Best Ever Granola!

I'm not temping this week so that means I'm baking. I bought 'Babycakes' a dairy,wheat and sugar free baking cookbook based on a bakery in New York (thanks Courtney for the suggestion). I've found some of the ingredients but a field trip to Whole Foods in London is in store to get the rest.

In the mean time I made granola today and I'm making spelt bread for the first time on Friday night. I LOVE this granola and always have some frozen in our tiny freezer. The trouble is I eat so much of it! Matt doesn't eat it so I can't blame him for how fast it disappears. I thought I would share the recipe since I know there are other foodie/baked good lovers out there who read this.

Enjoy!

Ready in 40 minutes - makes 16 1/2 servings

1/2 cup ground or coarsely chopped flaxseeds

6 cups old-fashioned or longer cooking oat flakes (I just use quaker oats)

2 cups sliced, unsalted almonds

1 cup raw, unsalted pumpkin seeds

1/2 cup raw, unsalted sunflower seeds

1 tsp each sea salt and cinnamon

3/4 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup honey

1 cup dried apricots, chopped into small pieces

1 cup dried cranberries

1 cup dried apples, chopped into small pieces

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

2. Line two cookie sheets with unbleached parchment paper (your hands will be sticky after mixing so its easier if these are ready to go)

3. Combine dry ingredients in a very large bowl. Add liquid and fruit ingredients and stir well. (I mix it with my hands. It's messier but I find it works much better for getting everything to stick together)

4. Bake for 30 minutes BUT check on it every 10 minutes and use a spatula to stir it. The dried fruit tends to burn unless you give it a shake every 10 minutes or so.

5. Remove from oven and let cool before putting in airtight containers. Freezes very well.

NOTE: This makes a HUGE amount of granola and I usually only make 1/2 a batch. The recipes halves very well. Also - I've used other dried fruit before when I didn't have dried apples and it turned out fine.

I hope you love it as much I do. This item would be sold at the fantasy Gold Owl Bakery.

It's been a great week

As anyone who works for or with local government knows, they move at a snail's pace. As a result, although I have received and returned my new employee package for Surrey County Council, I still do not have a start date or training dates. I'm back to temping until it gets sorted out. I did phone them but didn't really get anymore information then I already had.

This week I've been temping for Reach a marketing company in my town. Its very convenient to be able to walk to work and its only a few doors down from my gym. Its a pretty cool place and some of their clients are nintendo, nestle and some apple i-phone stuff. My job has been less glamorous. I along with 3 other temps have been completing data cleansing. Nestle did a huge audit and went all around the U.K. to find out what kind of coffee machines are in supermarkets, schools and offices etc. All the people who did the audit uploaded the info online. Our job is then to go through every entry (there are about 1500) and make sure that there are no blanks in the entry and that all the answers make sense. If there is a problem, then I have to call the person who did the audit and get them to tell me the answer they had recorded on their original questionnaire.

It's been boring but the office is fun and I sit next to another temp named Sean so at least I have someone to chat with during the day. We're also faster at going through the data then the other two temps so we call ourselves Team 1/the winning team. We can get through about 50-60 entries per day. That project is finished so I might still be working there this week coming up but I might not. Either way, to me, this is what temp work should be like. No responsibility, come in and do your work and go home. The last temp job was way too much responsibly from the get-go.

The weather has also been amazing all week. Everything just seems to be better when the sun is shining. I even discovered cherry blossom trees on my way to work which reminded me of Vancouver and make me smile.

Matt still works out of town all week leaving me to my own devices. We've been trying to make the most of the time that we have together on the weekends. Although spending 4-5 hours at the golf course tends to eat into our 'couple' time. I know how I feel when I don't go down to the gym for a few days so I do understand (to an extent) his intense passion for golf.

I'm getting very excited for our upcoming trip to Canada. We arrive on June 12th and of course I've already got almost the whole thing planned out. I'm a planner. I also want to make the most of our time there. We've also been invited to a wedding in Australia in January so we're really trying to see how we can make that work.

I'm hoping that in the very near future I'll know more about when I start this job!

Gold Owl Bakery

Since things have not being going quite as well as I had hoped in the work/career department, I have begun to fantasize about a possible dream job for myself.

I've signed the contract for the new job, they've contacted my references and still I have no idea of a start date. My plan is to give them a call tomorrow to try and find out when training might start. In the meantime, it's back to temp work. This week, its at a marketing company.

When I first moved here and wasn't working at all, I was baking all the time. I gave away little packages of gingerbread cookies at Christmas time as gifts. I have always loved baking. More than once (and many times in recent months) people have tried my cookies or other baked goods and told me that I should have my own business. I did, very briefly, have my own cookie business but it was short lived since I only had one customer who was missing his mom's cookies and wanted someone to make them for him.

