So baking and cooking in China is very different than in the States. When I first moved here and didn't know any Chinese and it was always an adventure going to the grocery store trying to find the indrigents that I was looking for.
Do you know how many types of sugar and flour there are here? Then trying to figure out the characters and having to 'feel' the bag and guess whats in it and just hope by the time you lug it home on your bike that you purchased the right thing. (which to be honest, when your standing in the middle of the aisle and can't read anything on the packages, can't ask for help because you don't speak the language yet, and its really loud and overwhelming.... lets just say I'm not the first to actually admit that I've cried a few times in the middle of the store - i know a lot of foreign women living here who would say they have done the same thing).
On many occassions I got home to find out I had purchased sugar instead of salt or fish oil which sadly I learned can not be used as a substitute for olive or vegetable oil. For awhile I couldn't figure out why my cookies were coming out with a 'fishy' flavor, it was not good (didn't know if it was the butter or the oil causing it). Oh... the adventures of living here!
So after two years, I am very thankful to be able to read 'some' of the characters on the bags and even better be able to ask for help when I need it. Don't get me wrong... its still always an adventure going to the grocery store.
Soybean oil! (much better than fish oil)
Making the first crust (with oil... a big mistake)
Down the sink it goes... After baking it for a few minutes to set it, the crust came out tasting strange - I then called Jane for advice and looked in my new cookbook (thanks mom for sending it - I totally recommend it for people living overseas -
Wycliffe International Cookbook -living overseas you have figure out how to substitute ingredients for the things you can't get here)
The second crust in the making! Which I learned using oil was not the best choice, that the real secret is to use crisco or margarine.
A work in progress
Special imported goods!
The batter!
My amazing little oven! (Did you know that in most Chinese homes you won't find an oven... they usually just cook on the stovetop).
My last oven slowly started to die a few months ago... the top coil stopped heating - so Krista and I's solution was to bake and cook by just turning all the stuff over half way through cooking. Lets just say that wasn't a good 'long term' solution to our oven situation. Our cookies came out looking like pancakes since we had to flip them - still quite edible though (we weren't gonna waste the chocolate chips we had brought in from the states)! So when Chad and Martha moved back to Canada we bought this oven from them and since then have been very thankful!
A pumpkin pie success!
My boyfriend is piled under there somewhere! 
