Sunday, March 29, 2009

Art and Cookies

This afternoon we enjoyed spending time with El's art teachers. Last time they had asked if I would teach them how to bake "monster" cookies! This must seem so funny to them - I mean, what is a monster cookie and why is it called that!! They love peanut butter and chocolate, so thanks to my MOPS cookbook, I was able to show them pretty quickly how to make the cookies! They had fun whisking (which they had never done before) and stirring the mix. When I was adding ingredients I was being videotaped - I felt like I was on my own cooking show!! I just hope I never have to watch the footage - it will probably be uploaded to YouTube without me knowing!

I really wanted to buy them all of the ingredients they would need to make their own cookies at home, but neither of them have an oven. Most Chinese do not have ovens in their homes, just a stovetop. Which of course makes sense, but can you imagine Americans living without an oven. What would we do if we couldn't make casseroles and lasagnas or worse yet, cookies and cakes?!!

Ellie did get to work on a painting while the crazy cooking was going on. This is one of my favorite pieces that she has done - I love all of the colors!! She is also improving on spreading the paint and water to make the colors fade and give the painting more depth!!

3 comments:

tjmummy said...

That is a really beautiful masterpiece!
You know, I thought I signed my sons up for general art class but it was cartoon/ comic drawing! No wonder week after week I see them draw some cartoon character! Fortunately they like it. I don't understand the name of the class sometimes, I should've asked first, haha.

About the oven, yes, my ayi asked me to teach her how to bake also. So I did and she was a very good student, until the last step, she said, huh? What's this you put the stuff into? Oven?

She doesn't have one and says she will probably never get one just to bake a cake (too much of a waste of money for her, it seems). Applies to most other locals too, I guess.

The St. Martin's said...

I also talked to my ayi about whether or not she had an oven and she said no also. However, she loves to make banana bread so she bought a small toaster oven for about 400RMB!!

I'm happy to hear the boys are enjoying their art classes!! Ellie would enjoy drawing cartoon characters I'm sure!!

Unknown said...

Miss Ellie is a wonderful artist and the colors she uses really bring her paintings to life! Her great grandmom PoPo would have been so proud! Tell Miss Ellie that I have been painting some creatures that I will show her this summer.

About the oven thing, Chinese do not usually use ovens since it uses up so much fuel to heat up such a large space. To save on fuel and to be more efficient, we stir fry since food cut up beforehand cooks so much faster. Love to all. Happy painting and baking too.