One of the things that happens to you when you live abroad is that you start craving items from your home country that you never cared a wit about when you actually had unlimited access to them.

This explains my sudden violent need to consume Little Debbie´s Oatmeal Creme Pies last week. I don´t think I´ve had one of these cookies for the past 20 years but nevertheless, I wanted one desperately. And if someone had been hawking a box of them on the corner, I would’ve forked over at least USD 20.

Usually these patriotic culinary urges attack me out of nowhere but in this case I know that it was due to hearing Southern Culture on the Skid´s song Camel Walk which pays homage to this particular snack cracker.

Imagining the combination of oatmeal and synthetic vanilla creme wafting through my mouth, I headed to Taste of America, a shop in Madrid that sells the stuff that Americans supposedly like to eat.

This in itself is always a rather interesting experience because you get a glimpse of the kinds of foods that fellow expats deem to be worthy of paying a ridiculous amount of money for.

We all know that Cheerios, peanut butter and Bisquick are products adored (and rightly so) by Americans everywhere. Other items are more surprising. Until I moved abroad, I had no idea for instance, that grape jelly and marshmallow fluff were such essential components of the American diet.

I knew that people ate them but not to the extent that they would be willing to trek halfway across a foreign city, pay twice their usual cost in order to obtain them.

I also didn't realise that Americans were so obsessed with scented candles and cake molds in the shape of animals and sporting equipment.

Sadly Little Debbie products are not nearly as in demand as I had hoped they would be and Taste of America did not have them.

While other Americans were probably sitting in their apartments eating marshmallow fluff and burning scented candles, I was forced to get back on the metro and ride to the opposite side of the city to see if Madrid's other American food store (ingeniously called "The American Store"), carried them. They did not.

I had to turn to Plan B - make them myself.

After a lengthy Internet search, I finally decided that this recipe from Chow.com which looked the most delectable. The real hooker is the creme filling. Instead of the usual vegetable oil, sugar and egg white combo, my cookie filling contains mascarpone cheese! These cookies were seriously good and well worth the efforts I made in obtaining them.

Inspired by the success of my first sandwich cookie, I decided to go a step further and make myself some homemade Oreos. I used this recipe and although you can easily find Oreos in Spain, trust me when I tell you that these are much better.

Next on my list - Chocolate Ding-a-Lings!

[Johanna Bailey / Expatica 2008]
Photos credit: Anna Dilemna and D3 San Francisco

The writer was the former editor of Expatica Switzerland before she moved to Madrid.