Food

It's wonderful having a working kitchen.

Made Kate some chocolate chip cookies for the weekend. I asked if she wanted me to try my family's famous chocolate chip cookies or our delicious, traditional pumpkin sweet bread. I had to chuckle a little bit when she chose the cookies because just this week I learned that the English don't eat much pumpkin, and certainly don't have sweet pumpkin breads on ready supply.

I can't say her choice was a poor one. The cookies turned out lovely :)

English Term: Biscuit
Translation: A cookie sandwich, square cookie, tea cookie
Equivalent: Oreos, traditional Mexican cookies, Sugar cookies

English Term: Cookie
Translation: Round cookie with chocolate chips
Equivalent: What I made for this weekend :)

Ingredients

Roughly 350*F. But this is a convection oven which means the heat is blown around, things cook quicker.

The most delicious REAL butter I've ever smelled.

"Caster" sugar is a grain between sugar and powedered sugar. It's specific for baking. "Demerara" is brown sugar. Here the granules are much bigger.

The eggs are ALWAYS at room temperature. The vanilla had actual bits of the pods and was the consistency of syrup.

Oatmeal and an equal mixture of dark & milk chocolate. Key note: ALWAYS add more chocolate chips than the recipe calls for.

"Bicarbonate of soda" (baking soda) has the strangest, coolest consistency! Like crushing snow without the melt. That bag of salt costs 25p!

Crushed almonds. (roasted at home)

A delicious final product :)

Recipes in the UK are traditionally done by weight (grams). But I know this by heart, so I didn't bother with weighing the ingredients. They use 3, that's right 3, methods of measurement: imperial, metric, weight.

Did I Mention...

My house mum,

Kate,

is a little shorter,

than I am.

My English Home

It's just like my Texas home, but not.

Women still wobble around in high heals. Teenagers still creep around in fear of randomly thrown harsh judgments.

But they smell different. They talk different. And they don't wear sunglasses. Seriously, what's with the moratorium on sunglasses?

I've met 2 Daves, 50 Nigels, 1 Neil, and 1 Colin; 2 Alisons, 1 Kate, and 1 Vicki.

Changing lifestyles reminds me of the Detox ward at the Charlie's Place Drug & Alcohol Rehab Center. Detox is all about the violent withdrawal period when the client's drug or alcohol is cut off, cold turkey. There's thrashing about, cold flashes, hot flashes, violent vomiting, screaming, constipation followed by diarrhea, you can't call your family, and you're surrounded by strangers. But the gist of it is that Detox is the time to transition your body (not mind yet) from one lifestyle - and all its expectations - to another lifestyle. Rehab is for the mental transition. If I remember correctly, Detox is takes about 2 weeks.

I can't say I've experienced violent withdrawal symptoms of drug addiction, but these first 2 weeks have certainly been a detox time. I'm transitioning from my state-side lifestyle to my UK lifestyle. My nursing support team has been brilliant and I'm just about to emerge from the ward.

My closest compadre, Stable Mabel, has been a gem of nurse.

She doesn't care how late I go to bed, or how late I sleep in the next day. She cuddles, purrs, and gets in my way when I'm trying to reconnect with my old habits.

My latest manuscript & thumb drive... under her fuzzy derriere.

First English Morning

This is what I woke up to.

Lily came to deliver my second wake-up call of the day. 

The house is chilly and I didn't want to leave my bed. Thank goodness I slept in a sweater and dried my hair last night. I took the most deliciously hot shower just before bed. I can't remember liking steam that much before. The chill in the house, however, is partly my cause, when they asked if I wanted the heat on, I said no. Depending on the temperature of Kate's house, I will determine later if I need an electric blanket or not. Either way, I need to get some more pants and a pair of slippers.

Breakfast :)

Espresso and french press...

Oh Vicki & Colin just made my day. Quality chocolate and goat's milk for my coffee.

Table for one, please.

 OK, maybe two.