Not on my plate thanks!

Now here's an American delicacy I have yet to taste, but have no intention of ever doing so!

I am not usually so closed minded without giving something a little taste, but I draw the line at certain things and this is one of them. Looking at the picture above you're probably thinking it doesn't look like anything too terrible. Well breading and frying can hide alot let me tell you!

When you see them as they come, not nearly as appetising and a valuable lesson in enquiring about what's under the breading if unsure in Okieland. Because these are Rocky Mountain Oysters, or Calf Fries, otherwise known as the balls of the calf!

The Hubster tells me that a few years ago a Rotary club from Somerset in England, visited our town Rotary Club and whilst here dinner was laid on for them. And I'll leave you to guess what they were served!

So who's going to tell me I need to try them because they're delicious?

A perk of the job - My World

One of the big perks in 'my world', is the regular arrival of Cupcakes on my desk throughout the year. Cupcakes are the preferred method of birthday celebration in our school and with 200 kiddies, hardly a week goes by without a welcome delivery.

Todays however, was more memorable than others.

There I was sitting at my desk, when two 5 year old Kindergartners completely overcome with giggles, stumbled through the door. The birthday girl then proudly presented me with this!

I burst out laughing and after wishing her "Happy Birthday" asked why my frosting was not on the cupcake anymore?

"It slid Miss Sarah" before she lost it to the giggles again.

"What the frosting just slid off all on it's own" I asked mystified.

"No, you see the whole whole cupcake slid but I catched it in time" at which point she ran out the door giggling.

After inspecting it for evidence it might have hit the pavement and finding none, I went ahead and ate it, still chuckling to myself.

Definitely the most intriguing cupcake delivery this school year, and I'm still not sure how this happened?!

To join in the fun go to My World Tuesday

Sweeeet tradition

Maybe I just wasn't mixing in the right circles back in Blighty i.e. the WI, but the women of the USA would easily win any Anglo-American Candy cook-off.

My very first Christmas here I was deluged with trays and bags of delicious homemade candy from many new friends. It was a pleasant if unexpected benefit to crossing the pond permanently!

I was also surprised at the scale and scope of the candy making; Oreo Truffles, Peppermint Bark, Peanut Brittle, Divinity, Pecan Crowns, Fudge were all forthcoming in abundance. Back home I can remember the occasional gift of fudge and truffles over the years, but I don't remember it as an annual event every December.

Until this year I have just been a willing recipient. But last weekend I purchased a candy thermometer, and with that took a huge step towards unofficial American citizenship I think! I made my first ever batch of fudge and peanut brittle, and I have even had a few requests for my peanut brittle recipe after scoring a hit it seems. I also made Candied Pecans, but they were so good the Hubster and I have not felt inclined to share yet.

Now I am on the lookout for a double boiler as I plan to continue joining in with this 'sweet' tradition. There really is something special about receiving a gift of homemade candy.

Do you make candy at Christmas for family and friends?

Despite evidence, my name's not actually Martha!

Trust me I'm not usually this organised, in fact I wonder if the Hubster has been giving me psychic suggestions in my sleep. But today I spent the whole day 'batch' cooking all new recipes with great success.

I am currently back on yet another diet and so we are eating seperate meals everynight. This means I have been a bit lacking in preparing good meals for the Hubster, so today I rectified this.

We are blessed with endless freezer space thanks to the Hubsters business, so storage is not an issue which helps. I found all these recipes (except the Baklava) on allrecipes.com which I highly recommend for ease of use and great recipes. Once you sign up for free, you can save any recipe you like to your 'Recipe Box' for future reference. I have linked them all, just click the underlined name.

First up was a super easy dinner which literally takes 10 minutes to prepare. It consists of elbow macaroni, chicken, cheese, 2 condensed soups, milk and mushrooms. Here's the link for Sandy's Casserole.

Then I moved onto Mini Meatloaves which were also extremely easy and quick to prepare for the oven. The recipe suggests you make 8 mini loaves, but I made the Hubster 4 small ones.

My favourite recipe of the day was for these totally awesomely delicious Kickin' Meatballs, all I have to say is "WOW"! They have some unusual seasonings for meatballs, including cumin and dill weed. Some reviewers had left the dill weed out, but I left it in as it is a great compliment to cumin. I knew this from my experiences with Turkish cooking and so all I did was halve the dill weed needed. They also have crumbled pepper jack cheese in them and this is what makes them so incredibly moist. Just try them, you won't regret it. I plan on impressing guests for years to come with these little beauties!

