Homemade Corn dogs

• There are a few American food items that I had almost given up finding in England...Corn dogs, jimmy dean sausage, ice cream sandwiches and caffeine free regular coke...
• Finally after 14 years of living away from America (and corn dogs), I bought a deep fat fryer fit for purpose.  I have managed to make corn dogs twice now and thought I would share my recipe for any others out there wanting to take the homemade corn dog plunge. 
• Depending on the size of your fryer you need at least 4 or more litres of vegetable oil. I put the dogs in 2 at a time and they take less than 5 minutes each. I used the highest setting and that seemed to work best.
• This was the mixture I made..
• 150g cornmeal ( Asda and Tesco usually carry this)
• 125g plain flour
• 50gz granulated sugar
• 3 tsp baking powder
• salt and pepper
• 1 egg
• 225ml milk
• 10 hot dogs ( frankfurters ) 
• 10 kebab skewers

To serve

• French's American Mustard 
  
  
  

  

  Second time around I made gluten-free ones...they were crispier than the 1st batch but still tasty. 

  
  

  

  
  

The Lowdown on American Shopping in the UK

I usually pop into the Oxford GAP store whenever I’m in the city. It feels like going to a familiar friend and its sales and quality usually mean I leave the shop with a little something.  GAP, despite its past troubles, is an American to UK success story.  In 1987, it opened its first store here and currently has 148 stores and 8 Banana Republic stores.  Another California company that ventured into the UK market was Gymboree clothing.  As lovely as the Gymboree clothes are, Gymboree isn’t still selling happily ever after here anymore and pulled out in 2006. All that remains are its original concept play centres, of which there are 45 dotted around the country. There were a lot of mums that have had to resort to paying the ever increasing international shipping costs to keep their children’s lovely coordinating Gymboree fashion wardrobe up to date. 

Forever 21 came on the local UK scene, a little less than 3 years ago and now has 7 locations in London, Manchester, Birmingham, Kent and Glasgow. I’ve only been in Forever 21 once, but it seemed like a good place for teen and young fashion and is sometimes likened to Primark. It’s done well in establishing online shopping in the UK, that includes men’s and plus sizes.  Forever 21 is hoping to establish itself like GAP and is aiming to eventually have 100 stores over here.

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Arriving alongside the London Olympics in summer 2012 was the much anticipated Victoria’s Secret.  It started with two locations, one next to the Olympic park in the Westfield Stratford Shopping Mall and its other being its flagship Bond Street location. Three more are set to open by the end of this year in Manchester, Leeds and Sheffield. Unfortunately, their UK online service hasn’t been established yet, like Forever 21 and GAP, but for now you can get a few things on Amazon UK.  

The latest US store looking to make an entry internationally is American Eagle.  According to several news articles, one in 2011 and one just last month, they are scouting for locations in London.  Other trendy new American shops to have travelled over the here of late, are Urban Outfitters and Anthropologie.  Both have the added convenience of online shopping in the UK.  

Despite all these new American stores opening over here, a lot of my favourite clothing stores are still British, like NEXT, Boden, Joules and Fat Face. Combined together with all the new American shops that have entered the arena, shopping in UK (especially London) offers something for everyone. Now if we could only get the high street shops to stay open until 9pm.......

Night Sky Delights

Super moon June 23, 2013, Oxfordshire England  

If you or your kids are science or space mad, worth a look to sign up to NASA's spot the station e-alert (www.spotthestation.nasa.gov/). We signed up for it at the beginning of the year and have managed to see it  orbit around our area twice. They email you the the time and the length of sighting. It's a small window of opportunity,  anywhere from 1 to 4 minutes, so it took us a couple of goes to actually see it.  They also tell
you what direction you will start and finish seeing it in. Quite exciting to see something moving in the night sky and actually know what it is your looking at.

A good time to wish upon a star, is during this summers meteor showers, scheduled for July 27 & 28 and August 11 &12. Also look out for the new moon coming up July 8th, in which it is the best time to see stars and galaxies, if of course, you are fortunate enough for a clear night.  (www.seasky.org/sky)

Moshi Monsters born in the UK!

