Secret Toast and Jam

What is it about toast out here in the UK? I've always loved toast- toast and jam, toast and apple-butter, toast and cinnamon sugar- all that. But the folks out here take it one level higher. While I was out looking to buy a replacement coffee maker I was in a store that had 28 different toasters on display ranging from £7.50 to £149.95 I couldn't believe it! It was the same for electric water/tea kettles again it was amazing- there were 30 of those and ranging in price from £10.00 to £249.99...it's an electric water heater people what is the attraction? I was cracking up with the prices and the selection. I've seen this very thing at 3 different stores now...rows of electric tea kettles and toasters as far as the eye could see. And with all of that, only 1 coffee maker on display and it was £80- eeek! At the 2nd and 3rd shops they weren't coffee makers in the normal sense (I'll explain more further on).

While in the states I remember having a selection of a whopping 3 electric water bubblers (that's what I call them). I bought the one with the features I liked- no heating element to be seen inside, auto shut off, side view water level, pouring filter and a base the kettle sat on. I had my nifty water bubbler put into storage before moving out here. Soon after moving here I bought myself one that works on 220 voltage that had all of the features that my other one had.

Now I've been looking to replace my beloved Kitchen Aid coffee pot for one that's made to work with the voltage system out here. Our house has a built in transformer (yes it's a rather nice feature if I do say so myself) so I can use both British and American appliances. But my poor coffee pot was suffering, it's been having a hard time with the 50/60 hertz thing and brewing a pot of coffee was taking 4 times longer than it should- so I decided to send it back to the states for storage and I will seek a new coffee pot out here.

Searching for a coffee pot out here has been a little more difficult than I thought it would be, LOL! I know that they drink coffee out here, but everywhere I go I see these little coffee machines that use those small round coffee pouches and make 1 cup of coffee at a time. That's not what I'm looking for. I want a real honest to goodness coffee maker, one that brews between 10 to 12 cups of coffee at a time and it flows into a glass carafe. So today... my darling husband with all his wisdom will be at the mother base and he's looking at coffee makers for me. That's right, I've got my non-coffee drinking husband looking to buy me a coffee maker- man oh man, either I'm desperate or very trusting, actually I think it's a combination of both! we shall see what he comes home with.

So I'm spending the morning drinking PG Tips tea, having toast and my favorite jam -Smuckers (seedless) Blackberry Jam :-) Hopefully in combination with my headache medication it'll help me work past the migraine headache that I woke up with.