Puff Pastry magic

In my Girl Guide meeting on Thursday, I learned about the British ready made puff pastry invention. For some time now, I have been craving American Pillsbury cinnamon rolls or crescents. I always used to buy the tube of dough, and stick hot dogs in or nutella or a personal favorite, cream cheese. In my nine months in England, I had yet to find something similar. Then, like a lightening strike, my little girl guides taught me about puff pastry. We used it to make a traditional Coventry dish, "god cakes", which I'm told is basically a pastry form of the sweet mince pie. (Mince meat is also a new thing to me). While the god cakes were good, I was significantly more excited to discover the puff pastry that was basically like the dough in a can that I bought in America! Sure...the dough pastry dough is a lot thinner, not nearly as saturated in fatty goodness, and bakes lighter, it is still good to finally have the ability to play with easy (and cheap) dough again!! I immediately went out the next day and bought my own box of the stuff. (For other foreigners living in the UK this puff pastry magic lives in the Tesco butter aisle). I was tempted to make my version of a sausage roll, but elected that it was too dangerous for a first puff recipe. Instead I made what I now call "peach pockets".

The Blonde's Peach Pockets
You will need
-box of ready made puff pastry dough
-can of peaches
-brown sugar
-regular white sugar
-some milk

Open the peaches, drain the juice, then slice the peaches up so they are in small cube like shapes. Through the peaches, some brown and white sugar, into a pot. Put the pot on the stove until the mixture is boiling. While you wait for it to heat up, roll out the puff pastry until and divide it into 8 pieces (or however you want to). Once the peach mixture is hot, place a dollop in the middle of the puff pastry. Get a cooking brush or a spoon and lightly coat the edges around the peach with milk. Then fold the pastry over so the peaches are encased, and coat the top of the pastry with milk as well. Sprinkle the top with sugar, cut a few holes in the dough, and place it on a tray. I let mine bake for about 20-25 mins at 200 degree's celsius. When they are browned on the top, take them out, let em cool, and enjoy!

Heavenly Gluten Free Cake Balls [Recipe]

So, technically speaking, I have a gluten intolerance. Every dinner I eat gluten, I find myself ill the next morning. Not entirely pleasant. In America, it was a struggle to afford to eat gluten free, so I gave up trying. However, in the UK gluten free food is much more affordable. So I recently decided to try and be as gluten free as possible. I admit to still having my naan's or a baguette, but I have made an effort to buy gluten free bread, I rely on corn tortillas as a staple in my diet, and overall I am making more of an effort.

I've found myself in a baking mood lately, so I decided to try to make cake batter brownies. Never made them before, but on my pinterest the pictures always looked so yummy that I eventually had to make it. All I needed was a store bought cake mix and some extra sugar and milk. In an attempt to be gluten free, I bought a free from sponge cake because a plan gluten free vanilla cake was unavailable. Again, it has been a while since I've been on a gluten free diet, so I forgot how the change in ingredients can mess up a gluten containing recipe. I blame bad chemistry. My cake batter brownies were not a gluten free recipe, but my cake mix was. Unsurprisingly, the brownies did not work out. For some reason the batter just didn't stick together as I hoped it would.

I got upset and abandoned the cake in the kitchen for a few hours. It tasted great, but wasn't at all what I was trying to bake. My boyfriend took pity on me and said he would eat my crumbled, dry cake anyways. Luckily he avoided that fate, because on spur of the moment trip to Tesco I decided to try and make my first ever cake balls.

It was a resounding success! Cake balls always seemed so fancy in Starbucks or bakeries, I assumed they took a lot of effort to make. I was wrong, it was super easy!

All you need is cake (mine was pre-crumbled to save on time ;), a jar of store bought frosting and some baking chocolate. Mix 2/3 of the jar of frosting (less if you want more of a cake texture, more if you want it to be more like a truffle filling) in with your crumbled cake, then melt the chocolate. Take your cake mixture, roll it into balls, and roll it in the melted chocolate. It hardens within minutes and it tastes amazing.

My gluten free cake balls went over amazingly! No one could tell that they had no flour, and I wasn't ill the next day. I'm so obsessed
that I am making them again tonight with a chocolate cake mix. I'm sure it is possible to make the cake batter from scratch, but I admit to being lazy. In addition, I have US recipes memorized, which use cups. The UK uses grams and scales to measure out ingredients. This is a transition I haven't adjusted to yet, so until I do I will stick to my store bought ways. I suggest you ALL try to make cake balls next time you have a cake experiment gone wrong.

