So You're Dating a Brit - More Chocolate

This is a poorly timed post, as we are trying our best to cut down on sweets in the New Year. I have a few English treats that we sampled last year, but I never reviewed. The pictures have been sitting on my desk top, mocking me. I guess I will have to just eat this apple and live vicariously through my 2012 food memories.

Back in October, Dan's Brother-In-Law spent the weekend with us and he brought along early Christmas presents. Thank You Higgins Family! I still have some of the treats waiting to be tasted on our "British Yummies Shelf", which is a high shelf in our kitchen, that hopefully puts things out of view, so that it lasts longer. Out of sight, out of mind?

This present from the Higgins, was gobbled up within a week.

The label from the candy shop where the bar was purchased. I get to visit Newbury in March!

A small portion of the enormous bar.

One enormous bar of chocolate!

The chocolate bar was huge and I have no idea how he got it over here in one piece. 2.2 pounds of Cadbury Milk chocolate. This present rocks. First, Cadbury chocolate is delicious. I've now come to appreciate the English version, which unlike the American version of Cadbury, doesn't have added components to keep it from melting. It's creamier. Second, it's giant. Giant novelty candy is smile inducing.

We have another chocolate treat from Dan's parents, Maltesers.

Maltesers!

interior of a Malteser.

Maltesers are delicious. I think that they taste remarkably similar to their their American counterpart, Whoppers. Dan insists that they are nothing alike and I respectfully disagree. They are similar, both small balls of malt covered in chocolate. Whoppers are malt and Malterers have a malt/honeycomb combo center. Maltesers were first sold in 1937 and Whoppers was originally sold as product called Giants and was sold in 1939. Apparently, the thirties was a hot time for malt candy.

I discovered a fun fact, that Maltesers were originally advertised as a diet food! It was created by Forrest Mars Sr. and heavily marketed towards women, labeling as slimming and claiming them to be "Balls of Energy". I read this and immediately tried to justify working it into our 2013 diet plan. If you don't look too deep, anything can be diet food. The Malteser company said that it was healthy, must be, right? I like the sound of "Balls of Energy". Ok, back to this Granny Smith. Crunch.

I think on our trip to England, I will have to pick up a bag and bring it home for a Malteser/Whopper side by side comparison, so that I can appreciate the difference.

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Home-Made Adventures - Mom's Fudge

Last week, when I said that my mom never made anything, I exagerrated a bit. She always liked to make fudge and butterscotch morsels to give to friends at Christmas. People loved these treats and she freely gave out the recipes, as neither were any sort of family secret.

She got the butterscotch morsel recipe out of the Los Angeles Times in the 80's. It was a mix of chocolate, butterscotch and peanut butter coating Corn Chex. We used to alternately call it Reindeer-Crap, because it didn't look appetizing at all. However, it was so delicious that a whole tin could be gone in an entire sitting. I have a friend, who liked it so much, she would hide it from her husband! Unfortunately, I've been unable to locate the recipe. It's somewhere in this house and that's why I am proclaiming 2013, The year of Organized Living. Let it be known!

Mom got her fudge recipe from the back of a jar of Kraft's Marshmallow Creme. The recipe that my mom found predates me and the recipe on the jars has been changed many years ago. Mom had many people tell her that they followed the jar recipe and it just wasn't the same. Two things, first, of course it tastes better when someone else does the work and second, the recipe is different. Here is the tried and true recipe that my mom used.

The stains on the card are my fault, I dropped the card into the pan sprayed liberally with Pam.

My aunt still carries on the fudge tradition, but since she has had so many surgeries, she found it tough to do this year. It required a lot of stirring and lifting. On Sunday, Dan and I went to Tustin and made a batch for her.

Dan slicing the fudge.

The pan of fudge.

The first Christmas without my mom, 2009, I felt the pressure to carry on this tradition for friends expecting the treats. I got out the fudge recipe and thought that I had followed it properly, but it was a disaster. It tasted great, but I couldn't cut it into neat squares. It was a big mush of fudge. The big trick is to let it cool in the fridge for 45 minutes and no more. It needs to be soft enough to cut, but not too soft where it won't form squares.

I let go of the tradition, it's was my mom's, not mine. Last Sunday was my first time making fudge since the disaster of 2009. Dan and I made it as a team and it turned out perfect, in perfect squares.

This week also brought two new great recipe discoveries from one of my favorite sites, Allrecipes.com. On Monday night, we had the Tantalizing Tangy Meatloaf, which uses pineapple preserves as a surprise ingredient. Dan liked it, but thought it was a bit too sweet for dinner. If I make it again, I might follow another member's suggestion of crushed pineapple to cut the sweetness. I really enjoyed it though and really liked using the leftovers for meatloaf sandwiches.

Tantalizing Tangy Meatloaf Recipe

The big hit of the week was the Poppy Seed Chicken Casserole. It's very easy to make and boiling the chicken breasts gives it almost a slow cooker texture. Dan scarfed this up so fast, not only did we not have any leftovers, but I had to battle for my portion of dinner. I loved how this one required very few ingredients, most of which were already found in our kitchen. Cheap, easy and yummy, this will be a frequent meal in our home.

Poppy Seed Chicken Casserole Recipe

Traversing Utah- April 2012

Remember a few posts back, when I mentioned that our ATV guide gave us a recommendation? We are now at that point in the travel review and here is where things start to get interesting. Our original plan called for three nights in Zion and two in Bryce, then heading back to Vegas. We ended up doing two nights in Zion and one in Bryce, leaving a few nights for an adventure!

