Before getting the microwave oven, I just had a plain old microwave, so if couldn't bake. I think most foreigners living in Japan, the ones that can cook anyway, miss their home kitchens. Having a microwave oven truly increases quality of life.
So far, I have cooked two delicious things with my oven. The first thing I ventured to make was persimmon gingerbread loaf. Unfortunately, I couldn't find ground cloves, so the taste wasn't perfect. It was pretty good though.
Since I don't have a mixer or blender, I mixed everything by hand, I was worried it wouldn't turn out, but all was fine. I chose this recipe because I received a lot of persimmons from a local farmer I know. There were too many to simply eat, so I made something with them.
This recipe was well-received and I will make it again, especially since I just received another large amount of persimmons.
My second adventure in baking was actually cheating. I used a muffin mix I found online. The mix is a high fibre, low calorie, wheat free mix. The muffins are a little bland, but they were very easy to make. I'll be making them again, too.
Because they were bland, I will level up (Japanese English...) with cinnamon and maybe some coconut.
I'm really happy to be baking again. It's so fun. At first I was worried, because I wasn't sure what I made would be tasty, but my guinea pigs gobbled it up :)
In other news:
At the grocery store near my house, I found these very large pumpkins. They're just being thrown away... What a waste! I would have loved to steal them, but they were too big.
Red cups were in Starbucks shops all over Japan on November 1... This isn't my first and it won't be my last, but the barista drew me a cute picture of a polar bear! It made me smile.
