Three New Favorite Things

I have three new favorite things.

The first, our new bread machine. I thought long and hard before buying it. I remember bread machines being really popular when I was in Jr. High. It seemed like everyone was getting one. Then about 4 years later I remember everyone getting rid of theirs because they had either gained too much weight and/or they were going on the popular low carb diet.

Upon arriving here I realized that buying bread was a bit of a challenge. It took us like a month to find sandwich bread that was not sweet, and the bakery often does not make on a regular basis. One of our friends bought a bread machine, had it mailed here (very risky), and then bought a $50, 10lb converter so that he could use it here. I thought that was way too much trouble. Then last month we visited some friends in another city. They started telling me all the wonderful things they make with their bread machine - bread, cinnamon rolls, bagels, and PIZZA DOUGH! If you know us, you know we love pizza.

In the past year our city has started carrying bread machines. I went looking for one a couple weeks ago. The first machines did not have any English instructions; that was not going to do. The second store had a beautiful, imported, stainless steel machine. After talking them down about $30 - I still do not know how I did it, I am terrible at bargaining, I brought my new machine home.

It has taken me a while to figure out the exact consistency that the dough needs to be, and I had one bad experience with buying buckwheat flour instead of whole wheat - they looked the same but they really really are not the same. I love it though. I now know exactly what our sandwich bread is made out of, and I no longer have to worry about not having bread because the bakery decided to not make it that day. Yea!

My second new favorite thing - her name is Ms. Song. We pay her to come to our apartment 3 times a week to cook our lunch and get everything ready for me to make dinner - bleaching the veggies, chopping things, making tortillas, etc. She can only come for 2.5 hours at a time, so I was a bit nervous that she could not get everything done, but she is so fast! After she leaves I do have to go take all the dishes out of the cabinets that she washes because I saw her wash a knife, which she used to cut raw chicken, with only cold water and no soap, but this is minor. I love Ms. Song. What we pay her is entirely made up in what she saves us by using local ingredients rather than the imported stuff. It is hard living here, and I would not need help if living here was not so challenging, but it is great to have help.

Lastly, wireless internet. I never realized how awesome it is to write e-mails while sitting in bed, or letting our parents watch our daughter play in her bedroom through Skype. In July my parents brought us a wireless router I ordered online, but I was totally shocked to see the the AC adapter only adapted electricity 110-120 volts, what about us 220 voltage users? About a month ago we finally bought a 10 pound, $50 power converter so that we could use my new $45 wireless router. In the end it would have been cheaper to have gotten the $60 wireless router that actually worked at 220 voltage, oh well.