Flashback to 2007. Moving into J Building dorms at UC Davis, with a microwave and mini fridge in my room, along with a tiny kitchen with an oven on the bottom floor of the building. Back to the present. Moving into the dorm-like Transient Personnel Unit (TPU) in Yokosuka, Japan. Subtract the tiny kitchen on the bottom floor. And that is the extent of my cooking tools. So what’s a pseudo-chef to do?
Improvise.
The Camp A staff has come up with some pretty creative ways to cook with only a microwave and a refrigerator. Veteran staff members brought items like magic bullets to make hummus and salsa, leaving those of us lacking the foresight to bring such things content to merely mooch. PB and J sandwiches get old pretty fast (yes, even for me) so my dinners have diversified to minute microwaved brown rice mixed with cheese, pre-cooked chicken strips, and seasoning salts. Muddy buddies (peanut butter, chocolate chips, and butter melted together and poured over chex cereal, then doused with powdered sugar) have become a favorite snack, as has the mixing of five different cereals into one tiny tupperware.
But my all time favorite oven-less dorm dish?
Cake. My roommate had a birthday earlier this month, complete with friends, presents, and cake. No, it was not cake batter that we pretended was a baked cake. Actual cake. So how does one make a cake without an oven? Like so: crumble up Chips Ahoy cookies, mix in peanut butter and melted marshmallows, mold into a cake-like shape, cover with choclate frosting, and you’re done. Some of my roommate’s friends surprised her with this very concotion, and it was quite delicious. Once we’d had our share, we offered it to the rest of the “dorm” hall, and, needless to say, it was gone within minutes.
No comments:
Post a Comment