BAKING! I AM BAKING AGAIN!

Monday November 12^th, 2012

I tried something new this morning. Instead of eating breakfast at school/University, I ate the morning meal at home. With my first host family I had to buy breakfast at school because many times I was only given one small milk box. So I got in the habit of purchasing a sandwich, fruit or drink every morning to get a full breakfast. But at my current house, the option of putting a meal together myself at home opened up. This was preferable because it’s free, the food is good, no waiting lines and a nice environment to enjoy the food with. So the meal I put together included PB toast, apple, Nature Valley Fruit & Nut bar (SPONSER!...Just kidding :P) and soymilk. I like eating at home because it’s quiet, has a good temperature and there’s less rush.

At University I still dropped by the 7-Eleven in order to buy an iced coffee. I was really sleepy and knew I needed some form of caffeine. The coffee is pretty good but nothing phenomenal. But since it does come from a convenient store, I didn’t expect much but it was still good. My second motive to buy coffee other an energy boost was to get a cup I could refill with water at the water machines at the campus. I haven’t been bringing my thermos because it gets too heavy. Now I just leave it in my high school desk and use it only at school. So the coffee cup allows me to get and drink of crisp water at University, a must.

Despite having some coffee, University class was a struggle to stay awake in. I barely got anything out of it because I was so darn tired. I really have to improve my sleep. Next week should be better.

Look! Christmas stuff! Christmas is slowly coming to town! Santas, ornaments, bells and all kinds of other things! The "General Merchandise" store is the only place I've found with Christmas stuff so far. I'm just happy that I can get a taste of December somewhere! :D

The scheduled Spanish class between the exchange students seems to have officially turned into two hours of do whatever the heck you want. So the last two periods of Monday are spent studying, talking, etc. Today I spent most of the time catching up on writing Taffys but with great difficulty. The strong wind was most distracting as we sat on the outside balcony (you can barely call it a balcony). It slapped around my papers and annoyed me immensely as it kept tangling my hair. I suggested going inside but no one felt like it so I battled the persistent gust for a hundred and twenty minutes. Joy.

Camille, the exchange student from France, brought us a treat she made herself. Crepes! Even a simple thing like crepes with only a few ingredients ends up being really expensive to make in Taiwan. So it was really sweet of her to cook crepes for her host family and the exchange students. She bought Nutella for the filling/topping. Yummy Nutella Crepe, it was! It built up even more of my anticipation to make brownies later!

Speaking of which, after dinner it was BAKING TIME! :D ANDREA WAS SO HAPPY! Apart from the fact that it was baking, it was baking CHIRARDELLI Triple Chocolate Brownies. Oh dear Lord that is a chocolaty paradise! Instead of doing all the baking myself like I thought would happen, my Auntie Jenny joined in and did half the work. I think she used to bake stuff and wanted to join in because of it. So we had some bonding time from the coupled effort working together. Twas good!

What was different for me in baking those brownies was using a convection oven rather than the common conventional oven in America. I did research beforehand with how to work one and my findings stated the basic, same thing. To bake brownies in a convection oven, use the temperature of 177°C for twenty-four minutes. Sounds incredibly easy right? Well I followed those guidelines and the result was so underdone. Auntie Jenny inserted a chopstick to check it and a whole bunch of batter clung to it. I laugh at the fact that she used a chopstick. It just seems so funny and Asian versus America using a toothpick. A chopstick is a cute tool for that. Anyway we had to continue baking the brownies for another 20-30 minutes until the batter didn’t stick much to the chopstick. The two aluminum trays we used were more for a bread loaf shape so the brownies looked more like very brown bread instead of traditional flat square brownies.

The shape was pointless because it’s the taste that matters most. And the taste…come on now. We’re talking about Ghirardelli chocolate here! Of course it was fantastically delicious! Oh…so…chocolaty. Yes it pleased me. ^_^ What pleased me even more was being able to bake something, anything just to show my gratitude for all the Chin family has done for me. (FYI, their family name: 陳, their family name Romanized: Chen) I know Yavanna and Allen enjoyed the brownies a lot, but they were a little too sweet for Auntie Jenny, which totally is understandable. I think generally Chinese desserts are much less sweet than the overload of triple chocolate brownies. XD But as they say, ‘It’s the thought that counts.’ ^_^

Here's a random sleeping kitty for you. Machi is so cute! Enjoy the cuteness! ^_^

A discovery was made today as I stumbled upon something new and cool. It’s a running weekly show on YouTube called “Feast of Fiction.” A girl and boy cook various foods from beloved movies, TV shows, games, etc. Soon it’ll be one year since they started posting but they have some neat stuff already. Things like Harry Potter butterbeer, Zelda Pumpkin Soup, Minecraft cake and more. Viewing these creations and mixing in the recent brownie fun, I am so in a baking/cooking mood! I already have a list of things I want to make when I arrive back in Texas. XD Lookout Mom and Dad cuz I’ll be in a cooking/baking craze! ;D

Lately I’ve been getting bit by mosquitos. Not fun but not a big deal if I get bites on my arm, leg, etc. Two bites though have been bothering me in appearance. One is right smack dab in the middle of my forehead. I thought it was a pimple at first but nope, it’s a mosquito bite that makes me look like those women with the cultural red dots on their forehead. XD The second strange bite is on my left eyelid. Yes, my eyelid. It’s swollen red and looks so weird when compared to the other normal eye. I am diseased! XD What a great appearance to have when switching host families (sarcasm :P).

The move will occur Wednesday, November 14^th and I’ll be heading to my second family. So sadness for leaving my temporary family but excitement for moving into a ‘permanent’ family (by permanent I mean original three-month family).

Hope you enjoyed the Taffy. See you next time! :D

P.S. This is my first day without wearing my retainer during the day. Oh my goodness my mouth feels naked! Not wearing it seems as if I’m doing something wrong. But…I’m not. Yet I still want to keep wearing it during the day even though it’s not required. How weird. XD