Adventures in the kitchen

WARNING! This whole long blog is about food and cooking. Greg, I understand if you don't want to read it, I know how you hate talking about food and cooking, but since it is one of my favorite subjects, I must share!
Those of you who know me know that I enjoy cooking from time to time, so, I am excited to have the experience of cooking in a foreign country. I really wasn't sure what to expect. Would I find the same ingredients in Natal, Brasil that I am used to using in Russellville, AR? Would I have the same equipment and tools? Would the difference in another hemisphere change the way some things tasted and reacted? Well, for the most part, I can find the staple ingredients that I need. The packaging is often completely different and of course it was a challenge to locate what I was looking for because I couldn't read the package. Most things that I want to cook I have to make from scratch because if I find the convience foods that I am used to, they are very expensive. Many of the Brasilians want to taste "American" dishes so my challenges where before me and of course I don't have time or resources to do a practice run on the things I was making. Now, don't think I'm complaining, not at all! This is the kind of challenge that I love. But, I have been often defeated!
My sweet husband, who prefers to stay away from the kitchen, has graciously looked up and emailed several recipes for me. First I must locate the necessary ingredients or at least an acceptable substitution. Then, I go about the business of translating from cups, pounds, farenheit, etc. to grams, ml, celsius (or celsinheit as I called it one day), etc. My measuring has definatly been off!
The worst creations to come from my foreign kitchen have been chocolate chip cookies (but we served them at one of the parties and everyone loved them and asked for the recipe, believe me, no red blooded American would have called this a chocolate chip cookie!), and birthday cake (this one went in the trash because when I went to grab the package of sugar out of the refrigerator [tropical location, many ants and bugs] I must have grabbed the wrong bag and added 4 cups of salt instead of 4 cups of sugar, YUCK! Thankfully I knew it didn't bake right and tasted the toothpick that I used to check for doneness and noticed this disaster before I served it at a party with 50 people.), and I don't want to forget about the banana pudding that wouldn't set (I could tell from the package that it was not instant, but even with the help of a translator, I still did something wrong in following the directions. When I pulled it out to serve, it was liquid vanilla with floaties in it. This I was serving to the missionaries, and those crazy Brasilians and Brian ate it anyway!) There have been a few success, chicken and dumplings, roast, biscuits and tortillas. And despite the fact that it was humid here, we made some pretty good fudge for the christmas party.
I can now recognize a few food and ingredients in Portuguese and translating the amounts and temperatures has gotten a little easier, but if I ever come back, I must have adequet measuring utensils!!! It has been a lot of fun cooking here, but I look forward to turning on my stove and oven without trying to use a damp match or risking explosion.