To the vegeterians and vegans in the OIB (and out)(and those who're neither but are curious)

Hello Charlie !

I have lately been starting to try and get healthy, which included working out (yes... me... in the OIB...), but, more importantly, eating better. So I've done research, and stumbled on a marvellous website for vegeterians and vegans. Being vegeterian myself, and getting closer to veganism with time, I fell in love with this website.

Basically, you can endlessly scroll through recipes, or search through a theme, or decide if you only want to see the vegan ones, but you can also search one ingredient and the website'll list you the recipes it has with that ingredient ! You can submit recipes, and you can also search for gluten-free, lactose-free, egg-free, and a lot of other options depending or what you eat and don't eat, what you like and don't like...

Enough teasing, the website is http://vegemiam.fr/ and, as I've said, it's amaaaaaaazing. This picture will give you a tiny idea of the possibilities, better than I can do so with words.

Have a look at it, because I cannot give enough examples of recipes (and as you see on the screecap you have mouth-watering pictures for each and every one of them !)

Judith

PS : I may be trying to get healthy, but this website proposes way too many sweet-and-not-so-healthy recipes that sometimes it's hard resisting... so it's at your own risk !

Feeling hungry? Reaching for your inner American...

http://www.artofmanliness.com/2013/04/30/aom-month-of-sandwiches-day-22-the-all-american-dagwood/

Dear Charlie,
The sun is back, time again for picnics.
If you're looking for inspiration, here's a mouth-watering article I've just read.
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/04/14/dining/field-guide-to-the-sandwich.html?_r=0
By the way, did you recognize the famous Dagwood from Blondie ?
This character is  obsessed with his wife, his naps and his food and in particular sandwiches so much so that he had a sandwhich named after him.


http://www.mediatinker.com/blog/2004/02/dagwood-sandwich.html


Blondie has been a running feature of Sunday newspaper comics.
If you want to discover it further
http://www.tcj.com/chics-blondie/

I hope, you enjoyed this double taste of American pop culture
Best,
Mrs. C.

Happy Thanksgiving !

Dear Charlie,

I didn't have time to write on Halloween,  so I'm making it up on Thanksgiving with some  spooky pumpkin corn bread. They were frightfully delicious and easy to bake

Care for the recipe?

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup yellow, white or blue cornmeal 
2 to 4 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/4 cup cooking oil or shortening, melted

In a mixing bowl stir together flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder and salt. In another bowl beat together eggs, milk and oil or melted shortening. Add to flour mixture and stir just till batter is smooth ( do not overbeat)
Pour into a greased baking pan. Bake in 425 °F oven for 20 to 25 minutes or till golden brown.
For Corny Corn bread, add a drained can of whole kernel corn.

Taken from  Better Homes New Cookbook 


I hope you enjoyed your holiday. I did.

Even if it is not a holiday here in France and I'll have to wait for the weekend to get together with family and friends and properly tuck in,  it was nice to get into a Thanksgiving mood/mode,  sharing cornbread, pumpkin pie and potato chips (our version of the traditional mashed potatoes)   with the OIB students and colleagues.
Turkey proved to be too big a challenge for this year but who knows what we can achieve next year ?Finally, I'd like to thank Gaëtan for his lovely pumpkin pie (BTW, I'd love to get the recipe)

Take care,
Mrs. C

http://www.freegreatimages.com/thanksgiving-canada-cartoon/


http://www.glasbergen.com/?s=thanksgiving

and even if it's late, I cannot resist sharing this cartoon...


http://onemanadreaming.blogspot.fr/

Bread making

Dear Charlie
On the first day at Strangford College we had a class in home economics
We learnt how to bake wheaten bread, a traditional Irish bread
It was quite easy to tell who was used to cooking and baking and who wasn't.
But everyone tried their best and washed up after.
So, parents, in case they're not doing it at home. As you can see, they can all cook and wash the dishes ;-p

If you want to make it as well, here's the recipe:
Wheaten bread
Ingredients:
200 g self-raised flour
100 g course wheaten flour
50 g caster sugar
1tsp baking soda
250 ml buttermilk
You can replace the buttermilk with 50g margarine and 200 ml milk
Instructions:
Heat the oven to 180c
Mix all dry elements together
Gradually add buttermilk to form a soft dough
Turn dough onto a floured table and shape into a round
Mark across center with a knife
Place on baking tray and cook for 30 minutes
Turn onto wire rack to cool.

We also played around with a certain number of cullinary-related phrases
"It's the pot that calls the kettle black"
" this is a fine  kettle of fish"
" we have other fish to fry"
" to jump from the frying pan into the fire"
and the local " to be as thick as champ"
If you know more of these cooking-related phrases, feel free to share them with us...
If you wonder what champ is, here's the recipe
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/irish-champ/

Best, Mrs. C

Christmas baking

Dear Charlie,

Just in case, you're in the mood for some Christmas baking
It's a great holiday family activity.
Here's my recipe for simple but delicious Christmas cookies
Ingredients
The basics are:
1 cup of soft butter
3 cups of flour
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
a pinch of salt
2 eggs
Preparing
Mix them all together
1st, flour, sugar,baking soda, salt
2nd, butter
3rd, eggs
Then you can add whatever flavor you like
 cocoa, vanilla, almonds, hazelnuts, coconut, lemon, orange, chocolate chips
If you want a bit of color, add some food coloring
Be careful it stains, but does wash off after a while.
Decorating
Put some fun and colorful decorations on your cookies.
Baking
Pre-heat the oven ( 180 °C) for about 20'
Then, you can bake the cookies for about 3-5'
You've got to watch.
The trick is to get the cookies out when they're still soft enough so that they will not become rock-hard when they cool down.
It's a sort of trial-by-error process

Enjoy!!
Mrs C.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Dear Charlie,
I know we're a British International Section but today's special for me & my family.
Let's celebrate Thanksgiving!
We have quite a lot to be thankful for in our section ;-p
I'm so going to enjoy so many dishes!!
My all time favorites are sweet potato pecan pie and cranberry sauce on a juicy turkey.

Tuck in!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/pecan_pie_82855
http://allrecipes.com/recipes/holidays-and-events/thanksgiving/side-dishes/cranberries/
Here's also a little Thanksgiving treat because as we well know in the drama club, cats are big in our section!
http://pusheenthecutecat.blogspot.fr/2012/01/thanksgiving.html
Best wishes,
Mrs. C