i have a secret: i like to tell people i hate valentine's day, but the truth is... i don't hate it entirely (shhh... don't tell).
just to get it out of the way, here is what i do hate about valentine's day:
a. hideous floral displays made of the most cliche flowers (e.g. red roses with baby's breath) in the ugliest vases possible.
b. ridiculous expectations that cause people to get nervous, overplan, and do something cliche, like buy a person the above mentioned item.
c. prix fixe meals at restaurants that never live up to the food at that same restaurant on any other given day.
d. chocolate in heart shaped boxes.
e. giant stuffed animals holding heart-shaped pillows, cheesetastic!
all of that aside, here is what i do love about valentine's day:
a. chocolate (sans heart shaped box. however, i love it as much on february 14th as i do any other day of the year...)
b. sappy romantic comedies (yes, the ones that ususally cause all of the problems mentioned above).
c. the hope that one day someone will understand me well enough to know that i dislike all of the above items and would prefer a simple modern flower arrangement without fillers, a meal somewhere far away from a restaurant full of strangers, and even on days that aren't valentine's day... and for no reason at all.
d. but most of all, i do love any opportunity to do something nice for my friends and family to let them know that i love them, because the bottom line is that you can't say it enough.
and since my grandma always told me the way to a person's heart is through their stomach... i decided to bake cookies this year!
depending on who you are, you might think that baking cookies is a pretty easy task, but it turns out that part of the fun of being an expat, is that something that seems easy is always bound to be a challenge...
snickerdoodles, for those of you that don't know... are not only the most delicious cookie ever, but are made of about 7 of the most basic ingredients. which is why i was surprised when i found myself trekking around abu dhabi to three different grocery stores to find them all!
here is a little fun fact: the ingredient commonly known as "baking soda" in the US is actually called "bicarbonate of soda" here... who would have known, i bought it hoping for the best but definitely had to Google when i got home to be sure.
also, used to having a fully stocked kitchen, i temporarily forgot that i moved here with only three suitcases and all my kitchen gadgets are packed safely away in a storage unit in new jersey (or as my mom likes to joke, sitting in the bottom of the Hudson). so it was off to the store to buy a mixer,some baking sheets, and a cookie bin.
and lastly, because i can't help but to add a little "valentine's day something" i wanted to find those small jars of colored sugar to sprinkle on top of the cookies (pretty basic in the baking section of any US grocery, oh the things I took for granted!) ... at the third store, after two stores of total strikes, i finally found some pink sugar!
at last i am home and prepared to bake, and i hear my phone chirping from the other room... it is a friend of mine (also an Abu Dhabi expat from the US). i tell her my baking plans, and she says, in a vote of confidence "every time i try to make a US recipe out here it just never goes as planned, but i'm sure your cookies will be great!"
ha ha. on that note, i continued on, with caution, but i have to say, the cookies turned out to be fantastic! my roomie has already had two tonight.
you can't have just one snickerdoodle...
just to get it out of the way, here is what i do hate about valentine's day:
a. hideous floral displays made of the most cliche flowers (e.g. red roses with baby's breath) in the ugliest vases possible.
b. ridiculous expectations that cause people to get nervous, overplan, and do something cliche, like buy a person the above mentioned item.
c. prix fixe meals at restaurants that never live up to the food at that same restaurant on any other given day.
d. chocolate in heart shaped boxes.
e. giant stuffed animals holding heart-shaped pillows, cheesetastic!
all of that aside, here is what i do love about valentine's day:
a. chocolate (sans heart shaped box. however, i love it as much on february 14th as i do any other day of the year...)
b. sappy romantic comedies (yes, the ones that ususally cause all of the problems mentioned above).
c. the hope that one day someone will understand me well enough to know that i dislike all of the above items and would prefer a simple modern flower arrangement without fillers, a meal somewhere far away from a restaurant full of strangers, and even on days that aren't valentine's day... and for no reason at all.
d. but most of all, i do love any opportunity to do something nice for my friends and family to let them know that i love them, because the bottom line is that you can't say it enough.
and since my grandma always told me the way to a person's heart is through their stomach... i decided to bake cookies this year!
depending on who you are, you might think that baking cookies is a pretty easy task, but it turns out that part of the fun of being an expat, is that something that seems easy is always bound to be a challenge...
snickerdoodles, for those of you that don't know... are not only the most delicious cookie ever, but are made of about 7 of the most basic ingredients. which is why i was surprised when i found myself trekking around abu dhabi to three different grocery stores to find them all!
here is a little fun fact: the ingredient commonly known as "baking soda" in the US is actually called "bicarbonate of soda" here... who would have known, i bought it hoping for the best but definitely had to Google when i got home to be sure.
also, used to having a fully stocked kitchen, i temporarily forgot that i moved here with only three suitcases and all my kitchen gadgets are packed safely away in a storage unit in new jersey (or as my mom likes to joke, sitting in the bottom of the Hudson). so it was off to the store to buy a mixer,some baking sheets, and a cookie bin.
and lastly, because i can't help but to add a little "valentine's day something" i wanted to find those small jars of colored sugar to sprinkle on top of the cookies (pretty basic in the baking section of any US grocery, oh the things I took for granted!) ... at the third store, after two stores of total strikes, i finally found some pink sugar!
at last i am home and prepared to bake, and i hear my phone chirping from the other room... it is a friend of mine (also an Abu Dhabi expat from the US). i tell her my baking plans, and she says, in a vote of confidence "every time i try to make a US recipe out here it just never goes as planned, but i'm sure your cookies will be great!"
ha ha. on that note, i continued on, with caution, but i have to say, the cookies turned out to be fantastic! my roomie has already had two tonight.
you can't have just one snickerdoodle...
(yes this is a photo of my snickerdoodles... you want one now, don't you?!)
No comments:
Post a Comment