Friends With Benefits ;)

Today was a good day! Started off by sleeping in (Cold Medicine worked very well!) until it was time to get ready to go to class (Not gonna say what time my class started because my mom will give me crap for how late it was...*cough*1:15*cough*....Hey. I'm sick. I need my rest.) Went to class and it's going to be a bit of a snoozer...but I knew that heading into a class with the title "Introduction to Government and Politics." (believe me I did not choose it...I need a PoliSci credit to graduate and this is my ticket to being done!) Had class for two hours and then came back to my room to make a shopping list.

My aunt wrote me out the recipe for my pie so I made a list of the ingredients I didn't have (most of them) and a few other things like a rolling pin and pie pans...and more toilet paper (going through mine like no other with this cold). The pie pans cost 7.5 pounds a piece...and they had "flan pans" for 3.5 pounds a piece...which do you think I bought? So I now have pies in flan pans. :) Anyway...made my list and called a taxi and went to Tesco's. My shopping went fairly smooth until I ran into a problem with the shortening. I searched the store high and low trying to not have to ask but eventually I gave in. I asked a lady where the shortening would be and she looked at me like I was nuts. So I tried other words like fat, lard, also explained it had the consistency of butter but was white...no light bulbs came on. So she went and asked someone else and they didn't know either so I gave up. Either shortening does not exist in Northern Ireland...or I was talking to some people who have never baked. So...I bought some extra butter hoping google could help me out on doctoring a different crust recipe that didn't include shortening and headed for check out.

Once I was done shopping I took a taxi home and I would just like to mention...if you want to learn things about where you're at...take a taxi. The taxi driver's always have fun facts and ideas of where to go. This taxi driver told me of a place called Newgrange and said I MUST go there. It is between here and Dublin and he said that it is the oldest building in the world. He said if I could go around December 21st...which is perfect because that's about the time my parents and I will be in the area!

When I got back I went on google and found some help for my recipe. It mentioned that butter has a lower fat % than shortening so I should use a little more butter and also that there is more liquid in butter so I should take out a little of my wet ingredients from the recipe. I did this and it worked fine!!! Well...I haven't tasted it...but the crust looks the same as it has before...

Next I cut up a BAJILLION apples to finish off the pies and they look pretty good :) The top of the first one got a little on the dark side...but it will still be amazing!!!

After I got done baking.. my flat mates, LP and I went to the movies. We went and saw Friends With Benefits and it is now my favorite movie. I will be purchasing it eventually. Love. Now I'm back in my room with a cup of tea and a pizza in the oven (I will soon be getting over pizza....it's just such an easy fix to hunger...). Also...I learned today that I am apparently breaking the rules. I guess we aren't supposed to cook after either 11 or 11:30 at night. They're CRAZY about fire safety here and apparently it's more dangerous to cook at night...? Whatever. :P

An amazing thing about Northern Ireland. Everyone gets my name right the first time. AND they can even spell it. Not an Irish name...I'm just guessing American's don't listen as well as the Irish.

Oh! So that fire alarm yesterday that woke me up from my nap...? Yeah...apparently one of my flat mates was showering with the bathroom door open (we have our own bathrooms to ourselves in our rooms...not strange) and apparently the steam set her fire alarm off. Glad to know that could happen before it happened to me!!

Ninight! :)