I'm not starving him, honest!

I know I haven't been updating much recently, but that's just because I haven't been cooking anything new! Yesterday we had pork chops cooked in sauce (his Reggae Reggae that I brought from the UK, mine in BBQ) and mashed potatoes. Apparently I cooked his in the wrong sauce, that one was more of a dipping sauce than a meat sauce, but he ate it all the same :P And I can't make that mistake again as that was the last of it LOL

I didn't cook a Christmas dinner, his Mom and Step-Dad did and it was very tasty. They knew that I don't like turkey so they cooked beef, which happens to be my very favourite meat. It was marinated all day in some kind of sauce, then cooked on the BBQ outside, then finished in the oven, it was really nice - but not as nice as my Dad's cooking of course :) With it we had various veg (with carrots for me, I'll eat most veg but not green beans), and roast potatoes. I'd mentioned that in the UK we have roast potatoes and cook them in the pan with the meat, so it cooks in the meat juices. So their Mom cooked quartered them, rolled them in oil then in with the chicken (We had a little chicken too) they were tasty :) Overall a really lovely meal, that wasn't what I'd come to expect after Thanksgiving. Not saying that Thanksgiving wasn't lovely, just that it wasn't quite my kind of meal and this was all my favourite things!!

Sooo yes, I'm not starving my boyfriend or anything, I'm just not trying to make anything blog worthy! He seemed to quite enjoy the jam buns and the giant fairy cakes, as they all seemed to disappear! :)

Jam Buns and Giant Fairy Cakes

Here's my wonderful baking! I made 10 jam buns and 2 giant fairy cakes, I think there's only 5 jam buns left? My Boyfriend has been taking care of them :P So I'll assume they're actually pretty good...he seems to think so anyway!!

Oh and

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

Jam Buns

In my family we have a Christmas treat called Jam Buns, they're my favourite treat at Christmas and are practically a tradition. Apparently it allstarted when my Grandma tried to make Jam Tarts, but kept burning the jam, so she just plopped some sponge mixture on top!

As I'm in America this Christmas, I asked my Grandma if she would send me the recipe so I could make my own. That was today's project.

A Jam Bun is made up of three things -

: BASE - Short crust pastry ("Pie pastry")
: FILLING - Jam ("jelly")
: Topping - Sponge (like for fairy cakes)

I started by making the sponge mixture, which was soft butter, castor/granulated sugar, self-raising flour and 2 eggs. I got a little impatient (patience was never my best feature) and briefly microwaved the butter. Apparently only 20 seconds is enough to melt it! Woops!! I distinctly remember reading somewhere that you do NOT want oily or melted butter. Never mind, I threw it in there anyway...! My mixture didn't end up "pale and fluffy", but it looked ok anyway, I didn't want to waste all the ingredients...!!

As I've never made these by myself before I decided to buy premade pastry, which just rolls out into a nice big circle (ready to be put in a pie dish) and just cut out the circles. I was a little stumped when I found every cookie cutter under the sun BUT a circle one, but my Boyfriend kindly pointed out I could just use a cup. Duuh!

I was told to grease a bun-tin, but I decided to just use bun cases instead, it seemed easier! So I put the circles into the bun cases, then plopped a spoonful of jam into them, then covered them with the sponge mixture, making sure the edges were sealed so the jam didn't boil out.

Then they went into the oven for what was supposed to be 15 minutes but turned into more like 25. When the sponge was springy, I took them out. My boyfriend, being a typical guy, was soon in the kitchen eyeing them up. I warned him they were hot, but he was welcome to eat them. He disregarded this warning and ate one....and quickly regretted it!! It was apparently like "molten lava!!!"

I tease him for it, but I didn't realise how long they took to cool down and burnt my hand! Some jam squeezed out when I took a bite and onto my hand, it actually went quite red!! Woops!

I only made 10 since I wasn't sure how much I'd messed up with the sponge mixture, and that was how many I got out of 1 pie pastry "circle". I had a bit of sponge mixture left over so I just plopped some into the two remaining cases and am now cooking two huge fairy cakes! And I mean HUGE, I just went and checked on them and they're more like American Muffins!! I'll take a photo, I didn't quite mean for that to happen, I just didn't want to waste so much mix and only had 2 bun cases left...!!!

I'm not sure what to make of the Jam Buns. I used Strawberry Jam rather than Mixed Fruit like my Grandma, so it tastes a little different. The pastry on the bottom doesn't seem entirely cooked but I don't know how I'd fix that, as the sponge is totally cooked and I wouldn't want to burn it. My Boyfriend says they're nice, but I never know when he's just being polite!! I think I'll just conclude that I need more practice, they're edible but not as good as Grandma's.

When I'm a mother of four and Grandma of 10, I'm pretty sure I'll be good at them too! :)

Hash Browns

Ah dear, this one was a bit of a disaster, but I was able to laugh it off!

I tend to get up in the morning and make my boyfriend breakfast before work, so that he can have a little more sleep before going out and working all day (I go back to bed once he's gone). His sister made hash browns a couple of days before and left the rest of the potatoes (mostly cooked) in the fridge, and instructions on how to make them on the counter so I could make them in the morning if I wished.

I decided to give this a go. Her directions were put a lot of oil in the pan, turn it up to 7, grate the potatoes into the pan and season with a LOT of "pizza seasoning". I also threw in some pepper and spice. Then "don't touch them at all until they go brown round the edges", the flip them over.

I followed all these instructions to the letter, but I think I waited til they were a little tooo brown round the edges. Plus now my pan was way hot and I cook eggs on 4, so my eggs were a little overcooked.

The problem is that the hash browns were a little too brown and dry looking, so didn't look wholly appetising. The main problem though was the taste. My boyfriend ate them all manfully but admittd they were "disgusting" and requested that I never use pizza seasoning on them again!! In his words "my sister eats some weird crap!!". He has offered to show me how to make them how HE likes though, with just salt and pepper I think!!

Woops!!

Ah well, we live and learn :)

Quilts/Duvets/Blankets/Covers

Ok I've heard them be called a million different things, so I'm on about that big thick cover you have on your bed, possibly two when it's cold. Not the thin little sheet, not a blanket like you'd have in the living room, the big THICK one (which I'm going to refer to as DUVET from now on)

The difference here reaaally puzzled me and my boyfriend. He came to the UK first so he got confused first! I asked him to go and get the "Duvet cover" so I could wash it. He dutifully went upstairs and took it into the utility room where the washing machine was, then came to find me looking all confused. "It won't fit". Huh? So I went to see what he was on about. Turns out he brought the whole thing downstairs, and it really wouldn't fit.

In America they have multiple DUVETS. For example my boyfriend has one that is blue with Chinese characters on, one that is blue and green and red, and one that is just a denim blue. When you want to wash them, you put the WHOOOOLE thing in the washing machine. In the UK we have multiple duvet COVERS, that you put on and take off the big thick thing itself. So I have ONE duvet, and several covers. I'm struggling to explain it to be honest, so I just hope you all know what I mean! In the UK the colourful part (with the patterns that match your bedroom) is removable and THAT is what you wash, the inside that is the duvet which is like a material shell filled with fibres (originally feathers). In the USA the colourful cover is NOT removable and you wash the ENTIRE thing, so you can typically fit ONLY that in the washing machine.

Duvet - UK

We both think that our way is the better way of course! He thinks that it's a pain to strip the duvet cover and put another one on. Especially while watching me do it! I'm smaller than average, and have a double bed, which means my duvet is quite large. It usually involves me standing on a bed and shaking the duvet a lot to get it to the bottom of the cover!! I really don't make it look easy! I think it's a pain to stuff the entire duvet into a washing machine, especially when I listen to the poor machine labouring away trying to spin, and when I have to run the tumble dryer THREE TIMES just to get it dry.

But each of our appliances is set up to work for what we consider normal. Our washing machine drums won't really fit the duvet in, because we rarely need to wash the whole thing, their washing machine drums are much larger because they do do it that way. I'm not saying either is right or wrong, just that my way is better ;p

Tinsel and Baubles VS Garlands and Balls

Woops I've really fallen behind! First I was sick, then my Boyfriend was sick, so I haven't really been doing much cooking or baking, we've mostly been living off soup or cereal and things!!

