It's Pancake Tuesday!

Today is Pancake Day in Britian (also known as Shrove Tuesday, Fat Tuesday or Mardi Gras in other parts of the world). Even though I am not at all religious, this is one religious day I can get on board with--even if it is only to stuff my face with pancake goodness.

According to Wikipedia's entry on Shrove Tuesday:

Pancakes are associated with the day preceding Lent because they were a way to use up rich foods such as eggs, milk, and sugar, before the fasting season of the 40 days of Lent. The liturgical fasting emphasized eating plainer food and refraining from food that would give pleasure: in many cultures, this means no meat, dairy, or eggs.

Pancake Day is a big deal. It's the only time of year pancake mixes on prominent display, and the various pancake toppings seem to be available. And in Britain, there is surprisingly a lot of choice!

First, American or British-style? If American style, are you doing buttermilk, fruity, or pancakes with bits of bacon? How are you topping them? With maple syrup, honey, or fruit? If choosing British-style, do you go with the traditional lemon juice and sugar, Nutella, golden syrup or something savory?

In my household, we're going American-style buttermilk pancakes with maple syrup (which is Canadian--how multicultural of us, right?), and completely from scratch--the Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book has an easy and tasty recipe.

Tell me, how do you like your pancakes?

Coffee Crisis 2012

It's like the Exxon Valdez... a coffee spill in my kitchen.

After living in the UK for nearly three years, I've finally managed to re-establish my hardcore coffee addiction.

In Britain, coffee usually comes in instant form, and as one might imagine, it's not the tastiest. Because tea is a much more popular hot beverage in Britain, most people don't have coffee makers, instead opting for electric kettles. As such, kettles are considerably less expensive and easier to find than coffee makers, so that is what I went for when I moved here. It was difficult enough getting my flat set up without a car, and I really had to pinch pennies after the move, so I was not prepared to hunt for a coffee maker.

Fast forward to today. I've recently gotten into Twitter, and after following my local council, I discovered a coffee place called Astrora Coffee in nearby Teddington. At first, I thought they may be another coffee shop flogging coffee beverages, but it turns out that they don't sell coffee beverages at all--they only sell coffee beans and coffee making accessories. Not wanting to completely waste my trip (and miss out on delicious coffee at home), I decided to buy a pour-over coffee funnel, paper filters and some coffee beans. I excitedly took my new purchases home, and instantly rekindled my love for black coffee.

Pour-over coffee really isn't that much different from a drip-coffee maker one may have in their kitchen in America. Instead of relying on the coffee maker to do all the work, I have to boil the water separately and subsequently pour it over the ground which I have set up in the funnel. The beauty of this process is that it can be done quite easily for a single cup, and it's quick. The downside, as the picture shows, is that it's possible for the coffee to overflow if your cup is smaller than expected. I realise a french press would eliminate this issue, but I really don't like the oiliness of the coffee associated with the method.

After much success with my first 250 grams of ground coffee, I went back to the shop and bought a hand coffee grinder, another 250 grams of whole bean Tanzania, and 125 grams of decaf Guatemala. The hand grinder has turned out to be quite a bit of work, but totally worth it. I'm so happy to be reunited with my favouritest beverage ever.

Name Change

It has been a hectic few months, and I cannot see things becoming any less so in the near future. I managed to make it back to America for Thanksgiving, did some travelling for work, celebrated Christmas and started wedding planning.

My health has been quite good, in fact, and I managed to regain all the weight I lost while ill and then some. I got up to 54 kilograms (approximately 119 pounds), which was a new high for me. I've trimmed a bit off in recent weeks, but I'm still at or above 50 kilograms.

