Pretzels!

Well, this week has been eventful to say the least. :) I was pampered with three pies (Pear, chocolate, and orange; and two apple pies) and in return, (Though I didn't share...) I made pretzels this week!! (They are the really soft, amazing kind...) And so, here is the delightful recipe. These take some time, and don’t forget to bake them at the end!! (Haha, I did...Oops...but luckily my mum reminded me last minute. :)) I apologize for the cups and tablespoons...I didn’t bother with the conversion...But there’s always Google!! :D

4- 4 ½ c flour

1 pkg active dry yeast

1 ½ c milk

¼ c sugar

2 tbs cooking oil

1 ½ teaspoons salt

3 tbs salt

2 q boiling water

1 slightly beaten egg white

In a mixer, combine 2 cups flour and yeast. In saucepan heat milk, sugar, oil and 1 ½ teaspoons salt just till warm. Stir constantly. Add to flour mixture. Beat at low speed for 30 seconds, scraping bowl. Beat 3 minutes at high speed. Stir in as much of remain flour with spoon. Turn out on lightly floured surface. Knead in remaining flour to make a moderately stiff dough that is smooth and elastic. Shape into a ball. Put into greased bowl and let rise 1 ½ hour.

Punch down. Turn out on surface. Cover and let them rest for10 min. Roll into 12x8 rectangle. Cut into 16 strips, each 12 inches long and ½ inches wide. Roll each into a rope 16 inches long. 

Shape pretzels. Let them rise uncovered for 20 min. 

Dissolve 3 tbs salt into boiling water. Boil 3-4 pretzels for 2 minutes, turning over. Move to cooling racks, letting them stand a few seconds. Brush with egg white and 1 tbs water. Sprinkle with salt. Bake at 160 for 25-30 min. Enjoy!

Miss Scarlett 
XOXOXO

Merry Christmas, everybody!

Yes, it's me again, that annoying person on the internet. If you can't tell, I like to blog. A lot. But to cut to the chase, Merry Christmas!!!!!! Once again it's Chistmas here in Houston. Yes, it's relatively warm and sunny here. :)

But enough about boring weather. I don't mean to sound like some suuuupppppeeerrr religious, but what Jesus did was really amazing. I know my pride would not let me be come a helpless baby.

So, just remember that everyone! (Including me...) And merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!
Scarlett XOXO

Squashing the myths about Homeschooling and creating some new ones! (part 1?)

New acquaintances : So what school do you go?
Me: Uh i don't go to school, I'm homeschooled.
New acquaintances: *looks like they've been hit with an imaginary fart bomb* whaa?
Me: So like I'm um educated at home.
New acquaintances: Oh. (still doesn't get it) So who teaches you?
Me: I teach myself.
*POOF* Acquaintance blows up with mind blown

Okay hi, I am a homeschooler. Since Year 7 my parents have homeschooled me, let me just get this out of the way;

• I'm not homeschooled because I'm not very intelligent (dumb, dunce, a noob e.t.c)
• I'm not homeschooled because I'm super intelligent (genius, prodigy, nerd e.t.c)
• I'm not homeschooled because I'm "naughty" (cheeky, rebellious, troublesome e.t.c)

The simplest reason (and not very explaintory) for me being homeschooled (I have now come up with the condensed version over the years of questions) : My parents whilst looking at secondary high schools for my older sister looked at the option of doing education differently. It worked for her and I was enthusiastic to do it. So we did.

I'm going to do a list of things I've learnt about homeschooling and the education system in the past 4 years and a half (I'm in year 11 now) but first I want to get clear that I think that neither Home education or School education is best. I can not choose between the two. I am applying for sixth forms atm so maybe when I go to "school" again its possible I'll think differently. I mean its like school, that means schoolWORK, generally its poop. 

First Myth

Homeschoolers don't have social lives(?) 