So we've been doing our Christmas decorating over here, and it's made me realise more differences in our languages. For example, what I refer to as Tinsel, they refer to as Garlands, and what they call Tinsel...I've never seen in my life :P

"GARLAND"

"TINSEL"

The other one that has reaaally tickled me, is the whole "Christmas Balls" thing. I'm immature, I know that, I accept that, but I just can't help it :P We call them "Baubles", so this is the first time I've ever heard them be called "Christmas Balls" or just "Balls", so...well I'm sure you understand! It didn't help when my Boyfriend's Sister dropped one...that one had me giggling for ages! I'll grow up one day, honest!

I haven't really noticed any other differences in Christmas decorations so far. Obviously people's outdoor lights are more common and more elaborate, I wouldn't expect anything else in America. I've found that typically Americans do all holidays more elaborately than we do! I love to see all the Christmas lights, but I'm very specific on what lights I'd have in/on my own house. Luckily my Boyfriend almost entirely agrees with what I like :)

There was one thing that I thought was really cool though. My Boyfriend lives near the sea, and the next town over is a port town. A load of the boats were actually decorated! Like people do to their houses! I've never seen anything like it, I thought it was the coolest thing I'd ever seen. I really hope to go back and take some better photos, but what with all the rain and with us both being sick, that hasn't happened yet. Plus I keep forgetting :P

I'm sure there was something else I wanted to write about but I can't think what it was, so that will have to do for now. My Grandma has kindly sent me some recipes for me to try out, so I may give that a go sometime soon, I'll make sure to blog when I do :)

My Mum just posted this as her status on facebook, and I wanted to post it on here to spread the word just that little bit more :) -

Change your Facebook profile picture to a cartoon character from your childhood and invite all you friends to do the same for the NSPCC. Until Monday (December 6th), there should be no human faces on Facebook, but an invasion of memories. This is a campaign to stop violence against children

Make it stop. Full stop.

Guess Who's Sick again..!

Before I start in on this post, I would like to say a HUGE

to two of my Aunties, who both recently had BEAUTIFUL baby girls :) I don't know if either of you read my blog, but I'm sooo pleased for both of you and I can't wait to meet my two new cousins!

Anyway, let the whinging commence :P

This time my boyfriend's sister has also got a stomach bug, which kind of makes me feel a little better! I'm sure that makes me a horrible person, but I hate that it's always me getting sick, I feel like some sickly little thing, or a total hypochondriac! So I think I feel justified, like it's not just my imagination! Obviously I'm very sorry that she's been ill also, it sucks to feel unwell, especially as she still has to work.

This post isn't so much about me feeling sorry myself, it's actually more about how totally amazing french baguettes are! I buy bread from the supermarket's bakery, as I don't like the normal bread. In the UK our bread only lasts a week at the most, whereas here in the USA it seems to last at least a month, because of all the preservatives in it. Now if you're used to that, then it's fine, but I'm not and so I can actually TASTE the additives, and it doesn't taste too good!! My sister said the same thing, so it's not just me :P I've been trying different breads from the various supermarkets we go to, Italian Bread or Country Farmhouse, I even had a presliced bread last time which was nice, so much less effort! All very tasty, makes good toast, I have no complaints. Now yesterday I came across a rack full of French Baguettes ("French Bread" I think it was called, over here it's more common to find random Spanish words than French ones), they were all actually still warm. OMG. Amazing! So pleased! I wasn't entirely lucid while shopping yesterday, which I'm using as my excuse for why I found BREAD to be so exciting :P

Baguettes are my absolute utmost FAVOURITE type of bread. I'll eat it with nothing on at all, I'll eat it with just margerine/butter, it makes delicious cheese sandwiches, and it's amazing with soup. Sadly this baguette wasn't very...round? It was the "proper" length, but it was weirdly thin! This means that I'm almost entirely out already and this makes me sad :( I have to have several slices just to eat a decent amount!! I think when I had a small bowl of soup last night (I was feeling better) I had about 5 or 6 "rounds"!! Because I'm sick I can't really eat much, so bread is about the only thing I can keep down which doesn't help me try and make it last!!

I was very naughty just now, because I'm rapidly running out, and the best thing about baguettes is the wonderfully tasty cheese sandwiches you get, I did make myself a small cheese sandwich. I just didn't want to miss out LOL I'm already feeling the consequences (see my post from last time I was sick about dairy products!) but it was so nice, I don't really regret it :P I'll probably end up having veg soup again for dinner tonight, I kept that down alright, and it'll be more filling than just the bread.

I know this is such a random post, about bread of all things! But this is the first time I've actually even SEEN it, and it tasted so nice - just like at home! I'll definitely be looking out for some more next time. Might have to get a different loaf of bread for when I finish it all up :P I didn't realise I'd eat it so quickly, so I didn't think to buy more than just that. Will have to ask my boyfriend to pick me up a loaf from the nearby shop so I can still eat if I'm still sick tomorrow!

(Ooh, in searching for a photo I've come across a recipe to make it myself, hopefully it won't be too complicated and then this post will make some semblance of sense in the long run...me leading up to trying it myself LOL...aaaand after reading it, it sounds pretty difficult, I think I'll start with ordinary bread and work up from there..eventually!)

Good Days and Bad Days!

Everyone has them, I think it's something to do with karma. I've noticed it when my boyfriend plays on his playstation. He'll have an AMAZING round playing online shoot-em-up's, typically when there's a mouthy little soul who thinks he's awesome in every way, then his next 3 rounds or so will just be...TERRIBLE! This has happened on multiple occasions, and my conclusion is pure and simple - KARMA.

I've also noticed it in the kitchen. I have days where I manage to make an entire Thanksgiving Dinner, almost totally without assistance...and days where I can't even make SOUP. The latter was my day yesterday!! We'd eaten before Karate, so we were just having a light dinner. My boyfriend wanted soup, I wanted honey on toast. Super simple right? It was one of those soups where you add a canful of milk to it (I've never seen those in the UK?), I managed to spill some milk while I was pouring it into the pan (no idea how I did that, I think it bounced back out?!?!). Then as I was buttering my toast, I literally turned away for a minute, the soup boiled over! I didn't think I had it on that hot! So that made a HUGE mess on the stove, as it went all over the burner (glass top stove so it's flat at least) and instantly burnt on. Cue a frustrated string of swear words :P

Then this morning, I took the frying pan out of the dishwasher, it seemed dry on the bottom so I started cooking my Boyfriend's breakfast. As I was serving it up...I found that it must have been damp or SOMETHING on the bottom, as now THAT whole burner was a mess! ARGH! I left a note for his Sister saying I was very sorry for the big mess I'd made of the stove, I'd fix it when it cooled down!!

I'm not doing very well in the mornings at the moment. One morning I started the coffee pot without putting any coffee in, another morning his whole sandwich fell apart as I tried to put it into the sandwich bag...I don't remember what else I've managed to do, but obviously I don't cope with mornings very well!! Or with rushing, the second I feel hurried and try and speed up a little, I turn into a massive klutz and honestly into a danger to myself :P I've almost sliced my finger with a knife, I've made a whole toasted sandwich fall apart...twice (same sandwich!), I've dropped things...I'm just a disaster :P

So I'm hoping that karma will balance itself back out soon, before I do some serious damage to myself...or my selfesteem :P

My food smells "Divine"!!

I didn't have anything blog worthy, I don't tend to try new things over the weekend. But today my Boyfriend has a couple of friends over (kids of a friend of his, they're 14 and 18). I pretty much leave them to their own devices on nights like these, they just sit and game for hooours!! My boyfriend had leftover lasagne (kindly provided by his Mom and Step-Dad) and salad for his dinner, but I have time on my hands, no left overs for me!

I decided to have burger and chips ("fries"), pretty much my favourite dish here, apart from steak :) I prefer homemade chips, they're crunchier and tastier and generally better :) So I simply peeled a couple of potatoes, coated them in oil and put them in the oven. I did try and put them on tinfoil as cleaning the baking tray is a PAAAIN. This didn't work out so well, I try and turn the chips as often as possible but they aaalways stick. They stuck to the tin foil...trying to unstick them and turn them just ripped the foil and made it slide aaaall over the tray! ARGH! I gave up on the tinfoil pretty quick!! When they were nearly done I fried the burger, put Hickory Smoke and mozzerella cheese on it, and nothing else (well, bbq sauce on the bun). Overall, simple but tasty dinner :) Not quite blog worthy, right?

