Muffins: Successful

Huzzah, I just produced six banana muffins and five banana nut muffins, from scratch! And they cooked thoroughly in the tiny, weird oven in UniLodge!

The last time I baked with the UniLodge oven, I made oatmeal raisin cookies. The oven is half-sized, so the cookie sheet I had didn't fit, so I fashioned cookie sheets out of tinfoil. Therefore, I could only bake nine cookies at a time, and the heat wasn't conducting properly through the tinfoil, so each batch took about 20 minutes instead of the usual 9-11. I was afraid the cookie sheets weren't the only reason each batch took so long; I thought it might have something to do with the tiny, weird oven, too. But the muffins cooked up evenly, 20 minutes a batch, just like they're supposed to. Hooray! (For some reason, the muffin tin was already in my apartment when I moved in, which is why I decided to make muffins in the first place.)

I was mixing my dry and wet ingredients while this older guy was cooking dinner in the communal kitchen. He watched me for a while and then said, condescendingly, "Hm, muffins, how domestic."

I really, really enjoy baking. Whatever, it's "domestic." Who the frig cares. I can be a strong, independent woman of the 21st century and enjoy baking for no particular reason. I wish people wouldn't give me a hard time for baking. (Everyone who walked by the kitchen while I was making the cookies had some two cents to throw at me.) You like eating muffins, don't you? Do you think muffins spontaneously generate? No. Someone has to bake them. So lay off.

Then, Paul the UniLodge maintenance man (probably my favorite person I've met in Auckland so far) came in and said, "Wow, muffins! Is the oven working?"

And I said, "Um, I don't know? I didn't think to make sure?" I had turned it on to preheat, so I opened it and felt for heat.

It wasn't hot.

I had a pot (because I have no mixing bowls) of muffin batter, and a cold oven.

So, Paul the maintenance man began fiddling with the oven dial while I looked behind it to make sure it was plugged in. It was, but the switch that gives power through the outlet was switched off. So, I switched it on, and the little red light turned on. So, crisis averted, but it was almost really bad.

Anyway, Paul was still fiddling with the dial, the knob of which does not stay on, no matter what. He didn't know what condition the oven was in-- he never uses it, I guess-- but now he does (read: poor), and he said he'll let the front desk know that they should replace it. Yay Paul!!

Anyway, I put the muffins in the freezer so I can bring them on my spring break road trip. Yum!