My 7 year old is in the throws of  current Moshi Monster craze. She had a Moshi Monster birthday party with 2 of her classmates and just recently upgraded to a temporary paid membership and wants to go on it everyday before it expires.  Moshi monsters are all a part of the virtual pet craze that has included the likes of webkinz and club penguin.  It's been around for about 5 years but what makes it a bit more interesting, unlike the other virtual crazes,  this one is home grown in the UK. I assumed wrongly that it was a US invention and was surprised that it was no where near as big in the U.S., as it is over here in UK. McDonalds tried to make it more popular in the U.S. by putting Moshi Monsters in its happy meals, but it doesn't seem to have taken over like it has here. There probably isn't a kid in the UK ,between the ages of 4-10 that doesn't know what Moshi or Moshling is. It just keeps getting bigger, with new branded products everyday. A lot of the monsters are parodies of famous people and places, which makes it fun with the likes of Dustbin Beaver and Simon Growl. I now know a little bit about Katsuma, Iggy and Poppet but my daughter laughs at me because I keep calling it mushi monsters instead of it moshi monsters. I told her that's how you say it with an American accent! 

Easy Refrigerator kosher style Dill Pickles

One thing that is American and near impossible to find in the UK is a good kosher style pickle. I originally found a similar recipe through The Homestead Survial Guide on Facebook. It is an American site and geared up for American measurements and ingredients. My version has been tweaked and modified ( with the help of my sister )for the making of these here in UK.

Delicious and Easy REFRIGERATOR KOSHER STYLE DILL PICKLES

3 1/2 cups water
1 1/4 cup white vinegar ( white malt vinegar fine to use)
2 Tablespoons rock salt
1 Tablespoon granulated sugar
6-8 baby cucumbers plus a half of a large cut up cucumber
2 cloves garlic
2 bunches of fresh dill.
1 Tablespoon black peppercorns and mustard seeds

Boil water and vinegar until sugar/ salt dissolved. Pour warm mixture over rest of ingredients placed in a large jar. Leave in refrigerator to pickle for 4 plus days and then they will be good in refrigerator for up to 6 weeks. Ours never lasts that long.

DIY Downton Abbey

My sister in America is a huge fan of Downton Abbey.  I must confess that I have never seen it but I have quite a few friends over here in England that are equally enamoured with the series. One of the locations that Downton Abbey uses for its backdrop is Bampton, Oxfordshire. I live about 8 or so miles from there and had been telling myself for time that I should visit and take some photos to send to my sister.  So with a knowledgeable friend and her pup we headed out to Church View, the road where Bampton Library (Grantham hospital),  St,. Mary's Church ( the village church), and 2 other houses that make up Crawley house and Grantham Arms are situated. Another motivation for visiting Bampton on the day, was rumour had it, they were filming Series 4, so it might offer up a chance of spotting a famous actor. There were only a handful of us milling around and taking pictures and the local newspaper was there interviewing a few of us, getting our views on everything Downton.  They even took a few photos of us and said to look for the article in an upcoming edition. It made us feel a bit like the celebrity. We missed the real stars of the show, as we came on their lunch break but  it was a pleasant experience seeing the 'set'.  Now to complete my Downton Abbey experience with a visit to Highclere Castle, near Newbury and probably a watch of the series wouldn't go amiss either.

Opportunities this May Bank Holiday to visit both Bampton and Highclere Castle

Highclere Game & Country Fair, May 26-27, 8am-6pm

More information and advance tickets can be found at www.countrymanfairs.co.uk

Whitsun 2013  Monday, May 27
 9am Start in Bampton, www.traditionalbamptonmorris.org.uk

Hedgehogs

Before moving to this country, I had never seen a hedgehog before.  There are no hedgehogs native to America, just as there are no porcupines native to U.K.   I also naively thought hedgehogs were related to the porcupines, but there is no connection between the two, besides the fact they both have quills of some sort.  A few weeks ago my kids and their friends saw a hedgehog out front by our house.  The kids ran down and took some photos and were bemused for a while but eventually I had them come in. They were concerned as it had a few ticks on its body.  We didn’t do anything.  I remembered a friend had contacted a local hedgehog rescue centre after finding one wrapped up in sweaters in her garage.  I contacted the centre regarding the hedgehog that we had seen and they said hedgehogs are rarely out in daytime unless they are unwell and if we were to see it again might be worth bringing in. We haven’t seen it again yet, but it did start me on a campaign to learn more about hedgehogs.  There are lots of different breeds of hedgehogs but the European hedgehog is the one that is in decline. This is mainly because of badgers and foxes that like the hedgehog delicacy and also because of their unfortunate encounters with cars.  Combine that with trimmers and slug pellets and you have a species that is on the endangered list.  Hedgehogs are good climbers and swimmers and enjoy snacking on peanuts, raisins, berries, melons and mushrooms.  The end of November is a busy time for hedgehogs as a lot of juvenile hedgehogs come out then to strike out on their own.   To learn even more about hedgehogs or to support the cause please contact:

www.pricklytales.wordpress.com or prickly tales on Facebook (only Oxfordshire rescue centre)

www.britishhedgehogs.org.uk  This site also has a wealth of information and good colouring pages for kids!