The Kitchen and Stove

We couldn't use the stove at first because of the gas tank issue.  Then I had used the stovetop but was going to try the oven.  I looked at the instruction manual to see where to light the oven-I've never had a gas stove before.  It looked pretty easy but then I opened the door and my oven didn't look anything like the picture.  I tried to light it one place but turned off the gas when it didn't light immediately.  Well, my engineer husband looked at the oven and the instructions that night and told me that there was no place to light the gas on the oven because the oven part is electric-how crazy is that?  electric oven and gas stovetop-oh well, at least I can cook now.

Things we have eaten since being in the house-this is a very boring list because none of us are very adventurous:
-spaghetti
-taco salad
-scrambled eggs
-many peanut butter and honey sandwiches
-ham sandwiches-Greg takes his lunch to work
-pancakes
-cereal-not nearly the selection we have in the US but we have found some familiar ones-Honey Nut Cheerios and Raisin Bran
-frozen waffles-which my children could live on
-grapes, strawberries (a rare treat-they are expensive here), apples
-yogurt
-brownies
-broccoli, peas, carrots, and corn

I found some canned fruit and found tuna and after some searching canned chicken breast meat-only to realize that I didn't have a can opener, so I had to buy one of those.

I cooked pancakes in a skillet (my trusty griddle is the wrong voltage and in storage) and flipped them with a slotted spoon-I had promised pancakes for breakfast because I had found Bisquick and had forgotten that I had no "flipper"

Milk and dairy products are more scarce here because it is an island and there aren't tons of cows.  Skim milk is what we were used to and that is harder to find than other varieties here.  We pay about 200 pesos (there are 43 pesos in $1) for a half gallon of milk-about $5 so it is about double the cost of a gallon of Mayfield milk in the US.  I have bought a few different kinds of cheeses trying to find something that tastes "normal" to us and have found something good at S and R but is a little pricey.  Sour cream tastes right mostly but is very runny.  I bought something that I thought was butter that we ended up throwing away and have since found Blue Bonnet in spreadable and sticks. 

There is a lot to choose from in American junk food-potato chips and cookies particularly.  We bought some Oreos.  My children are very sad that Goldfish crackers are very hard to find here and we haven't found their favorite Golden Grahams cereal.  Maybe we'll get more adventurous the longer we are here.