In addition to successfully regaining my weight, I've also taken up running again. I spent nine weeks on the Couch to 5k program, which I found to be incredibly enjoyable. Even better were the Couch to 5k podcasts posted on the NHS website. The aim of Couch to 5k is to get people who do not run running for 30 minutes at a time in nine weeks. Weeks 1 through 6 have participants running for a few minutes with walking breaks between. So week 1 for example is one minute running, one minute walking eight times, and progresses to 90 seconds running, two minutes walking in week two and so on. It felt like quite an accomplishment to get to 30 minutes of non-stop running at the end. Unfortunately, I had a bit of a set-back a few weeks after completing the program consisting of knee and ankle pain. I figured this might have resulted from over-training, so I decided to pick up Couch to 5k from week 5, and go from there. Additionally, I received a heart rate monitor for my birthday, so I am using that to ensure I do not over-train. My pace has been almost painfully slow since using the heart rate monitor, but it does ensure that my workouts are not overly strenuous, and has been a good indicator of effort.

Besides trying to lead a healthier existence, my boyfriend and I have been busy planning for our wedding in April. A few things I've learned so far:

1. Weddings are expensive (though we realised this earlier)
2. Three months is not much time to plan a wedding
3. In an ideal world, you need more than three months to properly order a wedding dress

I had a few mini panic attacks after talking to friends who got married in the past few years, realising three months was not much time to get things done. But as I've managed to cross a few of the bigger things off my to-do list (venue, dress, etc.), I've calmed down considerably and find myself more relaxed. Don't get me wrong, we still have plenty to sort out, but we'll get there soon.

I've decided with the new year that a name change for my blog was in order. People mention on a regular basis that I'm sounding more British in terms of terminology and accent (mostly according to people who are not British), and I find myself moaning about everyday things as much as the locals. I've gotten used to rainy days, and dare I say this place is starting to feel a bit more like home. Of course, none of this changes the fact that I want to move back to California some day, but for now, I'm going to roll with the punches and see where this takes me.

Baking

Since I've been back home, my boyfriend and I have been doing a fair amount of baking. In the first two weeks, he made a batch of chocolate chip cookies each weekend. Then the weekend before last, we stopped at my favourite bakery, Outsider Tart, for some delicious baked treats (and amazing coffee). The guys that run the shop recently released a bakery book, Baked in America, which has all sorts of delicious recipes for some of the items they sell in their shop, including, but not limited to, brownies and bars, cookies, muffins and whoopie pies.

I let my boyfriend choose the first recipe as they all looked delicious to me, and I accidentally ate most of the chocolate chip cookies when he made them. He chose the recipe for the Hepburns. There was no picture for this recipe, only an introduction and the recipe itself, so I wasn't exactly sure what to expect. It turns out that these so-called Hepburns are the best tasting brownies I've ever had the pleasure of eating. Seriously. We managed to bake them just to the point where the knife came out clean when the brownies were tested, which left us with a perfectly gooey brownie.

The delicious result of the Hepburn brownie recipe from Outsider Tart's Baked in America.

Baked in America has turned out to be a great purchase. In addition to the Hepburns, I've made some delicious ginger muffins (though I'm not convinced they turned out quite right) and chocolate snickerdoodles. What makes this bakery book great, however, isn't just the amazing recipes, but the fact that it is accessible to any would-be baker, not just American bakers, nor British bakers. In America, we tend to measure things by volume: one cup, two cups, etc. Whereas in most the rest of the world, things are measured by weight (grams, kilograms, etc.). This bakery book includes measurements in both traditional American measurements as well as weight (including both imperial and metric measurements).

I've been trying the weight-method of baking since I've gotten this book. This is mostly because British butter is not sold in easy-to-use sticks as it is in America, so I'm often left to measure that by weight anyway. Even though I'm most familiar with the American way of baking, I'm actually finding baking by weight enjoyable. The best part is that I can tare the scale after the addition of each ingredient, and am actually getting fewer things dirty as a result.

With all the baked goods that have been made in the past week, it's no surprise that I've managed to gain another three pounds in 10 days. The weight gain seems to have slowed down a bit, but I think that's a result of a combination of getting out more and getting closer to my target weight. I've only got another 4.5 kilograms to get back to 50 kilograms, but I'd be happy just to reach 105 pounds again--that tends to be the lower range of my normal weight, and probably the weight I was when I was reasonably healthy here in London.

