Corn Syrup=???

So, last week I was reading Terry Lea's blog and stumbled across this Monster Cookie recipe.  I knew that I had to make those immediatly.  So, on Saturday afternoon Gary and I started the hunt for all of the ingredients.  When I say that I'm going to fix something I forget to put into account that I'm not in the states and don't have the same Kroger or Publix that I always go to where I know where everything is.  Some things we found pretty easily like the butter, both sugars, peanut butter, oats, eggs, m&m's and choc chips, but there were some items I became a little nervous about.  After looking a while we finally found the baking soda and vanilla, but the corn syrup was just throwing us for a loop.  The major issue was that neither one of us knew what we were looking for.  We kept going back to the corn oil and saying well maybe that's what she meant.  Instead of buying the corn oil and just guessing we decided to go back to the room and google substitutions for corn syrup. 
*Side Note:When I am at home I usually just call my mom or grandmother when I'm at the store and ask for substitutions, but since it was in the middle of the day here, that means it was in the middle of the night at home.  I don't think they would have appreciated me waking them up to ask about corn syrup.*
So, we bought all the other ingredients and started back up to the room.  On the way I remembered that we don't have a cookie sheet in our room, so Gary took all of the groceries and headed up to the room to see what we could substitute for corn syrup.  I ran back down to Cold Storage (the name of the grocery store) and grabbed the cheapest cookie sheet, which happened to be the set of 16 with 15 cookie cutters included :), then headed back upstairs.  When I got there and started looking at all the ingredients I remembered we also don't have measuring cups or spoons.  So, back down to cold storage I go, without the information  on corn syrup replacements because the MAC was frozen.  I go back to the same aisle that I got the cookie sheet from thinking that the measuring cups would be there.  At this point I have 2 options: 1)wait to make the cookies after the leadership workshop we are going to be heading to at around 4 or 2) run to Carrefour. 
*Side Note: Just a little info about Carrefour.  It is like a Wal-Mart in it's structure, merchandise, and busy-ness, therefore, running in and running out is usually unheard of. *
I decide on option 2 and scurry along to Carrefour.  Once inside I have no idea where to begin to find a measuring cup.  I would ask somebody, but everytime I ask I get no results and they just stare at me like I'm speaking another lanuage (no pun intended, well maybe a little).  I go to the cooking aisle and am having the hardest time finding one, but low and behold I finally find one hidden behind some pots.  I grab it and head to check-out, remembering that the lines are probably ridiculously long.  However, I find the fast lane and I was in and out of Carrefour in record time.  I run back up to the room and Gary says that the people who are coming to pick us up for the workshop will be there in 10 minutes!!!  10 minutes???  I had to rush and get in the shower, therefore, leaving the cookies to bake when we got home.  We got home early enough to go on another hunt for corn syrup.  Gary had finally been able to search substitutions, but he couldn't really remember them all, but he did remember molasses.  Gary had a pretty bad headache so we ran to the pharmacy to get him some medicine and saw molasses.  We decided not to buy it and go to another supermarket that Gary knew about.  The Jusco supermarket is quite close to Carrefour and I don't know how I never knew it was there.  Once again we looked for corn syrup and this time we even asked somebody.  With no luck we decided to go back to cold storage to see if we could find molasses or possibly even corn syrup.  I had asked Gary several times that day if Karo syrup was on the list and he couldn't remember.  He kept saying he didn't know what that was.  Well, I knew I had seen some in cold storage earlier so when I stumbled across it again I yelled at him to come see so he would know.  I picked it up and...what do you know...that is the same thing as corn syrup!!!!!  The hunt was finally over and the cookie making began!!!

I didn't have a big bowl like Terry does to mix her ingredients, so I had to use a big pot.  And come to find out there was a cookie sheet stored away in the oven, which was a good thing because it would have taken me twice as long to bake these cookies with only one sheet.  Oh and they use the metric system here, so we had to google everything to make sure that we put the right amount in the mixture.  Didn't know how to work the oven so after, I thought, I had been pre-heating the oven for a while it was still ice cold.  I had to call the housekeeping people to come and help me.  She really didn't know what she was doing either, but somehow she figured it out.  THANK GOODNESS!

In conclusion, I took the cookies to church on Sunday and they were a big hit!!  So, I guess all the stress was worth it huh??

If you want some great recipes check out Terry's blog.