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As I write this, the river Forth is racing over it’s banks and flooding our boathouse. The homes along the river in the Stirling area are still safe but if the rain returns that might not be the case. Two nights ago the rain and wind were so strong I thought the wall was being ripped off my bedroom! The rain hung around for most of today, making it the perfect day to stay inside and warm up the oven!
One of the facts of life of being an ex-pat is that frustration arises periodically, sparked off by the simplest of things! Earlier this week I found out that the University basketball teams were both playing games on the same night. I made plans with a friend to head up and watch and was irrationally excited about it all day. I had not watched a live (non-rugby) sports game-well, ever-here. I looked forward to sitting in the stands, watching the game, having a chat with my friend, a lovely night it seemed. When I called the university to ask where to go for the game and if there was an entry fee, the woman on the phone was surprised that I planned to watch the game. (How dare I want to cheer for the team!). The basketball courts where they play do not have stands. There are no spectators! Well, this exchange left both of us as flabbergasted as each other. My friend and I hung out anyway and the disappointment was soon forgotten. The fact that my simple expectation of fans at a sports event was not met, however, has not been forgotten!
Today, I went to the supermarket in search of aluminum pie tins. I went to another supermarket. And then back to the first after frantically wondering what to do. A friend is hosting Thanksgiving this year in Edinburgh and has talked up my pies. I do love my pumpkin pies. Well, he has talked them up to the guests and I was quite excited to deliver…until I thought that I may have to forgo the pies in favour of pumpkin bread. I have one pie tin but needed to travel with at least three pies. Eventually, I kicked myself into reality and reminded myself that when living in another country (a fact that escapes me most of the time because this is my social world), you have to adapt things sometimes and I’m lucky enough to be able to celebrate Thanksgiving at all. So, I present to you, my six rectangular pies!
They are in medium disposable foil trays (20.3 x 13.6 x 4.7 cm for my future reference), with each holding exactly half of the filling of my regular pies.
After the pie pan incident left me slightly harried, I was not going to take chances with the oven in my flat and hauled everything over to invade a friend’s kitchen for several hours. I am glad I did because hanging out with her centred me again, reminding me that it is not the shape, but the taste of the pies that matter!
Sometimes the shape of life is so different that it looks bizarre when glanced at from a momentarily alien eye, but the second I come back to myself and remember what is really important and the people I have around me, I remember that everything is perspective.
As I waited for the dough to cool, I whipped up a few white knots for Marriage Equality!
After years of searching, I have never seen any recipe for hard pretzels. We have tried to make them from our regular soft pretzel recipe- making them thinner and cooking them longer- but have only ended up with crispy bits that taste like burnt soft pretzel!
I just came across this blog and recipe for HARD pretzels! I will be trying these soon!
We celebrated our V-day early this year, on Thursday. Partner made a delicious chef’s salad and I made chocolate cake! After eating we spent the evening playing Monopoly and Scrabble- a very nice date night! We enjoyed not worrying about gifts or cards- and created online photo collages for each other instead. How’s that for no waste? With my thesis taking up most of my time, it was fantastic to just spend so much uninterrupted time relaxing and re-connecting.
This is my go-to recipe whenever I want to make choc. cupcakes or cake (scroll down for the recipe). Since my partner couldn’t find any conversation hearts or anything sort of Valentine’s-ey, I used some swedish fish we received in a package. In the second photo, you can see my scrabble hand, our holiday table cloth and a necklace my mom made me when I was in elementary school. I still wear it every year!
Chocolate Cake Recipe – I got this from some company’s packaging at some point…I think
1 & 3/4 C flour
2C sugar3/4C cocoa
1 & 1/2 ts baking powder
1 & 1/2 ts baking soda
1 ts salt
2 eggs
1C milk
1/2C oil
2 ts vanilla
1C boiling water
Combine dry ingredients. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla. Beat. (I just do this step by hand). Stir in boiling water. Pour thin batter into greased and floured pan. It specifies 13 by 9 by 2 inch or two 9 inch rounds. I just used a 10 inch or so spring form. Bake at 350F for 30-35 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes in pan, then remove to cool completely.
We found that 22 minutes for cupcakes is perfect in our fan assisted oven and somewhere in the upper 20s was perfect for the cake.