Cyber monitoring

Yesterday I attended a brief one day conference centered around security. The talks were wide ranging, from security and terrorism to security and science fiction to security and digital protection. It is this last subject that interested me most. Although I have been a blogger on and off for two years, I'm an avid Facebook user and I'm considering wandering over to Twitter, I confess that I am not the most tech savvy. So a talk on data protection and mass collection was entirely foreign territory. However, I think it warrants a blog post given the recent American upheaval over the expiration of the Patriot Act. Government surveillance is a big deal and touchy subject, but not something I have considered until my lecture yesterday.

The discussion began with an image of all the cable's connecting the world to the internet. While I understood that the internet was grounded in cables, to see a picture of it, and to see that someone could tap into one quite easily was a bit shocking. I was also surprised to learn that an email I send from the UK to China can bounce to hundreds of different computer serves across my campus and the country before it reaches it destination. The use of wifi and instant messaging makes it seem like the internet is a direct passage, but really its a convoluted maze. This maze is something that the government apparently takes a large interest in recording. As it stands its possible for the government to access and store the content of your messages, emails, what you watch, everything! Some techies didn't like this, and they began a cyber war against the government designing massive data encryption systems to protect information. Originally the government tried to ban this, but eventually learned it was a battle they would never win. Now most sites protect their users search history or personal information from data collection, but it isn't always successful. People can always find a way around the encryption.

My question for this post is, is internet monitoring/mass data collection something that should be allowed or not? I observe two sides to this issue. The first is that, people have the right to privacy. In the past it would be nearly impossible for the government to mass monitor peoples meetings and snail mail. So why should they be able to now just because the internet makes it easier? Why do governments feel it is necessary to watch everyone rather than the select few who are dangerous to national security? In addition, is it fair for them to save information about you and use it against you at a later date? The second side to this issue is what are we hiding that is so secret? If you are doing something the government shouldn't see, should you be doing it? I'm not referring to sending a naughty Snap Chat or sexting. But the purpose of the Patriot Act was to monitor people and prevent another 9/11 from happening. If the internet data collection is stopping terrorist attacks, can it be so bad?

As with any argument, their is validity to both sides. I think that I would prefer to know that what I do online is private and not being recorded by the big man. However that is a reality that doesn't exist. This blog post is being monitored, saved and probably archived into my file of internet info. Weird to think about. I don't like knowing everything I do is going into mass data collection, but I'm no so enraged over it that I will become an activist against it, nor will I learn better methods of encryption to hide my doings. I have nothing to hide. But I do believe it is somewhat a violation of rights.

Is It Better to Bite Your Tongue, Or Bite The Other Person?

I watched a new ITV show last night about American beauty pageants for woman of a more "mature" age. Think Honey Boo Boo but with the drama of The Real Housewives. I ABSOLUTELY LOVED IT!! But, I admit to being a bit of a reality tv addict. Go ahead and judge me. I still love to read a good novel, and maintain a highly academic life, but I just love the drama of reality shows. Anyway, at the end of the show there was of course a big blow out scene between two pageant ladies because they had worn the same outfit to the airport on their way to the Mrs. America contest. The more seasoned pageant competitor was furious that her underling had dared to copy her. My partners house mate made disparaging noises and kept giving me disgusted looks as I continued to watch. At the end he made a lame remark about how unnecessary the drama was.

As we continued to talk about this, I remarked that while yes, the dramatic cat fights often witnessed on American TV are extremely over the top, we do tend to air our grievances and move on more quickly than those I have observed in the UK. In Britain, people tend to hold their anger towards others in. Obviously there exists exceptions to this (The Only Way is Essex for example), but for the most part among my friends and acquaintances I have witnessed a general lack of confrontation, even when extremely necessary.

For example, a group of my friends knows there is a lot of tension between two girls that are apart of our posse. A semi-fight over a guy. Everyone talks about it, we know that both girls talk about the others behind their backs, and most of us have taken sides. Now, among my American friends, I highly doubt we would have let things carry on like this for so long. In fact, I think a few weeks (if not days) in, the girls would have had a screaming match outside of a social or pub, we all would have stared, discussed it for a few days, and then had some manner of a resolution. More dramatic, emotional and scene causing, yes. But at least the issue would be over with. As it stands, our group still has to feel the awkwardness of the two girls, and them avoiding social interactions.

I'm left with the question of, which method is better? The ostentatious American way of battling it out quickly in public, or the British way of keeping things hush hush. Both have advantages. If I  had to pick, if I knew someone had an issue with me, I would rather the screaming death match instead of them skulking and hating my existence in silence. Perhaps this is the American in me. I'm not sure. Any thoughts?

Lindsey Graham for President?

