COOKIES!!!
Tuesday was the first time I got to cook for the kids. Very simple - just some chocolate chip cookies. It was definitely a trip getting them made though.
First, the ingredients: It wasn’t too bad; I was able to find most of what I needed right away. Then came the baking soda… Orlando had a good argument over whether or not baking powder and baking soda were the same thing. I already had the powder; that was easy to translate. So because we had to search on our own, Dad and I accidentally walked away with “active yeast” instead of the soda the first time. Now another trip to the store was needed. By this time it was Sunday, and I had been planning to make the stupid things on Saturday. Oh well. To the store…
We had called Jill in order to have her look up “baking soda” in my big, blue Spanish dictionary. Unfortunately, I was not able to pack the book because it alone is about 10 pounds!!! As always, she came through for me, and we found our very tiny bag of bicarbonato. Of course, after we found it, Orlando asked, “Oh, why didn’t you tell me that’s what you wanted. I know what that is.” Good grief!
Now I had everything I needed to make the cookies, except for the oven. The one in the missionary house is broken, so I had to use the one in the bakery. Since it is run by gas like the stove in the kitchen of the main house, I couldn’t bake the cookies until after they were done preparing lunch (only one gas tank). By that time it was way too hot to do anything, and it is too dark after supper (5:30pm).
But I did not give up, and as always, God was good! He gave us a cool day on Tuesday, and I was able to get those cookies baked right after lunch. This worked out great because it was Brayan’s 16th birthday and my birthday the next day! Of course, that just meant that every child was there watching my every move and waiting for that first cookie to come out of the oven!
It was a lot of fun, teaching Efrain how to bake cookies. He is the ground’s keeper at La Finca. He does pretty much everything around the place, including baking bread once in awhile in the bakery. The owner of the bakery equipment is letting them use it all at the Foundation for now, but he would really like them to just buy it and keep it for good. This will be yet another project for our group to raise money for in the near future. Then they can bake a lot more that just rolls. Efrain has hopes to learn how to make a lot more, which is why he was watching everything I did with the cookies. He was also getting in an English lesson as we went.
The cookies turned out great!!! Everyone loved them! I even received several requests for more cookies this weekend. Friday, Gabriela has to host a neighborhood meeting and would like to serve her guests Colombian coffee with American cookies, and one of the boys, Fabián, has to bring treats to school on Friday. Woo hoo! I’m a hit!!!
MELANIE, ENJOYING HER COOKIE
