Currently I am:
Puzzling over the last paragraph I'll have my students write for their final, sitting in Yusi's empty (though very clean considering the festivities of last night) apartment, sipping coffee, wondering if my cell phone battery will survive until Tara calls me about dinner.
So how was your Thanksgiving?
Mine was fun. It began with me winded and lightheaded on Yusi's couch after I'd biked my heart out with a backpack full of cooking ingredients and equipment plus a large thermos in the basket throwing off my steering. I still had to get more to buy however, so I took a cab to the supermarket. Cold-wind/exercise induced headache aside, the taxi turned out to be a good idea because I bought a lot of semi-heavy stuff. Such as a big (2 liter?) glass bottle of apple juice.
This brings me to the dishes I then cooked starting at 3:30 and continuing until guests started arriving around 6:30...
Apple cider was at the top of my list, as I figured I could mull that stuff up and throw it in a thermos and pretty much forget about it without any heat loss. Surprisingly, it's really easy to make spiced cider (ok, neither was it made from unprocessed apple juice nor did it have any brandy, but I still like calling it cider instead of spiced processed apple juice). Thank goodness for those cloves I was able to find, in Baoding (indeed!), last semester. It was a big hit and got drunk all up and down. I'll make more for Christmas. Perhaps I'll even experiment with brandy this time. I just can't say.
Other culinary experiments included:
-Reconstituted crasins into cranberry sauce (a Townhouse 65 original)
-Mashed potatoes sans sour cream, but I did make a batch with some ranch seasoning. Thanks Katie.
-Pumpkin bread (not as good as the last batch I made, might have been that I got lazy and bought a pre-chopped up squash instead of but I was still ok with the result)
-Toasted garlic bread with cheddar atop.
-Faux-poultry delite (this was Yusi's creation. I had at this point joined the guests who were arriving. Earlier, he had bought the fake bird meat [some of which was shaped like a duck, in fact] at the all-veggie-meat shop down the street. Yes, we actually have one of those down the street. Go figure. I always donate my change to the orphanage fund with a picture of an altruistic looking Buddhist monk on the box.)
We proceeded to eat; pass around assorted liquor ranging from Chinese beer, Jameson, and Dan's homemade wine; discuss; encircle Kim while she sat in one of the armchairs (which turned out to be some sort of weird social Bermuda Triangle that sucked everyone in at one point or another during the night); recite French dialogues we we remembered from high school; and eventually get around to pulling names for Secret Santa.
I won't tell you for whom I am a Secret Santa. You can't make me tell you. You'll just have to wait until the holiday party and see.
But seriously now, my cell phone keeps screaming at me in Chinese to just plug it the eff in. I should go bike back to my own empty apartment now.
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PRECIPITATION Following up with the news that I now have a small yet beastly toaster over, I thought I'd make everyone aware of my latest endeavor. Actually, some baking experiments have turned out ok, some went really wrong... but this one I was able to tailor into deliciousness. I hope you (my mother and Lauren Flocco) enjoy my new segment of this blog and this month's Expatriate Bake. I'm really hoping that this embed works... I just had an interesting experience in my room the other day and felt like sharing. Note, this video was taken in the early morning, so neither my speech nor my appearance is quite clear. Hope you enjoy anyhow. If anything, it gives a clearer visual of my apartment. I'm really frustrated at how difficult it's seeming to get any kind of possible work in France aside from the Assistants gig. Current thoughts: I wonder what I should have my students write this week for homework. Next week is halloween and they'll reflect on the emergence of western holidays in eastern nations. I hope the PB&J I just had will calm my stomach. As long as I'm up right now, I should probably update my blog. Remember that time I melted the top off of the padded step-stool with a hot cookie sheet, Momm?9/30/2008 I'm about to go over to Yusi's parents' apartment and cook them lunch, in their kitchen, on China's National Day. Well, gosh. Hi. Sorry about that, it's been a little while since I've been back and yet I haven't blogged at all. Silly of me. In Ms. Kavanaugh's 9th grade English class we had to give "how to" speeches. You may not find it surprising that in the deluge of "How To Was Your Hairs" and "How To Bake Awesome Cookies'," I did my speech on "How to Pack a Suitcase." I included a joke I had stolen about lining the bag with velcro and throwing it into your closet. This got few laughs, but then again, I wasn't a very popular kid in high school. Hello again. |
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