Fun with Stereotypes

The following excerpts were recently posted as part of a web-comic, Minor Differences, Part 4 by The Oatmeal. This is one of my favourite web-comics, and I highly recommend checking out a few of his others, namely The Bobcats and The Pterodactyl. However, if you are sensitive to "naughty" language, or have you have absolutely no sense of humour, they may best be avoided.

Courtesy of The Oatmeal, Minor Differences, Part 4

Courtesy of The Oatmeal, Minor Differences, Part 4

Home Sweet Home

I've been out of hospital for a bit over a week now, and I have to say I'm enjoying my new-found freedom. It has a been bit surreal sleeping in my own bed, enjoying my own shower and reacquainting myself with every nook and cranny of the place my boyfriend and I lovingly refer to as "tiny flat."

Last Monday I got the all clear from the surgeons who said I could leave that day. The only loose ends I needed to tie up were getting the Hickman line removed and getting a few week's worth of prescriptions to hold me over until I had a chance to get an appointment with a GP at my local surgery. Both went relatively smoothly, though removing the Hickman line was a bit interesting.


I was a bit nervous about having the Hickman Line removed for one reason or another. I mostly was worried it was going to feel really weird when it was moving out of the vein in my neck and under the skin on my chest. The first thing the lady did was feel around on my chest for where the cuff held the line in place. She needed to find this so she could inject some anaesthetic and make an incision to remove the line. Unfortunately, the anaesthetic stings like hell, and she didn't find the right place the first time. Not only that, but she didn't realise it was the wrong place until she had done a considerable amount of digging which I could feel against my sternum. It wasn't that it hurt, but it felt incredibly weird.

Eventually she found the cuff was actually located very closely to the exit site for the line, and once she numbed that area up, and made the incision, it was only a matter of seconds before the line was out. And because I had been injected with an incredible amount of anaesthetic, I didn't feel any part of it coming out--in fact, I hadn't realised it had been removed until she said all was over and showed me the line. She then proceeded to stitch me up, and told me to keep lying down for at least 30 minutes to minimise bleeding.

Once I got wheeled back to the bay, I noticed the dietitian had kindly dropped off a box of supplement drinks. I was a bit worried at first because the side of the box said strawberry, and I already have something like 72 bottles of strawberry flavoured Fortisip Compacts at home. Luckily, it was only that the box said strawberry on the side, and she had provided me with a variety of different Fortisip and Fortijuce flavours which I've been trying out over the past week. It turns out these drinks are much more palatable when I'm not feeling completely rubbish, and I've been managing three a day--an extra 900 calories total--quite easily.

Since I've been home, I've been keeping relatively busy. My dad has been here to help me carry things. Since I have an 8-inch incision running vertically down my abdomen, I am not really supposed to be lifting anything more than 10 pounds, or partaking in strenuous activities. This means that food shopping by myself is out, and I can't do too much housework. I have been managing to get out for walks around Richmond and the local area, and participating in "light" tourist activities such as a boat ride down the Thames from here to Hampton Court. I've also been cooking again, which has been really nice.

In the past week, we've enjoyed a number of delicious, home-cooked meals:
Tuesday - Spaghetti Pie and Garlic Cheese Bread
Wednesday - African Drumsticks (a Nigella recipe) and Long Grain Rice
Thursday - Yellow Curry Chicken and Jasmine Rice
Friday - Orange Glazed Pork Chops with Baked Sweet Potatoes
Saturday - Meat Loaf with Creamed Peas and Potatoes
Sunday - Meat Loaf sandwiches with Chips and Onion Rings

Not only that, but I've been able to enjoy meals out again, which has been really nice. Today, my boyfriend and I had what I'm going to call "America Day" where we went to an American deli for sandwiches followed by a trip to an American bakery. The deli--the Pickle and Rye in East Sheen--has a brilliant sandwich menu. I went for the BBQ pulled pork sandwich, and my partner opted for The Toronto. Both sandwiches were impressively large (how American of them!) and were served with a proper dill pickle spear on the side. I love dill pickles, and was quite pleased to finally have two proper dill spears (my boyfriend kindly gave me his--apparently he has not caught onto the brilliance of these things). The BBQ sandwich was also good--really good. The meat was incredibly tender, perfectly sauced and piled nicely on a soft roll with some lettuce and home made coleslaw. I was a bit sceptical about the coleslaw at first, but it offered a nice peppery flavour to the sandwich which paired well with the BBQ pork.