Hmm this is a fun one when people often awkwardly ask "how do you have friends?". Its a fair question tbh. I mean your circle of friends are mainly from school right?!?  Well my friends are a combo of old school friends, church friends, homeschooling friends and GENERAL PEOPLE FROM ZE WORLD. The general thought is that school is where you find who you dislike and like, agree and disagree with blah blah. Which is right actually and how it works normally but I think with homeschooling you have to make more of an effort? 

You don't see people your age every stinking day (well I don't) but life tends to happen and I guess when I do meet people (because sometimes I walk outside my house) I still form friendships as you normal-schooled people do. 

Anyways *warning warning chance of drowning in the deepness here* "True friendship is not being inseparable, it’s being separated and nothing changes." - Unknown

So maybe just maybe I've learnt to truly hold onto friendships. But BUT I am also truly terrified and sometimes insecure about the whole I'm weird and different to you normal people out there. But I'm learning that you "normal" people in school don't have it easy as I like to think ("Homeschoolers have it easy" will be my second myth)  

But good friendships in school are something else too no? Because you're travelling through the ups and downs of education woah!

Okay so this was a rant and basically a spurt of feelings. I'm not actually aiming this post at anyone haha its more of a letter to myself. Its good to get things written down? I'm hoping to actually give some clarity to homeschooling in the next posts but if I have confused you even more I APOLOGISE, I'm trying here. I'd also like to say thanks to the people who have endured my "Why I've been homeschooled" explanations  which must have been confusing and contradictory. 

Peace and Love to all, I am going to stop writing before I really emerge into gabblegooblygook.
P.S P.S This is a brill video by some brill people basically doing some of this blogs post aims for me (thanks blimey cow) ;

Lights, Camera, Action

Yes I know. It's me again. That weirdo in all those fandoms. So hello again and merry Christmas. I thought that since it being Christmas and all I should do something Christmasy. I couldn't think of anything Christmasy except music, which I know nothing about. So then I decided to tell y'all about the fantabulous decorations over here in the wide world of London.

I have always liked Christmas decorations. In Houston, some extravagant persons do lights in tune to their own radio station. Crazy, I know. Some really ingenious street always puts out this massive train set and serve hot chocolate. Or you can get lucky with going down a coordinated street with all the exact same lights. If you get really lucky you get a house decorated with only home-made things, as in whole-yard-covered-in-professional-looking-homemade-decorations. Others, like my family, string a few light bulbs out and put out some old worn out gingerbread men statues and possible some lit up reindeer. :)

I don't know about houses here in London, but the city itself is always decorated fantabulously. So in Covent Garden this year, a snow globe was set up, containing all of London's famous landmarks made out of 120,000 lego pieces. It was crazy. The Shard was almost up to my shoulder. That poor person who had to build that. His neck would be cramping majorly. :)

In Covent Garden, there was literally this gigantic tree that made me feel *this* tiny. All over the market roofs they had hung giant red baubles and disco balls ( Ah, ah, ah, ah stayin' alive, stayin' alive!!! Jim Moriarty!!! No!!!! Side note, just went for a Christmas movie night with my friends. We watched Yours, Mine, and Ours, Catch me if You Can, three Sherlocks, and not one Christmas movie. :D As you can imagine, we got no sleep.)

Also this year, I was blessed with the opportunity to go see the lighting of the tree sent from Norway (Or was it Sweden…?) to London in Trafalgar Square. And before you start to imagine someone setting the tree on fire to show their appreciation to England, they just turn on it's lights. :) Seeing the lights all at once come on was really cool, surprisingly. Plus afterwards we had dinner in the city. Yay! :)

I haven't been to Oxford Circus this year, but last year the decorations were…more than puzzling. First of all the lights showed reindeer smashing a jar of Marmite. (???) Then it showed Santa eating a sandwich then spitting it out with a look of disgust. I was so confused until I saw Marmite's logo: "You either love it or hate it." So I'm guessing Santa and the reindeer didn't love it. :)

So those are my Christmas decorations experience in London so far. :) And I just finished writing a Christmasy story about Vienna here and here on my blog about writing and books, so if you have some time on your hands and a cup of tea, check it out. Or if your just bored. :D

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Scarlett

Whats up with Tau??