This Easy Mexican Casserole was a close second, it's like making one giant taco pie and just as delicious. I did change one ingredient as I intended to freeze, instead of crushed tortilla chips as the layers, I used flour tortilla's. Personally I think it probably turned out better for them, as other reviewers has said the chips tended to get soggy. I also mixed in a packet of taco seasoning with the meat as it cooked. This is another recipe I will use on guests in the future, it's very good and easy to make.

I also made Refried Beans without the Refry! because they were cooked over 8 hours in my slo-cooker! Again dead easy to put together and then you just forget about them all day, before straining and mashing. They make a great accompaniment to the Mexican Casserole, and so I froze them together as a meal.

Finally I made Chocolate Baklava to take with us to a friends for Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow. I got this recipe from a 'Cooking Light' magazine, which I found hugely ironic considering it's ingredients! But I found this Baklava recipe which is the same, except you melt a cup of Nutella and drizzle it over the nut layers for the chocolate. If you have never made this, it's alot easier than you'd think and makes people think you're a pastry masterchef!

On Friday I plan on making another 3 recipes to finish off the Hubsters dinner selection. In the meantime I wish you all a "HAPPY THANKSGIVING".

Ahhhh....civilisation - My World!

I got to recharge my 'city gal' batteries on Saturday, when we made a flying visit to Oklahoma City for some much needed retail therapy on my part. Please remember, I am more than 100 miles from the nearest mall and that's not even a decent one!

So we made the slightly less than 6-hour round trip to my destination of choice, Penn Square Mall. It is very much like the mall I used to live a 10 minute drive from back in the UK, so it feels just like home.

In the interests of marital harmony, the Hubster and I agreed to seperate and do our own thing. In the past I have constrained him to staying closeby, which has resulted in some major marital dischord!

The store he dreads the most and I love the most is Sephora, the girlie equivalent of the Bass Pro shop or Brookstones. Previously he has been driven to distraction at my ability to lose all track of time in Sephora and not reappear for well over an hour or two.

In my defense, I used to have one of these in my local mall, and so could get regular 'hits' and not need to replenish so drastically. This girl can't just go into a Sephora and not be dazzled by all the choices, colours, offers, play stations to test stuff and be out again in a few minutes!

This time I excelled myself though! Not only did I shop successfully for friends, but I also set-up my wishlist with a consultant. She collared the Hubster (easily identified by his black cowboy hat) and steered him in the right direction, the moment he stepped in the door to shop for me for Christmas. I heart Sephora!

After much successful shopping, we met for lunch at the smart Mexican restaurant on site and here I succumbed to another thing I heart - Guacamole!

I love the green stuff, always have and I am loving this trend I have seen in a few restaurants, where they make it to order at your table!

It's so nice to have something made to order like this with fresh ingredients. It's also an excellent compromise for us, as the Hubster loves Salsa in the same way I love this. He gets all the Salsa and I get all the Guacamole which he really dislikes.

So I enjoyed a nice healthy lunch of Guacamole with grilled shrimp and clams in a lime vinegarette, before heading back to finish the shopping. It was a highly successful day, I got all my Christmas shopping done and we were back home by 8pm.

I commented to the Hubster on the way home about what a pleasant day we'd had and thanked him for being patient and not having one disagreement. He just smiled and replied that he knew I had been badly in need of some decent shopping. What a very discerning and smart man I married!

To join in the fun go to My World Tuesday

Brit Gal wisdom

Don't EVER eat 2 Fiber Plus bars with 9 grams of fiber each, just before bedtime.

Not only are you guaranteed to keep the bedcovers raising intermittently all night long. But it's also the less invasive equivalent of a colonic!

Fall Break!

Well I made it to Fall Break in good health myself, despite a rapid rise in the flu victims at school. The good news is half the students got the H1N1 vaccine on Wednesday, which will undoubtedly help us all.

So now I am on a much needed Fall Break and have some excitement to look forward to!

Tonight I get to have (scoff) a (Asian Indian) Curry in the company of 3 other Brits and their Okie better halves. This is most Brits idea of being in 'Hog Heaven' and I may even celebrate with a Tiger Beer!