Well as it was almost done the two boys (growing boys, always hungry, noses like dogs for food!) noticed I was cooking..."I smell BBQ...why is that?" "Something smells sooo good..." "What are you MAKING? It smells DIVINE!!" This set my Boyfriend off laughing, "I think you've got some fans here!!". It certainly sounded like I did :)

So there you have it people, my food smells DIVINE! It tastes pretty good too!! :)

Guessing that makes it a - SUCCESS! (Both olfactory and gustatory! lol...gustatory..)

PS. This blog doesn't get a photo, I can't find a photo that looked even half as good as my actual meal! :)

Thanksgiving Dinner

Alrighty, it's the big test! We've just got back from the shop with our supplies and I have a vague idea of what I'm doing :) Apparently the ham is precooked and already flavoured, all we have to do is reheat it by boiling it which gets rid of a load of sodium. Apparently!

Currently I'm making Cranberry Sauce, the sugar and water are in the pan working on boiling and dissolving, the cranberries are draining after being rinsed. I have to "pick them over" which I'm not sure what that is...I'm assuming check there's no bad ones...?

So far my only problem with the cranberry sauce is that we ALMOST didn't have enough sugar. We BARELY had a "cup" of sugar, but luckily there was just enough :)

Other than the cranberry sauce, it all shouldn't take more than like...half an hour to make (or that's what the veggies will take, I don't know about the ham, all my boyfriend says is "not very long"). He's going to take care of the gravy as he admitted he does know how to do that from scratch. I'm hoping he'll help boil the ham as I've never even HEARD of boiling meat!!

So all I have to do is make up a salad (lettuce, baby tomatoes, mushrooms and croutons), make mashed potatoes, roast potatoes and boil some carrots! Easy Peasy :) We bought the pumpkin pie, we've been given stuffing/dressing, and whipped cream. So I think we're sorted! I'll keep updating this post with each new development :)

It all sounds surprisingly simple, though we aren't doing it wholly "traditional", but I think I can actually manage :) I feel like I should have like...decorations and centrepieces, flowers and candles or at least a tablecloth...! But so long as the food is good, and the company will be amazing, I'm sure it'll be wonderful :)

**********************

Alrighty! Dinner is eaten, the kitchen is cleaned (within 15 minutes of finishing, I feel so efficient!), time to blog about it :) When I left off I was making cranberry sauce...

So originally (as in, originally as of this morning) it was going to be just me and my Boyfriend as his sister got called in to work. I asked when he wanted dinner and he suggested 5pm, I then realised that her note said she had to leave for church at 5.30, so...theoretically...I could make it in time for her to eat too! Awesome :) So I got everything prepped, the salad was ready in the fridge (lettuce shredded into the bowl, mushrooms in one small bowl for my boyfriend, chopped tomatoes ready to go in at the last minute). The potatoes were cleaned and draining. The cranberry sauce was in the fridge cooling. The dressing/stuffing was already done. It's all looking...surprisingly do-able!!

I started cooking the roast potatoes first with the logic that I could then leave them in the oven to stay warm while reheating the stuffing on a low temperature. Next I chopped up the potatoes really small to put in the pan for mashed potato (I prefer to have them in small pieces, they cook faster and mash easier), I put the carrots in another pan and the ham in a third pan. Mashed potato, roast potatoes and carrots I can do, but the ham was alien to me. So I dragged my boyfriend over to show me EXACTLY what to do. He put water in the pan to mostly cover it, then put it on the hob/stove on a relatively low heat to warm it up (it was pre-cooked) and remove some excess sodium. He said that's how they always cooked ham in his family.

It was all going well, the ham was cooking, the roast potatoes were nearly done, the carrots and potatoes were starting to boil..and he got a phonecall off his mom, could we send her two plates to where she was working for her and another employee.

Cue panic! I don't like reheating food, so I try and avoid cooking excess. If I'm cooking for 3 people, I aim to cook enough food...for 3 people. My boyfriend calmed me back down from my momentary panic and reminded me there was too much ham, we could easily send some ham, there was too much stuffing, we could send that...breaaathe! This made me realise there was probably enough cranberry sauce and salad too, there just wasn't enough potatoes. So I started rapidly peeling a couple more potatoes, I managed to get them in there in time that it didn't cause a problem.

At this point I was able to start setting the table, which I'd cleared and cleaned earlier in the day (as well as cleaning all the kitchen counters, sweeping the floor and keeping on top of all of the dishes, I felt awesome!). I don't like having people all crowded around the stove or something, getting in everyone's way, so my intention was to put all the food on the table and let us dish up our food there. That's what we typically do at my house, my Dad hands out the meat as he carves it, but other than that we dish it up ourselves from our seats.

Well that didn't quite work as I planned! I'd asked my boyfriend to mash the potatoes as there was a little too many potatoes for me to easily do it myself (I'm such a weakling!), which took longer than I'd anticipatd (ie. more than 2 seconds LOL). I also didn't think through the fact that putting hot food into cold bowls would make it start cooling instantly. So about halfway through eating all of my food was cold. Woops!! I later realised that at my house, we set out all the placemats, and put all the dishes the food was COOKED IN (typically pyrex dishes) on the table. I couldn't do that here as I couldn't FIND any table mats, and I mostly cooked in pans and the handles would have got in the way. Oh well!!

Apparently they really enjoyed it which I'm glad about :) I think they may even be mostly sincere and not just being polite!! They reaaaally made a fuss about the cranberry sauce, though his sister was slightly bemused when faced with made from scratch cranberry sauce, with fresh cranberries...not something out of a tin!! It did make me concerned that that was the ONLY good part as they were making SUCH a big deal out of it (kind of like..."the rest sucks...but OMG THIS PART IS GOOD!...shame about the rest..."), but my boyfriend assures me that it was tasty :)

In the end it turned out we had plenty left over to send to their mom (his sister delivered it on her way to church) so I'm pleased. Hopefully they enjoy it too! :) My boyfriend even (reluctantly!!) sent a couple of slices of "his" pumpkin pie, which was very sweet and in the spirit of the holiday :)

I was delighted that I timed things so that everyone finished eating at 5.30 (when his sister had to leave), though I didn't account for the time it'd take her to get ready, so she didn't quite leave on time. Oh well, I kept up my end :P She was quite impressed at my timing skills, I don't normally manage to time things so well, I've just been doing good recently!! I used to be terrible, I'd mistime my various dishes so one thing would be cooked and I'd just eat it while waiting for the rest to finish cooking!!

Me and my boyfriend rapidly cleaned up the kitchen (ok we did put most of the dishes in the dishwasher), and now he's back on his playstation while I blog, once we're done we're going to watch Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets :) We're going to see the new one again tomorrow, but he only owns that one film. A random one to have!! We haven't had any dessert yet, still digesting, but we'll probably eat dessert while watching the film :) I don't think he'll resist the pie for long :)

He keeps turning round and telling me that he loves me, that he's thankful for me and my cooking (and the fact it's improved significantly in the past couple of months!). He seems to really appreciate that I cooked Thanksgiving Dinner, he was pretty disappointed that our plans fell through. But I think our quiet, sweet little Thanksgiving was perfect :)

So I'm delighted to say it was a - SUCCESS!!!

Betcha no-one saw that coming when I first announced I was cooking Thanksgiving Dinner ;p

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Happy Thanksgiving to you all! I hope you have a wonderful holiday :)

WARNING : Mushy gushy cheese alert :)

I am thankful for -

: My WONDERFUL boyfriend :) Thank you for being you baby, and thank you for everything you've done and are doing for us :) You're the kindest, sweetest, funniest, most loving man a girl could wish for, I can't believe how lucky I am! You're my whole world and I don't know what I'd do without you. Being with you has been the time of my life :)

: My FABULOUS family :) You've always been there for me and always 100% supported every decision I've ever made, even if you didn't fully understand why!! That all means the world to me :) I couldn't want a better family, I hope you all never change! To my parents, you've always tried to give me everything I want and need, you've pulled me out of sticky situations and you've always been there, I love you guys! To my siblings, you are some crazy little people, but I adore the lot of you and I wouldn't want you any other way :) You're adorable, loving, funny people and I honestly miss the chaos!

