Here in the UK, we are not able to get so many options when it comes to Brownies or chocolate chip cookies. Even at the large Tesco supermarkets, there will usually only be one brownie mix (Betty Crocker, standard), and one type of chocolate chip for cookies in my corner of Essex.
If you've read me for a long while, you know that deserts are not my strong point; I don't really like sweets so I have a difficult time to put together something from scratch as I don't know how it's supposed to take at the end. I do know that my tolerance of sweet things is lower than most others, so something that I would enjoy at the end probably wouldn't generally be enjoyable to most. ;-)
New Friend Ian and I started a trend to take desert when we are invited to dinner. It's made even more special when the recipient finds out that the mix has been imported and is not available in the UK. As a result, we have the following from the supermarket:
I'm not much of a fan of eating our concoctions in the end, although I'll usually try them to have an idea of the taste. Therefore, I'm usually purchasing based on the photo on the box. Especially interesting to me are Betty's Supreme bars on the bottom right, sort of a combination of a chocolate chip cookie with a brownie.
On the top right are my Nature Valley Sweet and Salty Almond and Cashew bars. When I was in Dubai I tried these as I have never seen them before and found them to be quite pleasant. When I came back to the UK they were no where to be found. When I was last in the US I spotted them, however, and each time I bring back a few boxes. I find them useful to have in my backpack in the event that work unexpectedly goes late or I'm out and about.
And what caused all the weight in the suitcases?
--17 canning jars from Goodwill!
Those suckers are quite heavy. Last year, when I went to pickle my peppers, I was suprised by the lack of larger jars here in the UK. Then I figured out that the market is heavily geared toward smaller items like jams and chutneys. I had a few options such as importing them from France, but even used ones on ebay were pricey. Then I stumbled across the motherload at .49 and .99 US cents each, in America's heartland. Wrapped carefully in newspaper and clothing, every last one of them survived the journey. I also found lids at the Goodwill as well, but I'll need to get a few more of those next year. Now at least I'll have a good start for next year.
I also found this vintage American scale at Goodwill for a princely sum of 3.99. Slocombe insists on getting into most of my photos, here she is checking it out, along with some of the canning jars:
PS - to all the Germany bloggers enjoying the meetup in Cologne, hope it was a good trip.
1 comment:
Wow- I should hav ethought of canning jard:-). I'm still wishy-washy about the Weccker jars available here (so expensive! although available in larger sizes). But I thought that bringing Bell jars back wouldn't work. I'll need to think about that....
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