Welcome to “Around The World in 12 Dishes”. [Future Ticia here, this has now become significantly more than 12 dishes, but we had so much fun the first time around, that we kept cooking our way around the world for some fun geography lessons, and a way to try out a few new recipes.]
Sooooo…….. The month of June, it was exciting and busy. I think half of the month was spent out of town or getting ready to go out of town, or getting the kids ready to go out of town, or something. The other half was spent with Jeff working like a madman and not being home. I had grand plans, and then reality hit. So I decided to make cookies. Let me tell you that story. I’ll call it the Green Tea Cookie Epic Fail!
My great plot for the Green Tea Cookies
First I saw this WONDERFUL idea for Green Tea White Chocolate cookies. They were even labeled “easy.” I thought excellent, we love our “Earl Grey cookie recipe,” so this should be another wonderful find.
Then I read the ingredient list. Matcha powder…… okay, I thought, excellent FIELD TRIP!
We went to the Asian market, and I thought excellent chance to talk about the differences like we did at the Indian Market. Instead Princess spent the entire store holding her nose saying, “It smells bad in here Mommy.”
Then I couldn’t find the matcha powder. Okay, I thought, substitute, and rather than google a substitute I made it up.
It’s green tea cookies, the matcha powder is green tea. I’ll buy jasmine tea and grind it up. No problem.
I cleaned out the coffee grinder of all the visible coffee grounds and ground up the loose jasmine tea. The powder was not green, like I’m assuming matcha powder is.
Yet, I went on. Next, I discovered I didn’t have the white chocolate like I thought, but I had dark chocolate and mint chips. No problem, I’ll substitute that also.
So, we started to make the cookies. Can you see where I might have gone wrong?
Then I hauled over my 500 pound mixer to the other counter because it made for a better picture. I nearly dropped it on my toe breaking it because I tripped over a bowl of water on the ground from the girls cleaning the tea set.
Princess added in the materials, missing about half a cup of flour on the counter, her dress, and anywhere but the bowl.
No problem, I just added in some more flour.
Then we baked the cookies. Mine aren’t a pretty green color. Nor are they pretty and round. They’re more of an oblong shape, and they’re kind of lumpy.
Our guest, who’s Mom is a wonderful baker, and makes AMAZING cookies, looked at the cookies and very politely said, “No thank you.” I couldn’t blame her.Princess happily ate one, and said, “Yummy!” When I asked if she wanted another she said, “No thank you.”
Princess happily ate one, and said, “Yummy!” When I asked if she wanted another she said, “No thank you.”
So, they sat there. They were dry…… They didn’t taste particularly sweet. They did taste like mint.
The girls did enjoy drinking tea, and looking at the tea set Jeff got from Japan. But the cookies, epic fail.
So, when I actually made a meal. I wimped out. I got some pre-marinated chicken teriyaki and cooked that. Then I made some plain white rice that I know the kids liked and made that.
And that is my tale. I’ve learned that if I’m thinking “No problem,” it really is a problem.
So……… I’m hoping someone had a successful meal for Japan, because it certainly wasn’t me.
I can't help but laugh at the thought of Princess holding her nose in the market! Kids! I rarely substitute because I can't bear the thought of all of the work to make something that goes wrong! At least you tried.
I've successfully substituted before……… Just not this time.
Oh you made me laugh! What a story 🙂 I'm sorry the cookies didn't turn out…what a disappointment!
I know! The picture on the original blog post looked so pretty, all tied up prettily with twine……
I don't know how I've been missing these! We are starting culture studies this year and I'm thinking about doing the same thing of cooking something from each culture. It's hard because there are SO many places I want to learn about. I'm trying not to cram it all it since we have, ah 13 years, to cover them all!
I'm going to go look back and see your ideas to incorporate into our studies!
I think culture studies are so much fun. You have to check out some of the other ideas because they've done SO Much better with the cultural aspect.
I love this story – you always approach your failures with a wonderful sense of humor!
It's a necessary thing in my life 🙂
Right now I have mud on top of one of my door frames. All I can do is grin at the idea of how it got up there.
Very funny, but in a sad, I'm-laughing-with-you-not-at you kind of way.
My sister knows how to cook a bunch of Japanese dishes. I need her to teach me, someday. but we live on opposite sides of the country and she has five kids (well, will by the end of August or so) so I don't see it happening anytime soon…
Thank you for trying this recipe and linking back to my recipe! I’m sorry you couldn’t find matcha (green tea powder). It’s available online too but it’s a little expensive (even I buy from Japanese supermarket in SF it costs me $6 for like 5 Tbsp!). How funny about pinching nose in Asian market! That’s the first thing I felt when I went to Asian market too. Most Japanese stores sell nicely packaged seafood and meat and oh boy it took me a long time to adjust to the smell in Asian market! Especially when I was pregnant I couldn’t go in… You tell such a wondeful story even you fail. :-). Kids need a mommy like you who makes a fun experience with life. 🙂 Thanks again!!