: My boyfriend's LOVELY family :) Thank you all for welcoming me into your family with open arms, you've made me feel at home and like I'm a part of your family and I really appreciate that. Thank you for putting up with this fussy, eccentric and slightly strange little English girl! You've all tried really hard to include me in everything and I loved our "Bonfire Night" :) I am especially thankful for his Sister, for welcoming me into her home and not making me feel like I'm an intruder, even though I rearrange her kitchen, eat her food and can't contribute financially!! :)

: My AWESOME friends :) You guys rock! You're all absolutely nuts, but you're the most fiercely loyal people I know. I know that if I ever need someone to talk to, at any time of the day (mine or yours!), I'll have a mass of people willing to be there for me. I hope that you feel that I'm always there for you too, because I am :) Remember, there's an 8 hour time difference, so when everyone else is asleep...I'm probably awake! So just shoot me a message and voila! You've someone to talk to round the clock :)

Hmmm, I think I got this whole "what I'm thankful for" thing right...? :) I quite like this holiday, I look forward to celebrating it in England, I think we should all sometimes take the time to really think about what it is we're thankful for. We all take people and things for granted far too often.

I hope you all have an AMAZING Thanksgiving, we're off to the shops sometime soon to pick up some food for our Dinner :) Wish me luck! His sister got called into work this morning, so it's down to me and him to cook it...!! And possibly to us to eat it, she's only home for a couple of hours before going to church!

Happy Eating All!

Thanksgiving Eve!

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving here in the US. This isn't something we celebrate in the UK, so it's going to be my very first Thanksgiving! I don't know much about this holiday, other than what I've seen on TV, and so far all I've gathered is that it involves a lot of food! So I wikipedia-ed it :

Thanksgiving Day is a harvest festival celebrated primarily in the United States and Canada. Traditionally, it has been a time to give thanks for a bountiful harvest. While it may have been religious in origin, Thanksgiving is now primarily identified as a secular holiday. It is sometimes casually referred to as Turkey Day.

So, there you have it! I'm not honestly sure I'm that much more informed :P We'll go with - it's a day of lots of food and giving thanks!

Our original plans were to go visit the brother of my boyfriend's step-dad and have Thanksgiving Dinner tonight with their family. For reasons beyond our control that plan fell through. I knew this would disappoint my boyfriend who had been looking forward to Thanksgiving Dinner, and I hate to see my sweetheart sad, so I started googling simple Thanksgiving Dinner recipes! I know I know, ambitious right?!

Well I quickly discovered that everyone disagrees on what is "essential" to Thanksgiving dinner, I got very confused very quickly!! So I waited for my boyfriend to get home to ask what HE considered essential. He was closely followed by his sister, who it turned out also has the day off tomorrow (I was originally under the impression that she was working). So we decided we'll have dinner together, and cook it as a group effort. They discussed on and off for the next couple of hours about what they wanted for dinner, they were surprisingly easily distracted, sometimes it's like herding cats with these two :P

We FINALLY decided on -
- Ham
- Mashed potatoes
- Carrots
- Salad
- Gravy
- Cranberry Sauce
- Stuffing/dressing

- Pumpkin Pie

I don't like turkey at all (very fussy!), so I admit I'm not wholly disappointed about not having to go to a strangers house and eat weird food! I was more than willing to cook turkey for these two and fry up some pork for myself, but they agreed on ham as they like that just as much and it would mean just cooking 1 lot of meat. I'll also be cooking up a few roast potatoes as they're my favourite kind of potato and are more normal for a British dinner like this. I like to have SOMETHING I recognise :p I'll probably have ice cream for my dessert lol

I googled simple cranberry sauce and that looks ridiculously simple so I'm going to give making that a go, even though I was told they normally have it out of a can. His sister will be in charge of the pumpkin pie, maybe with my assistance, we'll see! My boyfriend was going to do the stuffing/dressing, but he weasled out of it by asking if his Mom had any spare from what she cooked up for the fallen through dinner :p

All this doesn't bear much resemblance to what we have for dinners like this in my family. We typically have some meat (usually beef, occasionally ham or chicken), roast potatoes, yorkshire puddings, steamed veg, gravy (which seems to be different here?), then bread and butter pudding for dessert or something like that.

I've never cooked a Christmas dinner, or even a Sunday lunch in my life - it's always my Dad who's in charge of those meals, and my sister who makes the desserts. Me, Mum and other siblings are just in charge of eating! :) But with his sister's assistance it'll probably be an acceptable dinner :)

I don't normally like cooking for her, or even with her presence in the kitchen! She's what I consider to be a "good cook", and I'm easily flustered and feel embarressed while cooking around people I think to be better than me. I don't mind cooking for my boyfriend anymore, but it's taken me a long time to stop feeling like he's judging me! Obviously he never was, and he sister isn't, but I'm paranoid :p So this should generally be...fun!

I'll keep you all posted, this should be an ...interesting... update tomorrow! Wish us all luck :)

And HAPPY THANKSGIVING (Eve)

:)

Advent Calendars and Gingerbread Men

Both of these are typically for children, but I quite like them too! In the UK you will find in every single bakery all year around GINGERBREAD MEN. Typically with a smiley face and shirt buttons, the eyes and buttons made out of what WE mean by Smarties (more like M&M's I guess?).

Usually these are bought for children rather than get them a messy chocolate muffin or something, I know my brother used to loooove them - he probably still does! I realised a few weeks ago that I hadn't ever seen Gingerbread men in the USA. My boyfriend explained to me that it's more of a seasonal thing. We went to Starbucks a couple of days ago and I was reading the cards in front of all the pastries and things, and was all excited see the words "Gingerbread"...until I realised it was actual ginger...bread...How disappointing!

I don't go to bakeries very often so I don't know if they've started selling them? But it's like the more they keep it from me...the more I want one!! I'll have to ask my boyfriend's step-dad, he's a baker, so he'll know!! Otherwise, I might have to add it to my list of things to attempt to bake myself! :)

The other difference I noticed is ADVENT CALENDARS. In the UK as it gets ANYWHERE near to Christmas, all the shops are filled with advent calendars. These are made from cardboard with the numbers up til Christmas on doors in a random order. Each day leading up to Christmas you open a door and VOILA there's a chocolate! Each chocolate is either shaped like something Christmassy (a wreath or a tree), or has a picture stamped upon it. The cardboard itself usually has some cool picture on it. You can get simple Cadbury's ones like the one above, it's just some Christmas related picture, like snowmen or Father Christmas ("Santa Claus"); or you get ones relevant to what children's films are out at the moment, like Star Wars Clone Wars or Tinkerbell (my brother's and mine respectively, for the past couple of years!!)

The chocolate is usually pretty cheap tasting, I normally just find the number and open the door, then give my siblings the chocolate! But either way, it's a tradition. I don't know of a single person who hasn't had one of those advent calendars...many of my friends still do!!

I went out the other day with my boyfriend's sister (I need to come up with "code names" for these people!) and her friend, and we ended up in one of the stores for a few bits and bobs. The friend wanted to buy an advent calendar for her daughter as a fun project and to help her learn her numbers. I was on board with this, I'd love to see what kind of advent calendars there are over here! Well...it was different!

I couldn't see what I'd consider to be an advent calendar anywhere! It was weird. I suppose ours are techinically disposable, you buy a new one every year. Well all the ones I could find were these wooden ones with removable drawers...you put little presents in each day yourself and you get the same one out every year...! I admit that's pretty cool, but it was a little bizarre to see such a huge difference. The friend said they probably did the "disposable" calendars, but she wasn't sure where.

I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with either country's "traditions" or anything, I'm just musing about the differences that I've noticed. I never really realised just how different some things are, and how weird that would make it seem! I like to try and include both of our culture's traditions, I think that's important to our relationship, for example this year we celebrated both 4th July (Independence Day) and 5th November (Bonfire Night). Tomorrow I'll be having a Thanksgiving Dinner.