Ever wondered why a circle equals 2π?? Why can't it equal 1 something or other. That would make the math concerning circles much more beautiful, elegant, and logical. A few Mathematicians agree that a full rotation equaling 2π can be a bit cumbersome. So they doubled Pi, making if approximately 6.28 and named it Tau. If we use Tau, a full rotation of 360° equals 1 Tau, or simply Tau. Do you see how much more logical that is? This also makes equations concerning circles easier. It makes calculating radians easier which is one of the main arguments for Tau, but i'm just going to look at circumference for simplicity's sake. The Pi equation for circumference is c= 2πr (Pi is defined as c/2r which, if you do some algebra, is the same equation as c= 2πr.) The Tau equation for circumference is c= Tau•r (Tau is defined as c/r, and if you again do some algebra you get c=Tau•r.) In the Pi equation you multiply three things together while in the Tau equation you only multiply two things together. So it seems that Tau is simpler when dealing with circumference. So why don't we just switch to Tau?? Think about it. Pi is a lovely number that's been around for a long time and has a rich history. Brilliant mathematicians have used it. So would you kick a number like that to the curb? I love Pi, it's an amazing number, but I personally think maths should be as simple and elegant as possible, therefore, I believe that Tau might be better than using Pi. One final though for my non-maths loving readers. Pi day is on March 14 (3/14). You get to eat pie on that day which rocks! But on Tau day, June 28 (6/28), you get to eat two pies as that's what Tau equals. So now tell me, what do you think about Pi vs. Tau?
Addi

For those interested:

The Tau movement was championed by several brilliant mathematicians including Bob Palais and Michael Hartl.

A Kahn Academy video on Tau
http://www.khanacademy.org/math/trigonometry/basic-trigonometry/long_live_tau/v/tau-versus-pi
This video uses a lot of Trigonometry, but it's still a great video and quite easy to understand with limited knowledge of Trigonometry. Also it looks at radians, which is the main argument for Tau.

A Math Doodler video on Tau
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jG7vhMMXagQ&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DjG7vhMMXagQ
An important note here. Pi is not actually wrong; Tau can just be easier. You will get the same answers whether you use Pi or
Tau as they are equal to one another.

The Pi manifesto
http://www.thepimanifesto.com/
This site defends Pi.

Mortals, Prepare Yourselves.

Greetings, mortals. Your ways are quaint.

So, hello, hello all. In case you didn't know me, the names Miss Scarlett. (You do not know how much I've wanted to say that...:D) So I just got invited to start a blog. (Yay!) And I'm kind of a loser blogger 'cuz I blog about one of two things, fangirl and writing.

So here I was all, "Derp, de derp, I have to blog about somethin'. Hmmm...how about fangirlism or writing?" The winner is....ding, ding, ding...fangirlism! (Hip, hip, hooray!)

I belong to sooooo many fandoms I just can't even believe it myself. My fandoms include Doctor Who, Sherlock, Merlin, Downton Abbey, Divergent, H2O, The Inheritance Cycle, Loki, Benedict Cumberbatch, Colin Morgan, and Veronica Roth.

Just take a deep breath and go back and re-read that. Possibly in a Johanna from the Hunger Games voice.

Btw, just went to see Catching Fire and, well, I asked Peeta to marry me. :) But I almost cried because this is the only time we actually see Katniss and Peeta happy. The rest of the time Peeta is trying to literally kill her.

So back to fangirling.... I'm going to fangirl about some characters from books or the afore mentioned British telly shows that have ruined/enhanced my life.

