I tried to make cookies

Cookies are so simple. They would be a nice home-made treat for some Spanish friends who don't have cookies very often in Spain. Right?

With this thought in my mind, I tried to make cookies. This only the second time I have tried to buy things for a recipe here in Germany. It seems to be very difficult for me. First of all, there wasn't any brown sugar in the store. The "Brauner Zucker" that I bought wasn't like our brown sugar. It was just unrefined sugar, I guess. It didn't pack and was as dry and granular as white sugar. But I purchased some anyway, because that was all I could find. Also vanilla extract gave me a problem. There was some kind of vanilla flavor that I found, but I am not sure if it was the same as vanilla extract. I forgot to check my eggs too. I think that is the first thing one learns about grocery shopping. When I got home and opened the case, one was cracked. On top of all of this, (after already buying 500g of "Brauner Zucker") I went to a second grocery store looking for "American style" brown sugar. I bought something that I thought was closer to what I needed. I now believe it was essentially the same as the sugar I bought at the first grocery store. ((so if anybody knows of someone in Berlin who needs about 700g of "Brauner Zucker," send them to me)) Chocolate chips also didn't seem to exist in the store, so I just bought a block of chocolate to chop up.

I must have taken too many things for granted in my kitchen too. My measuring tool is was only a scale with graduated volume markings on the container that went on the scale. It made it a little hard to measure 1/2 a teaspoon of baking soda. I also didn't have a beater. All I had was a little whisk. When I added the eggs I was supposed to make the mixture light and creamy. Instead it was a little more gritty and runny.

Anyway, after baking them on a pan that wasn't meant for cookies, they were really flat and odd looking. I made the cookies yesterday for a goodbye party for one of my friends at the school here. I hosted the party at my apartment. I must say, however, that the party was fairly successful despite my cookies.

There seems to be a culture of sharing among the Spanish people with whom I spend a lot of my time. They are always sharing gum, candy, sandwiches, apples, water. Almost any kind of food is handed out without a second thought. Since I rarely have any snacks on my person to share with them, I receive much more than I give. I hoped that I could share the cookies as some kind of personal contribution. But, oh well. They liked them anyway, even with the (maybe more than) faintly granular texture still left in the cookies from the sugar that wasn't well mixed.

So, a culinary adventure for this week. Every day here can be an adventure in so many ways. Just living on my own, making my own food, trying to keep a budget, ect. is new for me. Being in such a big city is also new for me. And, maybe most obviously, being in a foreign country brings its share of adventures as well. But I am enjoying myself, and every adventure prepares me to live in the "grown-up" world.

Well, as is my tradition, here are some pictures, a couple of the party I had, and one of a statue of some very influential people: Marx/Lenin along with "the opiate of the people" in the background. (Another one for Keith Sprunger (who I am sure doesn't actually read this blog.))





Week of September 14, 2008:

The Bad:
The fan in my apartment seem to be broken today. I am not by any means warm here in Berlin, but the only way I have to dry my clothes here in the apartment is by hanging them up on a drying rack. So 6 pairs of jeans are drying verrrry slowly today.

The Good:
German feels a little more lucid.

--Austin