Thursday, January 28, 2010

A Master Baker


I have outdone myself. I baked peanut butter cookies. That may not sound like much to you readers sitting in a nice cozy American kitchen with your measuring cups and utensils. Let me rephrase, I made peanut butter cookies with my only measuring device being a soup spoon. And, as I didn't even have all the correct ingredients, I had to improvise a little--I found baking powder in Polish shops but have yet to find the baking soda.

Using a long sleeve t-shirt tied around my waist as an apron, I bravely embarked on a culinary adventure that few would even dare to try. You see, with cooking , it's easy to throw out the measuring devices, but baking doesn't work that way. If cooking is art, baking is chemistry--which is probably why I love it. Regardless, I am so excited that my 2 dozen cookies turned out not only edible but delicious.

The cookies were in addition to a surprisingly delicious chicken & rice soup that I concocted without a definite recipe. It was good enough to go for seconds even though I was sated. I have missed cooking but I have also missed cooking for others. Believe me, having 2 dozen...uh, that is, a dozen and a half cookies lying around the kitchen when a nasty snow storm is blowing outside is not an easy temptation to resist. If someone else were here, well, then I would have someone to share them with. The same with the soup, I enjoyed it so much, I wish someone else could have had some too. Well, I will continue to cook during my break and I have company coming over on Friday. Piotr's cousin Ola and her husband Marek, my two Sopot saviors, are coming to dinner. The plan is to make my favorite Rachael Ray dish, but I have yet to see a jalapeƱo pepper in Poland which poses potential problems. I will keep searching for ingredients in the days to come.

In other news, it's snowing again--I guess that's why it's called winter break--and it's really coming down out there. The city and shops had just cleared the sidewalks to a point that you could easily walk and now we have at least a couple more centimeters out there. With how hard it's coming down, we could easily get a lot more too. So what to do when it's...what do you say? It's not pouring down snow. Snowing cats & dogs? Falling down snow? Falling hard snow?...really coming down? Besides cooking and baking, why you take pictures! So I included a few more for you. Enjoy.



P.S. It's fun to take photos in a new sweater!

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