Cooking. . .Not an Art, More Like a Research Paper

Tonight I am making The Pioneer Woman's (http://thepioneerwoman.com/) cinnamon rolls for the first time, crossing my fingers, and hoping for the best! I wanted to take the time and share with everyone what cooking or baking is like over here. In order to begin to make these cinnamon rolls, ( warning: this may contain a lot of sarcasm so when in doubt I am probably being sarcastic)

• I first read the recipe to make sure that the grocery stores carries all the ingredients listed. Yay! Most of the time I have to use substitutions for items like cream cheese, sour cream, cream of mushroom/chicken soup or make these from scratch! Not to get off the subject, but I have learned to make my own sour cream using cream and buttermilk (it lasts for 2 wks in fridge) and cream of mushroom soup. Oh and almost every other week I make my own chicken broth! I know, I know you are all ready to hop on the next plane and come to where all foods are made from scratch! - Ha ha, some days it makes me want to cry!


• Next I send Mark to the grocery store- good thing this is only a 15 minute walk across busy traffic in 30 degree weather! I am THANKFUL ( no sarcasm) that I am married to a strong man that can carry two 40 or so lbs ( oh wait we use kg over here 2.2lbs = 1 kg ) bags home. Sometimes we put our groceries in the stroller and make Aivia walk b/c the groceries weigh more than she!


• Reread recipe and begin to use my MATH degree, yes 7th/8th grade math is useful in real life, but I cheat and use the computer to help with conversions. For instance, the recipe calls for 1 quart, well we only have ml and liters over here so I have to look up that conversion. Their yeast packets are bigger than ours so I have to find out how many tsp are in a yeast packet.


• Turn on my gas stove and begin cooking


• Did I mention that inside my oven there is a Fahrenheit thermometer for all of us that can't convert quickly from Celcius to Fahrenheit in their heads.


• The above list took up my whole afternoon and I haven't even made the rolls yet


• Oh take a look at what butter comes in - NOT sticks and it is in miligrams not ounces.

CONCLUSION:

I now know why so many people smoke here. I might take it up myself then all I would have to do is light one up using the gas stove in my kitchen where I spend most of my time! Which brings me to the pictures below which I think are hilarious. These are warning labels on the backs of cigarette packages!