Our guide recommended that we drive to Lake Powell and rent a boat for a few days. It sounded great to us. We had done enough hiking and were ready to lounge around on the lake and end our trip on a relaxing note.

The day started off great. We did the Bryce hike in the morning, showered and hit the road by ten.

When exiting Bryce, keep an eye out for Prairie Dogs!

A big travel tip from a hard lesson learned, always make sure to consult a map when heading out. Additionally, don't rely on GPS, because it doesn't always work, especially in remote areas. We just took off, each thinking that the other person had stopped to check on directions.

Our second mistake, was once we realized that we were heading in the wrong direction, not turning back. I'm not sure if this was a total mistake, as it gave us the opportunity to drive across Utah, seeing places that we would never have seen otherwise and likely won't see again. The decision to keep going, sent us on quite the epic and remote Utah road trip.

Once we realized our mistake, it looked like our best option was to drive to the town of Bullfrog, a four and half hour drive and take a ferry to Lake Powell.

One of the highlights on our Utah trip was lunch at the Burr Trail Grill, off scenic route twelve. This place was awesome and had one of the best burgers that I have ever eaten. It was an Oasis is a drive that didn't include too many signs of civilization.

All of the burger meat is local, grazing right outside.

Thunder fueling up at a station near the Burr Trail Grill. We almost grabbed food in the station, because we had not seen a restaurant for hours. Luckily, we waited and the Burr Trail Grill was down the road.

homemade cherry pie at the Burr Trail Grill. it was yummy with a kick to it. Spicy Cherry pie totally works too!

Burr Trail Grill - a must stop, if you find yourself in the middle-of-nowhere Utah.

Another gem that we discovered on our drive was the Dixie National Forest. Most of the leaves were still gone from the trees and with the exception of a few cyclist at the summit, we were alone. This looked to be a very popular spot during the warm summer months, as we saw many signs to camp sites and picnic tables. It took us about an hour to drive through it and was one of the prettiest parts of the trip.

Hurry and take the picture, it's windy!

Dixie National Forest

Standing at the Dixie Forest Summit.

Dan at the summit

We finally reached Bullfrog. It was a decent size town, but everything looked closed. We headed straight for the marina, to learn that we had missed the last ferry of the day by half an hour. We had no choice but to turn around and head back to the road. Dan decided to let me try to take the wheel and gave me my first stick shift lesson on a deserted road in Bullfrog. I lasted ten minutes.

We headed for the town of Hite, which many road signs led us to believe, would be a sizable town. We finally reached Hite, after crossing a large bridge over the Dirty Devil and Colorado rivers. Hite, once another place for a ferry crossing and water sports, is the town that time forgot. It was ghost town, looking completely abandoned. Our hopes of a hotel room for the night were crushed and we kept driving.

The view from across the bridge.

The coolest road ever, just beyond Hite.

Looking towards Hite.

Beautiful clouds.

The drive.

The road beyond Hite.

About an hour beyond Hite, we started to grow concerned. We had not seen any gas stations and rarely did another car pass us. We saw one structure, with creepy signs very clearly letting strangers know that they did not want visitors. It was starting to get late. We had a choice to make, keep going and risk the gas running out or trying turning back to the one gas station in Hite and hope that it worked. We had zero cell coverage in case of an emergency.

So, we headed back to Hite. it's always horrible to have to double back, but in this case, it was the right decision. Luckily, the gas station was working, even though there were no attendants on duty. I made PB&J sandwiches from our left over camp supplies, while Dan pumped the gas. Right before we headed out, an off-duty police officer pulled into the station and we found out that we would not have found gas, if we had kept going. A big collective sigh of relief. We regrouped and based on his recommendation, set our sights on a hotel in Blanding, still many hours away.

Unfortunately, I would love to report that it was all about the journey and not the destination, but when you've been in a car all day, the hotel room starts to sound really wonderful. We did get some beautiful pictures on the drive. Southern Utah is remote and the landscape is gorgeous.

Beautiful Utah.

I love the saturated colors.

Cow crossing

A cow, just on the side of the road.

The drive included narrow roads.

And a hole n' the rock.

Sitting on a rock during a rest stop.

We finally made it to Blanding over twelve hours after we had originally set out. Blanding is a decent sized town, they had several hotels and fast food restaurants. A single screen movie theater was in the town center. We took a quick look around (it is a small town) and ended up at The Four Corners Inn, a motel boasting a free breakfast buffet.

I have never stayed at a worse motel. Never. Ever. Not close. it was likely my overactive imagination, but my skin was crawling with imaginary bed bugs and I couldn't sleep all night. In the light of day and judging from the fellow customers having breakfast, this place catered to bikers, junkies and hikers. If you are ever near Blanding, I highly recommend driving right on thru, the next several towns were much nicer!

Safest Community, says who??

The motel in the daylight. We were in a room on the top left and it was scary leaving Thunder in the parking lot.

Just drive on by

We got up early and left Blanding as quickly as possible. The people that we encountered in the community, were all very nice, but it was not a town that i would recommend or ever visit again. We decided that it was game over and time to head back to Vegas for a few more days, cutting our Utah trip short and giving up on heading to the lake. The drive back to Vegas, via heading up and over through Moab, was a lot less rural and less scenic of a drive.

The highlight of my day, was lunch at Cracker Barrel, the closest one to Los Angeles. I have a great love for Cracker Barrel's Chicken and Dumplings, washed down with some sweet tea. We were happy to be back in Vegas, where we hung out by the pool, went to the Titanic Artifact Exhibit and saw KA. We needed a vacation from the vacation!

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