An American National Food Item - and I had thought it was Burgers and Fries.

I am pretty sure it is not just me either but one of this English Girl's pet peeves with American food is their love of all things cinnamon.  I can understand it (maybe) at this time of year with the festive season coming up on us, but it seems that Americans are obsessed with all things cinnamon tasting and not just at Christmas.  Unfortunately for this English Girl - it is probably my most least liked flavouring.  A little in some mulled wine - fine - but here in the US you just cannot get away from it.

Cinnamon rolls, cinnamon flavoured latter and I am yet to find an Apple Pie which has not been flavoured in some way with cinnamon.  It is like it is the American national flavouring and as such it must therefore be included in all food items.  

Only last week this English Girl decided to treat herself  to a pastry with her morning cup of coffee.  Having decided on a treat of what looked like a yummy chocolate twist - just imagine my dismay when I bit into it and yes you guessed it was cinnamon flavoured too.   You have been warned!

Saving time with Technology - thank goodness for the DVR!

Being the English Girl whose most recent television was acquired from her grandmother's upgrade it has to be said I have never really been at the forefront of technological advances.  I have to, however, say that since moving to the US, I really want to thank the person who invented the DVR. 

This English Girl has been fast forwarded a few technological centuries by my better half and due to this insistence I can now probably count on one had the number of times I have actually watched live television.    This may sound a strange advantage but here in the US the extent of television advertisements is astounding.  The networks here manage to extend the airtime of a movie by at least an hour with the amount of adverts with which they insert into the programming.  Compared to ITV and Channel 4, normal advertising programming here in the US seems to include more adverts than actual show.

With this backdrop the DVR has become my new best friend - allowing me to record the programs I want  to watch and then fast forwarding through the endless and mostly senseless advertisements that interrupt the show at a mind boggling rate.  This English Girl may be an advertisers idea of a nightmare, but at least I only spend half of the time to watch a television show.

All I can say is thank goodness for the DVR!