But I'm not sure what "traditions" I have for Christmas. Me and my Mum go to the Crib Service every Christmas Eve, well their church doesn't seem to have that. We try and make the Christingle service but usually forget!! We hang our stockings on the mantle piece and then take them to bed with us every night, well...they don't have little kids, or stockings! We leave milk and a mince pie for Father Christmas, as well as a carrot for Rudolph...again, no little kids. Our Christmas tree is made up of decorations that we all made over the years, as well as multi-cultural decorations. I always set up the nativity (who'll do that this year?). We all go out en masse to watch the Switching on of the Lights, where the school choir sings and Father Christmas turns up with a sleigh pulled by a donkey. We have some semblance of a Christmas dinner that doesn't really resemble what most people consider Christmas dinner (family of fussy people!). We usually have international guests over Christmas through HOST...I can't think of anything that I could "bring across", it all seems country and family specific!!

I hope that I might be able to webcam my family sometime on Christmas Day though, I doubt it'll be able to be while they open the presents, not with the time difference and everything!!

The rules are strict - you do NOT get out of bed before 8.30am! You do NOT go downstairs and mess!! This usually turned into - Don't bother Mum and Dad before 8.30am...but bothering your poor tired big sister is fine! And they'd sneak downstairs anyway. Last year was the first year my next youngest sister (now 16) wasn't the first one awake!! Once 8.30 rolls around then we all go into my parents room and open our stockings, then we all go downstairs (can't go down til everyone is ready). We get to open ONE present (so choose carefully!) and then you HAVE to have breakfast. NO MORE opening until after breakfast (or we won't bother eating!). It then starts off we take it in turns to open presents, carefully reading out loud who bought what. But it usually just turns into a free-for-all!! All of these rules I'm quite fond of, and they make sense! So I imagine I'll be enforcing similar rules when I have children of my own :) But this will be the first Christmas for me where such rules aren't required! I might actually get some sleep Christmas morning, rather than having one sibling or another bouncing into my room every few minutes from 5am onwards...!! :)

Well this post kind of ambled all over the place didn't it! I'm sure I had a point somewhere :) Yesterday my boyfriend's sister was telling us about all the Christmas events going on in the area, like the switching on of lights, christmas markets, carolling, and it just got me thinking about Christmas and traditions. I'm very excited to be making NEW traditions, it's just a little strange I suppose! And eeeeverything is strange and different, I think that's part of why I'm finding it SO weird. If I was having my first Christmas away from home in the UK then it would still seem mostly familiar, but here...I'm struggling to find anything that's familiar!! But different isn't bad, it's just different :) Different is interesting! It just takes getting used to.

(NOTE : ARGH! I can't seem to fix the paragraphs for that last section, no matter how hard I try. Sorry if it makes it hard to read!!)

Peppermint Creams - Update

Well they've been left under a towel all night, only occasionally being uncovered by my boyfriend's sister who was very curious about what it was! She'd never heard of peppermint creams, she wanted to know would I "bake it once it's risen". Um...no...but good guess :)

It's not quite hardened all the way, I may need to leave it a while longer. Or just eat it now, either's good! I'm not quite sure how best to store it, as it's currently one great big, thin blob, so chopping it into pieces might not go as well as I'd hoped. I can try, and if I fail...I'll just eat it!

I've tried some and it's pretty tasty! I managed to make it not quite so minty, it really was too overpowering to start with! Next time I should put the peppermint on a SPOON first, not straight into the mixture...!!

It could have done with being thicker, but then it could have also done with being in individual pieces!! :) I know my boyfriend isn't huge on minty things, I'm not sure what his sister's view is, so it's not a big deal that it looks like a crepe (again, the sister's words!).

I'll get there on making my food pretty, I think the important place to start is making it EDIBLE!

So I'm going to call it a - SUCCESS!

(NOTE : Ok I just tried to cut it into pieces and put it into a little box, turns out the reason why you should MAKE it in pieces is because it's practically impossible to do so later! And it means it when it says leave it in a COOL place, they don't really have someplace like that here so it's not hardened properly. But...still tasty!)

The Great Pizza Tasting

Ok...it's finished...now to psych myself up to taking a bite...this is a big moment, if it's good, then that's my garlic bread problem solved, if it's bad...well I'll be utterly devestate and may never recover :P

Obivously it doesn't look too pretty, apparently I have a problem making circles!! But I'm just a novice, and it's me eating it and I don't care :P

Hmm...the crust isn't very good, but I don't think that's through fault of my own, unless you count buying the cheapest mixture possible (and using a mix in the first place) as being my fault! I'd say it could do with a little more garlic, but definitely the right amount of cheese. I'm not sure what's up with the crust it's just...not very good :P I'd even go so far as to say it's terrible! I'll see if I can make it through a whole slice, maybe it'll improve..?

I wonder if the crust isn't actually cooked enough, that could be the problem to be honest. It looks done on the edges, but it doesn't look quite done in the middle. I followed the directions exactly, and if I'd left it longer then the cheese would be burnt (and therefore be utterly UNACCEPTABLE, I HATE burn cheese)...Maybe I need to try making my own crust and not just use a "just add water" cheating mix?

It's weird, some bites are almost edible, but others are just awful. I think I may have messed up somewhere after all!

I think we'll go with - FAIL!

Sad times :( Time to stop putting off my chores and clean up what was already a messy kitchen, and is even worse now!!

Garlic Bread Pizza

This is one of my faaaavourite dishes, I LOVE a good garlic bread pizza (with cheese!). But it's something I have yet to find here in America. I see a lot of French Bread garlic bread, which is nice enough I suppose...or bread sticks, which I admit I do quite like. But in the UK in EVERY pizza place, and a LOT of restaurants (especially Italian ones) you will find the option of garlic bread on a PIZZA BASE. I don't know why it hasn't kicked off over here, you guys are seriously missing out!

So whenever I go to America I find myself craving this dish, among others! Yesterday we were grocery shopping, and we'd paused to chat to someone that my Boyfriend knew (most of the area in which he lives shops at this one supermarket, we always find someone he knows!). I wasn't really involved in the conversation and was just looking around at the shelves when I spotted a "pizza base mix". I have got a recipe to make pizza dough from scratch, but I'm not quite brave enough for that, but this looked simple...I could do that...Plus it was about 60cents...

I picked it up and was going to give it a go last night for dinner, but I was pretty hungry and the instructions were a little too beyond me (I wanted food NOW!) so I had soup (and it was really tasty! Finally found a soup I like!)

Anyway, I decided I'd try it during the day today, lots of time to mess about, and I don't feel pressured by people "watching me". I spent quite a while on google trying to find how to make garlic paste, everyone seemed to say different things!! I eventually went for "softened, unsalted butter" and "5 cloves of garlic", "mix together and spread onto crust" - Simples! :D

The crust mix seemed simple too - Put mix into bowl, add half a "cup" of warm water, mix until moistened. Cover and stand in warm place for 5 minutes (I put it in the pre-heating oven briefly). Knead on floured board (well, I didn't bother so much with this, I did that pretty much IN the bowl). Put on greased pan. Cook for a few minutes. Put toppings on. Cook for 18 minutes.

Too simple I'm sure, I must have messed up somewhere! I did make too much garlic paste, and the butter wasn't softened enough to spread onto the crust. So I blobbed a load on and put it in the oven for a minute, that softened the paste up!! I then put a loooot of grated ("shredded") cheese on to it. The base also doesn't seem to be as big as the box claimed it would...but it is more of a Charli-sized portion :) It's currently cooking away so I'll update you in...12 minutes!

Fingers crossed it goes ok :)

(Note : The photo is obviously not just of a garlic bread pizza, in fact that one doesn't look too great. But it's a photo from Frankie and Benny's, one of my favourite places to go and eat, and it's also a tribute to the dish on the right...the WONDERFUL Mama's Cheesebake which they no longer make, a sad SAD day for us all!)

Peppermint Creams

Peppermint cream are my faaaavourite. I love them. Mint is one of my favourite flavours, I always get at least one box of After Eights for Christmas, and again at Easter!

