The Skinny on Bacon

Recently, I was preparing my weekly meal plan and somehow ended up with two different recipes (from back home) that called for bacon, and one that required ham. So, off I went to the Coop to pick up said ingredients, and came face to face with an endless array of varieties and not at all what I expected for ham.

Over here (in southern England at least) they have bacon, streaky bacon, rindless bacon, back bacon. They have pork, they have ham and they have gammon. If you find this confusing, as I did, let me break it down for you:

Pub Review: The Bishop on the Bridge

Sunday morning was bright and sunny despite the low temperature of 0°C. On a whim, we decided to head to nearby Winchester, to visit Wolvesey Castle (Old Bishop's Palace). As with all our days out, we love to combine ruins and history with a hearty meal at the pub—especially on Sundays, when roast is on the menu.

Unfortunately, I hadn't read the "fine print", and the castle is only open from April to October. However, I was extremely glad to have made the trip, as we got to discover another lovely pub, The Bishop on the Bridge (another pub under the Fuller's banner).

Pub Review: The Hung Drawn And Quartered

After spending 4+ hours visiting the Tower of London on a beautiful Saturday in October, our family was looking forward to a lovely pub meal. How fitting was it that we discovered this particular pub on our way to the Tower? It was so perfectly named that we decided then and there that this was where we'd be having supper. Here's my review...

Pub Review: The Barleycorn Inn

Well worth the detour if you want delicious food, great service, and a pleasant atmosphere! On Eli's Pint Points system, this pub gets Six Pints.

The Kitchen Helper Cheat Sheets

Supper is hectic in every household—especially for young families—with busy schedules, shift work, overtime, missed trains, kids, team practice, etc. If you're like me, you don't always have time to get on your phone or tablet, or run to the computer to check recipe conversions or ingredient substitutes. For this reason, I've put together a Kitchen Helper Cheat Sheet for those of you who are Canadian expats in the UK, like myself.

Baking in the UK: Sugar

Ah, sugar, how sweet thy name. And how filled with calories!

There is currently a trend in the kitchen where sugar is substituted by various things such as apple sauce, honey, maple syrup or agave to make cooking and baking healthier. And perhaps a sweetener by any other name would taste as sweet, but I'll leave it up to you to decide.

In my kitchen, using alternatives often ends up with dessert just sitting there because my sweet-toothed husband doesn't find it sweet enough. Which brings me to my subject today, as a follow up to my last post about flour here in England.

Baking in the UK: Flour

Daunting.

Daunting, daunting, daunting.

Daunting when you're standing in the baking aisle at Asda with a shrieking kid and a half-empty cart. Daunting when you realize British recipes are in grams and you brought all your measuring cups and spoons. Daunting when you're so happy you actually brought that cookbook from home, only you forgot the measuring cups and realize they are hard to find in the UK.

Obviously, the internet is your friend in that you can order just about any tools you need—once you actually have an internet connection. Chances are though, you likely won't be baking until you feel comfortable in your new habitat. At least, that's how it is for me: I can't bake, I can't sing, and I can't drink wine until I am feeling mostly like my normal self.

This said, let me give you a bit of a run-down if you're ready to bake in the UK, or if you've not moved yet and are reading this from Canada in the hopes of packing the right stuff.

Things You Might Miss Most

Every couple of years, my cousins from Italy fly to Canada to spend a few weeks with the family. And every time they come, they leave with things like peanut butter, instant hot-chocolate, and graphic t-shirts.

Naturally, when I was doing my pre-move research, other than the obvious such as clothes and personal items, I wanted advice on which of my favourite—read essential—things are not available in the UK.