When I first began toying with the idea of my own cookie business since moving to England, the most important thing was a name and brand. I love my last name and I love owls so Gold Owl cookies was born. I looked into selling them at a market stall in our town centre. They have a once a month market. This idea fizzled out fairly quickly because my very brief cost-benefit analysis was discouraging. It didn't seem like it could ever be anything more than a hobby. So I tucked the idea away in a mental file of wouldn't it be nice.

Two weeks ago I began a no wheat/no dairy/ no sugar plan. I started this partially for detox purposes and partially for weight loss purposes. Its been pretty effective. I've had less stomach problems and lost 3 pounds. I've also been baking with new ingredients (for me) like spelt flour and soy milk. Matt even enjoyed my spelt pancakes made with soy milk for breakfast this morning!

I was worried that I wouldn't be able to find things to eat since there is no whole foods or major health food store in my town. There are smaller stores and a 1/4 of an aisle at the grocery store but I've been pleasantly surprised overall with what I've been able to find and put together.

Yesterday, Matt and I went to Kingston to go shopping and I found a cool store called Food for Thought which was like a dream (and Matt's nightmare). It was full of different flours and vegan/vegetarian food. It got me thinking about how I can't buy these kinds of things closer to our house (freshly made products). So in the car on the drive home I started brainstorming about how I should expand my fictional business to include not just cookies but a whole assortment of wheat free/gluten free breads and baked goods and Gold Owl Cookies became Gold Owl Bakery.

I might look into the market stall idea again but there' s a good chance that this idea might remain in my head but its fun to think about.

A Little Homesick

After the amazing high of Paris came the inevitable low of facing reality. I had pushed many things out of my mind with the plan to deal with them once I was back from my trip. The biggest issue on my mind (all the time lately) is work. I do have a new job but it hasn't started yet. I just got my new employee package in the mail and I'm waiting for the next step or contact from my employers. I've also begun applying for more full time jobs since this job is only part time/on call.

All of the jobs that I want and have been applying for are all through the same organization Surrey County Council. They seem to have a monopoly on every social service and criminal justice related job available. I find this so frustrating because I have filled out the same job application online at least 25 times now. In the past (In Canada), when I was applying for jobs, I was sending out applications and resumes to a number of different organizations. Here its one single organization. I'm hoping that since I've already been hired by them for another position, they will maybe let my application get past the first stage. I'm fantastic in interviews if they give me one.

Last Monday was the Jewish holiday of Passover. This is one of my favourite holidays. When I moved here in November and was in England for Christmas, many people asked me if I missed being with my family. I missed my family but since we don't celebrate Christmas, it wasn't such a hardship being away at that time of year. Passover, on the other hand, is a big holiday in my family. We always have a big family get together and dinner. This year, I went to a Passover dinner in North London with my cousin Jonas. I was really happy to go to an actual dinner rather than having to pay to attend one at a synagogue. Also, the dinner was vegetarian and kosher for Passover! This is no small feat when you consider that you are not allowed to use any wheat/bread products for Passover. I really enjoyed myself but still really missed my dinners at home.

For the last month and a half, Matt has been working out of town during the week. He leaves Monday mornings and comes back Friday evenings. I wish that my social life wasn't quite so dependant on him but it is. The people that I know here all live in London which isn't that far but also isn't around the corner. I'm still trying to meet more local friends. I do occasionally hang out with Matt's mum though.

In the midst of the holiday, job applications feeling futile and Matt being away, I was hit with an intense wave of homesickness. All I kept thinking (and am still thinking) is would this all be easier if I had stayed in Canada where I had friends and a car and knew my way around the city?Those thoughts inevitably lead to the question that I try not to ask but that pops up in difficult times ' What am I doing here?'. Most days, I'm very happy with my decision and even if there are bad days, overall I believe that it was the right choice for me to move here. Plus, I was so efficient at packing up my life before I left, I don't really have anything (other than people) tying to me one place. If I were to move back, I would still have to start over again.

One bright spot in this rough patch is that I had friends come to visit. Max and Adrienne, who live in Germany, came on Thursday. Adrienne and I are friends from grad school in Vancouver and she met Max in Canada and then moved to Germany to be with him. Adrienne and I have lots to talk about in that department. It was so nice to have them for a visit. Despite their awesomeness, the homesick feelings have not fully disappeared.

I know that I haven't been here very long but I still don't feel that much of a connection to a life here. I'm sure a large element of that is due to a very irregular work schedule. I keep hoping that once this new job starts, there will be an improvement. Although, sometimes it feels like by the time I get everything sorted out with the new job, I'll be on my way back to Canada for a visit (June 12th - 28th).

This has been a fairly depressing post but unfortunately that's how I've been feeling. I'm sure that soon enough I'll get sick of this Sarah pity party and find a way to turn things around.