I have made peppermint creams before, back at my flat in the UK earlier in the year. It went fairly successfully. My one mistake was following the instructions that involved putting the paste onto the kitchen counter and rolling it out to cut pieces out of. This did not end well, it mostly ended up with a very VERY sticky kitchen counter that took over a month to get properly clean! So needless to say, I did NOT follow that particular instruction this time around!

But that doesn't mean to say that this attempt went especially well...

Problem 1 : Seperating the egg white from the yolk. Last time I had an egg-cup, I put the egg onto a plate and put the egg-cup over the yolk. Easy peasy! Well I can't find an egg-cup anywhere. So I googled "easy ways to separate egg white" or something.

Attempt 1 : One site suggested using a funnel, prop it upright and put the egg into it, the yolk won't break and so it can't get through the funnel but the egg white can. This did not go well. They lied, the yolk DID go through!

Attempt 2 : I tried the thing where you put the yolk from one half of the shell to the other, this was the method I was trying to avoid. I did this OVER the funnel, just in case! This was slightly more successful. Only a tiny bit of yolk got through, and in an attempt to not waste eggs, I just spooned it back out. Hopefully that won't ruin my mixture! It's not like I'm making meringues or something...

Attempt 3 : I was pretty sure the eggs were "small" and not "large" so I wanted two eggs. I raided various drawers and I found what I think was a take-away plastic sauce pot (like you get at McDonalds and things), just the right size! Why I didn't think to find an alternative to an egg-cup sooner I'll never know! This worked perfectly :)

Now, the recipe says you're to whisk the egg whites, add the icing sugar ("powdered sugar" or "confectioners' sugar"), make a paste THEN add the peppermint. This seemed daft to me, so feeling in an adventurous mood, I added the peppermint to the egg white and then whisked it. This made more sense to me, it would mix it in while I was whisking the egg white, and I would be able to tell if the egg white was fully mixed into the sugar...we'll see if I was wrong and there was a reason I wasn't supposed to do that!

Problem 2 : My hand slipped while dropping in the peppermint. Seriously. I'm not making this up. I wasn't really sure what to do about this, so I did, well...nothing lol

Problem 3 : As I was adding the amount of sugar I was told (1 "cup") I discovered that the eggs WERE in fact "large" and I now had messed up the proportions. So I just kept adding sugar!! I also wasn't sure just how "stiff" a "stiff paste" was meant to be...so I kept going until I could barely move the spoon!! I also figured that it could counteract the overuse of peppermint!!

Now, as I previously mentioned, my attempt at rolling it onto the countertop (or kneading it, or generally anything involving putting it on the kitchen counter) went badly. So I was NOT going to do that this time! I theorised that I could just blob it onto the plate (covered with baking parchment) and that would work just as well. I was sure it was thoroughly mixed, it was both a stiff and a smooth paste. So I got out one of the biggest plates, covered it in baking parchement and started blobbing on little circles.

Problem 4 : I rapidly started running out of room on the plate, and they were running together slightly. Plus my hand was getting tired from holding up the bowl with the mixture. WHY, I wondered, couldn't I just put the whole paste onto the plate in one BIG blob? Once it had been left overnight to harden or whatever I could break pieces off as and when I want them? Right? Well I'm sure there's a reason I wasn't supposed to do THAT too, but I did it anyway!

SO my plate of pepperminty paste is currently sat underneath a kitchen towel (next to the hob/stove...I should probably move it...) slowly hardening. I'll give you an update tomorrow and let you know how it tastes!

(Note : After trying to google an image to use for this post I feel slightly embarressed! They're all so pretty! And mine's, well...NOT! LOL Oh well, I'm still learning!!)

'Arry Pottah!

That's right, the next installment of Harry Potter has been released, and it is AMAZING! We saw it on Saturday :) The whole time from leaving the car until going in to sit down, my boyfriend kept saying - "Go on...say it again...say it again pleeaaase". It amuses him when I say "Harry Potter" because I "sound like the people on the movie!". I was slightly concerned that other people would think that I was taking the mick ("making fun"), and not realise that I'm actually British! Oh well :p

The cinema was craaazy. We were there 40 minutes early (the website gave us the wrong time) and the foyer was STILL absolutely packed...and people just kept arriving!! I asked the woman serving us if they were ALL for Harry Potter. Yup! They were! Apparently it had been even crazier that day than it had the day it opened, I guess only the hardcore people go to the cinema in the week!!

I think just about every seat in the screen was filled, we got pretty good seats thankfully (I'm amazed they didn't start allocating them). I've never seen a cinema so full!! And finally ... IT BEGAN!

It was absolutely amazing, definitely the best yet. We talked about it aaaaaaall the way home, we both LOVED IT. And are already making plans to see it again!! The effects were brilliant (Dobby looked REAL, but the voice was different?!), the scripting was masterful (you went from laughing to crying instantly...or I did anyway!), the acting fabulous...I absolutely and utterly LOVED IT.

I had a couple of things that bothered me a little, like their constant use of the word "Sir". We don't generally use that in the UK, unless we work in a high-end hotel or we're talking to our teacher. Especially if we know your surname ("last name"). For instance when they were talking to Luna Lovegood's father, we would typically call him "Mr Lovegood", not "Sir". That's a far more American way of talking, but the writer (other than J K Rowling) was American so I suppose it's ok. They did use the right slang and swear words, without sounding contrived, so I'll forgive them that one oversight :P The other thing was what Godric's Hollow looked like, I'm sorry but I've never seen a British village that looks like that! It was all Tudor architecture - the white with the black beams. I've seen buildings look like that...but not a whole village. It was the ultimate stereotype! At least there were no thatched roof cottages I suppose...!!

Other than being nitpicky over things like that, I had very little bad to say about it! It was just...brilliant. BLOODY brilliant in fact :P I TOTALLY recommend it! Go see it! Go now! :)

Pancakes

Yup, that is what I decided to have for breakfast - PANCAKES. Yummm :)

I'm afraid I have a confession to make...I may actually prefer American Pancakes (with syrup) to English Crepe pancakes...

Anywaaaay! So since cereal is off the menu and I'm out of bread...I decided to give pancakes a go. I'm not sure if this will go any better than cereal, but it's worth a try. And they're OH SO tasty :) I also offered pancakes to my boyfriend who said he'd like just one. So he's getting the first pancake. Maybe not the best decision since the first one ALWAYS goes wrong.

I'm slowly getting the hang of pancakes, slooowly. Some days they go wonderfully, other days (like today)...not so much. It's not like I'm doing anything complicated, we use Bisquick! So I just put a load of the stuff into a bowl, add an egg and some milk, mix it up and voila! Pancake mix! WHYYYY do I struggle so?!

Well I always get the pan temperature wrong, I always try and flip it (with a spatula, not throwing it into the air) way too soon...and I never seem to get the proportions quite right. I like it really pretty thick, which is why my boyfriend is getting the first one, in theory his is how it's supposed to be, mine is how I personally like it!

His didn't turn out particularly well though...it was a little thinner than it should be...I tried to flip it waaay too soon so a bit of it stuck to my spatula and pulled away from the rest of the pancake...so he wound up with a pancake that didn't even SLIGHTLY resemble a circle! Ah well, he's eating it anyway!!

I just asked if it was edible and was told "It's interesting...but it's fine!!". I asked what was so "interesting" about it and he wasn't sure, he asked if I put an egg in it...I did...so he has no idea what's up with it! Now I'm a little concerned about my own pancakes...!

Well I just ate one, smothered in syrup and it tasted fine, so I guess I have to split it into two -

Boyfriends Pancake - FAAAIL!
My Pancake - SUCCESS!

Dairy Products

This isn't a comparison between the USA and the UK, simply a mini-rant! Well, maybe not a rant...just...I don't know what you'd call it lol

Though I have to say, the milk tastes different here, as does the cereal, what's up with that?!