The entertainment for the evening (apart from us!) is a Belly Dancer, a first for the Hubster, and I can't wait to see his face!

Wishing you all a great Fall Break or weekend, I already know mine will be "bloody awesome mate"!

It only took 3yrs & 10 months!

To (a) enjoy some fish here and (b) find Salmon that tasted like the Salmon back home!!

I am deadly serious, I have been continuously disappointed by the fish I have eaten here. Now I know the major reason for this is my geographical location, i.e. landlocked for about 3,000 miles in any direction! This means that all the fish here, unless you catch it yourself, is frozen only.

Being an 'island' girl, I was used to fresh fish in all supermarkets, presented on nicely iced fish counters. And there just isn't any comparison between this and frozen packaged fish. Even the tinned Tuna here is much more watery and not as good!

So I have regrettably pretty much become a fish free zone, especially as I don't like Catfish, the popular choice in Okieland. I have tried all store brands of Alaskan Salmon, my particular favourite fish and have found the flavour too strong and so different to Scottish Salmon.

But finally things have looked up and thanks to the generosity of friends, I have in the past month had two wonderful meals with fish. And I now know what I need to find, fish that has been caught in a freshwater source only, as this tastes just like what I am used to.

My first tasty meal was Trout caught in a mountain stream in New Mexico by a friend. It was just wonderful and I finally believed good fish might not be something I'd have to go home to get.

But the 'piece de resistance' was our meal last week, at last I enjoyed Salmon for the first time and with delicious 'new' potatoes. Everytime we have tried Salmon here and I have hated it, I have tried so hard to explain to the Hubster why it's not good to me. To him it's all he's ever known and so he just didn't get how different freshwater Salmon tastes. But now I think he finally gets it, the milder flavour, pink not orangey colour and soft flakier texture.

So if anyone has any Salmon caught in an Alaskan stream going spare, I'll gladly take it off your hands!

In answer to something you don't get..

Last week I ran a competition to win a book about Britain and one of the questions I asked was: "What do you least understand about the British or Britain, and would like to know more about?"

Lots of you answered this, and so here are my thoughts on one of the things you raised.

Poltzie & Denise both just don't get Marmite or Vegemite, well I have to agree with them, it's DISGUSTING stuff. It doesn't even sound appetising, being a by-product of a beer brewery. It is a sticky, dark brown yeast extract paste with a distinctive, powerful flavour and smell, which is extremely salty and savoury. But it's iconic in Britain, and as the very famous ad campaign for it said "You either love it or hate it".

This campaign featured a taste station set-up outside a supermarket with shoppers being offered some Marmite spread on toast, the classic way to eat it. They would then show some shoppers happily chowing down saying "I love Marmite". But the advert ended with shots of others being literally chased across the car park by the person offering the marmite, the pursued screaming "I hate Marmite"! They were very funny and I was tickled to see I wasn't the only one. There really is just no inbetween with this product, it's just very clear cut for most people.

Another famous ad campaign used the slogan "My mate Marmite" chanted by an army platoon. This played on their initial slogan of "the growing up spread, you never grow out of".

The closest thing you have here of a similar nature with iconic status is the Peanut Butter & Jelly sandwich, which I also hate with a passion! But Marmite on buttered toast is a staple many Brit mums will turn to, when faced with a late supper or snack crisis in the UK. Thankfully mine wasn't one of them!

So personally this is one Brit obsession I don't understand either, as are Twiglets, a baked snack that tastes similarly bitter. So have you ever tasted it and are you in the 'love it' or 'hate it' camp?

And they say they're getting healthier!!

I have a real issue with the drinks offered at McDonald's, they have NO options that are both caffeine and sugar free - none! But that's not really what this gripe is about....

But as a result I often just have water from there, which they have freely available if you go in and don't drive-through.

If you drive-through and just want drinks and ask for a water at our local McD's, they will only give you a small cup. We know this because the Hubster asked why he we could not get a 'large' water?

The answer "that's the size of cup we have to give you when you ask for just water".

Nice, real nice and so much for McDonald's trying to help us all with healthier choices. As we all know, they're only too keen to 'supersize' everything else they offer!

My new bestfriend!

This range of products may just have transformed my life!

