I can't express how much I miss baking

So, I know we are supposed to write about all of our fantastic ideas here, but it has been eight months in China without an oven and without baking supplies and I really miss getting in the kitchen and seeing what I can make.

Baked goods here are entirely different from everything we have in America, when I expect something to be sweet it i salty and covered with meat flakes or some strange substance. When I expect something to be salty it turns out to be sweet and full of too much sugar.

The only baking I've done during the year has been in a toaster oven and without any real baking pans, which has been a great challenge. At the same time this has all been teaching me how to improvise and learn to work with what I have in front of me. I made some baked french toast for Easter that was way different from the original recipe but my friends kept asking for seconds, thirds and eventually fourths. On the other hand, we've had some major flops ... foods cook and cook and never get done or they cook for almost no time and burn in an instant. It's all a game and I'm glad I'm learning how to play by some new rules.

I'm missing cupcakes a lot, I tried explaining cupcakes to some of my Chinese friends and how KShaw and I like to stir things up and see what we come up with. I'm excited to get back in the kitchen and stir the pot a bit when I finally get back to America.

P.S. I finally figured out how to use a proxy server, which explains my long absence from the blog and now, finally, my return.