1. Tobias Eaton- Can we just take a moment to thank Veronica Roth for making us have non-fictional feeling for fictional characters? Thanks a lot Ms. Roth. (Aka, lets-make-all-the-fangirls-go-crazy-because-they-like-Tobias-a-little-more-than-they-should.) If he walked into a room right now and asked me, "Hey, there. Wanna marry me?" my first reaction would be fainting. :D

2. The Doctor- Read that last sentence of number one but substitute 'marry' for 'run away with me in my TARDIS' and you have another reaction (Stolen from the sassy Donna Noble) "I've packed for warm weather, cold weather, and no weather at all!" *Proceeds to unload thousands of bags that I've kept in the car for over a year* *Doctor stares and starts wondering if this was a good idea*

3. Katniss Everdeen- This is all a bit of a hater rant. Katniss drives me crazy in all of them except the third one. (Which is the worst book...) She is all, "I hate the Capitol. I won't do anything they ask me to do." Then proceeds to do exactly what the Capitol told her to do: Kill other children. Really, when push came to shove, she was very weak-willed. Was it that hard to surrender or run away?

4. Sherlock Holmes from Sherlock BBC-  ERROR. NO WORDS HAVE BEEN FOUND TO ACCURATELY DESCRIBE THE LEVEL OF AWESOMENESS SHERLOCK HAS.

5. Loki- Oh, he's no big deal, right? JUST THE BEST VILLAIN TO EVER EXIST! But no biggy, right?

6. Merlin- I wonder if I pretend to be magical if he'll come and save me...:)

So there you have it, just a few of my character fandoms and haters. But, whatever. I guess I'll have to get a life someday...What a scary thought. Unless!!! I could be the Girl Who Waited to Get A Life Because Sherlock Takes Two Years to Come Out With A New Season And Each Season Is Only Three Episodes That Are an Hour And Thirty Minutes. Pheww, that's a bit of a long name. You can just call me S. S. O. D. (Severe Sherlock Obsession Disorder)

Sayonara, my friends. And may the fangirling be ever in your favor.
Scarlett

P.S- If any of you were wondering, I don't fangirl the Hunger Games particularly, I just like some aspects of it. I probably would fangirl it if Gale wasn't so annoying and the third book never happened...

My Reicpe for Meringues

I don't know about you guys but I adore meringues!!! I'm not sure whether it's because of how easy it is to bake or if it is that they are very easy to impress people with. So I have decided to share my recipe with you guys.

Raspberry Cream Meringues (adapted from DK Step-by-Step Baking)

Ingredients:                                                         For the Filling:

4 Egg Whites, at room temperature                  100g(3.5oz) raspberries

About 240g(8.75oz) caster sugar                        300ml(10fl oz) double cream

                                                                              1 tbsp icing sugar, sifted

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to around 120 celsius. Line a baking sheet with parchment.
2. Ensure the bowl is clean and dry; use a lemon to remove traces of grease, if need be.
3. Whisk the egg whites in the metal bowl until they are stiff and form strong peaks.
4. Gradually add half the sugar, a couple of tablespoons at a time,whisking in between.
5. Gently fold the remaining sugar into the egg whites, trying to lose as little air as possible.
6. Put tablespoons of the mixture onto the baking tray leaving 5cm (2in) gaps between. Alternatively, pipe with a plain nozzle.
7. Bake in the centre of the oven for 1 hour.
8. They are ready when they lift easily from the parchment and sound hollow when tapped.
9. Turn off the oven and leave the meringues to cool inside (appox 1 hour). Remove onto a wire rack.
10. Put the raspberries in a bowl and crush them with the back of a fork, so they break up.
11. In a separate bowl whisk up the double cream until firm but not stiff.
12. Gently fold together the cream and crushed raspberries, and combine the icing sugar.
13. Spread a little of the raspberry mixture onto half the meringues.
14. Top with the remaining meringue halves and gently press together to form sandwiches.

Hope you have a brilliant time baking!!

xoxo

Mrs Peacock