see the included instructional video, below.
Again, we thank you for your wonderful videos and wish you a successful Presidential visit, may all go well!
Posted by the US Embassy in London https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFXBhKlGsJ_Ek71dlkFMkYQ
thanks, people! : )
The US embassy in London has made and put up this absolutely awesome video on youtube, "America's Welsh Heritage" -
This is actor Dominic Monaghan in an interview about John Rhys Davies playing Gimli in "The Lord of the Rings" series -
I love John Rhys Davies in anything, even godawful horrors like "Sabretooth" -
somewhat shamelessly stolen from: http://thestarcrossedlosers.tumblr.com/post/75576352843/oshkeet-throren-dont-mess-with-gimli-they
This is a pic and directions for Welsh Cakes from Emily Clark, who's in the Welsh language meetup group Ceri and I started going to in Portland. She did heart-shaped Welsh cakes and I thought they looked awsesome. She told me she got a set of varied-size heart cookie cutters at Target and that's what she used, see the picture at the bottom.
WELSH CAAAKES!
I use the recipe from the King Arthur Flour website, but I made a few changes to it that are small but noticeable, so I'll just send you the version that I do rather than link you to theirs:
Ingredients:
- 3 cups flour
- 1 cup sugar 2
- tsp baking powder
- 1tsp salt
- 1 tsp nutmeg
- 1 cup butter (2 sticks)
- 1 cup cranberries (traditionally currants but cranberries are preferred in my house!)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs
Preparation:
- Pop the two sticks of butter into the freezer before you do anything else, because you'll need to grate them and having them frozen makes it a tiny bit less messy (you can not freeze them and cut them into pats when you're ready to add them to the mix, but I find that it's way, WAY easier just to grate them...mixes better).
- beat two eggs into a measuring cup, add vanilla extract, and then add milk until you've got 3/4 cup liquid.
- Mix together dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, nutmeg).
- Grate one stick of butter into bowl of dry ingredients, then mix together until evenly dispersed/fairly crumbly.
- Grate in the second stick of butter, then mix again until fairly crumbly.
- Mix in cranberries (or currants).
- Add in the egg mixture, and mix until the dough is moistened. The easiest way I've found to do this without having a frustrating, sticky mess everywhere is to pour the mixture in, then turn the dough over and over with one of those long mixing spoons until it's mixed relatively well. Then I use my hands to squish all of the dough together until it's thoroughly moist and you can hold it all in a big ball. I hope that makes sense! It's a lot easier than trying to mix it all with a spoon, trust me.
- Turn your dough out onto a well-floured surface and cut it in half (you have to do this in two parts because it's enough dough to make a TON of cakes. Too much for one go!). Set one half aside.
- Roll out first half of dough until it's about 1/4" thick, then start cutting out your cakes! They can be any shape you want, I typically do circles. You'll have to constantly flour the cutter and the surface of the dough due to the supreme stickiness.
- Once you've got all of your cakes cut out of both halves of dough, start heating your pan. It's supposed to be done on a griddle, but if you don't have one then a skillet should do. We've got a pancake griddle that works perfectly. You want to heat it on a medium low-medium setting (I put it just below the 5, if your stove has numbers).
- Place cakes on the pan, and let sit for about 3-5 minutes depending on the heat of your stove. You'll know when to flip them because there won't be anymore sizzling butter around the bottom edge, and the top of them will be rounded and puffy, without much sweat left on them. When you flip them over, they should be golden brown on the bottom. If not, let the other side cook through and then flip it over again to brown the bottom a bit more, or else they'll fall apart more easily.
- Sprinkle the tops with sugar.
- Brew a pot of black tea, sit back, and enjoy.
AmeriCymru members and readers may have noticed that Ceri and I started another site: the Welsh-American Bookstore. This site reflects our love of Welsh books and writers and our desire to convert as many other people as possible to loving them.
Special, limited-time offer ad space on the Welsh-American Bookstore is now available to authors and publishers. Get your books, your company and yourself in front of the right audience.
T he Welsh-American Bookstore is a targeted book sales site, reaching a significant audience interested specifically in reading Welsh authors and Welsh books, and which is directly promoted to that audience on all social networks, including on AmeriCymru.
Twenty book cover spots are available in the right-hand column of the site. These spots are 110 pixels wide by 169 pixels tall and appear on each of the 5 ,0 0 0+ pages of the site. $30.00USD purchases a three-month ad in these spots, including a feature on you (or your company) and your book, which will be promoted in our newsletter and specifically on social network channels.
As an example of this size, an ad on the site now for Surfing Through Minefields , by the very excellent Bel Roberts.
Additionally, there are three ad spots available in the rotating banner above the fold on the front page. These ads are 660 pixels wide by 120 pixels high. This spot appears on article, interview and feature pages and the front page of the site. Three months on this spot is $50.00;
Our example, an ad for a Bel Roberts story in the upcoming Volume 2 of eto :
All advertisers will appear in our newsletter, which goes out to thousands of readers who are interested in Welsh writers and Welsh books, not just people on a random mailing list but people who've requested the newsletter or decided they want it.
Contact us at americymru@gmail.com to reserve your ad space now.