For years I have had to put up with alot of 'negative reaction' from my stomach and bowels dependant on what I put in my mouth. About 8yrs ago I finally had some tests done and it turned up food intolerances to yeast, corn, oats, kiwi fruit and kidney beans. But after completely removing them for sometime they can then be gradually re-introduced , and then you find out where the intolerance level really is.

Despite kind of getting a handle on these, I have continued to have problems. Recently I noticed it seemed to be in conjunction with dairy foods, after all there really wasn't much else left it could be, when you consider how many things contain the others.

I cut out the dairy for a week before we went away and 'hey presto' no more problems. But also no more cereal, ice cream, smoothies, cheese, butter, strawberries and cream...sob! I tried goats milk and was disgusted, and Soy milk has always made me throw up instantly - no exaggeration!

So after reading an article about Lactaid I bought some of their milk on Thursday and being ever the optimist, two boxes of cereal. Well 4 days later I am doing fine, the taste is hardly any different to regular and I have had plenty now with no problems.

I just thought Lactaid had no Lactose in it, but it's much cleverer than that:

"LACTAID® Brand dairy products have lactase enzyme added to break down the lactose in the products themselves into two simple sugars (galactose and glucose), making them easy to digest. LACTAID® Dietary Supplements contain lactase that helps you digest dairy foods when taken with the first bite.

About 75% of the world's population is lactose intolerant."

Today we went and got some of their capsules, you just take one with the first bite of any dairy containing food and it will do it's thing. I tested the capsules with a milkshake (bliss after so long without) and have had absolutely no after effects.

So if you suffer similarly and have never considered it might be lactose intolerance, I urge to try Lactaid as you maybe one of the 75%. As for me, I will never leave home again without a capsule on my person.

Sheer Indulgence!

Take a pack of fresh sweet Strawberries

A pot of a very popular European chocolate spread

Together they make a lipsmackingly indulgent treat!

Also excellent on a hot buttered English Muffin!

Not great for the waistline, but truly awesome 'soul food'!

Needing to trim down?

I have found a great site online that will help you lose weight by tracking your foods and is free to use. My Fitness Pal reminds me alot of the Weightwatchers Online site, the main difference being there is no charge to use it and it works with all diets.

You sign up, answer a few simple questions about your current height/weight, lifestyle and exercise routine. It will then work out how may calories a day you should consume to lose weight. It also gives you the option to choose how much weight per week you hope to lose, within sensible ranges.

Then you will have a daily food diary available to fill in and keep track of what you're consuming in calories. I also love that you can set the tracker to also show how many carbs, fats, proteins, sugars etc you are eating daily. This is why it really works with any diet, whether it's Atkins, South Beach, Low Fat or just your own plan.

There's a huge database of food and drinks available both in the USA and UK. So you can usually find what you plan to eat fast and just add it to your tracker, but you can also add your own foods if you can't find something.

It also allows you to track exercise and gives advice on how much to do to burn more calories. Finally there are community message boards, where ideas and tips can be exchanged.

Not much is 'free' these days and so I thought I would share this great site. With my thyroid now slowing, I need to start cutting back and trimming myself down, I really expect this to be a big help.

Making the best of it!

It seemed a shame to waste all this snow!

Snow Ice Cream = 1c Milk

SNOW - only the white snow!

1/2c Sugar

1/2 tsp Vanilla

Mix snow in until the right consistency

Snow Ice Cream - delicious!

Betty Ford here I come!

I have reached "THE MOST DANGEROUS TIME OF THE YEAR FOR BRIT' GALS THIGHS!" - Cadbury's Creme Egg time and I have eaten 9 this past week already! It's a good job I am still hyperthyroid and burning them off, or my jeans would not be getting past my knees!

I've been an addict of these since childhood and stockpile them throughout the Spring. I bought a dozen on Saturday, well you buy eggs by the dozen right?! Thank goodness they aren't available all year round.

So what's your candy addiction?

Hot to trot - unfortunately!

Been having a few thyroid issues again the past few days, once again I am hyperthyroid; which means I'm like Superwoman, can out multi-task Martha and could probably outlast the Duracell Bunny too!

My nails grow almost as fast as I can nibble them away, my hair sprouts like it's on Miracle Grow, I can eat anything and lose weight, my heart thinks I'm permanently jogging, my BP responds in kind and my bowels overprocess everything on warp-speed! And that last one is my particular problem the past 72 hours!!

