Gloomy Day

I hate the fact that is is the end of March and it snowed today. We were in class while it happened, but still, it is super cold outside and it is gloomy. Gloomy days are bad at the hogwan. Kids don't want to study; instead they try to sleep in class and put their grumpy pout faces on. They are in much better moods when it is sunny outside. So am I. We're getting pretty sick of "winter." I can't wait to put my winter coat in the back of the closet and not see it again for 6 months. The kids are still sick with colds and stuff, one girl has been out all week due to some illness. We're hoping that the kids that cough in our faces won't get us sick again.

This week hasn't been too terribly exciting. We've been prepping the kids for the "recital" or whatever it is. Basically, during our normal classes, the kids are going into the auditorium and giving their speeches and then playing some word games. Michael and I are fairly confident our kids will crash and burn. Part of me thinks that the head teacher wants to see how badly we are doing. The parents aren't coming or anything like that, but we still aren't completely sure what's going to happen on Friday. That should be an interesting post.

On Monday night after work, we stopped by Daiso, which is a chain like Dollar Tree. They have things ranging from 1,000 - 5,000 won. It's pretty awesome. I went crazy and bought a rolling pin, oven mitt, cutting board, a pack of nice chopsticks, a measuring cup, measuring spoons, two tart pans and two mini cake pans. It was all under 20,000 won. I've been in the mood to bake lately and after my failed attempt at cookies last weekend (the baking powder and soda are weird here, you have to use about 1/4 of what you expect to need), I needed some baking goodies to motivate me a little more.

We purchased a bunch of bananas (16) since Home Plus was selling them for crazy cheap. Of course, we forgot about them until Wednesday morning when I could smell them ripening in the kitchen. They were definitely still edible, but had brown spots and were very ripe. Michael and I both ate one for breakfast and Michael brought one with him to work, so that left us with 13 bananas. Wednesday morning, I made mini banana cream pies. I made the crust from scratch and managed to not mess up the custard part, although yolks here are really dark, so the custard part is kind of orange-y looking. They are pretty good, although the crust is pretty hard. I can assume that I worked the crust too much before rolling (which I feel like I always do), that I didn't have enough butter (it's really expensive here), and that the butter I used wasn't real butter. If anyone can show me where to get real butter in Korea, I would love to know. The stuff I've been buying which says "Fresh Butter" on the package, is definitely not pure butter. It is very yellow and doesn't taster like butter. I can only assume its some kind of hydrogenated oil that probably isn't very good for us. The butter tastes pretty good for grilled cheese though.

When we got back from work, I was determined to get rid of the rest of the bananas - down to 9. I mashed up five and made batter for banana bread/cake. Since I bake with a toaster oven and I use mini cake pans, I can only bake two mini cakes at a time. They took about an hour and a half to bake and they probably could have used a couple more minutes in the oven, but they are pretty good. I'm thinking I will probably bake the last two tonight to give to people at work. They seem to always be sharing food with us and we somehow manage to only bring enough for us to eat every time. I have quite a bit of batter left so I might make some pancakes or something tomorrow morning as well. I have four bananas left (in the freezer), so if anyone has any baking suggestions let me know.

I've been cooking a lot this week, which is crazy because usually we want dinner right away and we've been taking the time to make it instead of going out. This may or may not be saving us money. Today I made spaghetti carbonara with a homemade cream sauce which I thought was pretty good. Yesterday we had gimbap type rolls with carrots, onions, mushrooms and imitation crab. We bought some crappy nori for the rolls though, so they aren't turning out as pretty as they normally do.

Good news, I found the battery charger for my phone, so I will be able to take pictures again! I'm at school right now, so I will post pictures of my banana creations tomorrow.