The American bakery--Outsider Tart in Chiswick--is a favourite place to visit on Bank Holiday Mondays. They offer a great variety of baked items one typically finds in America (whoopie pies, loads of cookies, certain kinds of cakes, etc.), and they make amazing coffee drinks. Seriously, trekking to Outsider Tart for the coffee alone is worth it. I've not had a latte with milk so smooth since I worked at Ancora Coffee Roasters my last year of university. But, if you're going to trek to Chiswick for coffee, you may as well enjoy some delicious American baked goods as well. Today we picked up two chocolate cupcakes with vanilla frosting, a lime curd bar (similar to a lemon bar but with lime) and some sort of apple crunch cake. Obviously my hunger is getting the better of me since I picked two items for myself, but we also got something for my dad, hence the four in total.

So my recovery is going remarkably well in all. I've not really used any pain relievers over the past week, and if I have it's only been paracetamol. I have a follow-up with the GP Friday to get my prescriptions sorted out, and another appointment the following Friday to have my staples removed. In the meantime I'm waiting for a follow-up with my gastro consultant and the dietitians in Kingston to see how I manage my disease going forward, and optimise my diet so I can get back to a healthy 50 kilos or so before too long.

Even though I have a load of appointments to follow-up on, at least it's been a nice change to be out of hospital and getting on with a semi-normal life.

Making a Run for It

The past few days have been quite good for me, and I'm starting to feel increasingly positive about my current course of treatment, and life in general.

On Friday, I managed to make that bit of a runner I mentioned in my last post to the Asda down the road. I tried to be strategic about my journey which meant walking the 1/2 mile there, and once I acquired my shopping, take the bus back. This turned out to be a better idea than I initially thought because I had not realised how weak my leg muscles had gotten until I tried to run across the road to catch the bus back. As I was trying to run, my legs just seemed to stop working and I nearly fell over in the street. Luckily, I managed to quickly regain my balance and still made it to the bus stop in time. Now I'm determined to focus on taking walks everyday to regain some basic level of strength in my legs, and perhaps try some squats and lunges next week once my legs start feeling a bit stronger. Ultimately, I want to ensure I'm in top form before the surgery.

The shopping trip itself was quite successful, even though I'm certain every chav (white trash in American English) in Kingston was there. I picked up a box of Coco Pops, some fixings for peanut butter and jelly (jam) sandwiches and Skittles. Since I've been eating a bit again, I wanted to have a few options other than mashed potatoes and gravy available, so I figured PB&J always went down well in the past when I had flares, so why not try that now? And I have to say, those sandwiches have been quite tasty.

I've also been trying a few more foods from the food trolley here in hospital. Friday I had the macaroni cheese which was not only tasty, but seemed to settle quite well. Last night I had the pasta bolognese, but because I'm still a bit weary of eating meat, I really only ate the pasta. At least I still got some flavour from the sauce. Today I am going to try a bit of chicken at lunch. Hopefully it will settle well OK. It's been ages since I've had chicken, and because I'm not really eating meat, my food options are quite limited when it comes to the food trolley!

Other than making runners and fighting through crowds of chavs, I've been keeping myself busy with my current knitting project, which is a little more than two-thirds of the way complete, and a bit of reading. I recently finished a book called The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga which is about an Indian fellow who is writing a letter to the prime minister of China, telling him about his rise from a nobody in a small Northern Indian village to a successful entrepreneur in Bangalore in the south. What makes the book interesting is that the path he took to get there isn't what one might expect. The book is quite strange at first, but that's what really drew me in and made me want to download the full version.

