Monday, March 23, 2009

Claire and the toaster oven: a love story

Yikes! Has it been that long? I guess I was too busy making tiny muffins in my new OVEN! (*Wild applause, cheerleaders cartwheeling*) Chinese apartments don't come with ovens - even the lucky foreigners who think they've rented a place with one often find it's actually a little dish sterilizer. Alas, my kitchen had neither, and I've been stirfrying, boiling, and sautéeing (badly) for the past six months, staring pensively at the place where an oven should be. In the baking aisle of the imports store, I would slow down my cart, eye the baking powder and sigh disconsolately, knowing my kitchen could produce nothing that needed puff.

But then! Two weekends ago, Poppy and I were at a Huaihuai Lu (French Concession shopping mecca) department store and found a scratch-and-dent table bearing highly discounted appliances, including a very reasonably-priced, generously-sized toaster oven. Poppy graciously listened to me pro-and-con for ten minutes before basically suggesting that I do the only sensible thing and buy it. Which I did. I haven't looked back. Especially as I now have a reason to buy hundreds of the great cupcake wrappers I found at a wholesale place down the street.

Any recipes not involving too much butter or chocolate welcomed; it's hard to think of what to make without them, I know, but they're really expensive here.


Photos:

1. There she is, at home in my pantry!
2. Check out my balanced meal. That's macaroni and cheese (cheddar AND blue cheese, snap)
3. Darling cupcake wrappers
4. Eee, carrot-pineapple muffins!







7 comments:

Laura B. said...

Claire! How DARLING. I have vanilla for you, and should I send oven mitts as well??

I will check my recipe books. How about scallop potatoes? Lots of milk, and not TOO much butter. Baked eggs, quiche, ratatouille, glazed carrots, any number of casseroles, many different chicken dishes... I'm so excited for you!

prest: exclamation; a shortened form of 'presto' used to describe the removal of darling mini cupcakes from a darling mini oven.

Gregory said...

Sooooo happy to see you eating and well ovened!

Unknown said...

Congrats on your new toaster oven! You will be able to bake so many great items now! Yum!

Danielle said...

Hi- my name is Danielle I live in Shanghai and I'm desperately looking for a toaster oven - where did you buy yours??
my email is danielle.jenster@gmail.com would really appreciate it!

Antony Adler said...

Do you think i could mail you amish friendship bread starter...and it wouldn't go bad/get confiscated? Let me know if you think it's possible.

Palesse: sounds delicious

Claire said...

Wow, guys! Thanks for all your offers to contribute to my culinary happiness. I'm totally excited to try bread for the first time - I've never felt up to the yeast challenge, but sometimes you have to push yourself in life. Laura, scalloped potatoes are a great idea. And I so want to roast a TINY chicken, ha ha! So cute!

Unknown said...

I accidentally used vinegar concentrate instead of vinegar (oh NO). But last night's two? What is going ON? oster toaster oven