Hurdy, Vurdy, Shnurdy!

I am sick of living out of bags, cans, and boxes. I have reached the point in my life in which cooking is no longer viewed as an evil - it takes too much time to cook, and then clean - but it is viewed as a means to a higher quality of life. The dollar does not go far here so I have been confined to eating bread, crappy frozen vegetables, and cheap sausage. Sometimes I put butter on the bread. Once in a while I boil noodles to eat with my bread. Sometimes I put sausage and frozen vegetables on the bread. I'm done, sick of it, I want to eat.

In this spirit, I've attempted to fix up a few things. One of the biggest impediments, however, is that I only have a stove with 2 burners, one fry pan and a pot; no oven, not even a toaster. Since my resources are limited, it makes my situation quite difficult.

My fatal attempt at spaghetti sauce ended up with a half pound of ground beef and a can of tomato sauce in the trash - it was horrible. Even in my poverty and hunger I could not force it down.

I've tried to mash potatoes but it's hard to get them right just using a fork. They never quite turn out the way they are supposed to.

I bought a can of tuna fish. As soon as the opener pierced the aluminum, thick oil seeped out - and it was motor-oil thick. Gross. Not wanting to waste, I choked the tuna down as fast as I could straight out of the can. It wasn't even worth making into a sandwich.

My first victory has come in the form of German pancakes. Sister Hunter, one of the senior missionaries here, made them for family home evening once and showed my how to make them: eggs, flour, milk. It's great! I'm cooking! I can cook! I'm a cooker! Dr. Leo!

My problem, however, lies in that after a week's worth of German pancakes, I now need something more. French toast, German pancakes, and fried-egg sandwiches seem to be the only thing I can come up with. It's like I'm at the worst Denny's ever, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.