My Misadventures in Baking

Megan is babysitting our old co-worker Chris' oven while he is in Canada chilling between Korea gigs. How do you babysit an oven you ask? Well, here ovens are a free standing unit more like an over sized microwave that you keep on your counter. We've had some interesting encounters trying to make the homemade baked goods we have so desperately been craving.

We've had some pretty hilarious evening sitting on her floor mixing ingredients in salad bowls based on one measuring cup and a cereal spoon. Megan's mom's banana bread was a great success, along with most cookie attempts. Sadly, the brownies from scratch were a serious fail.

The most recent struggle I encountered was with butter. I bought some supplies for cookies and banana bread and went to Megan's only to discover that I forgot butter once I had arrived. I went down her street to pick up the butter along with more flour and some extra walnuts if possible. I was searching so hard for walnuts to no avail, that I didn't pay attention to the butter and ended up with spreadable corn based margarine. Megan convinced me that I did not want to bake with that so I went back and got a huge block of "butter". When I started to cut the butter to soften it it broke apart like I was cutting up a block of wax. Deciding this "butter" would most definitely ruin the taste of my chocolate chip cookies, I made one last trip to the full on grocery store and would settle for no less then genuine Land O'Lakes butter. I was finally successful. Only had the energy and drive to do the cookies, but they are delicious.

I want to attempt my mother's unique banana bread recipe, but it calls for beating egg whites until they are stiff. Without an electronic mixer I find this task a bit daunting. There is a possibility I will try to use a blender. Update later.