Cooking Visions and Revisions

What is all this stuff, and what will it be when mixing and heat are applied?

So from the post above, you'll see that I need to do something really nice for Umm Khalid.  I can't think of anything nicer than making her something from my own kitchen.  Of course, getting the supplies to even make the thank-you nom-noms is an adventure unto itself.

A common household activity here is shopping at not one (HEB) or two (HEB + Super Walmart) or even the dreaded trifecta (HEB, Walmart, Target) of stores.  No, women...and I say women because that's who tell me these tales...it may be men, too...visit four or five GROCERY stores as they try to stock their pantries and iceboxes.  The big four are Carrefour, Giant, Family Food, and Mega-Mart.  That is not counting (1) multiple locations for each store or (2) the hundreds of smaller "local" markets scattered all over the place.  My favorite place to shop is about the size of Franklin Market...they have green Tabasco, milk, chicken, fruit/veg, and about 85 tons of chocolate and cookies and other junk food.  But that's a whole other blog post.

So one of my own personal goals is NOT to have to drive all over hell and half o' Doha looking for the right kind of Fruit Loops or Pepperidge Farm Gold Fish.  I figure my habits will form in my first months here, and so far, I've been reasonably successful.

But then I had a vision of cooking for Umm Khalid.  And it took me three different grocery store trips just to gather the stuff you see in the picture above.  That's not counting the butter or eggs. Now, this very day that I'm writing this post, I don't have a bowl to mix it in.  But I have a large square "tupperware" type storage box that may work.  Multi-tasking kitchen items.  I haz 'em.

So now, before I actually try to perform this cooking feat, I'll give you a sample of what I'm up against...
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For the recipe I needed buttermilk.
It doesn't exist in Doha as far as I can tell. 
That stuff on the left is actually "Labneh." 
Sort of read about it here...this is about its strained form and what I'm using looks like thick milk.

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For the recipe, I needed unflavored Crisco.
I have "regular shortening" from Mazola.  Should be the same.

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For the recipe, I needed baking soda.
After hitting my head against a wall for sleeping through CHEM 101 (I was a freshman, and 3-3:50 PM is my nap time!), I bought "sodium bicarbonate," came home and checked Wikipedia to make sure it wasn't rat poison.

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For my recipe, I needed powdered sugar.
I got "sugar powder."  I'm assuming it's the same thing, but once you've looked all over the place for American "powdered garlic" only to find something that looks like flour but tastes like garlic but doesn't function like American powdered garlic, you get a little skeptical that anything is going to work the way you planned it.

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The pecans...oh, the pecans. 
I must publicly thank the Griffins for the precious pecans.
I also must thank the Griffins for the mixer, which was a central requirement.
These can only be purchased here at great expense and (from what I've heard) only around Christmas time.  I pondered substituting walnuts or pistachios or even a mixture of chopped nuts for the pecans, but then I figured, "If Umm Khalid isn't worth going all out, then who is?!?"  Pecans it is.
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I needed American measurements.
But I have European (metric) measurements. 
More self-flagellation for pre-Facebook, pre-texting activities like doodling and passing notes during the 5th grade lesson on metrics!  Also missing from my kitchen: measuring spoons and cups.  I do have a 5-cup pyrex thingy. That's going to have to be the beaker.
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 Fahrenheit.  I need Fahrenheit.
I have Celcius AND a convection oven.  Sigh.
$10 USD says it's going to be burned...

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I'm sure I'll get used to all of this, but for now, the adventures continue...