Last Friday, my friend Lorien and I decided to make cookies after church. (Remember, the Sabbath is on Fridays for members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints here, because of the way the work week works--Sunday is the first day of the work week and everyone has Fridays off.)
It was really a beautiful idea. I have really been missing cooking (although lets be honest, how much cooking do I do when I am in school? Maybe muffins from a package occasionally. But that is really beside the point) and my former roommate, Ghee, left me a cupboard full of "making cookie" supplies. (Remember how I have my own kitchen?) I realized that I should take advantage of my rather large and beautiful kitchen, since no one else (except Karina and Spencer) on this program has a kitchen like I have, not even the married couples. Jason and Brian don't even have a stove--ha!
Anyway, taking advantage of the free kitchen, free supplies, and free time after church, Lorien and I made cookies.
True to form, I forgot to check and make sure I had all the ingredients before I started. I really like doing things--but sometimes the "preparing" part gets left behind in the rush. Thankfully, we had everything we needed except butter, but we got Crisco from Bashira (the mother of the family with whom I live). I am not really a fan of Crisco--I prefer butter. Actually, I prefer margarine, but that is a different story (everything's better with Blue Bonnet on it!). Sorry for those of you who like Crisco cookies. I just like tasting more cookie than Crisco, personally.
Anyway, we ran into only a few snags--first, the oven. I know how to light ovens in the Middle East, but I was afraid because I wasn't sure when the last time was that my oven had been used. Everything is run by gas here, and so to turn on your oven, you turn on the gas, get a match or a lighter, and then stick it into the gas pouring out of the bottom of the oven, hoping it doesn't exploed in your face.
Don't worry, it didn't explode, and I got it lit.
Next stop: conversions. I had a cookie recipie from my mother, and I thought I would have to change the measurements into liters, etc.
Well, I might have had to, but I forgot about measuring cups. They were conspicuously absent from my kitchen.
Never fear, though, because I know how to "eyeball" things, and we had some mugs that looked like they were about 1 cup. And I never measure vanilla--I found out early on that the lid on vanilla is almost always 1 tsp!
With several hurdles overcome, we ran into another--the brown sugar. It was so hard it felt like a rock. Definitely not stirrable, especially since we didn't have beaters and were stirring the cookies with a fork.
Again being the resourceful one, I had Lorien break it up with a fork and, after 15 minutes or so of stirring it with a little water, it became palatable.
Well, this post is getting long and kind of boring, but suffice it to say that after all of the hurdles, the cookies were beautiful. Amazing. Delicious. And so very American.
Don't they look beautiful and amazing? They were.
Suffice it to say, we were pretty proud of ourselves. That mug is what we used for our "1 cup" measuring source.
I, obviously, was more than a little excited for them. :)
2 comments:
Have I mentioned before that you look beautiful. Because you do. That last picture does look a little creepy, though.
I'm just glad they're cookies you're staring at, as opposed to...something...else. That would be more creepy. (: just to switch things up...
Post a Comment