Delish.

My friend Seneca loves to analyze everything about everyone. This is true to her psychology master's degree that she just finished before popping over to Asia to psychoanalyze the crazy people who decide to live here.

We were talking yesterday and I was telling her about my recent obsession with baking/cooking/recipe blogs/allrecipes.com/taking taxi's to every grocery store to look for tomato paste/Julie and Julia.

She said that people who love to bake are nurturers. That molding ingredients together and then waiting for them to create something delish is an act of delayed gratification. There is power in the waiting.

Ponder that one.

And after you do...here is a recipe I created for honey cookies. I am doing my best without a baking sheet/real oven/cake pan to create delicious things for my friends. I now have a busy schedule that includes a poetry group on fridays, Book Study on Tuesdays and Saturdays, and english corners throughout the week. I think it is a good gesture to show up with something a little reminiscent of home (sugar?) to warm everyone's bellies.

And it's really entertaining to watch Chi.nese people eat sweets.

Jessica's Chi.na-Friendly Yummy Honey Cookies of Happiness

Ingredients:

1/2 cup soft butter

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup honey

1 egg

1.5 cup flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

(I would probably put applesauce in this if I was in Ame.rica, but alas, there is no applesauce in this land).

Directions:

Mix butter, b. sugar, honey, and egg until it looks nice. Stir in the flour, slowly though, so it doesn't over take your bowl. Stir in b. soda, salt, and cinnamon. Take a big deep breath in because it smells so good. Bake in a toaster oven (or a real oven if you are lucky enough to be one of the privileged few who have one) for 7-9 minutes on 190 celcius. (that's 375 for you Amer.icans).

They will be cake- like in consistency if they turn out anything like mine. Share with others, this is the way to world peace.

Happy Baking, and waiting, and nurturing. :) If you try out the recipe, let me know how it goes!

Some Pics:

Cinnamon apples. They taste surprisingly close to Cracker Barrel's! I made these for Book study when I had too many apples to finish before they went bad.

At work at my new adopted family's house: pizza crust mix from Ame.rica and really, really expensive imported olive oil that I cannot afford but gladly use from others. :)

The finished product! Veggie pizza, minus cheese! Those circles on the pizza are boiled eggplant...soooo good.

Bon Appetite.