Pinterest is a Problem

FIRSTLY: Thank you guys for your thoughts--I think I will start that childcare course once we sort out the money aspect. Though really, they give us a year to pay it off, which comes down to under $50 per week, so it shouldn't be too awful. (Have I mentioned lately how appreciative I am that Cal pays for all of my stuff while I'm wallowing in my unemployment? I'd probably be on a plane back to America, penniless, in a few weeks if it wasn't for him.)

SECONDLY: Pinterest has become a serious problem. Whenever Cal's gaming, I tend to go on Pinterest (or Neopets. We won't talk about how I've earned almost 100,000 neopoints in the last couple of weeks). I keep pinning things to my boards, and have done since I joined, but rarely have I made anything. Save for those jello powder-covered grapes in Florida, those were good.

Then last night I was craving chocolate/cookies/cake/brownies/ANYTHING and decided I was going to bake something. Of course, we didn't have all of the ingredients for any of the recipes on my list, so I picked out one and got the ingredients today (Australia doesn't really have 24/7 stores--no midnight Kroger run for me!). I picked this really awesome looking recipe for chocolate chip cookies, which I'll link you to here: http://www.danamadeit.com/2011/05/chocolate-chip-cookies-any-day-of-the-week.html

While quite good, I don't think they're quite as delicious as they COULD be. I think something was lost in translation over to metric (and also ingredients that I could find). Erin has experience with this. First, shortening here doesn't quite seem to be the same as the shortening we have in the US. The closest thing I could find is a product called Copha, and internet research was a bit iffy on whether or not this could be used to make delicious cookies. It didn't feel the same as the shortening that I remembered (we sort of started using Toll House break-and-bakes since I was about ten). So I ended up just substituting butter, which appears to work just as well.

As far as the other ingredients go, this is probably going to sound ridiculous, but the sugar granules seem bigger than in the US! I don't know if our stuff is more processed or what. At any rate, this didn't seem to have too big of an impact, but I hadn't noticed it before and was struck by the difference. Also, and here's the biggie: chocolate chips. Chocolate chips, my friends! Arguably one of the more important ingredients in chocolate chip cookies! There wasn't a huge selection, and no familiar Nestle Toll House to buy. And more importantly, they came in two kinds: dark and milk (well, and caramel, but ignoring that).

No semi-sweet. And I understand semi-sweet is a type of dark, but these chips didn't taste quite the same. They were also itty-bitty. And the milk ones that we got were actually "melts" which were these massive round disks. So the chocolate taste is a bit off, but not awful.

(P.S. I just told Cal I might cut the sugar because they were a bit sweet, which I thought was due to the chocolate but was thinking was more the dough, and he said maybe we used too much vanilla. We used imitation vanilla rather than the real stuff so he said to put in double what it said... and now that I'm sitting here with cookie coating my taste buds, I think that's exactly what it is. Oops!)

The other thing is that our oven is horrible at being an oven. You might think that an oven would be like, "Hey, I love this purpose that I have in life, heating stuff up, cooking things, you know," but I think our oven needs some sort of career change because it is just not happy doing its job. It's more like, "Sigh... I guess I'll heat up... not gonna cook anything evenly though, I'm an oven that doesn't care." With the result that if you take your eye off your precious baking good for more than a minute, you will have horribly burned and raw cookies (that's right, ALL AT ONCE.)

As the cookies were browning on the bottom and oozing buttery chocolatey goodness on the top, I took them out, not wanting them to burn and thinking I'd be happy eating semi-raw cookies. Then Cal had the brilliant idea to flip them to get them to cook on that side, which I ended up doing. Do you know how difficult it is to flip a hot, delicious cookie?

BUT they turned out not raw OR burnt, and looking a bit like pancakes. And they're pretty darn good, if I do say so myself. The only problem is I made a dozen and still have dough enough for about five times that and as I have no job, my day could very easily (and happily) be spent eating cookies (or cookie dough), which honestly probably wouldn't be great for my health.

And the other way in which Pinterest is a problem is my increased desire to do interior decorating, which I think comes with the current housewife nature of my life right now (and the amazing looking throw pillows on Pinterest). Basically, I want my own house with all of the nooks and crannies and hidden libraries that Pinterest says I can have. And failing that, I want my own house that I can decorate myself that looks like a GROWN UP house, you know? Not a dorm room or other student living, but actual grown up. With picture frames that contain black and white pictures, and elegant couches and awesome throw pillows, and a four-poster bed and a kitchen with every kitchen accessory imaginable. And a dining table with six matching chairs.

And a library. Did I already mention the library?

Obviously this is some way down the road, but I just can't wait. Did I mention we're moving in October, or sooner? The house was sold. And we found this PERFECT house that's in the same suburb. It's two levels, and each level is self contained: bedrooms, bathroom, living area and kitchen on BOTH levels. Perfect for two couples living together, don't you think? I feel like I could impose my own style on such a half-a-house, without worrying about what other people think. And I just found a tutorial on Pinterest on how to change a coffee table into an upholstered bench, and gosh darnit, there is a wall for that in this house.

Only problem is it's available now, and we're not. But we have sent an expression of interest to the real estate. We've got a clean record as far as tenancy goes (and by we, I really mean they, considering I'm still kind of illegal). Apparently sometimes real estates will hold out for good tenants if they're having difficulty finding some, so fingers crossed. This would seriously be an awesome house. If not, we're definitely trying to look for something similar.

Anyway! I'll sign off for now, as I have some cookies to eat. Hope you all are doing well. I'll post a video soon, maybe tomorrow while Cal's at uni. (Ha, just thought about something I can talk about on that front... another Pinterest find.)

OH BAI.