T'is the season... to find alternatives

Aah, the holidays. It's my once a year excuse to go crazy making all sorts of treats, try new things, and generally do what it is that I love doing.

This year is definitely different since I'm in London, but also because the ingredients I've been used to having available aren't always easily found (or easily afforded) here. My friend Amy and I made a pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving. It took looking in a zillion different grocery stores before finding canned pumpkin (funny enough it was with the other traditional Thanksgiving ingredients - sweet potato, cranberries, etc). Shortening is also another ingredient I usually use in pie crusts that's a bit harder to come by. We used vegetarian suet - it's a much drier ingredient and to be honest is shaped like rabbit food pellets. The crust turned out alright in the end, however.

For my favorite chewy caramel recipe that I got from a friend a few years back, the recipe calls for corn syrup. I've found all of one source for that locally - for £3.89 (that's about $7) a bottle at a very "posh" department food hall. Yiiiikes. However, Golden Syrup is fairly similar, but made from cane sugar. I made 3 batches of it today, and they all turned out wonderfully.

So although things are definitely different, it doesn't necessarily have to mean they're not just as good. Oooh, except for the fact that Oreos at that same market also are $12 a box. Boooo.