This will be my first post about politics, on this blog at least. In my daily skimmings of BBC and other news sources, I stumbled upon the announcement of Lindsey Graham running for president in 2016. His reasoning? He will be the "best commander in chief". Lindsey has been a state senator for South Carolina since 2003, following a military career in the Air Force. Clearly, Lindsey has the proven time in politics to justify his bid for presidency. But my concern lies in what he plans to do if elected. Lindsey is avidly against Obama's foreign policy methods. And if he should take office, I believe he will probably lead America back into being heavily militarily involved in the Middle East. The same mistake our last Republican president made. Obama has strived to remove the U.S presence from that region, with good reason. America will never be able to bring about a full resolution to the numerous disputes that rage in the Middle East, because a large majority of the population in that area reject Westerners and Western ideas. In addition, America sustained heavy losses in the fights within Afghanistan. Getting involved in that territory again will not solve any of the underlying problems and it will simply lead to more deaths of Americans. I don't mean to suggest America should remove all aid from the area, I honestly don't know how to handle the situation in the Middle East. But I know that the path Lindsey Graham will take is not the correct one. Therefore, he most assuredly doesn't have my vote. If you would like to read more about this, follow the link below.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-32786233

Cadbury World

image taken from wikipedia Cadbury World page

I had the fortune to visit Cadbury World this weekend. I went as a chaperone to a Girl Guide group, a lucky chance for me as I have been angling to go since I discovered its existence in December. I easily could have made the track to chocolate heaven on my own, but what good is candy when you have no one to share it with? And because my partner and friends have archery competitions nearly every weekend, I had to wait until May to finally get my visit in. In the end, the wait proved to be in my favor as I didn't have to pay. I counted down the days until Saturday all week, I was so excited that I didn't even mind waking earlier on a Saturday. 

However, while I adored Cadbury World and plan to go again during Halloween season, I am unsure if it lived up to my expectations. Perhaps if I hadn't been chasing after hyper seven year olds, and had time to linger at displays I would have found the experience more enjoyable. But, overall I believe the flaw with Cadbury World was that I didn't get to see much of the factories workings. I know from the informational cinema that the chocolate was made in the building, but I only had a brief glimpse in the viewing gallery. For my 21st Birthday, I went in a tour of the Budweiser brewing factory, and found it extremely educational and enjoyable because it had booze. I imagined that Cadbury World would be like my beer tour, but with chocolate(something I infinitely prefer to beer). But I had no tour guide, didn't get to see the cocoa beans turned into chocolate, and I honestly think I needed more free samples. It was down right cruel to be surrounded by the smell of melted chocolate but only being able to taste 1 small melted cup.

 One attraction stands out as the highlight of my chocolate adventure. On the upper floor of Cadbury World is a small train ride that takes riders through forest, town, and iceberg themed rooms filled with dancing "chuckle beans". Being from America, I had no clue what a chuckle bean was, this caused the Girl Guides to dissolve into a fit of giggles over my ignorance. Chuckle beans are small egg shaped chocolate people. They are the Cadbury version of Oompa Loompas. I fell in love with their adorable ness. The train ride through the chuckle bean world was absolutely enchanting. 

Another attraction worth mentioning is the 4D theater bits. It is something I have noticed growing increasingly popular in all tourist type places. The moving chairs, blowing air and bubbles really do enhance the experience. I really hope it becomes a trend that transfers into the regular movie cinema, I will no longer be satisfied with just 3D glasses, I want my chair to shake if a movie depicts an earthquake! It would be worth the money.

Overall, I would give Cadbury World a 6 out of 10 on a scale of awesomeness. I recommend going when you have plenty of time to explore and enjoy all the extra bits like the green screen photo studio and face painting. Don't be fooled into thinking this chocolate wonderland is a place for parents and their children, I saw plenty of adult couples going in on their own. 

A Problem with constant Travelling

        One thing I have noticed as a person who moves around a lot, is that I never seem to have all of the clothing I recall buying with me. I secretly believe that there is a black hole that appears every time I begin the arduous process of moving, and all of my favorite funky pieces of clothing disappear. I unfortunately only realise their absence from my suitcases when I arrive at my destination and can't go back. When moving to the UK I noticed that a large majority of my shoes and jackets had been left in America, in a mad packing dash I forgot them all. So, I asked my mother to search my boxes at home to see if they were there. Oddly enough, they weren't. The black hole strikes again!
         Is this a common problem? It shouldn't be. When moving out of a dorm or rented house you are required to pack everything. So, where does the stuff go? I know when I left America, my closet was empty. My favorite things hadn't been given away. I blame the black hole.

Items lost to the black hole of moving:

• 1 pair of pink glow in the dark Converses
• 1 pair of blue heeled boots
• 1 pair of studded shredded jeans
• 1 copy of The Princess Bride
• 1 denim jacket
• 1 black and nude tuelle cocktail dress
• Sooooo many tank tops/vests
• More purses than I can count