iCooked

I've received a few inquiries lately about what I've been making for dinner. Here is a sampling of some of my latest attempts.

• Blueberry muffins: I found a Betty Crocker muffin packet at the store one day. You know the kind I am talking about that says on the front "just add water." The hardest part of this meal was our oven. We have a gas oven - which I prefer when it comes to the stove top, however it is rather difficult to bake things here. We may now have a thermometer for taking our temperature when we are sick, but I lack an oven thermometer. So, I turn the oven on high to warm it up, then turn it down to what I think might be 400 or 350 degrees. I have to check things in the oven often because it gets scorching hot and I am usually hoping not to burn whatever I am baking. The muffins came out perfectly and they were delicious. How could they not be? They have corn syrup in the ingredients!
• Cheeseburgers: ground meat (not sure what kind it is so I am not going to call it beef) is available, but the quality is questionable. I thought it wouldn't be too bad with some seasoning and melted cheese on top. I was wrong. It wasn't good. We did enjoy the condiments - I had found some frozen tater tots in the frozen food section and also some pork and beans in the canned vegetables aisle - those ended up being dinner for the night.
• Huevos Rancheros: we have eggs (you can choose either chicken or duck eggs - I stick with chicken), I had found some pinto beans one day (I had looked for these before and found nothing. they must have had a shipment in, so I stocked up). We have access to ground chili peppers - actually all sorts of chili's are available here, with the exception of my favorite Hatch variety from home. I made a paste out of it using my Uncle Orlando's famous chili recipe that my Aunt Nita sent me many moons ago. I also fried up some potatoes. A local restaurant sells tortillas - the worst part of that meal was actually the quality of the tortillas. I had a friend over for dinner that night, she said it was a good meal. It didn't meet my standards, but I will try again.
• Lasagna: I had to borrow a pan from my neighbor upstairs to cook this because I didn't have a good sized baking dish. Cambodians cook using fire or two counter top burners - not ovens. Since ovens are really only used by the foreigners living here it is nearly impossible to find baking dishes. Everything available has been imported. I knew this before I came and packed baking dishes, like the muffin pan, as a result. I just didn't think about what I would need to make lasagna. Good thing I have good neighbors!
• Rice Krispie treats: we had invited some people over for game night at our place on Saturday. We had planned to order pizza from our favorite pizza place just up the road. Being the Suzy Homemaker that I am, I wanted to serve our guests a sweet treat. While trolling the aisles at the grocery I saw rice krispies and decided these would be my treat. Luckily, I was able to locate marshmallows. My favorite rice krispie treats have butterscotch chips in them, I hunted for those but was unsuccessful. Just so you know, these were probably the most expensive rice krispie treats I've ever made. Why is that? Cereal items are imported and eaten exclusively by foreigners, they figure every foreigner is rich, so they charge a ridiculous amount for a box of cereal. They range anywhere from $4-12. Marshmallows are another imported item. I think I paid close to $5 for the bag of fluffy sugar. It was worth it to have a little taste of home. I got to serve this treat to some people who are not from the US - they were game for trying something new and I think they may have even liked it. I know Kenyon did.

I hope you enjoyed this installment of iCooked. If you have any good recipe's, please pass them on. I'd be happy to experiement and see if I can track down the ingredients.