Small victory

One thing that has been occupying us many mornings (other than Myles' recent obsession with "school work") and keeping me away from the computer, has been our new oven. It is slightly bigger than a Betty Crocker EZ Bake Oven other kids had when I was growing up. However, since we won't ever need to cook a turkey, it is plenty big. Myles just loves his "baking projects."

We've been enjoying baked potatoes, twice baked potatoes, brownies, and banana bread.

It was so nice to be queen for five minutes after I took a loaf of banana bread down to some of Randy's friends one weekend afternoon as they were shooting pool, the breeze, and possibly some Jack Daniels. They devoured it. They even looked at me with some degree of admiration.
As most of your know, banana bread is not difficult to make. I use the recipe from the More-With-Less Cookbook published by the Mennonites. This banana bread uses a great amount of soy flour, so it makes the bread high protein (and therefore guilt-free for breakfast). A few weeks ago Fei Fei had some banana bread from Wo Er Ma and offered it to me. I declined, but told her that I could make her some one I got a new oven and it would be better than the stuff from Wo Er Ma. She didn't believe me, because baking is not something Chinese people do. In America, nearly everyone bakes to some extent. Some much better than others (like my friend Alyssa and her two loaves of home-made bread a day). I am really not even in the top half of bakers, but what I can do, I do okay, and right now in comparison to no baked goods......I rule!
By the way, in contrast, most Chinese women are excellent cooks, and none of them see that as that big of a deal. I am amazed what some of these women can assemble with only a few groceries, a wok, and peanut oil, but to them it is totally ho-hum.