Recent Failures (haha)

Well, as Bryn wrote last week, we are well into the rainy season here. It has been a rainy, lazy weekend - for me at least. I have spent a good part of it on the sofa reading or watching TV, but I did get up the energy to do some baking yesterday. You see, Bryn and I have found ourselves wishing we had cookies or something sweet to snack on in the evenings lately, so I thought I would make us something.

I decided to give Afghans a try (the recipe is in the Edmonds cookbook that Robyn gave me last year for my birthday), so I guess I should say I was making biscuits rather than cookies. I mostly decided on them since I already had all of the ingredients and wouldn't need to make a trip to the grocery store for anything. Robyn made them a while back for her cooking challenge she is doing...you can read about it here if you haven't already. I'll be honest with you...the idea of baking something that had cornflakes listed as an ingredient never appealed to me, but Bryn said they were really good so I decided to give them a try.

My very own copy of Edmonds!

Before I go any further I should mention that I have never seen or tasted one of these coo - I mean biscuits, so I had zero idea of what to expect. I mixed everything together and spooned them onto my "pan" (the microwave tray lined with baking paper) and set them in my "oven". Fifteen minutes later I took them out of the oven only to find that instead of holding their shape they had spread out in to flat nothings. I didn't think that was quite right, so I ran to check Robyn's blog to see if that's what had happened to her's...nope. Her's came out as nice round balls. Damn. Failure. Oh well, Bryn said they tasted exactly the same, so as long as they taste good it's fine!

My biscuit disaster...

I don't know what to blame my baking disaster on. Maybe it's because it's crazy hot and humid here, or it could be my inferior oven. Actually, thinking back, I have never had much luck with cookies since coming to Japan. Cakes turn out ok, but all of the cookies just spread out into a floppy, crumbly (but yummy) mess.

The "oven". It's also the microwave and toaster.

Anyways, moving on...

Do y'all remember that I got married? Yep, I did! And I am quickly learning that I fail miserably as a Japanese wife (and Bryn pretty much fails as a Japanese husband for that matter!). I get asked on almost a daily basis if I cooked dinner for my husband the night before, or what I am planning on cooking for him tonight. When I tell them that we cooked dinner together, or that tonight is his turn to cook, they look absolutely appalled!

You see, Japanese men don't cook. Period. It is the wife's job to cook his dinner, do his laundry, clean his house, make his breakfast, pack him a lunch box, etc. It is also her job to let him go out drinking with his work colleagues and then obediently go fetch him and drive him home.

Also, when it's my night to cook I usually don't cook rice. You would think that I told them that I made him eat dirt when I tell them that no, in fact I didn't serve him rice last night.

Me=failure.

I am not the only one who sucks at being married in Japan...Bryn isn't too good at it himself. I mean, what man would dare help wash the dishes?! And take a taxi home from a drinking party so his wife can go to sleep when she wants to? Get a back bone!

It's funny trying to explain to people that where we come from people are equal. When I do manage to get the point across that it is normal and even expected for a man to help cook, clean, etc., the women often say how nice that must be. If you ask most of the girls at my schools what they want to be when they grow up, the majority of them say they want to get married and be a housewife. I am about as far from a feminist as someone can get, but c'mon! It's not 1950 anymore!! Even in elementary schools, if the kids cook something, when they finish the boys all run off to play and all of the girls stay behind to clean up.

A couple of weeks ago we listened to "Obladi, Oblada" (however you spell it) in class. One girl pointed to the line "Desmond stays at home and does his pretty face," and asked if that was true - that there were places where the man stayed at home and the wife worked. After I told her yes, she told all of her friends about it in utter disbelief!

I tell ya, it's crazy!

So anyways, the point of the story...I'm a bad wife! Haha...I'm sure the novelty of it will wear off eventually and the teachers will stop caring about whether or not I fed my husband enough rice or not.

However, in the meantime...I think I'll start lying. ;)

(countdown til Mom and Prad come...16 days)