Sara Sarver

Anyone who knows me, knows my love of the kitchen.  Reason # 564 to love my mother, my grandmother, great-grandmother and so on.  These women have passed down some pretty fierce skills when it comes to cooking, baking, and serving a crowd.  I think some inherent knowledge may have even come just through the blood… who knows?  Whichever way, I love it, I love the kitchen, and what comes out of it has always been a really big part of who I am.  In moving to a much simpler life in Thailand, I have lost a chunk of my identity in that (or at least it has been put on hold, we’ll say), since I can no longer create edible art as easily as I once did.  I currently have no kitchen of my own, and food supplies are harder to come by out here.

But…

I was shown a small baking goods store in a local market by a seasoned missionary in this region.  I was given the keys to a new friend’s home while they are away for the weekend.  Said friend has a kitchen… and an oven.  You can imagine how happy I was to put all of these things together.  Oh yes.  So, tonight, I made Snickerdoodles at the request of my husband, Brook.

Here is why I count this as such a victory tonight.  This is the oven I have to use.  It is quite simple and may be considered a bit primitive by those of you in the States.  It has only a knob to turn it on or off, and in between it has a gauge similar to that on the front of a gas grill.  The tank you see to the right is the propane which fuels the range.  Thankfully, I had a small thermometer sitting on the rack inside to help me figure out just how hot it was inside…

The first round came out a wee bit darker than I wanted, but not actually burnt.  Good.  They tasted more like caramelized sugar on the bottom rather than burning.  Good.  Second round came out a wee bit better, golden on the bottom.  Then, the 3rd and 4th round came out perfect.  Same color on the top and bottom of the cookies.  Yes!  Now, some of you may, great she can bake.  But seriously, I had to sit there and watch the cookies, opening the door and closing the door of the oven to adjust the temperature as needed.  The really funny part though, was that I had to stand just outside the kitchen doorway to watch the cookies, with a large fan blowing straight on me since the temp of the house was already around 90 degrees, and a 400 degree oven, of course, will alter temperature a wee bit…  Ha.  I love it.

So here’s the finished product.   A few dozen lovely little Snickerdoodles.  Yum.  I only made a small amount since I didn’t know if I would be able to figure out the oven tonight, and didn’t want to waste any dough.  Now I know I can do it.  Now I know I can get a little piece of me back.  And now Brook knows he’s going to get cookies in Thailand after all!