Macaroons & Dauphinoise

   We really do eat healthy. Mum is so good at making delicious & nutritious meals for us. The problems come when I want to make things. Because I like sugar. And cream. 

   So all the things I make & post on here are not the healthiest things to eat. But they are the tastiest. Here are two new recipes I've found!

   A few weeks ago I went over to a friends house to watch The Great British Bake Off finale! I figured since it was a bake off finale we needed a treat to munch on. Enter the first recipe: coconut macaroons. I used this recipe {here} and they turned out beautifully! I definitely want to make them again. I suppose that's the problem with scrummy deserts. You want to make them again. *Sigh*

   Last week we had some friends over for a wonderful dinner with lots of veg! I wanted to make something for it & we had lots of fresh potatoes. Enter the second recipe: cheesy dauphinoise (basically, potatoes baked with cream & cheese). I roughly followed this recipe {here}, but made a few changes.
   Firstly, I used gruyere cheese instead of cheddar.
   Secondly, instead of heating the cream first, I simply mixed all the ingredients in a bowl (except for half the cheese), poured everything in a baking dish (sprinkling rest of cheese on top), & baked for an hour & fifteen minutes.
   The result? Creamy divineness.

   A word on double cream. We do not have double cream in America. It is one of the things I will miss most when we go back home. It is so thick you can almost stand a fork up in it. Almost. You see in the picture above how it looks like the dauphinoise is dripping with butter? There's not a teaspoon of butter in there, it's just double cream. Mmmmmmm...

   So there are two divinely delicious recipes that you absolutely must try. I'm sorry. Do you have a favorite recipe that is so unhealthy but so worth it?

Please Sir, Can I Have Some S'more?

   I'm going to tell you something that will shock my American readers and confuse some of my British readers. I was talking with Hannah, one of my European friends, & I learned that she had never heard of a S'more. If you're American you are now probably thinking something along the lines of, (to quote my friend Emily) "They aren't universal?!" And if you're British you're probably thinking, "What's all the fuss about?" This is what all the fuss is about.

   Well, not technically. But this is the best I can do while I'm in England. When I learned Hannah had never had a S'more, I decided to do something about it. It's not her fault she's been deprived all her life. 

   First of all, they don't have gram crackers over here. I had to explain what a gram cracker is! It's surprisingly difficult to do. Basically, it's like a slightly sweet bread cracker. With a distinct taste. That I can't describe. 

   So I looked up a gram cracker recipe, picked this one, & we got together & made S'mores!  

   What makes gram crackers gram crackers is the gram flour that goes in them. That's probably something even my American friends didn't know. Now everyone does. I feel so accomplished. Anyway, there's a certain kind of flour that's called gram flour. And you use it to make gram crackers. Makes sense, right? 

   The gram crackers turned out more like a cookie. Like a gram cracker, a snickerdoodle, & a molasses cookie had a baby. (You might tell me three cookies can't have a baby, but I'm telling you no cookies can have a baby, so I do what I want.) I've named them Gramdoodles. My mum loves them. 

   To make the gramdoodles into S'mores we, of course, needed chocolate & marshmallows. We only had mini marshmallows and we had to toast (really just heat) them in the oven. (Normally you toast big marshmallows over a fire and they get all crispy on the outside & gooey on the inside.) Then we scrapped them onto a gramdoodle with a piece of chocolate on it & added another gramdoodle on top! And there you have it, a European S'more! =) 

   They definitely didn't taste like the S'more I know & love, but they were still quite delicious! And now Hannah has been introduced to the wonders of S'mores! (Thanks for being willing to try my strange American food.) =P And I hope that any of you readers who are British will try out this scrummy American staple!

P.S. Don't forget to enter The Cambridge Scarf Giveaway! Tomorrow is your last day to enter! 

Random Thoughts & Snaps...

   The last few days have been a lovely blend of relaxing, creating, relating, experimenting, & working. Here are some of my favorite shots.

We walked to The Orchard in Granchester on Saturday. It's a lovely two mile walk & the weather was perfect. They were out of scones (*sigh*), but we made due with cake.

We've had a few rainy days, but not many. I enjoy them when they come, but I know I'll be singing a different tune in a few weeks. I'm trying to soak up the sun before it disappears for the rest of our time here.

Mum made a chicken pot pie & had a little extra pie crust. I liked it, so I put a bunting on it. =)

A friend came over yesterday & we baked these amazingly delicious raspberry lemon muffins. I'm eating the last one now, & I'm definitely going to make them again. You can find the recipe here.

I bought some flowers at the market to put in my lemonade bottle. They look so happy.

   This week I've also started my senior year of high school! Say WHAT? It's going to be the best year ever! More on that soon.

   I still miss all of you dreadfully, but I do love it here. Is that how most of life is? A mix of joy & pain, of longing & contentment, of questions & thankfulness? 
   Even though all the emotions can be confusing, they are what makes us human. We are aware of our humanity when our hearts ache & our minds spin with tons of emotions. But we are also reminded of God's faithfulness & kindness because His Word tells us to:

Give all your worries & cares to God, for he cares about you. 1 Peter 5:7

(New Living Translation) 

   He wants us to let Him take on all our crazy emotions. He wants to walk with us, to comfort us, to teach us, & to turn the pain into something beautiful. So will you let Him?