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:

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.

7 Things to Include in Your Moving Budget

Moving is already a costly affair. When you add exchange rates, shipping, taxes, and visas—just to name a few—suddenly it's five times more expensive. Making a budget, is key before deciding whether you want to move or not. Get online and research where you want to live, look at budget samples for that country, and see what expenses people generally have.

Having a budget, even just a rough estimate, will help you straighten out your plans, and determine whether they are realistic and achievable or not.