Anyway, as I said in my last post, I'm recovering from a stomach bug. I started with a monster of a headache that just wouldn't shift and feeling nauseous, both dissipated towards the end of the day (except when my Boyfriend's Mom used our oven to cook something, sadly that DID bring the nausea back!). So all that day I barely ate, all the next day I wasn't much improved. I managed half of my lunch (bolognaise) before I had to stop. So by the third day I was pretty hungry!! I felt considerably better, I didn't eat any breakfast but I slept in so I started straight in on lunch (bolognaise again!). I managed to eat the whole thing - yaay! That was a pretty big lunch though, and since I hadn't eaten much for a couple of days my appetite was fairly small. So my bolognaise covered me for most of the day other than little snacks!

As it nearly got to bedtime though, I started to feel unwell because I HADN'T eaten. So I ate some crisps ("chips"), but ran out before I had eaten enough. So I decided to have a bowl of cereal. Biiiig mistake.

This is a mistake that gets me EVERY time I'm sick. I know to avoid dairy products while I'm unwell, but then I start to feel better and I think I can have something dairy based. Usually a cheese sandwich! This NEVER ends well!! I don't know why, but cheese and milk always make me feel a lot worse when I'm poorly. So I spent the last couple of hours of my day curled up on the sofa feeling sick, and worst of all...the headache came back. So I crawled off to bed feeling pretty sorry for myself!!

I woke up this morning feeling no longer sick but still with a bit of a headache. It seems to have gone now though...here's hoping! But I can assure you of one thing...I'm not having cereal for breakfast!!

Chicken Salad

I'm not a salad person, I kind of hold the view that salad is "rabbit food"!! My Boyfriend quite likes salad though, especially when he's having one of his "I'm getting fat" phases. He thinks he's getting fat...not me!

So yesterday he requested chicken salad for dinner. I'm still recovering from a stomach bug so I didn't mind making him something that I wouldn't eat. He carefully explained what it was he wanted from it and it all seemed simple enough. I chopped up the chicken into chunks, put them in a frying pan and drizzled some A1 Cajun Marinade sauce over them and covered it with a lid. I tend to try and "dry fry" the food, it makes it that tiny bit healthier, but I've discovered that doesn't really work with chicken so I had to put a little oil in the pan...or maybe I didn't since I also put sauce in there? I don't know.

Anyway! Then I made the salad, lettuce (3 different kinds I believe??), cucumber ("English" cucumber apparently!) and croutons. I didn't put any green onions on there since apparently he doesn't like green onions or green peppers, need to try and remember that! I just this morning remembered he said he'd like cheese too...woops! Oh well, he didn't complain!!

The chicken cooked surprisingly quickly, but I made sure to cut a couple of the bigger chunks in half and they were cooked through. He then showed me that I should take the lid OFF, turn the hob ("stove") down the "simmer" and leave it a couple of minutes. That made the water evaporate and made the sauce thicker, his explanation left a little to be desired though! "Then it makes it so you can drizzle it on the chicken and it's all mmmm" Thanks for that hon :P Either way, I vaguely followed what he wanted.

I managed to get it all cooked and looking good, but SOMEONE was playing Call of Duty online and said it would be his "last match" so I left the chicken in the pan to keep it warm. Of course by the time he finished the sauce was almost ENTIRELY evaporated, so there was no drizzling of it! But I could see it should have worked :P Once again, it's not a photo of the actual dish I made, but in this case it did turn out looking good so it's not like I'm hiding it in shame LOL

Either way, he absolutely cleaned his plate so I think I did good! Hard not to I suppose, it was a pretty simple dish! But still, we'll call it a - SUCCESS!

Spices

The biggest difference I've noticed when it comes to British and American food is SPICES. Typically we prefer milder food in the UK (I say typically, I know my Dad likes spicy food), but Americans seem to prefer as spicy as possible. This is definitely true for me and my boyfriend, which makes cooking quite interesting at times!

He would happily eat spicy Mexican food all day everyday (and I may only be exaggerating slightly!!), whereas I won't even add pepper to my food! We're getting quite good at cooking our food in separate pans or adding spices/sauces after I've taken my portion out!

I am getting there though, the one thing I will add to is bolognaise. ("Spaghetti" to my American readers - to us spaghetti is just the long stringy noodles, bolognaise is the whole meaty sauce and pasta dish). My favourite flavouring is GARLIC. I generally think that you can't put too much garlic on something! I really confused my old housemates by adding garlic sauce to my crumpets and potato cakes, yuuum :)

Yesterday I decided to make some bolognaise for lunch, it's one of my favourite dishes but my Boyfriend isn't too big on pasta so I tend to eat it for lunch rather than cook it for our dinner. Since there only seems to be the option of HUGE pasta jars and HUGE packages of mince ("ground beef"), I cook the whole thing and then "portion it up". I freeze the left-overs in it's portion sizes to eat throughout the rest of the week, it's one of the few things I'll reheat!

I haven't quite got the hang of making my own sauce yet, my Dad did try to show me once but it tasted horrible when I tried it unsupervised and I haven't tried again yet!! But I do like to throw in some extra Garlic powder as I'm cooking the meat and sauce. This time I decided to be a little adventurous, I added some Italian Spice, some Basil as well as the Garlic Powder. Really going out there now :P

Sadly I overdid either the Basil or Italian Spice (I suspect it was the Basil), which I find a little overpowering, plus I have had a stomach bug so I only got halfway through my lunch anyway! Today I decided to try again, mostly because the mince was still in a pan in the fridge! I figured that I like the Garlic Powder, and you can't really go wrong with that, so I added some more to counter the overpowering Basil/Italian Spice. Well...it didn't quite work. I'm not sure what was up with it, I may have overcooked the sauce and something may have burnt, or I may have just done the impossible - added too much garlic! Either way, it was edible but I've made better!! Hoping it'll be 3rd time lucky when I have the last portion next week!!

I'm still learning when it comes to herbs and spices. I don't usually put any on my food, so I don't know how much is too much or not enough. Luckily my boyfriend will eat just about anything!! So long as I don't burn it, he has this big thing about burning food, which is a problem since I like my chips ("fries") on the crunchy side and he doesn't! Another problem I discovered is that I don't know what "works" on certain foods, and my Boyfriend has a tendency to just list off all my options, leaving me totally bemused! So I usually wind up just doing the same thing if I find something that I know "works". For example, his scrambled eggs in the morning ALWAYS have black pepper and garlic powder on, because I KNOW that works! I worry that must get REALLY boring, but I don't know what else I can put on them, I don't want to ruin them or anything. What I really like are the spice/herb bottles that SAY what they're for on them ("Italian Spice : Good with pasta, tomato dishes, chicken....").

The next thing I have to do is convince my Boyfriend that constructive criticism is ok. I have quite a short fuse, and I'm sensitive about my cooking. So when we were first living with eachother (back in the UK) he'd not be wholly tactful about something (in my view at the time!) and I'd just hit the roof. This means that he now simply accepts whatever I put in front of him without letting me know what I could do to improve it!! He is very good at really REALLY complimenting what he likes though, so I suppose it's not all bad, I do learn from that! :) I'm much less sensitive these days, as this blog shows - I'm learning to take it all with a "pinch of salt" and to just laugh at my mistakes. I'm also making less "rookie" mistakes, I'm more used to cooking for 2 (oh I was terrible at getting the portions right!) and I have a better idea of what he likes to eat :)

Grilling/Broiling V Frying

Not all of my blog posts will be recording my attempts at cooking, some will be my thoughts on the differences between America and England ("Separated by a common language" doesn't even BEGIN to cover it!).

Now, in the UK our ovens typically consist of -

The GRILL : Referred to in the USA as a "broiler"; the thing that heats food from ABOVE. I am NOT referring to the barbeque or a Foreman Grill or whatever you all think I mean!

The HOB : Known here as the "stove"; the thing you put pans on to cook food in

The OVEN : This one at least stays the same!

So if we were cooking chicken breast, roast potatoes and carrots, we would have the chicken under the grill, the carrots on the hob, and the roast potatoes in the oven. Simple.

Here in the USA it's not so common to have a separate grill/broiler. This has reaaally confused me. I like to grill my food, it's healthier, it's not sat in it's own fat as it cooks. I admit that frying the food stops it from drying out and makes it much more tender, but it's just so unhealthy!!