I'm not quite sure what I'm going to read next, but I have plenty of samples on my Kindle to get me started, and I still have about 100 more rows left on my cowl before it's complete.

A Rough 10 Days

The last week and a half has not been so good, hence no updates in that period.

I started the TPN 8 July, and after a visit from my GI consultant earlier that day, he seemed happy for me to go ahead and eat whatever I liked so long as I did not make myself too sick. Of course, after not eating any solid food for nearly a month, I was keen to try eating something. So I indulged in some mashed potatoes and gravy for dinner, Rice Krispies and bread with jam for breakfast, and more mashed potatoes and a yoghurt (if I was feeling hungry enough) for lunch over the course of the weekend. As far as I remembered, none of these types of foods had really bothered me prior to my admission to hospital, and I thought they would be OK. But I was wrong. By that Sunday afternoon, I was fighting some intense nausea that even the oral Cyclizine wasn't helping to quell. When I'd asked for it previously, it'd worked surprisingly well, especially compared to other oral anti-sickness I'd tried in the past. When it came time for another dose of anti-sickness, I smartened up and made sure to ask for intravenous Cyclizine. Not only was I hoping it would be stronger, but I had just been sick when I rang for the nurse, and I didn't think I could keep the pill down long enough for it to work.

Intravenous Cyclizine is amazing. Not only does it work well on the nausea, but when it first hits my bloodstream, I get the weirdest high from it. It's like everything in my body relaxes, and I could just blissfully fall asleep for a bit. It also makes it incredibly difficult to concentrate on a task for about the first 30 minutes it's in your bloodstream. Things like trying to message friends via phone, read emails or even talk to other people become a bit more work, and the falling asleep for a bit becomes the best option. Actually, spacing out and staring at the TV is also good, especially with some of the mind-numbing things that are on during the day.

After asking for Cyclizine pretty regularly for the past week, the doctors finally ended up prescribing it as a regular drug for me this past weekend. Yes, that's right, even though I've not touched any solid food since the weekend of 9 July, I've been fighting nasty abdominal cramping/pain and nausea ever since. Today is actually the first day in that time I don't feel horrible (touch wood!). Fingers crossed things will stay this way.

My GI consultant met with some colleagues at the Royal London Hospital to discuss my case and essentially get some second opinions on my behalf. The consensus is that I  need to have surgery. However, I need to get my nutrition under control and start gaining weight first. Since this could take time, he is looking into transferring me to another hospital that is part of an NHS trust that has a program for administering TPN at home. He said it is also likely that I would have my surgery at the same hospital since they are more specialised in treating patients with digestive problems. I think I'd just be happy to leave this hospital for a bit to see some of the outside world; getting treatment to get on with life would be icing on the cake.

As an aside, and getting back to the original intent of this blog, the BBC recently published an article titled Americanisms: 50 of Your Most Noted Examples. Essentially, readers submitted American words or phrases that have seeped into British culture that really annoyed them. This was my favourite submission:

"14. I caught myself saying "shopping cart" instead of shopping trolley today and was thoroughly disgusted with myself. I've never lived nor been to the US either. Graham Nicholson, Glasgow"

Disgusted with yourself?! Really? Perhaps I should be disgusted with myself for adopting British-English spellings and using mostly British-English terms for things, essentially giving up my identity as an American? At least I'm holding onto my American pronunciations for words like "aluminium" and "laboratory."

Things I Look Forward to Eating

In the weeks leading up to trips back to America, I always make a mental list of the different places I want to go out to eat, and various food products that I want to pick up that I cannot get easily (or cheaply) here in the UK. This most recent trip home, I wanted to visit a few restaurants (in order of preference):