Yep hyper is no fun, because you can't enjoy the superhuman benefits when you need to stick close to a loo!

My Endo has increased my meds to control the heart/BP and we both think in about 10 days things will be heading the other way - inshallah (god willing).

Now the Brit' way to deal with 'the trots' is to starve yourself for 24 hours and just sip water or re-hydration drinks. Basically let your internal system have a complete rest and reset itself. And there is a question mark over whether I could have a bit of a stomach bug/flu causing the trots, as a few kids did at school last week.

So as everything else has been slowed down since Friday night, and yesterday I ate normally and it just got worse, I am going to go with this theory and eat nothing today just in case it's the bug. I know over here you advocate things like Chicken Noodle Soup, but I just feel more comfortable with the Brit' way of nothing but water. Having said that once I get past the 24 hour mark at 7pm tonight, CNS will be the first thing I consume!

I am actually hoping this will cure it, as I would rather have the bug going around and not really be that hyper! So any other good tips to help me out (and note, I already have moist wipes!)?

So you say you don't like them?

We have wonderful school cooks, they give us great menu's and alot of homecooked nutritious food.

Yesterday we had Baked Ham & Sweet Potatoes, it was delicious, but alot of the students left their Sweet Potatoes and said they didn't like them. So as very few came for seconds, there were alot leftover.

So today as they came through the line, they spotted the Pumpkin Pie at the end with great excitement. It was a huge hit, we went through almost 4 pans of it and many came back for seconds.

They ASSUMED because it looked like it, smelt like it and tasted like it, that it WAS Pumpkin Pie.

SSSHHHH....actually it was Sweet Potato Pie, but we didn't correct their assumption, seeing as they enjoyed it so much! ;-)

Tomorrow they will be getting a delicious chocolate cake, in which there might just be a few Beets, leftover from today! I always heard the best way to get kids to eat veggies is to disguise them, well apparently it's too true LOL!

Awww....what the heck!

So last night I had dessert for supper, JUST DESSERT, oh yes!

I had one of those nights when I didn't know what I fancied and THEN....I found the Heinz Syrup Sponge and Bird's Custard in the cupboard and my fate was settled.

I knew it was bad for me, but oooh it tasted sooo good. I do feel a little less guilty having had good cholesterol and blood sugar results last week!

And a little indulgence now and then is good for the soul - right??!

:-)

Well Betsy asked for a description of the above Brit' dessert and seeing as Silverback is dying to see how I describe them, here goes! The sponge is a fairly light sponge mix, like you'd get in a cake, but with brown sugar and a little Golden Syrup (a bit like Karo but not quite!) in the mix. It has a thick syrupy sauce of sugar and Golden Syrup spread all over the surface. This kind of goes all gooey and sticky and is very sweet and scrummy. Alot of people steam these type of sponge puddings and I would if it was homemade.

Onto Custard, which is made from egg yolks, milk, sugar and vanilla essence. It is always a shade of yellow and custard is a national obsession in England. We stick it on most hot pies, sponges, fruits, tarts....oh you name it and we can eat it with custard. I adore banana custard, which is basically just a banana chopped up in custard - delicious. We even had a children's cartoon called Rhubarb & Custard, which also just happens to be delicious too! Hope that answers your questions Betsy, and Silverback approves?!

These need a Government Warning too!

I'm sorry but the picture above just makes me want to laugh, or cry. Because unless you have the will-power of Posh Spice, then at some point having these so called friends in your cupboard, will be your undoing if you're on a diet!

I speak from experience here. I no longer waste money on these 100 calorie packs, because the problem is...one is rarely enough if a craving hits you. Suddenly your supposedly 100 calorie microscopic serving, has turned into a 700 calorie nightmare, as you scoff the lot in a kind of chocolate fueled madness. Been there done that and so now these packs are banned from my cupboards.

And at the end of the day, they are still empty, unsatisfying (well physically at least), sugar loaded, addictive calories. So can I suggest the following message is printed on the side of all these candy packs, purporting to be just 100 innocent calories....IF you can control yourself that is?

'Chocolate can be dangerously addictive in the wrong hands, or at the wrong time of the month, in ANY quantity!'

Top Christmas Gift!

Our new Quesadilla maker, every home should have one!

Endless quick meal possibilities, $39.95 from Kohls