Buuut I have been frying the meat fairly frequently, I can't help it, it makes it tastier and I'm puzzled by the "broiler", so I haven't been brave enough to try it yet. Besides, frying is just that bit more "normal" over here, I don't like to rock the boat :P

My Boyfriend has started complaining that he's getting fat (he's not), so I've been trying to think of ways to cook healthier.

Obvious solution : Stop frying meat!

Sounds really simple, right? But then I got confused...If the oven and the "broiler" are the same thing (you hit "bake" it cooks from below, you hit "broil" it cooks from above)...how are you supposed to grill your chicken AND bake your roast potatoes?! They're in the same compartment! Sooo this left me totally bemused and back to frying meat.

SO if any of you dear American readers can solve this little puzzle for me, as we typically "bake" our potato-based side dish ("fries" or wedges or roast potatoes)...how am I supposed to also use the "broiler"?

Fairy Cakes - Update

Ok so that is a photo of my actual fairycakes! You see why I said I wished they were as pretty as the ones in my last post :P

Last night my Boyfriend's sister came home from work and was surprised to see the buns. She exclaimed "They look like foreign cupcakes! What are they?". It took her a surprisingly long time to realise the foreign person in the room may be responsible, which amused me no end! She wasn't sure if she could eat one, or if I "had a plan" for them. Well yes, my plan is to eat them! She agreed that they tasted like cornbread, so I voiced my concerns that I'd gone terribly wrong somewhere, as I didn't have ANY of the ingredients for cornbread in there!! But I was reassured that my Little Sister's fairy cakes had also tasted like cornbread, phew!

His sister also commented that she "Likes that they're chewy, not all fluffy". I did have to admit that they weren't SUPPOSED to be chewy, and that was the main way of showing that I'd messed up somewhere! But at least someone appreciated it, so it's all good!

I made 12 of the buns yesterday, but as of right now there is only 2 left! Once again, me and my boyfriend took care of my baking in record time, and if I keep this up we're going to get fat :P But it's so tasty, and I have suuuch a sweet tooth, I'm not sure I can help myself! My boyfriend on the other hand isn't too big on sweet things, so I must be doing something right to have him rivalling me on who eats it all first!!

So I change my verdict to a - SUCCESS!

Fairy Cakes

My attempts at baking/cooking aren't solely going to be learning how to make American foods, I'm a novice when it comes to even making English food! After 2 years of University I can make dinners that I like, but that's about it, as I'm a fussy eater, it's a pretty short list!

So today's challeng was making Fairy Cakes/Buns. I had a recipe already, I got out all my ingredients and got onto Facebook to see if my little sister had any tips. My sister is the Bun Making QUEEN. She's been making buns unassisted since she was about 12 and they always turn out DELICIOUS. So how hard can it be, right?!

Other than completely despairing over my lack of bun-making knowledge, she reassured me that it was really easy, just throw them all into a bowl and mix! Great stuff, I can do that!!

Problem Number 1 : All my instructions are in ounces...they don't seem to own scales in this house, everything is simply measured in Cups.
Solution : Google how to convert the two!

Problem Number 2 : That's not as easy as it seems...1 cup of flour might equal 8oz, but that does not mean that 1 cup of sugar equals 8oz. My sugar had to be simply guessed at, as my helpful conversion website could only tell me that 4.5oz was "just less than 2/3rds of a cup". Wonderful!
Solution : Guesswork!!

The instructions told me that I needed to mix the sugar and butter, then beat until it was "pale and fluffy". I tried this with a spoon but wasn't getting very far, so gave in and got out the electric mixer. This was soo much simpler that I got a little carried away and electrically mixed in all of the other ingredients too.

I wasn't wholly sure how much mixture I was supposed to spoon into each buncase, so I started off with quite a lot in each one. I then realised that at that rate I wouldn't be able to make the 12 buns it said I should get. So I laid off the mixture a bit!!

Once again it took quite a while longer to cook than it said it would, but I just cooked them until they were golden brown. I let them cool a little and tried one.

They weren't as good as my sister's, but I think they're OK for a first time attempt! They're a little heavier and chewier than they should be, I was later told that's because they were overmixed. Woops!

Next I decided to try and ice them. Now for some reason I have always struggled with making icing, I just can't get the proportions of icing sugar and water right! It's so simple but I have never been able to get it right!!

As I'm sure you guessed from my previous sentence, it didn't go quite as hoped. I had more trouble with the icing than with the whole rest of the baking process! I didn't know how much of anything I needed so I guessed and still made it a little too runny. So several of my buns wound up with icing pooled in one corner. But they were the ones that were properly bun-sized, my slight over-sized buns (rose to above the bun-case) ended up with icing just dripping down the sides!! ARGH!

My buns don't look too pretty, and my icing is a little tasteless so I think there wasn't enough sugar, but at least they're edible! Boyfriend came home and asked what I'd made, I told him buns/fairy cakes. He asked if I meant corn bread. I said I didn't think so..? He tried a bite and said that I had, in fact, made corn bread, and it was very tastey. Well I'm not sure if that's supposed to be the equivalent or what, but at least he said they were nice!!

So overall I will pronounce this - MOSTLY SUCCESSFUL!

Please Note : The photo is not of my fairy cakes! I WISH they looked that pretty :P

Cookies

The other day my Boyfriend was complaining that none of the people he went to work for would offer him cookies or coffee. This got me to thinking...could *I* make him some cookies to surprise him with when he got home? I googled a recipe and it looked really pretty simple and I was fairly sure we had most of those ingredients. After raiding the cupboards I found we had all but the brown sugar and, most important ingredient of all, the chocolate chips. Ah. That won't do!

I immediately got onto Facebook to his Mom to ask did SHE have any brown sugar or chocolate chips? Yes, she had brown sugar, but no chocolate chips. However she was going to the store soon and could bring me some. Great! Well she didn't get back until after Boyfriend was home and I really wanted to make it a surprise, so the project had to wait a couple of days. It should have only waited the one day but I kept forgetting to get the supplies out of the back of his car...woops!

I finally had possession of all of the ingredients and a house to myself, time to start baking! I carefully wrote out all the the instructions so I wouldn't get my computer messy and started measuring out the ingredients. This was all fairly simple, it was all in "Cups" which I have to admit, are a really simple way to measure them! I was a little impatient and didn't let my butter soften enough but I wasn't daft enough to attempt to microwave it (recipe for disaster right there!) so it just made my life a little more difficult than it had to be!

I did have to pause to google how to "cream" butter and sugars, then raided the whole house to find the sieve. This almost put the whole thing to a standstill until I remembered that his Sister usually used the pastry cutter to mix the ingredients together and that seemed to get all of the lumps out too. This frustrated me as it wasn't what my instructions SAID, but it was the best I had.

I finished mixing up all my ingredients and blobbed them onto a sheet of baking parchment over a baking tin. Unfortunately I've never made cookies before, or ever seen them be made. So I didn't REALISE that they "grew" in the oven...so I blobbed them onto the sheet in cookie sized pieces...

They took twice as long as my instructions said they would take which worried me as well, but I took them out when they were golden brown and kind of hard, I figured they were done by that point?

Overall they turned out really quite nice, HUGE, but nice :) I was pleased with myself, I made 5 and they were all gone by the next day! I did manage to surprise my Boyfriend, he seemed genuinely pleased that I'd gone to that effort for him, and he was very complimentary about them. I think I got to eat 2, he at the other 3!!

So this one I pronounce to be a - SUCCESS!

Beginning a new blog

As my family and friend's know, I've been trying to learn how to cook and bake to keep me busy while I'm over in the USA. I've always wanted to improve my seriously lacking skills in this department, but never had enough time on my hands. Well, what better time to start than living in America for 6 months where I spend 8 hours out of each day left to my own devices!

I've been facebooking or emailing most attempts, but after watching the film "Julie and Julia" (which I quite enjoyed) I decided I might start trying to blog about it. This idea was strongly encouraged by my Mum who says she "needs a laugh"! Thanks Mum :P

So that's the logic behind this blog, now to start blogging :) By the way, any suggestions for my "Blog Description"? I want something that sums up the whole : Mediocre English cook trying to find my way around a foreign kitchen. But I want it to sound nicer than that :P

Bon Appetite!