1. The Log Cabin: true to Midwest living, these guys serve up oversized portions of delicious Midwest comfort foods (things like roast turkey with the trimmings, open-faced sandwiches, traditional breakfasts, etc.). This is one of my favourite restaurants back home, and I was really disappointed that I wasn't feeling quite well enough to make it during my most recent visit.
2. Chocolate Shoppe Ice Cream: two words: blue moon. A mysteriously bright blue ice cream that has no discernible flavour other than delicious. Chocolate Shoppe serves up some incredibly rich, creamy ice cream made of only the best local dairy ingredients. It's a perfect treat any time you find yourself wandering State Street in Madison, Wisconsin.
3. Dotty Dumpling's Dowry: burgers are better in America. Period. And some of the best burgers I've ever had were served up at Dotty's. Favourite burgers here include the Runnelstone, California Burger and the Heart Throb. Again, this was another restaurant I didn't manage to visit during my most recent trip, and during my Thanksgiving trip when I did make it, I wasn't feeling well enough to enjoy one of their delicious burgers (but I can say the corn dogs are pretty good!).
4. Pizza Hut: OK, this may seem like a strange one since Pizza Hut actually exists in the UK. But, there is a difference between American Pizza Huts and UK Pizza Huts. Actually, there is even a difference between Pizza Huts in different states, as I learned when I lived in California. Wisconsin is lucky enough to have Pizza Huts with all-you-can-eat (how gluttonously American of them) lunch buffets. I remember telling my partner only days before the trip about these, and my dad actually suggested visiting one after the three of us did some touristy stuff one day. While I did make it to a Pizza Hut buffet, I wasn't feeling up to actually eating too much, which was highly disappointing. It's hard to pass-up all-you-can-eat pizza, pasta and bread sticks!
5. Library Mall Food Carts: these are a bit difficult to explain unless you've actually spent time on the UW-Madison campus. Essentially, there are a number of food-truck type carts that set up shop outside Memorial Library from spring to autumn serving a variety of different foods including African, Jamaican, Mexican, Thai, etc. My favourite while I was in uni was the Cuban food cart called Guantanamera. Unfortunately, he seems to have gone out of business since, and my partner and I went to the Buraka cart during out most recent visit instead. I've never been disappointed by Buraka's take on African food, and really enjoyed the coconut chicken curry I had on my most recent visit. An added bonus of the food carts is that you can take your lunch and enjoy it at the Memorial Union Terrace when the weather is good.
6. The Eagle Inn: I always enjoyed the hot beef sandwich here, but their breakfasts are really good too. Oh, and the pies, those are fantastic. This was one of the restaurants I did manage to visit, and I had an awesome short stack and sausages here, and the food is such great value-for-money!
7. Original Pancake House: I've not been here for years, but damn, I have dreams of their bacon pancakes. If you're and American who's been in Britain on Pancake Tuesday (Shrove Tuesday a.k.a. Fat Tuesday), you know that British pancakes are not the same as American pancakes. And if there is one breakfast food I desperately miss, it's a nice stack of pancakes (which used to be one of my standby dinners when I was too lazy to make anything else).
8. Lao Laan-Xang: I first tried this place recommendation of a co-worker at the coffee shop I worked at during my last year of uni. The curry squash here is absolutely phenomenal, and it's one of those dishes that's made to the level of spiciness you prefer. With two locations, one on Willy Street and another just down the road on Atwood Avenue in Madison, you have some choice in where you can enjoy your delicious dinner (though you're more likely to get a table at the Atwood location). 
9. Culver's: a home-state fast food chain that delivers some deliciously unhealthy burgers, and equally unhealthy frozen custard. I managed to get one of their turtle sundaes in just before I left on my recent trip. This is a sundae consisting of frozen custard, hot fudge and caramel sauce, topped off with some salty pecans and a cherry. Ooh, that combination of salty-sweetness is making my mouth water at the thought. The burgers are really good too, with the Wisconsin Swiss Melt being my favourite because it is most like a patty melt (and I have a weakness for patty melts).
10. The Old Feed Mill: I worked here for five years from high-school through uni. I wanted to go here more or less to see how much has changed since I stopped working there seven years ago, but I was also interested in showing my boyfriend where I spent my younger days working. Even though this is one of the only restaurants actually in my home town, we've never actually made it there for lunch or dinner. Perhaps on our next trip we will.

In addition to visiting local restaurants, there are always a variety of foods that I either ask my parents to pick up, I pick up myself at some point during my trip, or we make at home. These include (in order of preference):

1. Hostess orange cupcakes: my boyfriend will tell you I am absolutely crazy for these things. When we were in Wisconsin over Thanksgiving last year, we literally would drive to every convenience store within a five-to-ten-mile radius to see if they had these delicious morsels. Luckily, I found one could buy an entire box of eight at Wal-Mart, which saved us many unnecessary trips during our most recent visit.
2. Waffles/pancakes: as I mentioned above, I absolutely LOVE pancakes, and waffles are a close second, if not tied. My family usually has what we call a "big breakfast" during each visit home where we all gather and have pancakes, waffles, eggs, bacon, sausage, etc., but because my stomach was not cooperating, we never had a chance to do this during my last visit.
3. Pumpkin bars: my mom makes some amazing pumpkin bars. I tried making these myself when I lived in California, but they never tasted quite as good as my mom's. Unfortunately, I'll have to wait until Thanksgiving to have some of these, unless I am prepared to spend an arm and a leg buying canned pumpkin here, and face the frustration of trying to use British ingredients.
4. Reese's Pieces: similar to M&Ms, but filled with sweet peanut butter rather than chocolate. I would have actually put down Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, but I'm lucky enough that the local Waitrose now stocks these at only 60p for a package of three cups.
5. Cream of fruit instant oatmeal: I do not care whether I get the Quaker brand, or some generic store brand, but I absolutely love eating this stuff for breakfast.
6. Bagels and flavoured cream cheese: in the UK, it seems one can only get two flavours of bagels: 1) plain; 2) cinnamon and raisin. Where I grew up, there is a place called the Bagels Forever and they had a great selection including my favourites bluebarry (that's how they spell it), cranbarry oat, hole wheat and standby cinnamon and raisin. Not only that, but you could get some really nice flavoured cream cheeses including strawberry and blueberry. While I did not make it to Bagels Forever, I did pick up some delicious blueberry bagels and blueberry cream cheese (blueberry overload? I think not; it was delicious).
7. Corn dogs: how could anyone not love a hot dog dipped and coated in cornmeal then deep fried to a light, golden brown? I've not really found a place in my family's area that serves up really good corn dogs (like Hot Dog on a Stick on the West Coast), but I have been known to buy the frozen ones at the supermarket and eat them at home. Sure, they're not the same, but they're still all right.
8. Home-made cookies: yes, you can make cookies in the UK, but I've not bothered trying after some other disasters I've had with British ingredients (let's just say British flour--even the plain stuff--isn't the same as American flour). Not only that, but the concept of chocolate chips does not seem to exist! As it turns out, my partner is really good at baking cookies. We used to spend crappy afternoons baking cookies when we lived in the Bay Area, and on our most recent visit home, he made a really nice batch of chocolate chip cookies; even my parents had a hard time resisting them.
9. American cereals: these includes ones like Lucky Charms, Fruity Pebbles, and Froot Loops. Choosing one of these cereals is always a tough decision because I only ever have a week or two back home at a time, and I usually prefer to eat the oatmeal mentioned above for breakfast. Since I thought the oatmeal was causing me a bit of intestinal distress this last time, I opted for Fruity Pebbles, and I even had enough to bring back and enjoy in the UK for a few days. Interestingly, I learned last summer that one can purchase Froot Loops on the Continent. However, they lack the unnatural colour of the American cereal, and don't quite taste right (i.e. not as sweet).
10. Hamburger Helper: minced (ground) beef mixed with pasta in a cheesy sauce, how could one not love it? I managed to smuggle two boxes back to the UK with me, and learned that British beef isn't quite as tasty as American beef. Regardless, I look forward to enjoying my last box of Hamburger Helper once I'm able to eat solid food again.

So there you have it. A list of places and foods I like that show how truly American (i.e. gluttonous and unhealthy) I am. I'm certain if it wasn't for my Crohn's, I would be the size of a house.